Episode Report Card Cate: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Suspicion
By Cate | Season 6 | Episode 12 | Aired on 01.20.2002
RevCam's got worries too, as Mrs. Mackoul drops by to tell him she has "bad news." An intervening commercial break gives me a chance to yawn profusely before Mrs. Mackoul can continue her explanation. Apparently, the board of directors received calls from concerned parents, and they are afraid that if they let Yasmine into the school, other students may leave. Charming. Mrs. Mackoul has scheduled a meeting of the board and parents for this evening, and she wants Ruthie to speak at it. RevCam sums up my thoughts exactly when he asks, "Why Ruthie?" Mrs. Mackoul spews some gibberish about "a child's point of view" being "more effective." RevCam attempts a translation: "If the parents see that a child is not afraid, then maybe it might diminish their own fears?" That sounds like bullshit to me, but since Ruthie hasn't had a plotline in ages, I suppose the producers are just looking for something to do with her. RevCam asks how the parents found out about Yasmine so quickly. Mrs. Mackoul tells him "there was some sort of petition that set them off." Surely they can't mean Mary's "petition." That has nothing to do with getting Yasmine into private school, does it? Well, since the whole petition deal is so incredibly vague, maybe it does. I think you might just have to suspend your disbelief to buy this plotline.
The Petition Losers are feeling frustrated, since they haven't managed to get a single signature yet. Lucy's brilliant idea is to double back and bother the same people they just finished bothering. Or they could, you know, just admit it was a totally pointless idea in the first place and abandon it? Just a suggestion. Lucy tries a pep talk: "What would have happened if Rosa Parks gave up her seat on the bus? Or if Cesar Chavez had given up on the farm workers? Or if Susan B. Anthony had given up on the suffrage movement?" Well, yes, Lucy, but listen to me carefully now. All those people had valid, important ways of dealing with the causes they were fighting for. I'm sure none of them wasted their time getting up a petition that doesn't even ask anyone for something and has no logical recipient. When the brain trust behind the petition fiasco comments that she thinks she's forgotten everything she learned in high school, Lucy says, "That's what PBS is for." Not surprisingly, Mary has no idea what, or who, PBS is. Ha! Now, that was funny.
Mr. Jenkins is getting impatient and moody over having to wait so long. Maybe he's in to get treatment for his PMS? Dopey sidles up and asks him if his sons are named George and Jerry. They are, "but what does that have to do with anything?" Good question, a very good question indeed. He complains that he has "more important things to do than sitting around here with a bunch of women." Well, then, Mr. Jenkins, maybe you shouldn't be down at the women's clinic, for heaven's sake. When the nurse gives him a snarky answer, he erupts with, "See, now, that's exactly why women shouldn't be working. They get a bee in their bonnet, and instead of doing their jobs, they get irritable and sarcastic." But Mr. Jenkins, if I weren't so irritable and sarcastic, I wouldn't have this job, and I'd miss out on the pleasure of making fun of you! After a few more insults, Dopey says, "You better sit down now, Mr. Muslim-hater." That does not go over well with Mr. Jenkins.