Episode Report Card Deborah: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Medium and the Message
By Deborah | Season 1 | Episode 3 | Aired on 10.09.2003
AP Chem. They're doing some experiment. Grace glares forward at Luke's back and bitches, "Do you smell that? It's like Essence of Pimp!" Joan agrees that it's pretty bad. Luke surreptitiously sniffs his shirt. For a smart kid, he's chosen an oddly clueless way to try to appeal to someone like Grace, who doesn't strike me as the type to care for cologne (an impression I had before the ranting at the beginning of this episode). Joan: "It's really...girly. It's hard to believe he's straight." Grace: "Hard to believe and hard to care." She tosses some bit of something -- a spitball, I guess -- at him. He turns around and raises his hands at her, as if to say, "What's your problem?" He swivels around again. Joan keeps pressing on in her incredibly subtle way: "You know, I know he's not really your type. I know he isn't mine." Grace looks at her like she's a bit of a freak. Joan adds, "If he weren't my brother." Joan bumbles along, saying she's more into the athletic type: "You know, that's my thing. Um, football players, wrestlers, abs, big forearms." Grace: "Small cerebral cortex." Snerk. They've got Adam's attention now; he's been listlessly working next to them. He asks incredulously, "Wrestlers?" Joan nods in his direction and says, "Mm-hmm," unconvincingly. Grace flicks something off a scale at Luke. Joan continues, "Like, Dax Hibbing. Wow." Grace: "Calm down! Breathe in bags." Joan: "What, you don't get him?" Ms. Lischak whams her pointer down on the desk between them, having wandered up behind them unnoticed: "Ladies! Are we discussing ions?" Grace: "No, wrestlers. But we're done." The teacher takes off, and Grace and Joan just glare ahead. Adam asks again, "Wrestlers?" Joan tells him to mind his own business. Adam looks troubled.
Daghlian says the kid was with his mother at the park; she went to get some lemonade and then he vanished. Charlotte says, "Nobody saw anything." Will says they're still following up witness statements. Charlotte: "That wasn't a question." She wants to go to the crime scene, and says it would be helpful to have something that belonged to the missing boy, and also for the parents to be there. Will doesn't think that's a good idea. Charlotte says the parents' energy is very conducive to the process. Will thinks it's wrong to put them through that again. Daghlian suggests letting the Reinemanns decide for themselves.
Joan goes back to the empty chemistry classroom for a forgotten jacket. When she turns around, there's Cute Guy God again, perched on desk, reading something. Joan: "What are you doing? You can't be here." He smiles and says, "Hmm...and yet, I am." He tells her to walk with him. She refuses, saying people are going to see her. Cute Guy God: "Yes, they are. That optic nerve was an inspired idea, wasn't it?" Joan: "I meant that they'll see you." Cute Guy God: "Yeah, I've noticed that this look turns a lot of heads." Joan: "It's called being hot." He says, "You didn't read the book, did you?" Joan sneers, "Oh, like you don't know. 'Cain, where's your brother?'" Hee! I know it's probably totally uncool to talk about how much I love this show (and look what it got me with The West Wing) -- but I love this show. Joan: "Hmm. Very passive-aggressive." Cute Guy God nods in that appearing-to-agree-but-not-really-agreeing way. She's suddenly mindful of the potential for smiting, and adds, "Some of it. I couldn't really follow it. I'm not that bright, you know. My brother would be much better for this, if I could recommend someone to take my place." She starts to walk out, and he says it would have been so much better had she read the book: "Now I'm going to have to send you to the basement." I knew right away that there must be a chess club meeting in the basement, but Joan thinks he's talking about hell. He tells her to check out the school basement.