Episode Report Card Jessica: C | 2 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Use Your Disillusion
By Jessica | Season 5 | Episode 5 | Aired on 11.06.2001
Back at Grams's, Jack walks in to the living room and finds Tobey watching a movie about the military. Is that some kind of statement about the Don't Ask, Don't Tell attitude this show takes toward Jack's sex life? Cue the apologies and recriminations, including but not limited to: "I don't want to hear it," "What do you want me to do?" "Your frat is more important to you than I am," and "I'm here for four years. What am I supposed to do when you leave here tomorrow?" Blah blah Jack needs a social life in Boston, blee blee he feels really great about having one and being open about his sexual orientation at the same time. Yada yada he feels like he belongs at Sig Ep, yammer yammer they know he's gay, and they don't care. "Tobey, they wanted me," Jack says. "So now, I just get to be Jack." Just Jack! Sorry. Anyway, Jack thought Tobey would understand this, that he needs to make friends here in Boston, especially since they're so far apart. "Maybe they were right," Jack muses. "They who?" Tobey asks. "You talked about our relationship with total strangers?" Jack insists that Red and Caesar are his friends. "You just met them, Jack," Tobey says. "My God! Just because they know you're gay doesn't mean they know you!" Jack insists that relationship problems are universal. "You don't have to be gay to understand the concept of a jealous boyfriend," he says. Tobey grimaces. "You think I'm jealous?" he asks. Jack is all, duh. Tobey just wants to be Jack's number one priority. Are you thirty-five, Tobey? You guys are college freshmen, in a long-distance relationship. Shouldn't making new friends also be important? I don't mean to be a Frat Apologist, since I think there are a lot of weird things about the Greek system, but the fact of the matter is that Jack is really into it. And a lot of people get involved with the Greek system right off the bat because it provides a support system and an automatic social life. I think that's a sort of an understandable urge. Anyway, Tobey tells Jack that he is Tobey's first priority. All he does, he says, is think about Jack. Jack, Jack, Jack. I think that maybe Tobey should branch out a bit more at his own college. I don't know a whole lot of people who have made the long-distance thing work, but those that have make it a point to have full, satisfying lives away from each other. Now, of course, the whole Gay Guy In A Traditional Frat thing is an entirely different sidebar, which I'm sure I'll get to later. Tobey sniffs that he's clearly not Jack's first priority, and he stomps out of the living room. Jack leans back on the sofa and looks irritated.
Liberty Hell. Pacey's in the kitchen. Enter Karen. "Karen Torres!" Pacey announces. "Light of my life. Cherry flavored Kool-Aid in my cup." Instead of giggling uncontrollably, like I would have, Karen smirks. "Good morning, freak," she says. She seems to have toned down the cruelty a little bit, though, and even smiles when she gets Pacey to admit that he does some scheming in order to work the same shifts that she does. Then she does something I applaud: she leaves. Enter Chef Danny's Wife, who's sniffling and sneezing. She's looking for Chef Danny. Pacey wonders if she had an enjoyable time the night before. She says she did, "if you call going through eight boxes of Kleenex fun." As Pacey realizes that The Wife wasn't the woman out on his boat, she mentions that Danny talks about Pacey nonstop. "Apparently, you're his new favorite," she tells him.