Episode Report Card Deborah: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Six Feet Under
By Deborah | Season 2 | Episode 11 | Aired on 12.09.2004
Joan wheels a book truck through the bookstore. There's a ridiculously precarious stack of books on it -- Professor Frink calls it "Joan's tower of babble." She's quietly shelving a book when she hears Judith's voice: "Hey, girlfriend." Joan turns and sees Judith sitting on the nearby sofa with her back to her, reading a magazine. Judith turns around on the couch, allowing us to see that she's reading something called Living Times. Har. I announce that I usually hate it when people come back from the dead on TV, but Frink and I agree that it's better if it's in a dream or flashback than if they appear as a ghost or some other paranormal whatever. Really hate the ghost thing. I had a root canal the day before this episode, so I'm in no mood for stuff I hate. Judith smiles at Joan and says, "I'm so bored. When can we get out of here?" Joan asks: "Judith…what are you doing…alive?" Judith says she's waiting for Joan: "Come on. Joanith can be together all day. You know you want to." There's some wonky dream music and Joan sighs, looking back at her tower of babble, which is now at least twice the height it was. She looks up at the stack, and the camera angle makes it seem even taller. Judith grabs her hand, telling her, "Don't be scared, JoJo. Come on!" Judith pulls her through the bookstore, and they knock similar stacks of books off the tops of bookcases as they go. They run slo-mo through the avalanche of books, giggling as they try to avoid the falling volumes.
Cut to Joan stirring in bed, smiling, as she wakes up from the dream. Her smile fades as she realizes she was dreaming.
Adam, Joan, Grace, and Luke arrive at school to find the hallway filled with sports equipment and trophies, and a bunch of jocks recruiting people. Adam's excited: "Aw, great. Another chance for us to feel like a subdefective." Luke mutters, "Fighting over balls, adding muscle mass for no socially productive use…it's an evolutionary anomaly." Joan: "Friedman tried gymnastics." Grace: "Yeah, and almost lost his jewels on the vault." Grace laughs at the memory and asks where he is. Since when does she care? No, seriously. Of these four, she's the least likely to give a crap. Luke says he's on a cruise with his family celebrating his grandmother's new kidney. That is an incredibly specific piece of information regarding his whereabouts. What's that about? I mean, it's not like most viewers would have thought anything of his absence from this scene. Perhaps that's going to figure into a later episode? Helen crosses their path and tells them that Judith's mother called to let her know that Judith's headstone is finished, and she wondered if any of them wanted to come along to the cemetery. Joan giggles, which I totally don't understand. Adam: "Sure." Helen gives Joan a questioning look, and Adam looks at her, too. Joan: "I'm sorry. Judith would just think that's lame." Helen doesn't know what to say, nor does anyone else. Joan: "What, going to look at a rock?" Helen says it's up to her, and offers to drive anyone who's interested to the cemetery on Thursday after school. The other kids mutter their thanks and Joan turns and faces all of them with a bored, irritated look: "Oh, come on, don't you think that's dumb?" Adam decides to avoid the whole thing: "Meet you after school?" Joan says he'd better as he kisses her quickly and walks off as the bell rings. Luke tells Grace he'll see her later, moving in close enough to try to kiss her, but when Grace realizes what he's up to, she quickly moves out of range and tells him, "Oh, yeah, later." Frink: "Come on! You tore up the contract!" Luke looks disappointed but not particularly surprised. He sure is tenacious. Tenacious G.
Joan wanders through the hall and runs into Cute Guy God. I just found out this past weekend that Kris Lemche is a friend of a friend. Who knew? As he says hi to Joan, we can hear two giggling blonde cheerleaders in the background noticing how cute he is. Joan: "Do girls always hit on you with that look? Oh, they do. Hitting on God. That's gross." Um…they could do worse? Cute Guy God wants Joan to do something that scares her. Joan: "Lots of things scare me. You, actually -- you scare me." (Insert your own joke about doing God here.) Joan asks if he could be a little more specific. Cute Guy God: "For me, that's pretty specific." Joan: "And I still can't ask why?" He replies, "You can ask..." He walks off with a Godwave. One of the jocks catches Joan's attention and introduces himself: "Tommy Belkin." He looks really familiar to both of us, but neither of us can place him. He's played by Sam Horrigan, and the only thing I could have ever seen him in is Grace Under Fire, playing "Quentin #2." I don't know if I even watched that show long enough for there to be a second Quentin. Anyway, I guess they cast him for his ability to play the big smug jock who's really pleased with himself, because he sure is: "I'm captain of the diving team. You can call me Captain Tommy." "Captain Tommy"? And that doesn't get you beat up on a regular basis? If you cubed the look of disdain on Joan's face, you might approximate my expression. He asks if she's interested in diving. Joan figures this is what God wants her to do, so she says, "Well, Captain Tommy, I was watching the Olympics -- you know, as I flipped my way to MTV Cribs -- um, so tell me: is the high board still really…high?" Joan gestures with her hand. Captain Tommy laughs: "Are you kidding me? Really high?" He laughs at Joan as the theme song plays.