Episode Report Card Deborah: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Smallest Catalyst
By Deborah | Season 1 | Episode 2 | Aired on 10.02.2003
As Luke goes back upstairs, Joan's parents come home from a party. Dad says they just passed an "extremely rude boy" outside. Helen laughs to herself, telling Will that wasn't a boy, it was Grace Polk. So far, she'll do until an extremely rude boy comes along. She turns around and is surprised to find Adam in her kitchen. He smiles -- he has a cute smile -- and pulls a toque on down to his eyebrows. He stands up and says, "Headline: Adam Rove meets the, uh, Chief of Police." Adam gives Will a hearty handshake. Helen smiles at Will, who says he'll see her upstairs. Joan tells her mother that Adam knows where to get a car with hand controls; there's one at the impound lot where his dad works. Helen: "Is your dad a police officer?" Adam: "Chah, no way, no. Night janitor." Adam leaves, saying to Joan: "Nice work, Jane."
Helen walks upstairs to the bedroom. She's wearing a black halter dress with printed trim that looks really good on her. Will asks, "These are Joan's new friends: a person of mysterious gender and Space Boy?" She doesn't answer: she's too happy about the car with hand controls, and tells him about it. It's news to Will. She can't understand why he doesn't know that. Will demonstrates, with hand gestures, the relative levels of the impound yard and the Chief of Police. She wants him to look into it. He thinks it would be inappropriate: "I'm the Chief of Police...I can't be sucking around the impound yard looking for bargains." He puts his arms around her, and she asks how much he had to drink tonight. In a voice that's almost Fat Tony's, he says, "Exactly the right amount." She wonders if he's not curious as to why Joan is suddenly in AP Chemistry. He's not. He macks on her.
Cut to them sleeping. Will's pager goes off. How does Helen sleep through that? I can never sleep through Frink's. He looks at the message, which says, "I'm at your front door." Will goes quietly down the stairs, .38 drawn. He looks out the window and sets his gun down, then opens the door. It's Roebuck. Will: "What the hell do you want?" Roebuck hands him a file and says, "I did my job. I'd be one amazed son of a bitch if you do yours." Miss Congeniality takes off to conduct a midnight seminar at the Dale Carnegie Institute. Seriously, what's with all the cloak-and-dagger drama?
Joan catches up with Grace, asking where Adam is. I notice a cheerleader in a neck brace in the foreground. What's that all about? Seems like a lot of detail for an extra. Grace says he called in sick, and Price is pissed, and wants some of Adam's pee. Joan says, "He left his bag at my house." Grace opens her locker and looks over her shoulder at Joan, saying, "Then stay away from me." Joan asks why. Grace: "Because that backpack is probably full of boo-yah schwag." Wait. I'm old enough to be your great-grandmother and all, and I haven't been hep to the lingo since Taft was in office, but isn't "boo-yah" good? And doesn't "schwag" refer to substandard weed? Or have those crazy kids gone and switched all the meanings around again, like they did with "bad" and "wicked"? Joan says she's not hanging on to it for him for another day if it's full of drugs. She adds that Grace has to turn their assignment in. Grace: "I don't hand things in...and I never hand them in on time. It's my policy." Joan says if she hands it in late, the teacher won't accept it, and she'll fail all three of them. Grace: "Again...thinking only of yourself." Joan gets on her high horse (more like a tall pony) and says, "Stop squandering your potential. Stop underachieving. Have some pride!" She stuffs the paper in Grace's locker and flounces off.