Episode Report Card Deborah: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Grace Under Pressure
By Deborah | Season 1 | Episode 14 | Aired on 02.05.2004
Toni and Will are in a hallway at the hospital. She's briefing him on the case of the Reverend Richard Yardley, a beating victim who was discovered by a maintenance man in the alley behind his church. His wallet was untouched. Will comments, "So we know the guy who did this wasn't greedy." They enter Yardley's room, where a doctor is examining the man, whose swollen, purple face shows evidence of a severe beating. The doctor says, "His skull is fractured; arm broken, collarbone, three ribs, internal bleeding...." Will: "Almost dead. I get it, Doc." Will speaks to the man, who stirs slightly; Will explains who he is, asking if Yardley has any idea who might have attacked him. He shakes his head slightly. Will: "Any idea why?" Yardley weakly says one word: "Gay." Will: "Someone did this because you're gay?" Yardley's unable to answer. Will and Toni glance at the doctor, and they leave as Will says, "But he wasn't greedy."
In the Administration office, it's pandemonium, because every student in school now needs a late slip. Ah, mindless adherence to bureaucratic rules. You gotta love it. Joan stands there and remarks loudly to her mother, who's madly writing late slips, "Wow, this heightened security has really made the school function better, hasn't it, Mom?" Helen: "Not now, Joan. I'm a little stressed, in case you're blind." Joan petulantly holds out her hand for her late slip, which Helen gives her, along with her history book and a paper she was working on, which Joan left in her room. Joan's annoyed: "You were looking through my room?" Helen: "Sometimes you forget things. I was trying to help. That's what a mother does." Joan mutters, "A helicopter mother." Helen doesn't get what she's talking about and Joan explains: "Helicopter: hovering, always overhead. I didn't need these today. That's why I left them in my room!" Helen hands out another late slip and turns to Price to ask if they can forego the formality of the late slips: "The teachers understand why the kids aren't in class." Price: "You want the system to break down on the first day?" Grace: "We can hope." Adam tells Helen he wants to drop Art. Helen: "What?" Grace: "It's the only class you like, Rove. Without Art to break up your day, you're going to get all morose...and 'morose' belongs to me." Actually, I thought she was covering "terminally pissed" and "alienated" and Adam was handling "morose" and "confused." Adam: "The teacher's gone, yo. They're gonna have one lame sub after another teaching us how to draw a dog. I'll work on my own, in my shed." Helen tells Adam he needs art on his transcript if he's going to go to art school. He makes a dismissive face but she adds, "I know that you think you don't want to go to college, but you might someday. Give yourself the option." Joan pipes up: "Option! That's good, Mom. You need them...options. I have a friend that's into...options." Helen, Grace and Adam just stare at her. Joan: "Forget it." Helen tells Adam that Price charged her with finding a new art teacher, and she promises to find a good one. Adam: "Yeah, there are tons of inspiring artists lining up to teach high school." Helen's sure she can find at least one. Grace, Adam and Joan all shuffle out.