Episode Report Card Cate: B+ | 3 USERS: B YOU GRADE IT Drunk
By Cate | Season 6 | Episode 13 | Aired on 02.03.2002
After Annie refused to let Simon go to the big party, he pulled that time-honored trick of finagling permission from RevCam behind her back. Annie orders Revvie to go upstairs and tell Simon that he's not allowed to attend the party. Eric hesitates. Annie asks him why he's not rushing to do her bidding. The way she flashes her eyes at him hints that Cruella is just waiting for an excuse to surface and kick his ass. Despite the warning signs, RevCam plows ahead and argues that they should allow Simon to attend the party. Annie accuses him of wishing he'd partied more in the past and wanting to relive his youth through Simon, while RevCam counters that Annie is being too restrictive because she partied too much. Amazingly, Annie caves in, though not without an attempt to lay a major guilt trip on Eric.
Simon is on the phone with Morris, who is trying to talk him out of attending the party, claiming Simon's not "ready" for it. After all, his friends are "pretty wild." Oh yeah? What do they do, exactly? Well, "they drink, they smoke, they --" What, Morris, what? Do they perform ritual human sacrifices? Throw "Brenda's Cookies" at oncoming cars from atop a bridge? Think that Sweet November is a good film? Whatever the crimes, they're too heinous to reveal on a G-rated show. Simon's assertion that Morris's friends are "really cool" makes me giggle. Finally, Morris agrees to give Simon Mike's address. Simon says his parents will only let him go if Morris brings him. Morris makes me like him more when he smirks and asks, "When did we start dating?" Nevertheless, he agrees to bring Simon to the party. Simon enthuses, "You get me into this party, I'll owe you for life." Be that as it may, Simon obviously doesn't feel indebted enough to actually say goodbye before he hangs up on Morris.
While Morris rushes off to buy a corsage, Simon stands up, looking pleased with himself. After all, he's got a date with hunky, popular Morris! We see that Dopey's been eavesdropping from the door. No surprise there. The Dopester tries to dissuade Simon from going to the party, arguing that he'll never be able to avoid giving in to peer pressure to drink or smoke. He agrees not to tell the CamRents about what he overheard, though. Simon thanks him by slamming the door in his face.
Out in the hall, Lucy and Mary walk by, still arguing over whether Mary can go out with Lucy's friends, while Dopey confronts Ruthie about his admissions letters. He asks if her refusal means that he got rejected by the schools. Ruthie replies, "No." His next query, "So you're saying I did get in?" elicits a similar response. In frustration, Dopey asks, "So what are you saying?" Ruthie just talks some more about him not being "ready" to hear the news, but I suspect what she's really saying is that Matt hasn't had a decent plot in ages and that the writers are too lazy and unimaginative to come up with a real one, so they're going to drag this fakey one out over the course of the episode. The big problem with that, though, is that all the viewers already know Barry Watson's leaving after this season. That kind of brings the suspense level for this storyline down to zero. And really, is any viewer gullible enough to believe that Dopey would ever get into a school like Columbia or NYU? Actually, I was half-expecting the writers to have Matt try to get in somewhere that doesn't even have its own med school. Hey, why let facts interfere with the story?