Episode Report Card Jessica: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Song Remains The Same (2)
By Jessica | Season 6 | Episode 2 | Aired on 10.01.2002
Boston Bay. Grams and Jen emerge from the bookstore, laden down with -- you guessed it! -- books, and take a seat at a table on the patio. Grams lets it slip that she's taking a math class (if by "lets it slip," I mean "bought a math textbook," which I do), and Jen is appalled. Grams mutters that there's no harm in taking an interest in Clifton Smalls's life's work, but Jen thinks it's a slippery slope from taking an interest in one's boyfriend to "sublimating your own thoughts and desires and for what? For a grand change to participate in the greater patriarchal heterosexist fraud that is better known as monogamy?" That? Is so romantic. At the table behind them, a cute boy with bad, bad hair eavesdrops. Grams peers at him, interested, as Jen continues railing against men and society, wondering if Grams wants to spend her "golden years folding some man's laundry." Grams just looks at her. "I mean, haven't we come further as a sex -- what?" Jen stops, mid-rant, to turn and see what Grams is looking at. "Hi," the boy says. "Hi, I'm sorry, are we bothering you? Because, perhaps, if it's not too much trouble, you could get your own conversation," Jen spits. Wow, that was rude. In the real world, the cute boy with bad hair would just be like, "Fine, you nutbar," and stomp off, but because this is television and in television that which would get you slugged in the real world is deemed charming and acceptable, he apologizes and explains that he was just trying to figure out where's he met her before. "Then I realized I've never met you before," he adds. Jen snips that she's so very glad they got that figured out. Why is Jen so hostile, may I ask? A cute boy wants to talk to her! Is that so wrong? Why am I suddenly sounding like my mother? Anyhoo, it turns out that Cute Boy With Bad Hair -- henceforth to be known as CBWBH -- used to listen to her radio show. "She was on the radio!" Grams pipes up. "Well, you were," she says to Jen. "She was very good too." Jen sort of giggles and blushes that, yes, she was on the radio and thanks for listening and bye bye, now. It is exposited that she had "artistic differences with the new management" of the radio station and is no longer a DJ. The real reason is that the producers realized that it wasn't very interesting for the audience to watch a DJ sit in a booth and spin tunes, which is why, you know, radio isn't on television to begin with, generally speaking. Grams smiles at CBWBH and invites him to join them. Jen makes a "GRAMS!" face at her grandmother. Grams makes a innocent face in return.
Over to the stockbroker's office. Pacey and the rest of the trainees sit around a table. I can't believe Pacey is becoming a stockbroker now, considering the state of the market and especially in light of the fact that he's basically totally unqualified to be one, but whatever. Enter Dana Ashbrook (Twin Peaks's erstwhile Bobby Briggs), who hasn't aged well. At the very least, he needs a haircut -- this longish one just emphasizes the fact that he's thinning a little bit on top. Anyway, Bobby Briggs reenacts a couple of scenes from Boiler Room and then we all go home. But not before Pacey raises his hand and asks why, given the volatility of the market, anyone would even want this job. Good question, Pacey. Bobby Briggs explains that they're all in it for the same reason people play the Lotto. "Money?" Pacey asks. That, Bobby Briggs says, and hope. They're selling…hope. Oh, give me a break. They're certainly not selling hope, and whatever it is that they are selling, I'm not buying it. "I have one more question," Pacey asks. "Who the hell are you?" Oh, good God. I almost wish he'd go back to being the security guard at the yacht club if this is the kind of dialogue we're going to get for this story arc -- and it really pains me to say that, because I think Gina Fattore, who wrote this particular episode, is probably the show's strongest writer. Bobby Briggs introduces himself, but I don't listen to his name because, to me, he's Bobby Briggs now and forever. Anyway, Pacey is IN! Bobby's all, "Fab. See you Monday." Pacey starts to leave, but Bobby calls him back. "Oh, and you might want to rethink that suit. It seems a little gay," he says. Pacey furrows his brow and leaves. What's that supposed to mean? I mean, I get it -- it's Jack's suit and Jack is gay, gay, gay, but who says that sort of thing? Isn't that some kind of harassment or something? At the very least, it's a bizarre comment to make to anyone, especially someone you've just met. And so it appears that Pacey will have yet another improbable job with an unpleasant boss.