Episode Report Card Niki: D | 1 USERS: B YOU GRADE IT Sneaky Feelings
By Niki | Season 1 | Episode 14 | Aired on 01.30.2000
A young man pokes his head in the door to remind Craig that he's needed on a conference call. In the doorway, Craig pauses to suggest that Karen handle Leo's case solo, since it seems like she's got a good handle on it. Without looking up from his papers, Leo says it's okay. Karen is speechless. Craig leaves and Leo, still poring over the papers, holds out his half-eaten sandwich to Karen, asking if she's hungry. We don't hear her response, but since she looks at the offering as if it were squirming, I think it's safe to assume she declines.
Cut to Eli and Jennifer standing in front of his locker. Jennifer is holding an essay and is in the midst of saying that, "overall, [Eli] did a good job, but [he] may want to look at the conclusion again." Tensely, Eli says he will and then kisses her, possibly as a tactical maneuver designed to shut her up. Because, let's face it, getting your grammar corrected isn't exactly a turn-on.
B/W Eli's starts to give us the skinny on Jennifer. He remembers that the first time he saw her, "she was holding up a lunch line to protest the lack of organic choices. She was so worked up." Then he wonders, "How can somebody be so passionate about lettuce?" I don't know. How can anybody be so passionate about tossing a ball through a little wire hoop?
A jock buddy mockingly interrupts the young lovers mid-kiss and tells Eli to "hit it." He tosses Eli a basketball by way of punctuation. Jennifer asks about the practice and when it will be over, because she wants him to go to the library with her. Although it's a tempting offer, Eli tells her practice going to be long because the "coach is out of control." She asks where he'll be spending the night, and he's evasive, impatiently telling her he's got to go. Smiling indulgently, she says, "Go. Be a jock," and then walks down the hallway looking entirely too smug and secure for her own good.
B/W Eli says how much he hated being suspended from the team, how he just didn't feel like himself when he wasn't playing basketball. He "had to raise [his] grades to get back on the team, and Jennifer was there for [him]." She helped him get off suspension, and she doesn't even like sports. "Ironic, huh?" he asks. Technically, no, no it isn't. Apparently Eli was educated at the Alanis Morrisette School of Literary Terms.
We return to Eli a little later, after practice has ended, and he's surrounded by a pack of jocks. They encounter a pack of roaming female jocks, and the expected circling and butt-sniffing ensues. The girls are part of the volleyball team, which has just lost its match. Eli points out that their competition was a "tough team" and wins himself the undivided attention of one of the females. She's impressed that he follows girls' volleyball, which leads her to ask if he's going on "the ski trip." Then she promptly gets a calf cramp. Eli shows her an accupressure point to relieve the pain, but it involves squeezing together her bottom lip. She refuses on the grounds that it may cause her to "look stupid." He convinces her to try it and, presto gizmo, the pain's all gone. Now she's really impressed and asks him to give her his number so she can call with the details. "Details?" Eli asks. "About the ski trip," she answers. My ass. By the way, Cassidy looks just like Eli wearing a blond, braided wig, which could be the most disconcerting thing about these two so far (and there's plenty on the list, believe me). Eli searches out a pen but can't find any paper to write his number on, so Cassidy coyly offers him the palm of her hand. Because the fact that she just finished playing an intense physical game and is covered in sweat and hasn't yet had a shower is immaterial. It's a good excuse to get Eli to hold her hand, and it's also a good opportunity to bat her big buggy eyes at him while he writes. And since it's television, you can rest assured that the number, against all odds, will still be legible by the time she gets home and picks up the phone.