Episode Report Card Deborah: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT "Until A Little Light Gets Through"
By Deborah | Season 2 | Episode 9 | Aired on 11.18.2004
School. Luke is trying to persuade Grace to come to his birthday dinner: "I know it's a lot to ask…" Grace: "Dude…licking your floors would be a lot to ask." Luke says it's one dinner. She refuses. He pleads that it's his birthday dinner, and says his dad makes lasagna. I suppose Grace doesn't keep kosher, because she fails to object to the menu. Maybe Will would make veggie lasagna. Grace says, "I'll get you a present. Besides, someone we knew is actually dead. How can you even think of celebrating?" Luke retorts, "It's dinner, Grace. You know, nobody's going to limbo, or wear stupid hats." Grace: "You know, once your sister knows, the world knows. We might as well get married." Luke claims Joan won't figure it out. I knew it! I knew she didn't see them holding hands last week. Grace chortles, "She's not that stupid." Luke: "Stupid, no. Self-absorbed? Paris Hilton has more perspective." Luke says he'll just say they have to study later: "It's my sixteenth birthday. You know, the one where you get a car. I mean, I'm just getting a diving watch, but still, it's a watershed event." Grace says she thought he was afraid of the ocean. Luke doesn't address that. He just insists that her attendance at dinner is what he wants for his birthday: "Not a present, not a rain cheque, not five more minutes of make-out time!" He's being a little loud, there, and she tells him to shut up as she walks off. He calls after her, "This is a deal-breaker, Grace." Just then he runs into Joan and Adam, and takes off so quickly Joan makes a face, wondering what his problem is. I think his problem is that he didn't have a birthday at all last year, since when the show started, we were told that Luke was fifteen, Joan was sixteen and Kevin was nineteen. In this episode, we learn that Luke's birthday is November 19. Which means that unless the first eight episodes or so of Season One all occurred in the first two weeks of November -- and they clearly didn't -- they're fudging the age thing. Which, okay, I can roll with it. (As long as they stick to it from here on out.) But there are other timeline/continuity issues here, too, related to the date of Kevin's accident. We'll get to those. Date stuff drives me crazy. (Also, as far as anybody with HDTV could tell, Joan's birthday is in November, too. Not to mention both the birth and death dates of Adam's mother. What's with the November fetish on this show? ["I can't speak to the death thing, but I know more people with birthdays in November than in any other month. So much for the 'Valentine's Day is a meaningless consumer construct' theory. Heh." -- Sars])
She complains to Adam that she's still having nightmares about Judith: "And now I have to go to this lawyer's office and talk about Kevin's accident." Look! "Written by Barbara Hall." Yay! More of that, please. Joan wonders, "What did I do in my past lifetime, kill puppies?" Adam: "Truly, yeah. You know, plus this is the week Price is gonna analyze the college counsellor's report." Joan: "Are you kidding me? How could I hate my life more?" Uh…you could be Judith? Or her parents? Friedman pushes past them to get into Lischak's classroom, singing, "Tests are back today!" Joan: "What?" Then: "Way to bounce back after Judith!" Adam: "It's a classic coping mechanism." He assures her she did fine on the test: "I quizzed you."