Episode Report Card Shack: D+ | 14 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT The Known Soldier
By Shack | Season 6 | Episode 20 | Aired on 05.05.2002
We cut to the next evening, to the memorial service at Glenoak Community Church. Everyone there looks like they're dressed for a barbecue. With all the flag clothing apparent, they look like they're dressed for an Independence Day barbecue. Dopey and his Plot Contrivance have returned from New York. He still doesn't get any lines this episode, so there's something for us to be grateful for. Ruthie, wearing an oversized black t-shirt with a flag on it, comes up to the -- uh -- stage? This is what happens when you never go to church. Besides going to Hell, you don't know what they call things. She sits next to international gospel sensation CeCe Winans in those chairs near the pulpit where speakers wait for their turn. Whatever they're called. RevCam, wearing a black sweater with a big flag on it and jeans, steps up to the pulpit. There's a military honor guard standing there with flags. RevCam asks everybody to stand for the singing of the national anthem by Ms. Winans. As she sings, we pan across the crowd. Lucy is wearing a star-spangled do-rag. How have none of these people been struck by lightning? We get a brief glimpse of Staff Sgt Morgan's real family, standing in the first row in the center. Their expressions are slightly glazed, which I'm attributing to their nervousness about being on television.
The anthem ends, and Eric asks the gathered to bow their heads in prayer. Ruthie comes forward to lead the prayer. She thanks God for giving her the chance to know Morgan, and asks Him to let this ceremony come as a comfort to his friends and family and an honor to the men and women of the armed forces. Everybody amens. Eric gives his eulogy for Morgan, and I find his whole speech awkward and uncomfortable. Essentially, Eric just gives out random pieces of information about Dwight's life that he learned from his emails to Ruthie, without any attempt to prioritize them into some sort of meaningful structure. He talks at length about Dwight's favorite foods and the quality of the customized stereo in his Ford Escort, and his favorite song ("Sexual Healing" -- be grateful they didn't have Ruthie sing that), but just breezes by Dwight's familial relationships and makes only the briefest mentions of the fact that Theresa, his wife, is pregnant with a child that Dwight will never get to see. I place the blame here squarely on what must have been some inadequate interviewing on Brenda Hampton's behalf. I want to go find my old college textbook on feature writing, which has several chapters on how to interview people and write compelling, human profiles, and mail it off to her. Eric comes off here like somebody giving a eulogy for somebody he hardly knows, because that's exactly what he's doing.