Episode Report Card Deborah: A+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Pools of Sorrow, Waves of Joy
By Deborah | Season 1 | Episode 12 | Aired on 01.08.2004
Joan: "Rocky made death funny." She laughs a bit, and then her face starts to cave in on itself. Her voice wavering, she adds, "Until today. Today it's not so funny. Because he's here. And that's just..." She cries and laughs at once: "Sad." Sylvia, who's also laughing through tears, rises to hug her, and thanks her. They return to their places. Father Uptight, bewildered, asks, "Anyone else? No? Thank God." Helen gives him a look. He says he'd like to read something Sylvia requested. It's an abbreviated version of that poem that is used in so many thousands of funerals and memorials. It's such a cliché to use it that I can't help wishing that the writer had chosen something else, something much more offbeat like Rocky. But it's a small quibble in a very nearly perfect episode. Father Uptight reads, "Do not stand at my grave and weep / I am not there, I do not sleep / I am a thousand winds that blow / I am the diamond glints of snow / Do not stand at my grave and cry / I am not there; I did not die." While he reads the final two lines, Joan happens to look around and sees Rocky, wearing a black suit (which I presume he was buried in), peeking out from behind a tree at her. Joan looks around to see if anyone else is looking, and then looks back in his direction. He stands there smiling at her, and then he waves. Joan doesn't know what to make of it. He turns and scampers off through the cemetery. Joan stares with her mouth slightly open and her eyes filled with tears.
After the commercial, Rocky's coffin is being lowered into the ground as everyone walks away. I'm surprised everyone's left before this; at the burials I've attended, the coffin is usually lowered into the ground and people throw dirt on it before leaving. Joan and her mother are walking through the cemetery arm-in-arm as Joan asks, "Do you believe in ghosts?" Joan's mother replies, "Walking through a cemetery after burying a child -- you bet I do." As they come around a tree, they run into Adam and his father. Helen greets the two of them; she's obviously met Mr. Rove before. Perhaps in relation to some of Adam's visits to Price's office. Adam seems surprised, and not pleased, to see Joan there. He says nothing; they exchange looks of pain. Adam's is tinged with some bitterness; Joan's eyes plead gently. I notice she's wearing a lot more black eyeliner than usual. His father explains, "Me and Adam were just heading over to Elizabeth's grave. Uh -- you have somebody you visit here?" Helen says gently, "A little boy Joan babysat was buried today." Adam asks, "Rocky? Rocky died?" Joan nods. Adam: "Wow. Life sincerely sucks." Unchallenged. He tells his father, "I'll meet you over by Mom." He walks away as his dad watches him with concern. Imagine how scary things must be for his father, who, made a single parent by his wife's suicide, now faces the major depression of his only child. I really like Mr. Rove and the actor who plays him. Joan watches Adam go; Mr. Rove watches her watching him. He says, "I...ran over one of his sculptures once in the driveway. It was weeks before he'd look me in the face. Of course, it was an accident." Joan gives him a weak, mouth-only smile. His father adds, "Mmm. Now he doesn't even make those things anymore." Joan: "Adam doesn't do his art?" Mr. Rove: "He told me I could have my shed back." Joan glances at her mother with concern; she looks even more troubled. He continues: "I told him I love those weird monstrosities he makes, but...I'm just his dad. Kids, huh?" As he's about to leave, he says, "Sorry about the little boy."