Episode Report Card Deborah: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Ready Or Not
By Deborah | Season 2 | Episode 16 | Aired on 02.17.2005
Police storyline. Pointless murder, whatever. At least the scene is mercifully brief.
Joan comes down into the kitchen where Helen is working at the table. Joan remarks, "That looks like a fun Saturday." Helen says she's grading stuff: "You want a ride over to Grace's?" Oh, please. Am I really supposed to believe Helen bought that story? Yeah, it's not suspicious at all that Joan's staying over at Grace's house on the very night she wanted to go to the concert. Whatever. I wish my parents had been this dimwitted. Anyway, Joan says it's such a nice day that she'll walk: "I mean, if I'm allowed to." Helen: "Look, I know it's difficult…" Joan: "Mom, it's…cool." Helen: "It's not." Joan says there's nothing to talk about: "Grace and I are going to pig out on nachos and watch Donnie Darko so she can try to explain it to me again. End of story. Anything else?" Helen tells her to have a nice time. Joan says she'll see her tomorrow. Helen sits there brooding. How can she be so clueless?
Adam and Joan clamber into his father's truck. Adam: "Ready?" Joan: "Yeah." They kiss briefly and Adam dons his sunglasses before taking off. Joan looks slightly nervous.
After the commercial, everyone's emerging from the concert venue. Joan comes out exulting, "I actually moshed! Me!" Adam agrees it was incredible. Joan says she's hoarse from all the screaming: "I'm gonna have to tell my mom I got a cold or something." Adam: "Your mom?" Adam's just finding out now that Joan lied to come along. I don't really find it believable that she wouldn't have said something before this. It's not like it's their first date, or Adam doesn't know what her parents are like. Joan goes on about how she had to lie because her mother doesn't trust her: "This is her problem. I mean, can you imagine if we'd missed this?" Adam wonders where Helen thinks Joan is. Joan tells him. Adam looks weary. Joan insists Helen will never find out: "Grace is cool. You're upset…" Adam says he's not, and confesses he told his dad he was working all night. Aw. It's just like "The Gift of the Magi." Except not. They laugh about that. He told his father he needed the truck to haul some equipment: "He was getting nervous about us sleeping in the parking lot, and I couldn't make him understand, so…" Joan giggles some more and leans over to kiss Adam.
Some guy starts yelling about festival t-shirts (and some damn ugly shirts they are, too; a bad design on a light blue shirt) and Joan walks over to ask how much they are. Good idea. Maybe Helen will find the t-shirt. Frink: "Probably, since Joan's not allowed to do laundry." They are a shocking thirty bucks, considering I could design a better shirt in my sleep. Joan: "Thirty bucks? You guys are thieves." Adam's just conveniently disappeared, which is good, considering we're about to find out this guy is God: "You want something to remember tonight, don't you, Joan?" She does, and requests the "disciple's discount." T-Shirt God throws in a sticker for free. Joan hands over her money: "If this is about me lying to my mom, I'm sorry…really…but…if I'm making my own decisions, I had to do it." T-Shirt God agrees, "You gotta do what you gotta do." Joan says she's sorry if she upset her, but she's seventeen: "You know, that's half of a…really old person." Thirty-five-year-old Professor Frink: "Ow." Tell me about it. T-Shirt God says, "Separating is never easy." Joan says Helen has to accept her independence: "That's how you made us, right?" T-Shirt God: "Just remember: being independent doesn't mean being alone." He goes back to hawking T-shirts.