Episode Report Card Miss Alli: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Making money hand over fisticuffs
By Miss Alli | Season 6 | Episode 20 | Aired on 04.22.2003
In Flip-Flops's office, Joey is having some kind of advising meeting. Flip-Flops snips at her for not having a major, and she tells him that although she didn't want to give him the satisfaction, she'll tell him now that it's English. He repeats "English" in his smug Flip-Flops fashion. Joey reminds him that she can always change it. "Can I go now?" Joey asks. I'm sorry, why did she come by in the first place? She showed up, he dogged her about having no major, she gave up that it was English, and now she's leaving? Whatever. Incidentally, her two-tone hair has reached the point where the break is right at her ear, so when she tucks it behind her ear it looks like the brunette color goes into her big old ear gully, but does not come out. Flip-Flops asks her if she has any interest in "tripping down memory lane." Joey says she has other things going on. Because she is Joey: The One That Is In The Process Of Getting Away. And now, in an exchange I really don't understand, Flip-Flops says that the first time Joey came to his office, it was her birthday. "The day before my birthday," she says, suspicious and puzzled. He asks her how her birthday was, and apologizes for not getting her anything. What the hell is going on here? Joey is as confused as I am, and she finally lays down the law, waving her hands in Dawson-like emphasis and saying that she is well aware that she didn't live up to her academic potential this year, so whatever he's warming up to, he can forget it. He cuts her off, hands her her exam, and tells her she "more than lived up" to it. Long story short, Our Miss Joey got an A- on the exam and a C+ in the course, and all lived happily ever after. Flip-Flops is fully in the thrall of her It, and kneels on his desk chair (whuh?) to talk to her about how he considered giving her an A, but found her paper "bleak." I'm sorry, would that be a reason for an A-? Joey can't believe that Captain Darkness found it too "bleak." Flip-Flops blathers about how Catch-22 is a story of hope about a "leap of faith," and he hands her a copy with highlighting in it. Oh, for...whatever. Time for the heavy hand of the literary parallel.
Joey reads the part where Yossarian says that "there's nothing negative about running away to save my life." Joey looks flummoxed. Or at least her hair does. I'm sorry, are they implying that Professor Flip-Flops knew about Eddie and set her up to read this? Is it a coincidence? Why does he look so smug? Why would he make her read it out loud? I guess it really is true that nothing ever changes, because this show still reeks so aggressively sometimes that it leaves its stench in the curtains long after it has left. Anyway, The Tinkling Piano Of Life's Lessons Learned earns its paycheck in the background as Flip-Flops yammers for a while and Joey goes through Her Own Private Sigh-daho, thinking about the implications of art for her own life as she so often does. As Joey gets up to leave, he scolds her. "I'm sorry, did it seem like I was done?" he says. Oh, calm down, Rocket Romano. Joey tells him she has places to go. They agree that they will never see each other in class again, but she asks him to be her advisor, and he agrees. And then they smile at each other. Man, that's some It she's got.