Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: A+ | 3 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Challenged A
By Jacob Clifton | Season 2 | Episode 19 | Aired on 02.06.2012
If I were a vase, I'd probably say something like that. Frankly, I think that's the day Jenna will be able to see again.
Because in order to change anything, you have to be able to look at it as it is, not how we want it to be or how it affects us. Christianity is a good thing in a lot of ways, but it has not done us a favor in at least one way, which is giving our culture a handy tool to divide things easily into Good and Bad. Which is just a shortcut to ignoring, or destroying, or otherwise limiting -- this is why Jenna's eyes are covered; this is what Vivian Darkbloom is in part about -- the things we think are Bad. But you can't change anything until you can see it for what it actually is.
Which is why I love Challenge Day, because it carries at least the hope that by the end of things you'll be able to look at the Bully, or the Slut, or the Fag, or the Bitch, and see: A Person. That no matter what the things are that divide us, the things we have in common will always outweigh and outnumber them. And that most of the time, the thing we share the most in common -- the precious thing, therefore, we need to look at most -- is just our loneliness. That's what puts the Challenge in, and it's what's being Challenged on, Challenge Day: That simple, nasty thing we all have in common.
ANYWAY, COURTYARD
While Aria's getting a text from A threatening Caleb, and staring around at the people in her group (Jenna pops some scary gum in her mouth!), this is Ella's group: Hanna, Kate, Noel Khan, hangers-on of Noel Kahn.
Kate Wants: To go back to her old school, where Hanna is not.
Noel Kahn Wants: Half days on Fridays, and no Trig.
Ella Wants: You to pull it together.
Ella: "What's so great, Kate, that they had at your old school?"
Kate: "Nice people."
Ella: "We have some of those. Somewhere around here."
Kate: "Also, I would like to decide the punishments for those who wrong me."
Noel Kahn: "That's a good idea. If I was at a new school and got martyred in that way, I would go postal. Unless I was incredibly hot, and then I would be proud."
Everybody: "Let's find out, shall we?"
Ella, awesomely verbatim: "Noel Kahn, drop the Bad Boy act and just Get Real."
Noel Kahn: "Bad Boys? Got nothing on Mean Girls. Guys have a fight, there's a punch, it's over. Girls don't fight fair. They gang up, they keep secrets, they plot. They can cut you down with a look..."
Hanna: "THIS IS ABOUT ME! IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT ME! NOEL KAHN YOU ARE A VILLAIN!"
Ella: "Hanna, I think he was just employing divisive stereotypical language like that to oppress you. You know, like how bitches always be fighting with each other? Think of it as a handy trick men fooled women into believing, so they don't team up and start a riot."