Episode Report Card Deborah: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Jew Of Arcadia
By Deborah | Season 2 | Episode 10 | Aired on 11.25.2004
Joan chases her down the stairs: "Grace, you have to do this!" Grace: "Why the hell do you care if I chant some stupid prayers?" They reach the bottom of the stairs as Joan says, "Because you care!" Grace: "Ha! This was just for my parents -- and you shouldn't have come over!" Joan grabs her arm and asks her why she's running away: "You don't seem to mind getting in people's faces except for when it matters!" Grace tells her to save it. Joan yells, "You hide Luke -- which, yeah, okay, I kinda understand -- but you hide your mom; you hide all the important stuff, Grace. I'm not Jewish, but it seems to me this whole bat mitzvah thing is about standing up and declaring yourself! Getting in people's faces for real!" Grace just stares at Joan, but with less defiance than you'd expect. Luke, on the landing of the stairs, says quietly, "Grace…" She looks up. He says in a small voice, "I already got you a present." Grace still doesn't say anything. Joan sighs. Then we have the bad third-quarter cut to commercial.
Grace is in the closet. Well, I don't know about that one, but she's behind the louvered doors of her bedroom closet getting dressed for her bat mitzvah. From inside, her muffled voice threatens Joan: "You better tell the truth or I'll cancel again!" Joan: "I told you, I will." Grace: "If I hear the word 'adorable,' I'll go postal." Joan: "O-kay. Getting bored and crabby out here." The door opens and we see Grace's feet, in black, open-toed, ankle strap high heels. She's wearing -- not the dress I would have expected, let me tell you. It's black, which is the only part that doesn't surprise me. It has an asymmetrical hem with a floral border print against a widely-spaced pattern of thin white pinstripes. It has a high waistline, almost Empire, with a wide, satiny black waistband. There's a low-ish, draped V-neck. It's sleeveless. Isn't that going to be a bit of an issue at temple? I thought women had to have their shoulders covered in synagogues. I was told as much when I was last invited to a wedding in a temple. Anyway, it's way more typically feminine than I was expecting. Grace's hair is perfectly combed and flat-ironed, parted on the side, and there's a little black barrette pulling the hair back on the wide side. She looks very, very cute. Such a shana maidelah. She steps out of the closet and Joan says, "Wow. Grace!" (Dwell on that sentence for a while, would you?) Grace mutters gently, "Shut up, dude." But you can tell she's sort of pleased, in spite of herself. She starts wrestling with her nylons and says, "Whoever invented pantyhose should be shot." You're not the first to think so, grrrlchik, and you won't be the last.
There's a knock on the door and she turns to see her father come in. He's dumsquizzled to see Grace all fancied up. He leans against the wall: "My little girl in high heels?" Grace: "Cry on the dress, Dad, and they become lethal weapons." He comes over and gives her a hug and tells her that her mother will be ready soon. Grace gives him a look of concern, the type she doesn't feel comfortable stating in front of Joan, even though Joan knows now. Her dad assures her that her mother is going to be fine today: "Because she promised." Yeah, I'll she's hardly ever broken a promise, either. He looks at Joan: "I'm really sorry about the other day. She had help, but..." Grace glances back at Joan and then away again. Joan says he doesn't need to explain. To Grace he says, "I just wish I had an answer for…why this has to be this way. I don't know." He asks if Grace wants to go over her Torah portion again. She shakes her head: "It's under neural lockdown." He kisses her on the head and she says, "Let's boogie." Let's…boogie? No. Grace Polk did not just say that. She says she'll be down in a minute, as her father takes off. Aw. I love Grace's dad. I like him so much I'm almost willing to forgive him for leaving Grace to deal with her mother alone. Almost. ["I don't get this, either -- why Rabbi P. hasn't looked into rehab for Sarah. (Heh.) Or maybe he has, but I do find the fact that the problem is still ongoing a bit odd." -- Sars] She crouches down and pulls her grandmother's necklace out of the pocket of her jeans. Joan offers, "Do you want me to…" Grace smiles: "Yeah." Joan pauses a moment as Grace smiles at herself. As Joan reaches over Grace's head to out the necklace on, we see Grace looking at herself in her cheval mirror, which is draped with her tallit. Could you have pictured this scene a year ago?