Episode Report Card Deborah: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT A Show Of Hands
By Deborah | Season 2 | Episode 12 | Aired on 01.06.2005
The geeks are practicing RPS when Joan comes up behind them and gives Luke a good sharp shove: "Payback time!" Friedman: "Joan, I'm sorry, we don't handicap players here." Joan: "Button it, Fro-Man. Let's play." Grace: "Flatten him, Girardi." Luke: "There's no reason for hostility here." Joan: "You're next, Squidboy! You and your friends think I'm some kind of bonehead? Think again. Let's play." There's a loud band practice going on in a classroom in the background. They sound like they need some work. Friedman says the music's a little distracting. Joan: "Well, not for me. Two out of three. Don't throw scissors!" They start: Joan throws rock, Friedman throws scissors. Joan: "Told you." She beats him the next two times, too. She moves on to Luke: "Hey! Who's the bonehead now? Next?" Luke: "Joan?" She circles around him, goading him: "What, you think I'm some kind of idiot? Huh? You think it would be easy to just take me out?" Luke: "I never said you were an idiot." Joan: "Yeah, but you let them say it!" Friedman: "Just do it, man! Redemption!" Joan says she'll cut him some slack: "We'll play sets. Two out of three." Luke: "Why are you doing this?" Joan: "'Cause I wanna win, just like you!"
Luke takes off his knapsack as we switch to an overheard shot and the band music concludes and the Rocky theme music starts playing. They start the RPS as a small crowd starts to gather. Luke wins, then they tie twice, then Luke wins. Joan turns around to Grace, looking distressed, and sees that both Adam and Goth God are there watching. Goth God gives her a supportive look. Grace: "No no no. Focus. Come on. Don't lose it, Girardi." Luke: "I thought you'd root for me, Grace." She replies, "Make out with you. Root for her." Heh. Joan smirks. They start again: Luke wins, then Joan does, and then Joan wins the round. She and Grace exult. Goth God suppresses a small smile. They start the last round, and the tie the first one. I can't see what the second one is, and then they tie two more times. Luke takes off his glasses and turns around to Friedman, who mops his brow with his sleeve. Now it kind of sounds to me like the band is playing over the Rocky theme. Friedman gives him some pep talk and Luke turns back to Joan, who starts circling around him again, pontificating, "As the probability of duplicating a tie, decreases with each tie thrown, human behavior becomes the deciding factor. This is the domain of the philosophers and the poets and not the mathematicians." Friedman: "That was so hot." Glynis smacks him. After the show, Joan's little speech prompts a twenty-minute Frinkian discourse on game theory and probabilistic analysis and a bunch of math stuff nobody cares about, at least nobody who's me. So thanks a pantload, Joan of Arcadia. They start again. A new song starts up, with some cheesy-sounding slo-mo vocals. I wish I could tell you what it was, but I haven't been able to find out. Joan wins. Luke wins. They tie.