Episode Report Card Heathen: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Falling In Place
By Heathen | Season 3 | Episode 13 | Aired on 03.03.2002
Eli strums his guitar in the Pot Barn. I don't wholly recognize what he's playing, but it sounds like it might be "Everlong," by the Foo Fighters. A livid Jessie bursts in through the door, and although a giant cloud of pot smoke does not waft into her face, I'm sure it should have. "You don't even care, do you?" she screams. "What is your problem?" spits Eli. "Mom almost died, Eli. Does that even faze you?" she rages. "I cannot see how you can be like this!" Eli grumps, "Be like what? I'm not like anything!" I suspect that's precisely the problem. Jessie lacks the words to capture Karen's expression when she realized Eli ditched her. "It was just sad," she attempts. "It was just really sad." Eli brats that it's not his fault Jessie's obsessed with being next to Karen every second of every day. I think Jessie's feeling guilty, certain her period of accidentally ignoring Karen kicked off the depression, and vowing never to let her mother down again. She's overcompensating, but Eli's just sitting on his skinny, increasingly unattractive ass and doing nothing but strum his guitar and dream of the day his new song, "A Truck Flattened my Mother," wins a Grammy. Eli twists the knife in Jessie's gut by sniping that him being at the hospital isn't going to help Karen recover. Jessie shakes her head, chock full of ire. "I hate you," she hisses firmly, so utterly without histrionics that it's clear part of her really means it. Evan Rachel Wood is ridiculously talented. Eli just rolls his eyes and then uses the commercial break to roll another joint. I assume. I wonder if Shane West is a total pothead and the producers have no choice but to make Eli look stoned all the time.
Rick ducks his head into the Pot Barn at 7:30 the next morning and wakes up Eli. Rick tells him to drag himself to his feet and take Jessie to school. "I have to start locking the door," moans Eli. Frankly, I'm stunned he doesn't have some kind of auto-lock mechanism. Rick pauses, then tries to be casual in asking why Eli didn't visit Karen. "I got caught up at work," lies Eli. Rick, as pissed as Rick ever gets about the small stuff -- mild brow furrowing, a slight case of the tizzies -- is pissed at Eli for ditching Jessie without calling Rick first. He laments that he can't trust Eli any more to help with the day-to-day operations of Sammler-Manning Enterprises. Eli shows his usual disdain for authority, but at least pretends he "get it" and agrees to be ready in fifteen minutes to drive Jessie to school. But as soon as Rick closes the door, Eli cocoons himself in his comforter.