Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: A+ | 2 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT It Gets Better, Then It Gets Worse
By Jacob Clifton | Season 1 | Episode 12 | Aired on 01.10.2011
You can see Maya desperately trying to like climb inside Emily's mom and make her feel okay, and like why isn't my charm and beauty working, I have no other tools and mom's getting more and more freaked and dad's being great and getting into the spirit of things, but it's all just so sad. I mean, it's not just that they're weirdos, is that's the things they... Yeah, okay: The things they don't think are important are the only things that are important to her. You know what I mean?
Everything her life is built around -- the covenant of marriage, housewifery, keeping down the house while her husband defends our country -- are the exact same things their lives are built around disregarding. I mean, personally I think they're maybe a little more right than she is, in terms of lifestyle, but it's really easy to see where she's coming from, for me. No matter how dumb those things look to me personally I don't really think they're dumb or mean she's dumb. I just think there's four Houses at Hogwarts, and they all think they're the best one, and that's fine for everybody.
And I'm not trying to do a Red/Blue or false equivalency here, I'm talking about this particular lady. Like back in the '80s when the SAHMs were like, "You don't love your baby!" and the working women were like, "You don't love yourself!" and they were both kind of wrong but neither of them were totally right. In this case, Emily's mom has built a pretty full life about the things she is about, and Maya's existence spits on it. And then on top of that, her one daughter is never getting married to a guy, which was supposed to be the entire second half of her life.
So when she jogs out to the pantry to sob hysterically, I mean. She's a trooper. She invited the girlfriend over for dinner and she tried really hard, no matter how many offensive things happened in a row. And then she saw you playing footsie under the table, after you crapped on marriage and the military, the two things she is made of. I don't think it's lowering the bar to give her a little time or room to have her own thoughts, much less adjust. Keep it to yourself when there are gay kids present, but other than that I say you get to have all the tough times you want. It gets better.
Anyway, Mona comes on over to Hanna's house to get her "up to speed," which Hanna thinks means learning math -- Mona probably is really good at math, that kind often are -- but is in fact about... Talking shit about some girl in their school named Claudia Rice (played by Kirsten Dunst perhaps?), who wears skinny jeans and tight everything. Right up until intruders begin to lurk about, shadows on the walls and windows, and Hanna starts to lose it bigtime: "Mona! No, Mona! Don't open the door, Mona! Call the police, Mona!" But of course it's the surprise party; Mona grins as she opens the door to them, "Oh hush, Baby Jane."