Episode Report Card Deborah: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Growth Opportunity
By Deborah | Season 2 | Episode 3 | Aired on 10.07.2004
There's the noise of a large construction vehicle all of a sudden, and everyone looks over as a bulldozer lumbers up to the garden. Joan: "Oh, no." She runs for the garden. Luke, right behind her, complains, "Bulldozers were not part of my calculation." Everyone runs for the garden. Judith, however, steps out of nowhere and puts herself in front of the bulldozer, holding her hand up in a "stop" gesture. Joan yells at her to watch out. The driver stops. Glynis remarks, "A heroine goddess." What? Maybe if you're spelling it heroin. Friedman: "That's my girl." Shut it, dweeb. Luke: "The ultimate indeterminate." Judith bends down to fuss with the Charlie Brown tree as the bulldozer drops its scoop on the ground with a crash and Joan screams, "Judith!" Judith just glares at the foreman. The foreman comes over to tell her to stand aside. Lischak's folded up her parasol -- guessing (correctly, I would imagine) that the foreman isn't going to take her and her precious pink parasol too seriously -- and she informs the foreman that the garden is an AP Physics project. Foreman: "How charming. But we're putting in new bleachers." Joan seems distressed, but not especially surprised or outraged. Lischak: "Can it be spared the final deathblow until our research is complete?" He crabs, "Lady, I got a union employee, hourly wages, it's outta my hands! Everybody, see the garden? It's lovely. It's a lovely garden. Now move!" Judith stands up, dusts off her hands, crosses her arms, and gives the guy a defiant stare. Some of the students start chanting "Judith, Judith, Judith." Pretty soon everyone's doing it. On first viewing, I totally cringed. It just seemed so -- phony and contrived. While recapping it, it bothered me slightly less, but I honestly can't figure out if that's only because I knew it was coming. It's just a little hard to buy, but then again, some TWoP posters in high school have said they can easily picture such a response at their schools. Also, I know a lot of people were surprised that Grace was chanting, and even clapping, but actually, if you can get past the fact that anyone was, I think it was a pretty predictable impulse on her part, in that perhaps if she'd had time to consider the whole thing in context, maybe she wouldn't have. But in the moment, I think it's entirely consistent for Grace to instantly identify with and support anyone who appears to be standing up to The Man. I love Grace, but I think she's capable of knee-jerk responses, too.
The foreman finally comes over and picks Judith up and carries her off the plot. She makes a face and then sticks her fist in the air, as if she's somehow triumphant. What's that about? She hasn't achieved a damn thing. Frink: "Good thing she's not Palestinian. She'd be dead." ["Enough with the sugar-coating, Professor! (Heh.)" -- Sars] Everyone keeps clapping and cheering. And I'm not clear on what that's about, either. Seriously, if they wanted to stop the bulldozers, they should have all planted their asses in the garden. These tykes have a lot to learn about civil disobedience and passive resistance. Also, where is Mr. Price this year? This seems like the sort of thing he'd be all over. Up in the air, Judith smiles at Joan, who returns the smile. The music for this scene is Emmylou Harris's cover of Bob Dylan's "Every Grain of Sand." When the foreman puts Judith down, she and Joan embrace. The bulldozer immediately destroys the garden -- including Adam's sculptures, neither of which is much of a loss to the art world, leaving us with a score of Arcadians 3, Art 0. Oh, and: way to protect Adam's work again, there, Joan. Judith tells Joan, "Hey, I'm sorry." Up on the bleachers behind them, Joan sees Slacker God arrive and sit down. She tells Judith she'll be right back. Suddenly Judith is confronted with The Friedman, who simpers at her, "The Friedman likey." Oh, God. I told you. I told you you'd never get rid of him. Did I not tell you? She just looks apprehensive and walks away.