Episode Report Card Kim: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Remember When
By Kim | Season 1 | Episode 1 | Aired on 09.28.1998
Cut to Felicity rifling through some papers on a desk until she finds what she's looking for: an application to the "University of New York." She holds it up, and we see that she's wearing a very un-Felicity-like blue dress. I know I'm picking nits here, but there is more than one college in New York. How did she know which one Ben would be attending? She looks at the application for a moment and then races out of the room.
Cut to Mr. Porter angrily saying, "How long has this been going on in your mind? Could you have waited any longer to drop this bomb?" Felicity looks to be on the verge of tears as she tells her father she just decided today, and she called the university and was told it would have to be "extraordinary circumstances" for her to be admitted so late. Mr. Porter says that Felicity can make this decision, but he will "not in any way financially support it." Felicity mumbles something about student loans and work-study, and her father scoffs. Mr. Porter says, "I worked this hard so you wouldn't have to go through what I did" and Felicity retorts, "No, Dad, you made it so I'd have to go through exactly what you did. I know you want me to follow in your footsteps but I just...basically, I can't." Mr. Porter just shakes his head and walks away, like, way to be supportive. But then again, at this point, do we expect any less? Felicity concludes in a voice-over, "That was the worst summer of my life."
New York City skyline. New York City street, replete with car horns honking and some random guy crossing the street. Finally, we see Felicity getting out of a cab with a couple of suitcases and a couple of bags, which is about one-fifth of the crap I took to college my freshman year. But then again, I ended up taking most of it home at Thanksgiving, when I realized I didn't need it all, so I guess she's smart. Felicity crosses the street and stops in front of a building with a canopy that reads "Kelvin Hall" as the voice-over says, "So, basically, I've given up everything my parents ever planned for me, everything I ever expected, all for a boy I don't even know." Felicity enters Kelvin Hall.
A door opens, and Felicity enters and looks around the biggest dorm room in the world, not to mention the best lit. There's even a chair! In my day, we stole chairs from the lounge, and we liked it! My dorm room was about a quarter the size of hers, with one puny window that got sunlight from 8 to 9 AM, which was exactly when I didn't want it. The camera pans over to the other side of the football-field-sized room, where someone has clearly already taken residence, based on the clothes all over the floor and posters on the wall. We finally return to the initial shot of the episode, which features Felicity, in silhouetted profile, talking into her tape recorder. Get used to it, because you'll be seeing that shot a lot. She says, "I guess what I'm saying is...this all might be a colossal mistake, as my dad would say. But on the other hand, it might...maybe it'll save my life or something." Felicity finishes by asking Sally to "respond A.S.A.P." and clicks the recorder off. She takes out the tape and puts it in a padded envelope addressed to Sally Reardon in Santa Fe, New Mexico, then heaves a big sigh.