Episode Report Card Maggie: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT James And The Giant Piece
By Maggie | Season 3 | Episode 9 | Aired on 11.28.2000
Knoll and Felicity are in her room, and she's looking at his Flash cartoon again, because he wants to know if it's good enough to show his professor yet. The cartoon is about a boy on a farm, which makes total sense since Knoll is a boy from Boston, except for the "making sense" part. Felicity pitches her idea for the cartoon to Knoll: The Loser Pet Store. Okay, now that the word "loser" has been added to the premise, this is definitely within Knoll's frame of reference. Knoll bristles at the suggestion until Felicity explains it and shows him a few preliminary sketches of her proposed characters. The premise is that the pet shop is full of animals that never get purchased, because they're losers. Like, there's a neutered poodle "who's insane and convinced he's a cat," and there's a snake who is completely besotted by another snake, except it isn't another snake, it's his tail. The final character is "this really pissed-off alcoholic goldfish, and he always wants his water changed to Smirnoff." Hey, that's great, Felicity. Maybe you can name the goldfish Mr. Covington. How sensitive of you. Maybe your boyfriend can inspire you to get all the other loser pets to form an Al-Anon chapter in the pet store. Knoll suggests getting Javier to do the voice of the poodle, and Felicity thinks he's mocking her. He admits that his farm boy cartoon was rather lame and he wants to "run with" Felicity's idea. She tells him to go for it.
Molly, who is dressed as Little Red Snorting Hood, appears at the door of the loft, to talk to Ben, because she doesn't know what to do about James.
Cut to Molly and Ben sitting in the waiting room of the clinic, where she is telling him how she met James. It seems that they met in a pub in England and she "kinda came to New York for him." Hmm, a young woman follows a crush to New York. Where have we heard this story before? Anyway, Molly confides to Ben that she's "addicted" to James and that "giving up coke will be hard" and she can't imagine what it would be like to give up James. She thanks Ben for keeping her secrets and he says that he can because she's seeking help. He asks whether James knows where she is, and she admits that he doesn't.
Tracy walks out of a classroom with Elena right behind. She calls after him and tries to make small talk with him. They compare grades and he rushes off abruptly.
At the apartment, Elena whines to Felicity that her whole academic career (and life) has been a sham since her affair with McGrath, because without the higher grade he gave her, she never would have been admitted to the courses she was. And if she hadn't been in those courses, she wouldn't have met Tracy; since meeting him, her grades have gone up because they've been studying together. She says all of that without even drawing a breath. Felicity tries to convince her that she's exaggerating, but Elena squeals that what happened to Sabina is exactly what happened to her. Felicity inquires as to whether she's going to testify to the committee, and Elena says she doesn't know because then her affair will become public knowledge and it will be in her transcripts, preventing her from getting into med school.