Episode Report Card Deborah: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT A Show Of Hands
By Deborah | Season 2 | Episode 12 | Aired on 01.06.2005
Joan's walking along outside when Smoove G calls to her from one of those outdoor chess tables: "Wanna play, Joan?" He's setting up the pieces slowly and carefully as she walks over: "What, now God wants to beat me, too?" Smoove G: "You have to stay in the game." Joan claims she is: "I'm a decorator. Something wrong with that?" He says there isn't, if it's what she really wants. She sits down on the concrete cylinder opposite him, saying, "You know, I have a very good colour sense. Even Adam thinks so, and he's an artist. Even though he hates me right now." Smoove G: "I know you've had a difficult time lately: losing Judith, questioning me…but you've learned so much. Use it." Joan: "How? Every time I think I've learned something, something else gets thrown at me, you know? Adam or Roger or…feeling like a loser. Just makes me feel clueless again." Smoove G explains: "It's because you see each event as an end in itself. But they're all just small parts of something much greater. Something that never ends." Joan: "You're very Matrix-y today." Hee. He continues: "You do everything that I ask without knowing where it will lead, because you have faith. Have some in yourself. Other people do. I do." Wow. Joan sits up and says, "You're being really nice to me. That's weird." He replies, "Because I want you to see how much stronger you are than you think. Failure and disappointment -- you've been through it before. It's all part of the game." Joan objects, "But this isn't a game -- this is my life!" Smoove G: "Every act you undertake -- working at the bookstore, helping someone, even playing Rock Paper Scissors -- each of those choices is a move. And every move informs the next. And changes you, and everyone else. Likes moves on a chess board." Joan: "So there has to be a way to win." Smoove G smiles and gestures with the chess piece he's holding, which I think is a queen: "Sure. By playing." Joan turns toward the board and finally moves a pawn forward. Nice scene.
Joan walks up to someone's house and knocks. An older woman in a pink flowered housecoat with a slightly impatient air answers the door and says, "Yes? Can I help you, dear?" Joan seems surprised and states her name, asking if Mr. Tuchman lives there. Ew, she went to his house? I am skeeved. She invites Joan in and calls Dana, telling him there's someone there to see him. Joan and Ma Tuchman regard each other awkwardly until Joan says, "So he still lives at home. How…nice." Ma Tuchman: "Yes. They grow up so fast." PMJS comes out in his robe, too. I guess it's pretty early in the morning. I really don't want to contemplate the other possibilities. He's wearing it over track pants and his Brown T-shirt (as in the university, not the colour). Ma nags him about whether he put his oatmeal bowl in the sink or not, which he did, and he reminds her, "I'm with a student, Mother." She wanders off, telling him if he doesn't hurry he'll be late for school. You know, I definitely don't think everybody who lives with their parents beyond college age is automatically a loser, but some of them sure are, and if the shoe fits… PMJS says to Joan: "Mothers, huh?" Joan agrees. PMJS says something must be very important if she's coming over this early. She lays down the law: it's her life and she may have made some mistakes but she wants to go to a four-year college. PMJS: "Oh, Joan…I'm trying to help you avoid pitfalls and disappointments that could…" Joan: "What? Make me wind up living at home until I'm -- what are you, like, forty?" He says he's twenty-nine. And he's saving for a place of his own. Whatever. He says, "Look, when you…get out into the real world, you'll realize --" Joan: "Look, believe whatever you want about yourself, me, or -- or anything! I am back in the game, Mr. Tuchman, and I will be making my own moves!" From this kitchen we hear Ma Tuchman in an almost singsong voice: "You have to run water into the bowl, Dana." Joan leaves without another word. Once Joan's gone, he hollers, "I put water into the bowl!"