Episode Report Card Deborah: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT "The Lamps Are Different, But The Light Is The Same"
By Deborah | Season 2 | Episode 1 | Aired on 09.23.2004
Helen comes to the station -- the very, very, very blue station -- wearing a bright red coat that sticks out so much that I can't stop thinking about it. When did I start recapping Schindler's List? It looks like someone started to colorize an old film and got called away for a meeting. In the middle of a busy room full of people, Will asks her what's wrong. Helen blurts out: "Nothing. I'm seeing a nun and a priest!" Will guides her into his office as Helen says she hates lying to him. She confesses that ever since Joan was sick, she's been thinking about God and contemplating going back to the Church: "I was just gonna not bother you with it, but it feels more like lying, and that feels like being disconnected from you, and that feels like hell, so I'm telling you now." Will replies calmly, "I'm really not open to this right now." Helen knows, and admits he never has been. But she promises he'll hardly know about it. Will: "I can't not know what's happening, Helen, and I really…can't take it right now. Look, I've never been more certain in my life that we're all just at the mercy of an indifferent universe. There is no God, there is no justice, there is no grand place we're gonna eventually get to. It's just one body blow after another and struggling to find a reason to get up and do it again." Wow. Well, that's one perspective. It's not mine, but I definitely understand the feeling. Helen, quietly: "What happened?" Will insists that nothing happened: "This is who I've always been." He says he has to get back to work, and walks out. Helen is quite bewildered. I love this subplot, and I can't wait to see where it goes.
Luke pauses at the end of the steps leading up to Grace's house to gather his courage. He walks to the front door and knocks. She opens it and he smiles weakly, saying, "Grace." Man, she's pissed, and she's only got two words for him (not those two): "You're dead." She shuts the door in his face.
Joan's at the bookstore, reading behind the counter and listening to music on headphones. The store is empty. Cute Guy God comes in. His hair's very spiky but it also seems higher and fuller on the left than on the right. What's that about? If God can have bad hair days, I really ought to lower my expectations of myself. She looks and tells him, "I can't hear you." He says, "But you can see me." Joan says she's ignoring him. Cute Guy God: "I'm used to that." She keeps reading her magazine. He says, "Okay, look, I've got a lot of time on my hands. I'll be in the religion section." Hee. Joan stares at him as he goes.