Episode Report Card Deborah: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT "Anonymous" Was A Woman
By Deborah | Season 1 | Episode 20 | Aired on 04.29.2004
Joan's up on the roof of the school, fiddling with the camera. Adam arrives and steals up behind her, and says, "Hey." I would have exited my skin, but Joan only jumps a bit, and greets him happily. She explains she's figuring out the fine points of the camera. Adam says he didn't know she took pictures. Joan: "Sure. It's my thing. Did you know I'm one of the photographers for the yearbook?" Adam mentions Iris is doing that, too. Joan: "Yeah, I know. But for me, it's more like a calling." Adam smiles and says he didn't know. Joan, flirtatiously: "There's a lot you don't know about me, Mr. Rove." She kisses him. They talk about the pictures she's supposed to shoot. Adam: "It’s really cool, you know, what you can do with a camera. Like catching passing moments in time…and freezing life." Joan looks at him, smiling, and says she likes this: "Talking like this." She has to take off. Adam guesses he'll sketch her later on. Frink and I, in dopey voices in unison: "Sketch you later!" "Jinx!" As she takes off Adam says, "Careful. Have a good shoot."
Cut to Joan taking various candid and club shots. The first one, of the French club, she attempts with the lens cap on. One little dork in a red beret snots, "Le lens cap." If there's something doofier than a man in a beret, I don't know what it is. Joan removes it. Then she shoots the astronomy club. Luke comments, "This seems to be an unnecessarily adventurous angle…" Joan, from her perch up in a tree, tells her brother that "artists take risks." She wants them gazing up at the sky in wonder: "Give me some wonder." She struts through the halls, snapping shots randomly. One is of a couple making out (not Makeout Couple, though). But she takes the picture by just brandishing the camera in their general direction and not even looking through the viewfinder. She hides in some guy's locker and makes a weird face as he opens it, snapping his picture as he freaks. She buttonholes some other kid in the hall with instructions to "look mean."
Joan's at the dining room table that evening, looking at all her prints. That was fast. Helen comes home and notices them. Joan complains that they all suck, and proceeds to point out the flaws in them. Kevin comes in and says he's off to physio. Helen: "At night?" Is that really so odd? I just started seeing a physiotherapist, and she and her associate both have office hours in the early evening. Kevin says it's the only time the new guy can see him: "Every crip in town wants the electrical stim. See your legs move -- keeps the dream alive." He picks up a picture and says, "Hey, freaky ear!" Joan snatches it: "It was supposed to be a whole person." Well, dear, that's what the viewfinder's for. Kevin smarms, "Well, that didn't happen, did it?" He really is an excellent choice for older brother. He takes off. Helen reassures her, saying she's just begun and there's a lot to learn. Joan whines that she studied: "I mean, I really thought I was taking some great shots." Helen doesn't say anything. Joan: "A little encouragement, Mom?" Helen picks one out: "This one looking up at the tree is very interesting." Joan: "This is me, falling!" Heh. "But it's good, though, right? I mean, I do have real talent, don't I?" Helen, unconvincingly: "Sure!" She takes the groceries into the kitchen. Joan: "That was the same 'sure' you gave me when I was six years old and told you I wanted to be a ballerina. That's a -- that's a bad 'sure.'" Helen denies this. Joan presses on: "Yes, it is. You think me being the photographer is the same a pudgy six-year-old busting out of a little pink tutu?" Helen insists she believes Joan can do anything she puts her mind to. Joan: "Iris is better, though, right?" Her mother wonders what Iris has to do with anything. Joan: "Mom, just answer the question! Iris is a better photographer, isn't she?" Helen says Iris has been doing it a lot longer, but she's sure Joan will be fantastic if she keeps at it and learns the technical aspects. Joan agrees: "You're right. You're right. I will. I will rock…because…this is my thing."