Episode Report Card Deborah: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Casper, The Friendly Ghost
By Deborah | Season 1 | Episode 16 | Aired on 02.19.2004
Adam's waiting in Helen's empty classroom, pacing around. When she comes in and sees him there, she pauses slightly and walks past him without a word. Adam says, "Ms. Girardi..." She turns and looks at him almost defiantly -- in fact, it's pretty much the exact expression in the photo in Adam's piece. Adam says, "Uh...I kinda freaked..." Helen: "That was evident in your work." He says he's sorry. Helen: "I don't want an apology." She searches for words: "Your piece, it...hurt me...made me angry...I hated it, actually. But it's what I asked you to do." Adam's eyes are brimming, and he's confused: "You wanted me to hurt you?" Helen: "I wanted you to take a risk, to put yourself in the work. To create something that would make people think, would make them feel something. And that isn't always pleasant or pretty, but...it is art. And maybe in the future I will be touched by...a stirring portrait of my nobility and charm..." She manages to force a smile. Adam: "Thanks." She tells him she's going to keep pushing him: "Because, um, that turtle? Let's be honest: crap on a stick." Hee! Adam smiles, knowing it's true. Mr. Price appears at the door, asking if he can have a word. She says she's with a student. Price: "Not as a teacher -- as a parent." Helen's shoulders sink. Adam looks concerned, knowing it's more likely to be about Joan than Luke.
Back at home, Helen's arriving home with Joan: "You met this girl in the park three days ago -- now you're willing to get suspended to protect her?" Joan says that Helen wouldn't understand. Helen tells her to explain it. Joan: "I can't!" Helen: "You can but you won't!" Just then Luke and Will come bursting in the front door, in the middle of a fight. Luke's asking, "If you're embarrassed to be with me, why did you even ask me to come?" He runs up the stairs to his room, two steps at a time. Will shouts up the stairs, "I'm not embarrassed to be -- Luke!" Frink: "'I'm your father!'" Yeah, he just can't stop with that. Helen asks what happened. Will, baffled: "I can't really say." Joan, annoyed, asks, "How come he can get away with that?" Helen: "Because he's confused. You're lying." Will, gesturing at Joan: "Do I wanna know about this?" Helen: "Oh, you will. So why is Luke so upset?" Will says it's apparently because he sent Luke off to the lab with the science guys: "I thought he'd like it, but he got all upset, saying I'm ashamed of him, that we don't spend any time together, that I don't know who he is." Joan, arms crossed: "Well, you don't." Helen glares at her. Joan: "Sorry." She starts to walk off to the kitchen, and Will says, "He's my son. I know my own son." Joan stops and says, "Oh. Do you know he has a girlfriend?" Will looks surprised: "Luke?" Joan: "Look, Dad, I don't blame you. Luke is very weird..." Will: "Hey! Don't lecture me. Aren't you the one who's in trouble here?"
Helen tells him about the thing with Casper and the utility bill and Joan's refusal to explain herself. Joan throws up her hands in exasperation. Will says he knows she's had a hard time making friends. Joan: "Dad, I didn't do it because I need a friend. I did it because she's all alone. She's homeless, okay? She lives in a really creepy shelter." Helen: "She's homeless?" Joan explains that her dad isn't around, so she could be taken away from him. Will asks where the father is. Joan says he's upstate (again with the "upstate") looking for work: "She shouldn't have to lose her dad because their luck sucks. I mean, the reason I jumped -- I had to connect with her. Which I did, because of her eyes, you know?" Helen and Will have no idea what she's on about. Joan hollers, "She trusts me now! I can't turn her in!" Will says he knows the head of Child Protective Services: "They can find her a good home until her dad gets back and they can sort things out." Helen says she has a friend who runs a jobs program: "You should've talked to us, honey. We're on your side...most of the time." Joan: "Well, you're also a teacher...and you're a cop. My life would be a lot easier if you were just...normal loser parents." They smile weakly. Will: "You said she trusts you. Talk to her first thing tomorrow. Get her to call me." Joan, barely audible: "Thanks, Dad." He starts up the stairs and Joan pursues him, asking, "Hey...what are you going to do about Brain Boy?" Will wonders, "Don't I even get a minute to enjoy my good deed?" Joan says that all Luke wanted was to spend time with him: "The way Kevin always did...or even me, when you'd make me kick that stupid soccer ball until my foot fell off." Will thought she liked that. Joan: "Well. Now you know." He heads upstairs, and Helen says, "Glynis." Will stops and Helen adds, "His girlfriend's name."