Episode Report Card Kim: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Happy Birthday
By Kim | Season 1 | Episode 18 | Aired on 04.26.1999
Noel hangs up a banner for the party. Yesterday he didn't even know about it and today he's on the decorating committee? Felicity says she saw he was having a sale, and Noel says he wants to take as little as possible with him. Felicity grabs the other end of the banner and helps out. Felicity asks when he's moving, and Noel says his new place is available on Thursday. Felicity is surprised that it's so soon, and tells Noel to have a good move.
Julie's party. People arrive with gifts and soda. Who has money to buy presents and gift-wrap and shit in college? Lewis, the nerd from the Assassins game, tells Noel that they will miss him, and they hug. Lynn and Julie dance across the room as Felicity and Elena watch and laugh. Felicity watches Noel from across the room as they both try to pretend not to look at each other. Julie tells Ben that it's an amazing party. He gives her a box and tells her to open it. She does, and finds a guitar pick. He says he couldn't wrap the rest, and he reaches behind a table and pulls out a new acoustic guitar. Enabler! Julie is shocked. Ben says it's not new, but that it's supposed to have a really great sound and get better with age. Julie says he can't afford it. Ben lies that his dad sent him some more money. Julie hugs him.
Felicity and Elena serve punch. Richard walks up and says it's a bummer about Noel, but that Richard got Noel's watch for fifteen bucks. Felicity strains to see Noel standing across the room. She tells Elena she'll be right back, and walks off. Elena calls after her, "You stay proud!" Felicity reaches Noel, who is talking to Lewis and Guy. We don't hear what Felicity says, but Lewis and Guy immediately walk away when she starts talking.
Cut to Felicity and Noel in Noel's dorm room. Felicity gives an alternate version of the speech Noel gave to her when she was going to leave college. She tells him not to go, because it will disrupt everything, because he's the linchpin of the whole operation. If he leaves, Felicity thinks that Richard will have to find someone else to bug, and Guy will die of loneliness, and Lewis will have no one to admire. Felicity says that Sensa, and Elena, and Julie, and she all need Noel to stay because he's a really good R.A. Noel asks if that's why he should stay. Felicity says that it's because the place is huge and if he moves somewhere else...she trails off. She takes a deep breath and starts again: "Look, I don't know what we are or what we're gonna be or what we were or even what we want. I...There's something unresolved here, and whatever the resolution...if we decide to never talk again or just start over and try one more time, if you leave, we probably won't resolve it at all." Noel swallows hard. Felicity concludes, "So don't go." Noel looks up at her.