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Previously on Boston Public: Nothing happened, apparently.
First let me apologize for the extreme lateness of this recap. Man, I haven't been this late since I had to write one remote from Bloomington, Indiana last February. You haven't SEEN Boston Public until you've seen it projected onto the side of a cow. Just kidding. It was acted out by the farmer's kids.
A batter steps into a batting cage, and starts ripping balls into the net. The Coach grunts encouragement about quick hands, and atta boy, and the like. Dick Teachie is watching, so that someone can talk about how good the kid is doing: "What is he hitting now? .400?" The Coach says it's .430 actually, and higher with runners in scoring position. It's all very impressive and hopeful, and involves scouts. "See the ball." Good advice. Steven comes in, but not with good news, surprisingly. Turns out that the coach from the school they beat yesterday has filed a protest, accusing the players on the Winslow team of doping. "Especially this one. He's 180 now. Last year he was 150." Coach says he's sure that Tom is a good kid, and not taking steroids. He is, in fact, "as sure as [he] can be without giving him a urine test." Sonot very sure, then? Dude, that's like saying, "You're guilty. I'm as sure as I can be without examining the evidence." Steven tells Coach that he has to give Tom the test. Duh. Tom keeps ripping balls, and, with rare directorial flourish, the show cuts to the opening credits on a few flash-cuts of Tom hitting balls in rhythmic sequence. Nice.
The streets of Boston by night. Ronnie Cooke walks towards her car, from a distance, so she does not see what we see, which is that somebody has smashed her window, and is rummaging around in the front seat. He bolts when she comes close. "Come on, it's brand new!" Uhyeah, that's why this person assumed you were rich, dumb-ass. Then she notes that the culprit is still lurking down behind her trunk. She rummages in her bag for mace, or whatever, but he sprints off down the street. However, he drops his wallet. Ronnie picks it up and looks at it curiously, as if thinking, "Perhaps this will provide some clue to his identity."
Urban beats. School buses. A phat combination.
Sanctum Stevenorium. Coach is pleading his case. For some reason, he doesn't even want to give Tom a urine test at all; I'm not sure he has a choice, but here we are, arguing about it, in Steven's office. Steven repeats that the boy has put on thirty pounds of muscle, and the Coach said he just works out a lot, and I think I remember this scene from The Program. That wasn't a very good movie, was it? Anyway, Scott is here too, and asks if Coach isn't just afraid of what he might find out. "Do you test your debate team, Scott?" That's a good question, one which is prominently in the media right now, andoh, right, that's where they get their ideas for this show. Basically, the Coach is afraid of ruining this kid's rep just because of testing him at all, and Steven says that's now the only way to remove doubt, since the complaint has been filed. Coach agrees.
“ Why isn't Zack playing theoh, right, he died of cancer, or got shot while reading Moby Dick. No, wait, he got too fat. I forget which. ”
Downstairs, Ronnie waylays some kid named Bobby, and orders him to remove his hat and sunglasses. "You tried to steal my car last night." He denies it, but she holds up his wallet, so he tries the old, "Actually, somebody stole that offa me and I been lookin' for it." She's not biting, though, being savvy and all. Man, he sure can't fool Ronnie Cooke. Until later. Anyhow, she asks him if he's high, on the grounds that his eyes look like glass, and pulls up his sleeve. "Fresh tracks. I'm calling the police." He turns on the sad puppy-dog eyes and says, "No. Please. Look, if this is, you know, about your window, I promise I'll get it fixed." She's all, "That's funny. I don't remember mentioning a window." Oh, nicely done, Hercule Poirot. Wait, no, Ronnie Cooke said that. I must be hallucinating. He explains that he's got two strikes, and if she turns him in, he won't go back to rehab -- he'll go to jail. She's like, "Tough." He asks to speak to her in private. They walk six feet into the Dungeon, and leave the door open. Ah, privacy. He explains, "This is a life-or-death situation. I owe money on the street, I owe $2000 to this dealer. I go away, I can't pay him. If I don't pay him, he's gonna kill my little brother. That's what he said, he's gonna kill him."
Music Room. Marilyn plays the piano to accompany her choir. They're singing "Try A Little Tenderness" and Marilyn is not happy with the soloist, who seems distracted and whatnot. Why isn't Zack playing theoh, right, he died of cancer, or got shot while reading Moby Dick. No, wait, he got too fat. I forget which. Anyhow, the bell rings, rescuing Eve from Marilyn's wrath, but another girl, Carly, approaches her, and says that she may know why Eve is distracted. "We were onlinechatting, and this guy started flirting with Eve, which was no big deal, but the day she checked her email, and she had five from him." Long story short, they wrote back, and came onto the guy, who is now sending Eve earrings and lingerie. "What was the content of these conversations?" Carly-ta reveals that they were sex-talk. And now the guy wants to meet her, but she assures Marilyn that Eve, or as we shall now call heractually, Eve is just fine, let's call her that. Anyway, they got some hacker friend of theirs to ID the guy, and now they're freaked, because what if he can use the same method to ID Eve? And that's STILL not all, because the guy in question is a teacher at Winslow: Dr. Benji Harris. Who I frigging SWORE was gay until this episode. Marilyn demands to see the emails. Looks like trouble for Carly-ta and Eve. Or, as they will be collectively known, the Succubytes.
The day, music plays while the kids still get off of school buses and gesture at one another with notebooks, and walk around in the halls. It's just like a real school!
Chapter Thirty-Nine
“ Coach isn't a very good actor at all. He seems like the kinda guy who would pop up in a lot of bad plays Off-Off Broadway, because he looks kinda like a good character actor who can play kinda old guys, but doesn't actually have a lot of different ways of, say, delivering lines. ”
Ronnie flags down Druggie Bobby in Delineation Alley. He's telling her that she's crazy if she thinks he's going to go to the police, because they won't give him immunity. She thinks they can get the dealer put away, and he's all, "It's not like that. Do you know the street?" Ah yes, The $treet. That wasn't a very good show, was it? No, but he's referring to the abstract concept of "the street" because it's the place where this dealer "has friends" who would do some so-called "killing of Bobby's brother" on their own, if the dealer himself were arrested. She wants to know how he's going to get the money, and he says he doesn't know, but "if I get a little extra I'll pay for your window." She tells him to can the attitude, since she hasn't yet decided not to go to the police, and he says something vague about how people do what they do at the end of the day, and she interprets this as a threat. "Against you? Man, it ain't about you. It's about saving my brother." Who cast this guy? He's not very tough-sounding.
Sanctum. "Dr. Harris wrote these?" Steven is asking Marilyn. Incredulously. "I told you he was a little perv, Steven." That's Scott, weighing in with his favorite opinion, which is always to fire the person immediately. Steven wonders if Benji even really knew that he was writing to a student, and Scott is sure he did, and Steven's all, "I'm going to do something outrageous here, and give Dr. Harris a chance to explain. And I also want to speak to both of the girls." Marilyn says she'll do that, and promises to be very hard on them.
Boys' Locker Room. Yawn. Coach is sitting on a bench, with his hands full of pill bottles. Tom comes around the corner. "Coach?" "You lied to me, Tom." "That's my locker. You can't go in my locker, I have rights." Whatever, Bulky Anabolicstein -- you are busted. The kid insists that the pills aren't steroids, but Coach tells him he's playing word games, and that's what junkies do. "You a junkie?" No. "Then stop acting like one!" Coach isn't a very good actor at all. He seems like the kinda guy who would pop up in a lot of bad plays Off-Off Broadway, because he looks kinda like a good character actor who can play kinda old guys, but doesn't actually have a lot of different ways of, say, delivering lines. "This stuff, andro, creatine, ephedrine, I don't care what you call it, acts just like steroids." Tom explains that it's all legal, and he bought it at a health food store. "Mark McGwire uses andro." Coach is all noble and tells Tom not to dress today, and walks sadly out. Of course, it would be more interesting dramatically if the Coach became complicit, but whatever.
Outside a caf, Ronnie is confiding in Harry Senate the Plot Parasite. He tells her that junkies lie and cheat and steal, and she shouldn't help Druggie Bobby. "This kid was lost before he was even born. Don't believe me? Check out his sheet. Father gunned down at six, sniffing glue at seven, heavy into pot by nine, in and out of rehab, juvie hall, gang stuff, petty theft, it's a nightmare! He knocked over a Starbucks, okay?" He tells her about Tyronn Anderson, and tells her not to vacillate: "He broke the law. Call the cops." Ronnie says the right decision isn't going to help her sleep at night if Bobby's brother ends up dead. She tells Harry he'd do the same in her place, and she wants his help to get Bobby back into rehab.
“ Harry says he's there to take Bobby to detox; Bobby doesn't want to go, and spins the brother-saving story. Harry says they have to go to detox. Bobby says he has to save his brother. Detox. Brother. ”
Dr. Benji's lab. Steven startles Benji, who is peering through a microscope. At tiny pictures of underage girls. Steven walks menacingly towards the man who is one eighth of his size, and hands him the emails. "Where'd you get these?" Steven breaks the news that the girl he wrote them to is a student at Winslow. "What? Oh, I uhI didn't know that." He says that the girl told him she was eighteen, which is not a defense that worked for Milton Buttle (whither Joey Slotnick?), and asks if Steven is going to fire him. "I'm considering it. So you need to contact your union rep, and we need to meet." He leaves. It should be noted that Benji does a great job of acting humiliated, thrown, stunned, scared, and defensive all at once.
"So he admitted it?" We're in the Vice-Office, and Scott is talking to Coach about Creatine McAndroEphedrine. "How prevalent is this on your team?" Coach says that if Tom's doing it, it could be quite widespread. Steven comes in, catching the tail end of this, so we get to see the beginning of the scene that we were spared before because Coach has to explain to Steven that he found banned substances in Tom's locker. Steven's like, "Excellent." But he means the opposite, I think. Coach says, "He's suspended. We should forfeit all our victories." He walks out. He's not a terrible actor, he's just notquite good at all.
In the Boys' Locker Room (what is it with this episode?), Harry and Ronnie find Druggie Bobby. "So what's the deal? You cook up this morning? You using?" Bobby says he's clean. Harry asks where he's living, and he says that he's at his uncle's cousin's ["and wouldn't his uncle's cousin be Bobby's cousin also?" -- Sars] because his mom is back in rehab. He also denies that the tracks on his arms are new. "Using would be a complete violation of my parole." "How is it you got into this drug dealer so bad you had to break into my car?" He thanks Ronnie, sarcastically, for keeping his confidence, and she's like, "You didn't take me into your confidence, I caught you." Didn't Talk Time have that exact exchange with Dick Teachie not long ago? That's a rhetorical question: she did. Anyway, Harry says he's there to take Bobby to detox; Bobby doesn't want to go, and spins the brother-saving story. Harry says they have to go to detox. Bobby says he has to save his brother. Detox. Brother. Harry says, "Let's go." Bobby goes, but I don't think he's planning to go with Harry, because first he shoves him against a locker, and then he shoves Ronnie, and then he runs away. They chase him. The locker room leads magically to the top of a staircase and into the front hall of the school. Harry catches up with him, only to get thrown THROUGH the glass covering the trophy case. Bobby sprints the rest of the way down the hall and out of school. Nobody makes a move to stop him. Ronnie checks on Harry, who is okay, and says, "Now what?" The drums that accompanied the chase climax with a shot of
“ Benji says that he received an IM, and did not come onto the girls first, and 'she said she was eighteen.' That never works, dude! ”
Marilyn, slamming down a desk in front of the Succubytes. Once again, actual effort has been put into the direction and editing of this episode. It's the John Woo Boston Public. Anyhow, Marilyn gives a really annoying speech to the kids about how dangerous it is on "the internet" because it's where "sexual predators hang out." Yes, the whole thing, that's all it is. Stay away from that dangerous internet, everyone. You know what part of the problem with this show is? It has no respect for what it takes to actually reach kids. Marla standing up at a podium and yelling at them about guns would never work in a real school. Teenagers only do the opposite of what you tell them, and they only learn things they figure out for themselves, not what you show them. If only there were a show that accurately demonstrated how high school students feel about their teachers, good and bad. Sars, I trust you've already turned that last sentence into a link? ["On it, chief." -- Sars] Anyway, she continues to lay into them about how it's just as dangerous as getting into a car with a strange man, ending with an admonishment to never go on the internet again. Yeah, that's going to work really well. Finally, she asks, "The sexual come-ons. Who started them?" The Succubytes are like, "We did." Wow, they really are the Succubytes.
The Sanctum by night. Benji comes in and asks to speak to Steven. "I advise you to come back with your union rep." Benji says that'll happen tomorrow, but he wants to talk to Steven privately, and asks how many people know. Even without Cheryl Holt's website, news still whips around Winslow High pretty quick, it seems. Man, I miss Cheryl Holt. Benji says that he received an IM, and did not come onto the girls first, and "she said she was eighteen." That never works, dude! Sure enough, Steven's all, "You come in saying you're ashamed. Now it seems like you're defending yourself." Benji says he would never, ever act on those fantasies, and they were meant to be private, and Steven points out that emailing them to people makes them less private, and furthermore, Benji really ought to come back with his union rep.
Ronnie's place. A knock at the door. She hollers to "Manny" that the door is open, and something about paint samples, while tying a robe around herself. Smart. The door opens, but it's not "Manny," whoever that is -- it's Druggie Bobby, who tells her not to be afraid and says, "If I were going to rob you, I already would have." Umwhen, in the three seconds he's been inside? He returns a watch to Ronnie that he took from her car the other night, because he couldn't sell it. He also appears to have been hit in the head, because a gash curves around his eye. She asks what happened to his face. "That dealer I told you about pistol-whipped me." She tells him to stay where he is, and goes to get peroxide and cotton swabs, and cleans his wound. She asks about his brother; apparently he has until tonight to come up with the two grand. "That's why I ran yesterday. That's why I'm here. What they did to my face is nothing. The dealer told me they're gonna skin my little brother alive. I'll pay you back, I swear, I'll go to rehab tomorrow, just please don't let my little brother die. Please." Ronnie looks at him. Sure can't fool Ronnie Cooke.