Episode Report Card Deborah: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Smallest Catalyst
By Deborah | Season 1 | Episode 2 | Aired on 10.02.2003
Joan ducks into a room and looks in Adam's bag. She pulls out a bunch of wires or something, bent into a V-shape. Mystified, she puts them back, and then goes up a flight of stairs. Through the window on the landing, she sees the street cleaner and races outside.
Daghlian has reports indicating that the arsonist employed a sophisticated device involving magnesium accelerant. He concludes that they're looking for a pro. Will says, "Well, magnesium is a type that outdoorsy people get from outdoorsy stores to start fires in outdoorsy places." He calls Daghlian's attention to the list of people who'd recently purchased it. Daghlian notices Tom Wyatt's name on the list, and comments that he's not the outdoorsy type. Will shows Daghlian (can we get a first name on the guy? Wait, I just looked it up on IMDb and it's Michael) a list of shareholders for a development company called Badger Hill. Apparently that company owns most of the property around the arson site. Daghlian, looking at the list: "Wyatt again. Did he really think we wouldn't get here?" Will thinks maybe he didn't care. He tells Michael about the party he was at the night before, where most of the guests seemed to have something to do with Badger Hill. Reading the list of shareholders, Michael says they're the people that run things: "They're way higher than I am on the food chain." Will: "We arrest people. We're the top of the food chain." Michael manages to say that he'll do whatever Will wants, but...Will: "Only if I specifically order you to do so? Maybe you want it in writing to fully cover your ass?" Michael: "It's the real world, Chief. I gotta live here."
Joan chases the street sweeper down the road, but when the guy stops, she sees it's not God. Once he drives away, she notices one of the V-shape things that's in Adam's bag in the street. They must come off the brushes that are under the street sweeper. As she puzzles over this, an electrician standing in a cherry picker, working on a street light, calls out, "You looking for me?" Joan: "Uhhh...not sure." The electrician says, "You know, sometimes when you're alone, that hideous Titanic song makes you cry." Heh. She sighs and walks over to him, asking again, "Why do you have to be so mean?" He replies, "Why do you have to keep questioning me? Most people would be on their best behaviour." Joan: "Okay, whatever." She says she's been thinking about what Little Girl God said when she asked her to cure Kevin, and she's realized that God wants her to become a scientist so she can cure Kevin. Electrician God: "Okay, newsflash, Joan...you don't need to let me in on your thinking process. I'm omniscient." Joan points out that she's not, so she has to ask if she's on the right track. Electrician God: "It's simple: I want you to fulfill your true nature." Joan makes a derisive sound and says, "God." Electrician God: "Yes?" Joan: "No, I was -- I was taking your name in vain, to be technical. Sorry." Hee. Electrician God explains, "Look, you won't always know why I ask you to do things. You won't always see the effects. Just think about what you learned in AP Chemistry." Joan says she didn't learn anything: "I got the others to do it." Sounds like you learned enough to become a manager. Electrician God spells it out: "The smallest catalyst can set off mind-boggling chain reactions. One time, I said, 'Let there be light.'" The bulb on the fixture he's just wired lights up. "All hell broke loose. You know, figuratively speaking." Joan asks if her true nature is to be a catalyst: "That's mad anticlimatic." Electrician God impatiently sets her straight: "Anticlimactic. 'Anticlimatic' means you're...against the weather." Ha! Did I mention I love this show? Joan just looks at him and says, "Pffft!" She walks off. Electrician God prepares to continue working on the light when the bulb fizzles out. Man, even God can't get Con Edison to cooperate.
Kevin and his mother come out on the porch to see a tow truck delivering a beat-up heap of a station wagon. Kevin thinks she's gotta be kidding. Helen: "I know it doesn't look like much." Kevin says it looks like a dumpster. He yells to the guy delivering it to take it back. Helen says no, and closes the front door so Kevin doesn't go back inside. He says, "I don't want it! Why can't you just let me do things my way?" His mother says that if she did, nothing would happen: "You would just rot in that chair to spite us all!" She switches gears, and smiles and waves at the tow truck driver: "Thank you!" She walks to the top of the stairs and sits down. "Do you remember when you first came home after the accident?" Kevin wheels to the top of the stairs next to her and says, "Yes, Mom, I remember who washed me and wiped my ass and fed me. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten any of that." He says it so that you feel his humiliation, not his gratitude. Helen looks weary and replies, "Kevin...that is just...mother stuff. You don't owe me anything for that -- not even thanks. What I'm talking about is the day you came home, you asked me if you would ever feel normal again. What did I say?" Kevin hesitates and his eyes get a little watery as he says, "You said, 'Yes.' You promised." Mom: "And I intend to keep that promise. No matter how hard you fight me, because nobody...can stop me from keeping a promise to someone I love. Not even the person I love." Kevin shakes his head slightly, like he thinks she's nuts, but he's a little verklempt, too. She continues, "Now here's this...ugly vehicle, and the least you can do is take it for a drive! Will you do that?" Kevin relents. She quietly thanks him and gets up to go into the house. At the door, he asks if she wants to come along. Good scene. I really like these two together. I am buying their mother-son relationship, and I love that his mother doesn't sugarcoat things and try to paint a sunny picture, even as she doggedly attempts to kick his ass. I love how much she wants to do the right things for her kids, even when she hasn't a clue what those things are.