Props to absolutely everyone involved in this episode in any way. The last episode of network television I can remember finding this gratifying and uplifting aired on November 22, 2000 -- and I got even more out of this. Props also to cat, who supplied me with an allusion I needed, and can always be counted on for help.
Joan's sleeping when suddenly the wind blows her curtains around, and she senses a presence in her room that makes her awaken instantly and sit up. She sees Rocky standing at her door; as soon as she wakes up, he turns and walks away. When he gets to the stairs, he sits down and quietly bumps his way down on his bum. Joan follows, asking at the top of the stairs, "Rocky? Rocky, is that you?" She comes down. She finds him at the bottom of the stairs and asks what time it is, and what he's doing there. Rocky: "Looking for you." Joan: "If your mother wakes up and finds you gone, she is going to be worried sick." Rocky: "She knows I'm gone. What times does the paper get here?" Joan doesn't know: "Early. Why?" Rocky: "I'm in it. Page fourteen. Metro section." Joan asks with a trace of amusement, "And what'd you do to get in the paper?" He says he has to go, and walks out the door. Joan: "Wait! Let me drive you home." There's an odd amount of yellowy light coming from outside. Rocky says, "No. You can't take me." Joan: "Well, at least borrow a coat." She walks over to a coat rack with a narrow rectangular mirror in the middle of it. When she glances in the mirror, she sees Adam, who says softly, "So long, Jane." She gasps, "Adam!" The door slams behind her and she wakes up -- for real this time -- with a start, breathing heavily. Hmm. Joan sees dead people.
She goes downstairs, where her father's watching the news of the corruption investigation with the sound fairly low. The anchor mentions that the charges involve city council members, judges, the mayor's office, and "highly placed business leaders." Man, I'm surprised he's not getting death threats. As Joan bends down beside her father, the anchor is reporting the mayor's characterization of Will as a "disgruntled malcontent" -- as opposed to the gruntled kind, I guess. (Can you be a gruntled content?) She asks what's happening. Will shuts the TV off and says, "Nothing I didn't expect." He asks why she's up. Joan: "I had kind of a weird dream." He puts his hands on her shoulders and asks, "Koala bears?" She says she hasn't had the koala bear dream since she was five: "Evil...koala bears...in hats. Ecch!" Hee! Koala bears seem like alternately sweet and malevolent little marsupials to me. Will says he'll tuck her in. As they walk upstairs with their arms around each other, he asks what she dreamed about. Joan: "Boys in mirrors." Will: "Maybe this is one of those dreams you shouldn't tell your father." Joan giggles: "Like Orlando Bloom in a Speedo?" Will: "Now I'm going to have a nightmare." Credits. Orlando Bloom? Eek. Wouldn't have thought he was her type. And a Speedo? That is so many kinds of wrong, I don't know where to begin. (It probably doesn't help that, since I've never seen him in anything except Lord of the Rings, I'm picturing him as Legolas in a Speedo.) Even I don't want to see Keanu in a Speedo. They're just so...crude. And scary. Bring on the koala bears in hats!
Kevin wheels into the kitchen, where the rest of the family is getting breakfast, reading the newspaper on his lap aloud to all: "'Chief Girardi's courage in confronting the corruption that has plagued Arcadia for years cannot be underestimated. He should be treated as a hero, not a pariah.'" Joan finds this odd and asks, "One of those flesh-eating Amazonian death fish?" Luke: "That's 'piranha.' A 'pariah' is an outcast, one of the unclean." Joan asks Kevin for the Metro section while Will points out that the last time they wrote an editorial about him, he was called a racist. Kevin points out that Rebecca called him a hero after the abduction at gunpoint. Luke adds, "Yeah, and after Joan's psycho gunned-up prom date." Except that wasn't a prom, was it? Luke's usually more precise than that. Will complains, "Your boss never gets it right. I wasn't a hero either time." Joan sits down in the dining room with the paper and some juice. Helen: "She got it right this time: you are a hero." The phone rings as Joan reads to herself: "Page fourteen...obituaries..." Will answers it while Luke puts his bowl in the sink and says, "Okay, listen, family...when Grace gets here we have to knuckle down for the science fair, so if you people could just keep it down..." Kevin: "Then you could make out with her?" Luke says Grace kissed him once as a political statement: "I don't expect it to happen again." Kevin laughs to himself. Suddenly Joan is crying and saying, "Oh, my God...I don't believe it...Rocky...Rocky died." Frink: "Once again, so much for the ignored youngest child." Helen and Kevin come into the dining room to see what's going on. Kevin asks: "That little kid you babysat?" Luke watches from behind the pass-through window. Helen strokes Joan's back as she sobs that his funeral is today. Will walks up, oblivious, since he just got off the phone, saying he has to go into the office. He asks what happened; Joan tells him. Will and Helen glance at each other, probably wondering what manner of bizarre behaviour this crisis will presage in their daughter. Helen whispers, "I'm so sorry, sweetheart." Joan seems on the verge of collecting herself when a fresh wave of grief hits her and she puts her hands over her face. If you're thinking you might need some Kleenex at this point, you'd be well advised to go get some. This is the tip of the iceberg.
Will arrives at work, where a man in a sheriff's uniform thanks him for coming in on a Saturday. Will says he's always happy to cooperate with his "peers from the county." Sheriff Dude introduces him to FBI Special Agent Shannon Hodgins, who tells him, "You set off a bomb, Chief." The place is still crawling with FBI types. Will says he assumes he was called in to be apprised of the Arcadia Police Department's role in the investigation. Shannon: "The City of Arcadia Police Department no longer exists, sir." Will's confused. She informs him that the governor is going to be dissolving the city council, and county supervisors will take over the administration of the city. The sheriff will be in charge of law enforcement. Will's first concern is not for himself, but his staff: "What about my people?" The sheriff says most of them will be absorbed by his department. He adds, "I'm going to have to ask you for your badge and your gun."
Grace comes up to Luke's room, which now seems to be in an attic. It doesn't look like what I remember of his room from the first episode, in any event. In that one, I thought Joan walked into his room from the second floor hallway of the house. This looks like an unfinished space at the top of some stairs. When she arrives, Luke's all business, no googly eyes. She parks her skateboard against the wall. Settling in front of his computer, he says, "Ah, Grace. Good. As you can see, I've entered in four more equations for Heisenberg's gamma ray experiments." Grace: "Whoop-de-doodly-doo." She's got a black hoodie on under her usual jacket, with the hood pulled up over her head. She stands with her hands on her hips, looking unimpressed. Luke: "What? This is a great science fair project. It challenges one of the tenets of quantum mechanics. We could get published!" Grace: "You promised we would build something." Luke: "We did." Grace: "A real something, not a virtual, theoretical cyber-model." She sits on his bed and flops backward, sighing. Luke goes into Mr. Browning mode again: "Look, I've -- I've really enjoyed our -- our collaboration. I -- I feel our intellects and approaches really complement each other...and I was, you know, hoping you felt the same way." Frink: "Dude, stop." Grace sits up and whispers, "Stop, stop. You're embarrassing me with your dirty talk!" Snort! Frink: "I like her!" Luke just goes back to his theoretical whatever. If he could just loosen up a little, I think they'd be very cool together.
Rebecca addresses the room at large at the newspaper: "Listen up! Get somebody down to City Hall -- not an intern." Kevin wheels up and asks what's going on. Somebody who I think might be Andy the Pissy Queen -- though he looks different than I remember him looking -- says, "Your old man just brought down a city!" But wasn't he a fashion writer? Why's he hanging around here when Rebecca's handing out serious assignments instead of finding out whether beige is the new bland, or whatever? Kevin: "What?" Andy: "Very impressive for a man who only wears off-the-rack suits." Yeah, must be him after all. Rebecca gives Kevin the short version of what his father just found out from the Sheriff, and she tells some no-name reporter in the background to track down the Chief and get a comment. Kevin: "He won't speak to you." Rebecca: "Why not? We'll make him look good. 'Politicos rocked by top cop.'" Kevin: "Yeah, sure, this week. week you'll be back to calling him names." Rebecca says he's a public figure, and adds in a snotty way, "Just be glad I'm not asking you to get the quote." Kevin says he wouldn't do it. Rebecca whips out her Miss Thing voice: "Well, I'm not asking." Andy looks weary. Kevin gestures to Rebecca to come closer. She bends down as he asks quietly, "Why do we argue so much?" Andy snickers in the background. Rebecca glares at Andy and hustles off without answering Kevin.
At Rocky's burial, the priest tells the small crowd assembled, "Rocky faced his disease bravely. He never lost heart. Everyone who came into contact with this remarkable boy came away better for knowing him. If there is anyone who would like to share a brief remembrance of Rocky, then, uh, please step forward." Fiona Apple's cover of "Across the Universe" has begun playing. Joan says she thinks she has something to say. She and Helen are standing off to one side behind the casket. Helen whispers quietly, "Okay, honey, but just remember, it's a funeral, so..." I wonder what Helen is worried about Joan saying? Joan walks over and asks the priest, "Do I have to say 'We are gathered here today...'?" He says he already took care of that. Heh. Joan introduces herself and explains that she babysat Rocky sometimes while his mother attended classes at night school. She begins, "He was pretty much a weirdo. I mean, he knew ten thousand ways you could die in your own home -- three just by sitting on the toilet." To Rocky's mother, Sylvia, she says, "Did you know that's how Elvis died?" Sylvia nods and says, "He told me." She laughs softly to herself. Joan continues, "Rocky was so...morbid..." The priest looks nervous. "I mean, one time he informed me that statistically I will die February 5, 2066, by which time all of you will already be totally dead." Sylvia laughs and Joan smiles, pleased to have made her laugh. Sylvia actually snorts, which makes Joan giggle a bit. Helen observes the congregation to see how this is going over. I want the absolutely gorgeous paisley scarf she's wearing. Also, her hair looks incredible when she puts it up. I can't believe she doesn't do more period pieces. She'd be an amazing Victorian.
Joan: "Rocky made death funny." She laughs a bit, and then her face starts to cave in on itself. Her voice wavering, she adds, "Until today. Today it's not so funny. Because he's here. And that's just..." She cries and laughs at once: "Sad." Sylvia, who's also laughing through tears, rises to hug her, and thanks her. They return to their places. Father Uptight, bewildered, asks, "Anyone else? No? Thank God." Helen gives him a look. He says he'd like to read something Sylvia requested. It's an abbreviated version of that poem that is used in so many thousands of funerals and memorials. It's such a cliché to use it that I can't help wishing that the writer had chosen something else, something much more offbeat like Rocky. But it's a small quibble in a very nearly perfect episode. Father Uptight reads, "Do not stand at my grave and weep / I am not there, I do not sleep / I am a thousand winds that blow / I am the diamond glints of snow / Do not stand at my grave and cry / I am not there; I did not die." While he reads the final two lines, Joan happens to look around and sees Rocky, wearing a black suit (which I presume he was buried in), peeking out from behind a tree at her. Joan looks around to see if anyone else is looking, and then looks back in his direction. He stands there smiling at her, and then he waves. Joan doesn't know what to make of it. He turns and scampers off through the cemetery. Joan stares with her mouth slightly open and her eyes filled with tears.
After the commercial, Rocky's coffin is being lowered into the ground as everyone walks away. I'm surprised everyone's left before this; at the burials I've attended, the coffin is usually lowered into the ground and people throw dirt on it before leaving. Joan and her mother are walking through the cemetery arm-in-arm as Joan asks, "Do you believe in ghosts?" Joan's mother replies, "Walking through a cemetery after burying a child -- you bet I do." As they come around a tree, they run into Adam and his father. Helen greets the two of them; she's obviously met Mr. Rove before. Perhaps in relation to some of Adam's visits to Price's office. Adam seems surprised, and not pleased, to see Joan there. He says nothing; they exchange looks of pain. Adam's is tinged with some bitterness; Joan's eyes plead gently. I notice she's wearing a lot more black eyeliner than usual. His father explains, "Me and Adam were just heading over to Elizabeth's grave. Uh -- you have somebody you visit here?" Helen says gently, "A little boy Joan babysat was buried today." Adam asks, "Rocky? Rocky died?" Joan nods. Adam: "Wow. Life sincerely sucks." Unchallenged. He tells his father, "I'll meet you over by Mom." He walks away as his dad watches him with concern. Imagine how scary things must be for his father, who, made a single parent by his wife's suicide, now faces the major depression of his only child. I really like Mr. Rove and the actor who plays him. Joan watches Adam go; Mr. Rove watches her watching him. He says, "I...ran over one of his sculptures once in the driveway. It was weeks before he'd look me in the face. Of course, it was an accident." Joan gives him a weak, mouth-only smile. His father adds, "Mmm. Now he doesn't even make those things anymore." Joan: "Adam doesn't do his art?" Mr. Rove: "He told me I could have my shed back." Joan glances at her mother with concern; she looks even more troubled. He continues: "I told him I love those weird monstrosities he makes, but...I'm just his dad. Kids, huh?" As he's about to leave, he says, "Sorry about the little boy."
Joan walks into a church and over to the table of candles. She looks up, vaguely uncomfortable, and sighs, "Okay, God," as she picks up a match to light a candle. Frink: "She should just put out her finger and light one. That'd be cool." Me: "Not The X-Files, here." As she ignores Frink's suggestion, preferring the conventional method, she asks quietly, "Why put us in a place where we get to know people and love them and then they're gone...and we don't know if we ever get to see them again?" A creepy, older, bald guy wearing a black suit and plain black tie walks up to her and says, "Interesting eulogy, Joan...unorthodox." The guy has the air of an undertaker. Joan: "This is a mad creepy look." He smiles, which makes him look a little less creepy, and says, "Death is a dividing line." Joan: "I don't need God to tell me that death is a dividing line! Everybody knows that. What we don't know is what it divides us from." Undertaker God replies, "One of the necessary mysteries." Joan: "Last night when I dreamt about Rocky and he told me to read the obituaries, that was you, right?" Undertaker God nods. Joan: "And when I saw him at the funeral?" Undertaker God: "No. That was between you and Rocky." Interesting. Joan gets weepy-sounding again and says, "He looked happy. Does that mean he's in a better place?" The only response from Undertaker God is one of those "you know I can't answer that" looks. Joan complains, "Oh, yeah, well, someday. Be patient." Then: "How soon will I know, exactly? February 5, 2066? Waitdon'ttellme!" She adds, "Like you would even tell me." He gives her that jazz about "there's nothing [he] could say to make her understand." Hmm...if you're God, isn't it within your power to give her that understanding? Can God make a rock so big...? Joan bursts out, "Oh, come on! God, try me! Give me a hint." He replies, "I leave hints all over the place! I'm all about hints. Like Adam appearing in your dream." She asks for a quick look into the big picture: "Then maybe I could be good at this!" He finally relents: "As you wish, Joan."
Then it's like she's there alone, staring into the middle distance, and she hears a brief cacophony of human suffering and hatred: shouts, gunfire, screams of anguish. The screen whites out, and then suddenly Helen's in the church trying to rouse her. Joan's lying on the floor of the church as her mother asks, "Joan? Honey? Can you hear me?" Joan murmurs, "Who needs the big picture? Not me. Hints are good enough." Helen: "Honey, you're babbling." Joan: "I'm babbling?" Helen asks if she fainted as Joan gets up, saying, "No. I don't know." She says she's fine. Helen gets more solicitous and Joan gets more peevish, snapping a bit, "I'm fine, Mom, I'm fine." Helen objects that she didn't eat anything this morning. Joan tries to hush her, but Helen carries on: "The stress of the funeral, plus Adam...this is why I try to get you to eat!" Joan: "Mom, I'm having a horrible day! Can you please be nice to me?" They walk out bickering as Helen pleads with her to eat a little bran. Joan: "Bran? What?"
Now the Girardi house is full of FBI flunkies who are searching and seizing stuff. Will's saying: "Of course it's personal; you're in my house!" Agent Hodgins apologizes to him, calling him "Chief." He tells her not to call him that; he's a civilian now. Helen and Joan arrive home, and Helen asks what's going on. Will tells her they've been served a federal search warrant. He thinks the mayor must be making counter-allegations, so the FBI's checking him out. Agent Hodgins: "I'm not saying you're right but I'm most definitely not saying you're wrong." Huh. Work for the government, much? Joan laughs sarcastically and says, "Ha! You sound like God." Will: "FBI -- same thing." And that's all the note anyone takes of Joan's fairly odd remark. Just then an FBI agent carts Luke's computer down the stairs, with Luke on his tail, proclaiming, "No, that is my own personal computer. PC -- a literal acronym for personal computer!" Helen asks why they need to take that as Luke chases the guy. Hodgins says there's stuff they don't recognize on the hard drive. Like top-secret plans for a rail gun? She says they need to make sure there's no encrypted evidence. Luke comes back in, shouting after the guy, "Any naked ladies are because of my friend Friedman!" Joan, with mild disgust: "Narc." Hee! Luke starts his meltdown: "Without that PC, I have no science fair project! Shoot me!" Frink, confidently: "Luke would back things up onto CD." Me: "Yeah, but he's probably been all addlepated ever since Grace kissed him." Hodgins apologizes as she leaves. Luke turns his back and leans on the railing for support.
Will comes into a little diner where the Sheriff is waiting for him. The waiter comes over immediately with coffee and asks what she can get him -- on the house. Will: "On the house?" Oh, come now, Miss Melanie, you've been a cop for twenty years. This can't be the first time you've been plied with free goodies, swag, et cetera. It can't even be the first time this week. She explains, "You got those bastards good." Will says just the coffee is fine. She leaves as the Sheriff says, "You're a hero." Will replies, "A hero...without a job, without prospects, and under investigation by the feds." The sheriff brushes that off, saying they're just covering "all the bases" and that it's clear he's the one wearing the white hat. Will: "Thanks for your support, Mike...even if it's given in whispers at a diner." Mike admits, "Will...I'm in over my head. I need to find somebody to run the Sheriff's Department in Arcadia. A star instead of a shield -- basically the same job as Police Chief. Administration, budget, policy, the press, politics...you interested?" Will says, "You put it like that...very tempting. But I'll have to check all my other high-powered job offers." Mike explains that he's not making this offer out of the goodness of his heart or his respect for Will, who wonders what's left. "At this level, Will, it's all public perception. You're the white hat that cleaned up Dodge. Eight months 'til my election. So, here's what you do. You put together a list -- salary demands, perks -- we'll talk again." He leaves. The waiter comes over with a piece of pie, saying, "Couldn't let it stand at just coffee, Chief."
Luke and Kevin are in the garage. Kevin's working on the boat as Luke paces around, saying, "Heisenberg showed us there's no true accuracy when more than one property is being measured." Kevin complains, "Luke, it's Sunday morning..." Luke: "As in the case of, say, velocity and position, or energy and time." As Grace and Adam come into the garage, Kevin wonders, "When do you actually absorb information? 'Cause it always seems like you're spouting it out." Grace says, "His ears and eyes work on a separate circuit from his mouth." Luke: "I assume you got my message?" Kevin waves at Adam. Adam's wearing a grey t-shirt under his hoodie with a large dark red image of a heraldic lion rampant on it. Kind of unusual. Grace: "FBI raid -- and we're just going to give up?" Luke reminds her they lost six weeks of work. Grace says they should go with Plan B. Kevin: "Yeah, you go with Plan B." Luke wonders what Plan B is. Grace: "The cannon thing you told me about." Luke: "Could you possibly, by any stretch of the imagination, be referencing the rail gun?" Kevin: "Luke, quit talking like the Queen of England." Heh. Kevin's tone of voice that suggests he's warned Luke about it before. Luke: "A hypermagnetized rail gun is a theoretical construct -- I mean, no one has actually perfected one yet."
Joan suddenly comes into the garage and tells Adam that she had a dream about him last night: "I think it might be some kind of warning!" Oops -- little continuity error. She had the dream Friday night, the night before Rocky's funeral on Saturday, and this is Sunday morning, as Kevin's spelled out for us. Unless she had another dream, which is possible. Anyway, Adam's not listening and he's pissed off, grousing to Grace, "You said she wouldn't be here." He brushes past Kevin, who grabs his arm and says, "Man, just talk to her!" Adam glares at Kevin: "Don't grab my arm." Joan: "Adam, please, you have to quit running away from me!" Kevin, still holding Adam's arm, says, "Please, just do us all a favour and listen to her dream." Adam says, "I'm outta here," and as he storms out, he manages to pull Kevin out of his chair and onto the floor. Everyone else gasps and rushes to help Kevin, while Adam says, "I said, 'Don't grab my arm!'" He turns and goes. I must confess to loving Adam slightly less for this brief moment. I get way over it soon, though, so don't anybody get any ideas about trying to take him away from me. I got my eye on youse. The other ignore him as they help Kevin back into his chair. Kevin: "I gotta get to the gym." The closed captioning shows the following unspoken dialogue: "What's that kid weigh, 120 pounds?"
we see Grace leaving the garage and walking through a leafy, slightly enclosed area of the Girardi's property, followed by Joan. She says, "Grace, wait! Adam's starting to freak me out." Grace: "He doesn't like being grabbed." Joan starts to mention her dream, and Grace asks, "Koala bears in hats?" Hee. How excellent that she knows about that. Joan tells Grace the dream, and then Grace replies, "Well, once I dreamed I could breathe under water. Well, guess what? I can't breathe under water." Joan explains that she saw Rocky in the mirror, and then he died, and then she saw Adam in the mirror. Actually, I don't think she ever saw Rocky in the mirror, just Adam, but she's had a rough weekend, so we'll let it go. Grace stops making cracks and says, "I've known Rove since we were three...and I've never seen him this bad." Man. Not even just after his mother died? Joan: "So you admit he's freaking you out?" Grace replies, "Before his mother died, Rove was different. He was funny, and aware of his surroundings..." Joan feels like there's something she's supposed to be doing, but is unsure what that is. This is probably a good place to point out that this is the first episode where God hasn't given Joan a task or a mission or a challenge. It makes for a different -- and honestly, preferable -- feel. I liked the other format well enough, but I'm ready for things to become even more subtle and complex. Grace has clearly decided that it's time to share a little more information with Joan. She walks a little distance and sits down by the wood pile, asking, "Do you know how Rove's mother died?" Joan says nothing, and Grace says, "She killed herself with pills." I've long suspected she was a suicide. ["Interesting. I just assumed breast cancer. I wonder what that says about me." -- Sars] Joan kind of winces and says softly, "Oh." Grace says she left him a note. Joan still doesn't say anything. Grace: "Hello? Adam's mother left him a note." Joan: "I''m just a little...freaked out. What did it say?" Grace doesn't know. Joan: "He wouldn't tell you?" Grace: "He's never read it." Joan wonders why. Grace half-rolls her eyes and says, "Because he's Rove...and unlike you, I give people their privacy." Joan struggles to take this in as she whispers, "Oh, my God."
Kevin wheels into the gym in sweat pants and a t-shirt with the sleeves cut off. Hey, it's The Bear! They wheel toward each other -- Bear has a big smile on his face -- and Kevin says sheepishly, "I thought I'd give it another shot." Bear smiles -- he's cute, eh? -- and says, "I could tell by your jock-like apparel." Kevin asks, "Do we need to go through why I, uh...bolted last time?" Bear replies, "Anywhere you've been, I was there a long time ago. So I'm not much of a listener. It can be an annoying quality." They do one of those jock handshakes. Do people get together and plan those out and come up with a strategy for popularizing them? Are they secret handshakes gone bad? What's the deal? How does everyone know which one to do when? Am I the only one who wonders about it?
At school, people are putting up the Science Fair banner, and it's certainly a professional-looking bit of business (unlike the one for the Crystal Ball). The kids are setting up their exhibits as Ms. Lischak wanders around with her pointer, making comments. One team is floating a beach ball above some kind of three-legged...something or other. It's like a cauldron with air blowing up out of it. Where's Frink when I'm writing these recaps and need technical terminology? She walks over to Friedman, who's wearing...an orange jumpsuit, for reasons likely best not explored, and Glynis, who's wearing a denim pinafore and whose name we will now be spelling to accord with the IMDb. They're in front of a huge, thin, rectangular tank of water, and Friedman counts down as Glynis presses a button that seems to make air bubbles in the water. Friedman aims an air horn at the tank, and when the sound comes out, the water lights up, creating sonoluminescence, a word I'll finally add to my spell check, since it keeps coming up. Their experiment is quite pretty, really. Frink comments that this science fair kicks the butt of any of the ones he was ever involved in. There's a poster in the background for a "Van de Graaf generator." Isn't it "Van der Graaf" -- or is this another one of those things I've been addled about all my life? Glynis crows, "Definite perturbation!" Ms. Lischak says, "Mmm...you can do better. Consider the radiant flux in quantifying your emittance." She taps Friedman's chest lightly with her pointer for emphasis and zooms off. Glynis gripes, "Is she allowed to talk like that to high school boys?" Friedman says, "We could increase the iodine." Glynis, primly: "Any noble gas will do."
Friedman, noticing Luke behind them, hushes her, saying in Pig Latin, "Spy in the room." At least, I think that's what he says. Glynis can't tell what he's on about, either. Luke assures them he's not there to spy. In a choked-up voice, he says he's not even in the Science Fair anymore: "FBI confiscated my project." Okay, I can't totally blame Friedman for snorting, I guess. Luke says he's not kidding. Glynis says obsequiously, "I always knew you had what it takes to contravene national security." Oh, settle down, girlie. Luke doesn't even try to milk this, as you just know Iedman-fray would. He mentions the arrest of the mayor and dissolution of city council. They haven't heard about it. Luke can barely be bothered to disguise his contempt: "Wow, you guys are really...anyway, my dad did it. So the FBI seized my computer." Now Jumpsuit Boy's worried: "Wait...they're examining your hard drive? That means --" Luke: "I'm just here to warn you, I'm not taking the fall for your latex fetish." Holy TMI. I remember when high school boys were pretty impressed with plain old naked breasts. Things certainly have changed when they routinely have latex fetishes. Friedman says, "Excuse me," and then to Glynis, who is looking at him uncomfortably, "Scientific interest." You know, for all we know, Glynis could rock a latex catsuit if she ever gets out of the pinafore stage. Not that Friedman deserves it, and not that Luke would take notice. Yeah, stick with the Holly Hobbie wardrobe. Also, I nearly forgot: Shut it, Friedman. Glynis takes one last shot at getting to work with Luke: "We could use another team member for final tweaks..." Luke: "I don't know, Grace wants to build something..." Glynis, skeptically: "Overnight?" Friedman declares, "All we need to win first place is for the frequency of the light flashes to be more stable than the rated frequency of the oscillator." Luke, instantly seduced, asks, "Well, have you tried modulating the drive amplitude?" Frink: "Go, Scotty!" Glynis admits they haven't. Luke straps on some safety glasses as Friedman's testicles shrink into...ew, I'm talking about Friedman's testicles. How did that happen? I think I need to lie down until I stop shuddering. I notice that Friedman takes one last stab at holding Glynis's attention by reaching behind Luke and waving his hand around in front of her face or something. Stop it, Friedman.
Back at the gym, Kevin's playing basketball with the other guys. He gets the ball and whizzes along. Frink cracks, "Travelling!" I don't know what that means but I'm hoping it was funny, since I decided to chance it and put it in here. He sinks a basket. They play for a bit more, and Kevin gets the ball again. Heading for the net, his wheels get snarled with another guy's, and he falls out of the chair again, face first onto the floor. Frink's cringing all over the place, thinking he must have broken his jaw.
Will's at home in front of the fireplace, listening to music and making notes. Helen comes along and asks what he's doing. He's making a list of demands. Helen: "Ooh...who we takin' hostage?" Price, I hope. He tells her about the undersheriff job. Helen thinks that's incredible. Will: "I didn't become a cop to make policy. I became a cop to put bad guys in jail." She reminds him he's putting some high-powered ass in jail at the moment. Will: "Yeah, and I lost my entire police department doing it." He says he wants to turn down the job. Helen wants to know what he wants to do instead. Will: "Get back to what I'm good at." She says she wants him to be happy. Will: "But?" She talks about how Kevin's finally adjusting: he's got a job, he joined the basketball team today: "And unless I'm completely nuts, there's a girl." Will: "A girl?" Helen says he's starting to be somewhat vain: "That means there's a girl. For the first time since his accident, he's...chasing after a life." Will smiles: "You're right. Family first." They start to make out, and then the phone rings. Helen says, "Wow, if it's any consolation...I still hear bells when we kiss." Will answers the phone; it's Bear. Then he asks, "Is he all right?" Helen looks up with concern.
Kevin, in a hospital gown with a print on it I'm sure Glynis would like, is being wheeled around a corner as a doctor is telling him that the X-rays show nothing's broken. Kevin wants to know if he can go. Doc wants to keep him for a couple of hours: "That's a hefty hematoma on your hip. Wanna make sure we don't have to drain it." Kevin asks how long that will take. Doctor: "A couple of hours, which is why I said we want to keep you here for a couple of hours. There was a young lady who was asking for you -- I told her to wait with your friend." Kevin says it was probably his sister as the attendant wheels him away. The doctor clears his throat pointedly and says, "I don't think so." Hee.
As they round the corner, we hear Rebecca ask if he's all right. Kevin tries to sit up a little straighter and pulls at his hospital gown, which is halfway up his thighs. Bear's there, too. Kevin's genuinely caught off guard by her presence. He says it was just a little basketball injury. She makes no secret of her relief. Then there's a little awkward pause, and he asks, "So you met The Bear?" He says he actually told her his name (Barry Caldwell, in case you forgot). Kevin wonders how she even knew he was there; Rebecca replies, "I have a source who lets me know if anyone interesting shows up at the hospital." Politicians should remember that the time they go sniffing around the ER for treatment for STDs. Kevin laughs, surprised: "Why am I interesting?" Wow, the Girardi kids really are short on radar, aren't they? (How ironic for the children of a cop.) Rebecca doesn't know how to reply to that; Bear gives her a sidelong glance, wondering how she'll respond. Kevin, cluing in a bit, quickly supplies an excuse: "Oh, my dad, the police chief..." Rebecca gladly grabs that and runs with it: "Ex-police chief -- rumour has it he's been offered a big job in the Sheriff's Department." Kevin lapses into his usual mode: "So, what, you're here looking for confirmation?" Rebecca's honestly insulted: "No! God, Kevin, I'm here because..." He's giving her a very challenging look. She concludes, "I don't know why I'm here." She turns, and says, "Nice to meet you, Mr. Caldwell."
The attendant, who's been waiting unbelievably patiently through all this, starts wheeling Kevin into his holding area (it's not really a room so much as an area off a hallway, so far as I can tell) and before Bear can say anything, Kevin tells him, "It's complicated." Bear: "No, it's not. You're an idiot." Frink loves that one. Kevin: "She's my boss. She's...difficult and manipulative and..." Bear: "And she's got a thing for you? And romance scares you to death?" The attendant leaves. Kevin: "I am not afraid." Yeah, Bear buys that: "Like I told you, everywhere you're going, I've already been. If you want some pointers on how guys like us deal with the sex act, I got a few hints." Kevin: "Well, I don't need hints." Bear laughs. Kevin says he's not comfortable with this conversation. Bear tells him it's up to him: "Spend the rest of your life looking at naked women on the internet." Friedman can probably give you some URLs. He wheels off, and Kevin calls out after him, "Hey, I am not afraid to have sex. Hey, I got moves you never even heard of! Okay? There's a list of women a mile long who have no complaints about Kevin Girardi between the sheets!" He looks up at the other entranceway and naturally, his entire family's standing there, dumsquizzled. Ha! Of course you could see it coming and it's sitcommish, but it was well done, and the issue needed to be gotten out there with the whole family. Joan looks more amused than the rest of them. Kevin kind of scrunches up his face and whimpers, "I'm on painkillers." Joan: "I -- I need a beverage." She wanders off as Kevin flops back against the pillow and puts his hands over his face. I can't even tell you how much I'm hoping the show confronts this issue head-on. There's a storyline I haven't seen done to death -- or, you know, hardly at all.
At the vending machines, Joan seems to be struggling with the change machine, and asks the doctor at the machine, "Excuse me, doctor, could you tell me how to get change?" The doctor replies, "Change comes from within -- but first you have to want to change." Joan's not impressed. She snorts softly and walks over, complaining, "'Death is a dividing line,' 'change comes from within.' What is with your lame fortune-cookie wisdom today?" He says, "It's just a vending machine joke, kid." He takes his candy or whatever and walks away. An attractive redheaded nurse (it's actually not clear whether she's a doctor or nurse, but someone on the forums posted that her credit was as a nurse, so I'm going with that) walks up behind her and says, "You want change? I'm your woman." She and Joan exchange coins and a bill as the nurse says, "You're right to worry about Adam. In his world, suicide is a reality. He's lived with it for three years." Joan looks at her, realizing who it is, and says, "Oh, my God." Nurse God continues, "Some suicides are motivated by rage -- at another human being, or the universe...or me. Others come from a deep sadness; suicide seems the only way of stopping the pain. And then there are those who do not end their mortal lives, but still, they stop living, which is also a kind of suicide." Nurse God glides off, but Joan follows, saying, "Wait...wait, wait, wait. Adam is gonna..." She glances around slightly and lowers her voice: "Kill himself? Why?" Nurse God replies, "Rocky finished well. The -- let's call them ripples -- the ripples Rocky left behind are sad, but good. Adam's mother's ripples are not good." Joan, with a little desperation: "I get that all I can handle without falling over are hints, so maybe, uh, a better hint of what I should do?" Nurse God tells her, "There's more than one way to talk to people who aren't here anymore. There's definitely more than one way to listen. Especially in Adam's case." Joan suggests that God could bring Mrs. Rove back from the dead and make everything all right. Nurse God replies, "Not today. Now, I have to get over to County General and kick some ass there." Possibly not that last part.
Back with Kevin, the doctor is showing Helen and Will some stuff on Kevin's X-rays while Luke quietly seeks Kevin's advice: "Grace wants me to make this stupid rail gun which probably won't even work, anyway, or I can salvage my dignity and work with Friedman." I don't know how Luke could be so confused as to imagine that "dignity" and "working with Friedman" could ever go hand in hand. Kevin smacks him on the chest gently and says, "No contest." Luke agrees, but adds, "Yet...all I see is 'contest.'" Kevin sagely advises him, "Either get over your fear of women, or resign yourself to lookin' at boobs on the internet for the rest of your life." Luke: "Point of order, that's Friedman, not me, and...not everything is about sex." Kevin: "Well, not everything is about science." Hee! How I love this show. Kevin flops back against the pillow. Luke: "This is a new arena for me." Kevin: "I hear ya, brother."
Night time shot of the Girardi house. Luke's in the garage when we hear Grace say, "Hey, geek." I like it better when she calls him Atom Boy. It's The Amazing Adventures of Atom Boy and Skater Grrrl. Luke's rushing around doing stuff as he says, "I was afraid your father wouldn't give you the message." Grace: "Ye-e-e-ah...thanks for leaving a message with my father -- the rabbi -- saying you want to spend the night with me building a gun." Ha! One by one, the Girardi children endear themselves to Rabbi P. Luke says there's a chance they could make a functioning rail gun in time for the Science Fair if they pull an all-nighter: "A real one, not a computer simulation." Grace asks what it will do. Luke: "Most likely nothing. If we're insanely lucky it'll move a steel object a few inches." Now Grace is more interested: "How big a steel object?" Luke walks over to another table and yanks a dropcloth off a motor. Grace: "Ha! A motor! Where did you get that?" Luke smiles a bit and says he got it at a junkyard. Grace: "That is awesome!" She walks over to look at it. Well, he's got high hopes for something he doesn't think is going to work at all. Go big or go home, I guess. Luke: "You heard me -- the most likely outcome is that we'll fail and look like idiots in front of the entire scientific community...as that term applies to Arcadia High." Grace gets right up in his face and says flirtatiously, "So what you're telling me, dog, is there's no down side." Luke smiles to himself as Grace goes to take her leather jacket off. Yeah, I'm pretty sure Glynis wouldn't be staying up all night to make a rail gun.
We see a hand on the wheel of a wheelchair. It taps idly, and the camera moves up to show us Will sitting in Kevin's chair, to him in the hospital. Kevin's got his clothes back on. He says, "I heard they offered you a job?" Will wonders how he heard that. Kevin reminds him that he works for the newspaper. Will might want to file that away for future reference. Kevin says, "Some kind of sheriff?" Will pulls a voice right out of Gunsmoke and claims, "Always wanted to be a sheriff." Kevin shakes his head and says, "You are so full of it." Will begs his pardon. Kevin says he remembers when Will loved his job and regaled him regularly with tales of police work and excitement. Will shrugs that off: "Kids are pretty easy to impress." Kevin: "The stories changed, Dad, not me." Will sighs and mentions the points in favour of the position: it's a good job, and they can stay in Arcadia and set down roots. Kevin tells him, "Dad, if I find out you took this job because of me, I'll be really mad at you." Will asks, "How is this about you?" Kevin replies, "My intention is to be as much a man as you are. I can't do that if you keep me back, like a child." Will leans forward and says, "Being a man means making decisions based on a lot of different needs, few of which are your own. Family comes first." Kevin says, "I need you to make decisions as though I was standing in front of you, on my own two legs...please...don't take the job -- not for me." Will gets up and kisses him on the forehead, telling him he'll see him when he can come home.
Adam's workshop. He's tossing some of his art into a trash can when Helen comes in. Adam's puzzled, naturally: "Hey...Mrs. Girardi...you're...in my shed." She smiles and says she's come to ask him a favour. She is the only person who makes his face brighten up at all ever since Joan wrecked his sculpture. Adam says, "Sure." Helen says she knows he's mad at Joan but asks him to talk to her; he says he doesn't want to. Helen: "I know, but that's why it's called a favour." He nods slightly, and she says softly, "Good." She walks out. He's standing there thinking when Joan walks in. He's caught off guard: "What, like, did your mom mean this exact second?" Joan: "Why, do you need more time to hide?" Whoa. I don't know if this is the way to start out. He walks around behind his table and sits down, saying, "Listen, I'm doing a really nice woman a favour, so...what do you want to talk about?" She cuts right to the chase: "Are you thinking about killing yourself?" He seems more surprised that that's her specific question than to have been asked at all: "I thought you were going to apologize to me, yo." She says she's apologized lots of times: "We're both bored with that." He wonders why she thought he was going to kill himself. She asks why he's not making art anymore. Adam: "Because it's...it's stupid." He gets up, gesturing vaguely at some of the various detritus lying around, adding, "I -- I used to -- used to make all these things for my mom, and...and...I don't know, when you smashed my best one, maybe it made me realize that...she can't hear me or she's not listening." Joan asks, "Adam, how do you know she's not listening if you won't hear her answer?" Adam exhales a weary little sound of exasperation and says, "I hardly ever know what you're talking about." Joan says softly that she knows about his mother's note. Adam looks at her, sniffles, and says, "Grace told you, huh?" Joan: "Yeah, Grace is in on it, and so is my mother, and so am I." She walks toward him. "It's none of my business, right? Except is is! It is, because here we are, and I am way in this. I am mad absolutely in this. So why haven't you read her note?" Adam says, his voice slightly raw, his eyes watery, "I can't." Joan, gently: "Why? Is it smudged from tears, or...written backwards...or is it..." Adam: "I'm af --" He pauses, and continues quietly, without looking at her: "I'm afraid...that it'll say that what she did was my fault." Then he looks at Joan. I'm just in agony for him. Joan's heart is obviously breaking, too. She says gently, "It seems to me that wondering what it says is worse than knowing for sure." Adam glances at her. She adds, "That's just me." She turns and walks out, but before going, she stops and says: "I am sorry for smashing your art. I didn't know what it meant. I didn't know about your mother. I hope we can still be friends. I really, really want for you to have...good ripples." She's tearful, but gives him a small, hopeful smile as she goes. He probably has no idea what that ripples remark is about, but then, he's used to that. He sits there, letting all this wash over him.
It's early morning in Arcadia. Grace and Luke are still working on their project. They both seem tired, a little irritable, and cold in that way that I always find I am after pulling an all-nighter. It's like my body makes the decision that I can either get blood to my brain or to my body, but not both. Luke's about to attach some leads to the machine, and Grace says, "Careful." Luke gets a little rattled and says, "Say 'careful' before I attach, not during." Grace: "Right -- sorry." Luke admits to being a little edgy: "We've been up all night, it's morning, and if these two leads touch, this entire circuit could blow." While he's blathering on, Grace grabs the leads and attaches them with confidence. Coffee, man, you need coffee. After his stellar performance in the TriMathlon, I'm surprised he didn't think of it himself. Luke seems mildly surprised and says, "Yes, very...um...steady hands. Good." She asks if it's done. He looks at her with a trace of a smile and says he thinks so. Their faces are pretty close. Kiss her! Just kiss her, man. Grace asks, "Aren't we going to test it?" Luke: "Well, according to my calculations, the wiring won't take more than one burst, so..." I guess that's where the "looking like idiots in front of everyone" opportunity presents itself. Grace nods slowly and looks at Luke like she's wondering what he's going to do . He says, "Remember when you kissed me at the semiformal?" Grace gets uncomfortable, and exhales, "Yeah, forget it." Dude. She doesn't want to discuss things. She just wants to do them. You should have just kissed her. She takes off without another word, and Luke waves to her back as she goes. When she's gone, he says to himself, "Can't unring a bell, baby..." Ha! Frink and I are in stitches. I think he wants them together more than I do. And he's usually not any kind of 'shipper.
Joan, dressed in bright red, comes into the sunny yellow and blue kitchen where her parents are talking before work and announces to her mother, "I don't care what you say, I'm not eating bran -- it makes me gassy." Helen just makes a sort of resigned face as Will nods silently. There's a knock on the door; Will answers it. He says, "Good morning, Adam." Wow, we've come a long way from "Space Boy," have we not? At the mention of Adam's name Joan naturally looks up, surprised. Will pulls him inside with his arm around his shoulder, and says, "Eat some breakfast. Make my wife happy." He gives Adam a gentle smack on the face. He leaves as Adam's saying, "Bye, Chief Girard--" But Will's gone before the "ee" part.
Adam hangs up his bag and enters the kitchen. Joan seems to be trying not to show exactly how happy she is to see him, though it's pretty obvious she's pleased; Adam has a kind of pleasantly neutral expression. He pulls an envelope out of his jacket. I knew he'd ask her to read the letter for him, or to him. He starts by saying weakly, "I tried all night, Jane." Jane? Jane? Why do I not have TiVo so I can stop the world when I need to catch my breath? Stupid Canada and its stupid non-TiVo-having-ness. He continues softly, "I can't. I can't go into it cold. I need...some kind of warning...to know if I ought to prepare myself." Joan wells up a little. He walks toward her, saying, "'Kay?" She takes the letter from him. He stands right in front of her, about a foot away. Joan doesn't dare refuse this awesome responsibility. Adam glances at her but mostly looks at the envelope. Joan opens it and unfolds the letter. You can see it's written on paper with some kind of flowery border. She reads a bit and sighs; she seems to know it would be better coming from her mother. She turns to Helen, who's been watching all this in silence. She hands the letter to Helen, who takes it and stands up. Joan walks back and stands in front of the island opposite her mother; Adam walks over and stands to Joan.
Helen reads: "'Dearest boy, my Adam, I dreamed a dream. You and I, facing each other in a tiny yellow boat on green water under blue sky.'" Adam's eyes are filled with tears. He's not the only one. "'Me and my son and the yellow boat.'" "Across the Universe" starts up again. "And we laugh and the boat rocks and the ripples spread from boat, to pond, to sea, to sky, and nothing can stop them.'" Joan dares to put her hand on Adam's shoulder, and for the first time in weeks he doesn't push her away. Helen's getting a little worked up, too, but continues, "'And nothing ever will. When you think of me, Adam, know that in a world of pain...you were and always will be my joy.'" This is where I completely lose it every time -- at "world of pain." Though Adam's eyes are filled with tears, none have yet run down his face. But his expression is full of so many things: pain, sorrow, loss, surprise, relief, love, regret, hope...Helen finishes, "Love, Mom." He finally looks at Joan, who smiles at him, though she's teary, too. Adam, eyes brimming, walks over to Helen to take the letter and stands there in front of her, whispering, "Thank you." She pulls him to her and hugs him. Joan exhales as tears run down her face. Helen holds Adam for a moment and then wipes some tears from his face when she lets go. He glances at Joan before leaving without a word. When he's gone, Joan says, "The ripples were good." Helen nods: "Very good." Joan's incredibly happy. That was...just perfect. The writing, acting, direction and staging were all perfect. I love that they chose the Girardi kitchen for this scene: with all the strong blues and yellows, in addition to the many touches of green all over the room (especially in the painting behind Helen), it evoked the imagery of Adam's mother's letter without beating us over the head with it. Their kitchen represents the security and love he's missing. And it's perfect that Helen was there to play the role of surrogate mom when Adam most needed it. I'm lachrymose. I'm verklempt. I'm beside myself. If you watched that dry-eyed, unmoved...well, I don't even know what to say. I can't help you.
Think that the Girardi boat might end up painted yellow?
Kevin's at his desk when Rebecca comes over behind him and bends down, putting one hand in the place where his neck and shoulder meet and the other around his upper arm. She asks, "You okay to work?" He says he is. She smiles, saying, "See? We don't always argue." She starts to walk away when Kevin says, "Rebecca...when we argue...it's not about my father." Arms crossed, she asks, "Then why is it his name we're always yelling at each other?" Kevin quietly floats this idea: "It might be...sexual tension." You can tell Rebecca wasn't expecting that. Kevin adds, "Between, uh...between you and me." As she fidgets with her necklace, she says, "I know who it's between." Kevin: "Then you feel it too?" Rebecca, still fiddling with the necklace, emits a string of objections: "I'm your boss...and I'm -- I'm -- I'm older..." She stammers a bit, adding, "We're different races and religions..." Kevin: "And I'm -- I'm crippled..." He smiles and looks back at his desk. She admits, "Yeah, I feel it, too." She gives him a big smile; his face brightens, and he nods at her slightly. She backs away -- into the copier -- and wanders back to her desk. As soon as she's gone, Kevin picks up the phone. I thought he was going to call her at her desk to ask her out, but it's Bear he calls: "So...I'm gonna need some advice and you know what I'm talking about..."
Will's in his office at the police station, cleaning out his stuff, when Roy appears at the door demanding to know, "Why in God's name would you turn down this job?" Will replies, "I knew a better candidate...Deputy Sheriff Roebuck." Hey! Didn't see that coming. Roy corrects him: "That's Undersheriff -- like something from Robin Hood." Well, this town could probably use a dose of taking from the rich and giving to the poor. Roy laughs, but adds, "And I'd appreciate a real answer." Will explains, "I turned down the job because I'm better where the rubber meets the road than I am in the office. In fact, you won't find anyone better when it comes to rubber and road." Roy wonders if Will's interested in becoming a detective again. Will: "My wife likes Arcadia. And you're going to need someone to run the detective bureau." Roy asks, "So you get me this job, and in return, I get you that job?" Will demurs: "Roy, you don't...get me that job...you offer it to me. You're the boss." Roy's suddenly all, "Damn right I'm the boss." He tells Will he can't keep his secretary. Will agrees that Roy will need Jeanne. Roy: "This is my office." Dude, chill. You've got the job. Will: "You're the boss." Roy: "You don't need to keep reminding me. I know who's the boss...Detective Girardi." I expect them to jump up and bump chests any minute, but they merely shake hands. Will: "Thank you...Undersheriff Roebuck."
At the Science Fair, "Time" by Chantal Kreviazuk is playing as the students set up their exhibits. Is this in the same room where the art show was, and where Joan destroyed Adam's sculpture? It kind of looks like it. Ms. Lischak gives Luke and Grace a thumbs-up as she watches them rig up their rail gun. She walks over to Adam, who's lost in fiddling with an interesting little piece of metal from someone's display. He's obviously starting to reconnect with his desire to make art from such things. Ms. Lischak takes it from him and puts it back where it's supposed to go, smiling at him and clapping him on the shoulder. Christopher Marquette has beautiful hands, and I know I'm not the only one who's noticed. "Time, where did you go? / Why did you leave me here alone?" She walks past the Van der Graaf generator display of static electricity (you know, the one where you put your hand on the shiny silver thing and your hair sticks up). Joan arrives -- with her hair completely curled all of a sudden. (This is later the same day as the reading of the letter.) She looks pretty, and happy. When she sees Adam, she reaches around the chick with the staticky hair, smiling and holding out her hand to him, and he readily takes it. "Wait, don't go so fast / I'm missing the moments as they pass." A couple of older judge-y-looking guys are applauding the sonoluminescence exhibit. As the camera drifts gently around the room, there's a big model dinosaur, and we see Helen looking around, and she glances over at Joan, who's laughing hysterically about something with Adam. She turns away, leaving them to enjoy each other, smiling to herself. "Now I've looked in the mirror and the world's getting clearer / So wait for me this time..."
Luke and Grace are ready to launch their experiment and Luke hands Grace the switchbox. Aw. Grace doesn't waste any time on jitters; she throws the switch. There's a closeup of the meter; nothing happens. Ms. Lischak looks disappointed for them; Friedman doesn't bother to conceal his smirk. Glynis looks pretty damn smug, too. "I'm down -- I'm down on my knees." Back to the meter: the indicator suddenly whangs to the right, and the lights dim and flicker. "I'm begging for all your sympathy." Suddenly the motor starts to rattle forward; Grace looks questioningly at Luke, who seems to be the only person in the room who grasps the implication of what's happening. He screams, "Get down!" And he is not channelling James Brown. People more or less comply, and Ms. Lischak, whose science training seems to have kicked in, breaks into a slo-mo, Six Million Dollar Man run toward the sonoluminescence display tank, just as the motor really picks up speed and hurtles toward Friedman and Glynis. Friedman, naturally, saves himself, diving out of the way in slo-mo, but Glynis is the proverbial deer in the headlights, frozen in place. Ms. Lischak manages to knock Glynis out of the way just as the motor crashes through the water tank in a fantastic explosion of water and glass. Over by the display on "The Butterfly Effect," Helen, Adam, and Joan are stunned; Adam looks pleasantly surprised, while Joan puts her hand over her mouth.
There follows a sequence Rube Goldberg would enjoy: the motor hits the dinosaur, which falls over onto a scale, launching a huge container of feathers on the other side into the air, where the beach ball exhibit blows them all over the room, creating a blizzard of white feathers. Luke and Grace rise from behind their exhibit together to take a peek at the damage. "I should've known better / I shouldn't have wasted those days / And afternoons and mornings / I threw them all away." Adam and Joan love it; Joan giggles and bats at the fathers. Grace can't suppress a laugh, and Luke, too, manages to see what's funny about it. Helen walks toward someone with a distressed look on her face; soaked and feathered, Ms. Lischak sits up, followed by Glynis, who looks like a drowned bird. That? Was awesome. If you're going to do something over the top and cheesy, then you'd better bring it. They brought it. Big ups to director Timothy Busfield and the music/sound people. That must have been a hell of a scene to stage, and it was perfectly coordinated with the music. Replay it and listen to the sounds when the motor gets going and all that ensues. Everything about it is just so good. I've watched it umpteen times now and I'm still not tired of it. Also, I sure hope there's going to be a soundtrack album for this show. It's probably the first network show I've ever had that thought about. Also, when can I pre-order DVDs?
Off to the side, Adam and Joan are standing in a endless shower of feathers. "Now this is my time / I'm going to make this moment mine." Joan and Adam look at each other, smiling and enjoying the silliness, but you can't really see much of their eyes or faces; they're both sort of in profile and there's a lot of hair in the way. But for the first time in...ever, they're in exactly the same place, riding a wave of unexpected, desperately needed joy as they lean toward each other in slow motion, and Adam holds his hand ever so gently by Joan's stomach, and there's a dissolve while the camera gets a wee bit closer, and their lips nearly touch, and there's another quick dissolve and a much closer shot, and they're covered in feathers and they're smiling and they're kissing in slow motion and my heart bursts out of my chest just like the motor through the tank of water. "I'll take what you give me / Please know that I'm learning / So wait for me this time."