Judith and Joan walk toward each other. Joan asks her, "What are you doing here? This is, like, the super-loser hangout." Judith says it's the only smoking section. She puts her butt out as she suggests, "So tonight: perfect girls' night out: go the mall, sneak into all the crap movies for free." Joan reminds her about studying for physics. Judith: "Oh, what's physics compared to Catherine Zeta-Jones twenty-five pounds overweight from the baby?" One of Judith's new buddies, a slacker boy, says, "Hey, come on, we're going for Big Gulps. You want a Big Gulp? 'Causewe're going for'em." Judith: "Totally!" She starts off and asks Joan, "You coming?" Joan grabs her by the arm, reminding her that they have class: "You skipped, like, three days already. You want to get booted out of another school?" Judith whines, "Hey, I was in the hospital, remember?" She thinks she ought to be able to milk that for a few more days. And she's probably right. Joan: "Come on. Everyone's been asking about you!" Judith: "Is that why Grace took off like the Roadrunner?" Joan doesn't know what to say to that. Judith puts her hands on each side of Joan's head and says, "Don't be so sad, Joanith! I'm fine! Take notes for me, okay? Mwah!" And yes, she makes that sound as she pecks Joan on the cheek and takes off. Joan's about to leave when a groundskeeper asks Joan to give him a hand with a small evergreen tree that's so scrawny and dead-looking it would make Courtney Love look vital. Joan: "Uh, no offense, but isn't that kind of a random place to be planting a tree?" Groundskeeper: "Does seem out of place, doesn't it? Sort of like you've been feeling." Joan rolls her eyes: "Here we go again." Groundskeeper God picks up a hose and continues, "Sometimes when you're lostit's an opportunity to cultivate a new place for yourself." He waters the wretched conifer as Joan complains, "And this is supposed to inspire me? The Charlie Brown Christmas tree of metaphors?" He doesn't respond. Joan, trying to guess the assignment: "You want me to take care of this?" Still nothing but a Mrs. LandingGod-esque glance. Joan: "Remember when you used to tell me to go try out for the cheerleaders? What happened to that?" Groundskeeper God finally replies, "If it's an assignment you want, you better get to physics. You're late." As the bell rings, Joan semi-screeches, "Whose fault is that?" Groundskeeper God wanders off with a Godwave. Joan hustles off. Theme music. What if God were obvious? Would we still have a show?
Helen and Lily (the UnNun) are at an outside coffee stand. I finally figured out, courtesy of forum poster flashgordon, who it is Constance Zimmer reminds me of, and it's Julie Kavner. She has a slightly Julie Kavner-ish vibe, between her looks and the rasp in her voice. God, it was driving me crazy, because it's subtle and I couldn't put my finger on it. Helen admits she can't seem to write down the things she needs to about the night of Kevin's accident: "I was wondering if you had any thoughts, anything that could help me get through this?" Lily thinks briefly and responds, "Nope. I don't think so." They start walking. Helen complains, "You're a nun." Lily: "Former nun." First Helen couldn't accept that Lily had been a nun, now she can't stop harping on it. The UnNun explains she never went in for "the platitudes," but she could advise Helen to surf: "That's what I do when I get all knotted up." Helen: "I don't surf." Well, I think it'd do you a world of good, although I'm still under the impression that there isn't a lot of really great surfing in Maryland. Lily: "Bummer. Because when you're out there, things make sense. You see a wave coming toward you, one you know that could kill youbut if you hit it right, it supports you. It saves you." Helen: "So you're saying the letter's like a wave, and if I ride it right" Lily dismisses that: "Platitude. Platitude." Helen says she thought she was done with "all this." Lily says she wishes she could make things easier for Helen, but adds, "The struggle is kinda the whole point, isn't it? That, and the faith that it will somehow be worth it." And that's this entire series in a nutshell, in case anyone was looking for something succinct. Helen, not entirely convinced: "Yeah" Lily adds, "And trying to quit smoking. Or trying to meet a guy who doesn't mind a woman who smokesand was a nun!" Helen smiles: "I'll keep my eyes open." Lily: "Yeah, that'd be good." Don't think you'll have to look very far, Helen.
“ Of course, if you've got crappy screws, it hardly matters, so spend the little bit of extra money and get screws that have been well-machined. I suppose I wouldn't be going on about screws here if I had a sense of why we're going to the Arcadia-police- are-corrupt well again. ”
Helen and Will are sitting at the dining room table, going through papers and files related to the accident, when Kevin comes home. He tells them he's getting a byline tomorrow, for a story about a guy who's gotten 243 tickets for jaywalking. Helen asks softly, "Why'd you do it, Kevin?" Kevin replies, "I was just fascinated by the man's love of traffic." He turns his chair around toward the stairs as his mother adds, "I went to the lawyer's office today. He told me you went to see Andy." Kevin turns around again but doesn't say anything. Will wonders, "Did you think we wouldn't find out?" Kevin says he didn't know how to tell them. Will stands up and says, "You tried to talk Andy into dropping the case. That could be construed as an admission of guilt." Actually, it seems to me that Kevin was really asking Andy for an explanation of why he was suing them, more than trying to directly get him to drop the suit. Kevin: "That's ridiculous. I just wanted to see how he was, if he really needed help." Will, mad now: "That's not how his attorney saw it. He doubled the damages -- to a million." Kevin's stunned: "How can they do that?" Will says they just can. Helen can't look at Kevin. He says, "Look, I'm sorry, but this whole mess is going on around me, and you two won't tell me anything --" Helen: "Because we're taking care of it! You've been through enough." Will: "Please, just stay out of it. That kid could take everything we have." Kevin looks tearful, and nods: "Sure. I'm sorry." He gets into his chair lift -- very quickly, and really quietly too, it seems to me -- and goes up the stairs while Helen and Will return to their task.
Joan's walking through the halls at school when she finishes a beverage and tosses the bottle in the trash. Maintenance Guy God's right behind her, though, pulling it out and telling her, "This can be recycled. Do I have to make a new Earth every seven days?" But could you, just this once? I promise we'll take better care of the one. Yeah, I know that's a lie. Joan stops, narrows her eyes, and turns around: "So many people pray to see you. If only they knew." She walks off and he follows her, asking why she hasn't finished her physics assignment. She says she did: "I planted stuff. It got stepped on. My friends deserted me in the process. As usualthank you very much." Maintenance Guy God says that it's part of the assignment, to see how the process unfolds. Joan's wearing a grey camisole that I like, under a grey hooded sweater. Not loving the brown pants with them, though. He adds, "You have until Friday. Finish what you started." Joan: "Are you telling me that I can get all those flowers to grow by Friday?" He says she can't force them to bloom or grow faster: "Growth is a process. Just be part of the process, Joan." He wanders off with a Godwave.
We see DeShawn Wallace in an interrogation room. Will and Chewy are talking outside, when the two undercover cops who've been questioning DeShawn emerge. One of the cops, wearing a cap backward, remarks to Will and Chewy, "So nice catching up with an old friend." Chewy asks, "You know him?" The other cop pulls the collar of his t-shirt aside to show what looks sort of like a birthmark -- who can tell in all the blue? -- but I think is supposed to be a stab wound, indicating, "Little gift from his crew. Amazing what you can do with a Phillips screwdriver." Yes, they are a vast improvement over those lousy slotted screwdrivers, but I admit to a fondness for the earlier, Canadian-invented Robertson screwdriver. Of course, if you've got crappy screws, it hardly matters, so spend the little bit of extra money and get screws that have been well-machined. I suppose I wouldn't be going on about screws here if I had a sense of why we're going to the Arcadia-police-are-corrupt well again. I don't hate the police plots the way a lot of viewers seem to, but I feel that they sometimes sit uneasily with the rest of the show. And I just don't know why they're doing the corruption thing again, but I guess I should be patient.
Judith walks down the hall alone, making her a prime target for The Friedman. He rushes up to her, saying, "I get this sense you've been avoiding me. Now, don't be afraid of the feelings we have for each other. They're what make us, us, right?" As Judith gives him a sarcastic smile, Friedman walks right into a heavy metal door that someone's left open into the hallway. Ha! So very cheap but I just don't care. She keeps going as he picks himself up.
Kevin answers the door at home. Lily Waters marches right in, introducing herself as Helen's confirmation coach: "We got a thing at four. I'm early." Kevin says she'll be home soon, and introduces himself. Lily strides into the kitchen as she says, "I read your project about that jaywalking guy. Very cool." Kevin thanks her as he bumps down the two stairs into the kitchen. She asks if he heard about the guy who's trying to eat a bicycle, as she opens the fridge and starts rummaging. Kevin: "Do you want anything to drink while you're waiting?" The mild sarcasm is completely lost on Lily, who keeps rummaging as she says she's parched. As she crouches a little, Kevin can't help but notice her butt and her exposed midriff, since he's right behind her. Interestingly, he makes a point of looking away, and asking her about her surfing. She says he should try it, adding, "I'm sure they've got some kind of rig they could strap you in." Kevin smiles, intrigued by her indifference to his wheelchair. Her head still in the refrigerator -- how long does it take to find a drink, for heaven's sake? -- she asks how his lawsuit's coming. Kevin: "Okay, I guess" Lily: "Am I being too nosy? Can I finish the cran-apple?" Kevin: "Sure." Lily: "Sure about the nosy or the cran-apple?" Kevin: "The cran-apple." But he doesn't sound too sure.
She finally closes the fridge and goes to the counter, swigging the drink from the bottle. I can't tell what's on the t-shirt under her leather vest, but I suspect it reads, "Kiss me, I'm an iconoclast" (tm joshleejosh). Kevin says he can't tell her too much about the lawsuit; his parents are handling it: "They don't tell me much." Lily stops drinking and says, "Wait a minute. You don't know anything about a lawsuit in which you're named, even though the accident was -- just a guess -- the most important event of your life?" Hmm. I believe Lily would be that blunt and direct, but I feel like the writer took us there just a little too fast. Kevin, bristling slightly: "Okay, now you're being too nosy." Lily: "No, it's just -- I mean -- you're twenty, and a reporter. How do you turn off interest in your own life?" Kevin just stares at her. Lily backs off: "You're right. None of my business." Helen arrives at this point and sees that they've met. She doesn't pick up on the awkwardness. I actually like the idea of Lily and Kevin together; I think they have chemistry, and Kevin seems to like older women. I also have to suspect there's a reason Lily's search for a man who wouldn't mind her smoking was mentioned earlier. We saw Kevin smoke last year, though I don't think he's a regular smoker. But why bring that up at all, if it's not remotely relevant? It just stuck out too much to be random.
“ As the scene fades out, you can see that it's the most miserable, ill-conceived little patch of garden ever. And I say that as someone whose yard currently looks like a missile site. ”
Luke's sitting on the stairs at school when Grace comes around the corner. He stands up quickly; she stops when she sees him. Neither speaks as they start to descend the stairs together on either side of the railing. Luke begins: "I've thought about it, and I do want to work within your terms." Grace, quietly: "Well, you shouldn't. It's totally unfair." Luke: "See, that's the thing: I don't think they are. I mean, basically, I've been asking for a total regime change in your public and personal life. But you know what? I looked up every major political revolution in the last hundred years, and not even the most violent ones were sudden. You know, they built up over years of dissatisfaction and unrest." Yeah, butwho wants their relationship to be like that? Grace asks, "Did you make a special effort not to use a science metaphor?" Hee. I'll have to get him to teach Frink that. Luke admits, "I'm trying to expand my range." Grace stops and turns to him: "So basically, you're sayingwhat?" Luke: "I'm willing to wait. Hoping that the, uh, revolution will gain some small foothold in the outer regions, such asmaybe an occasional exchange of words in public." He hands her something which I at first think is a drink with a straw in it. Grace: "What's this?" Luke explains, "Well, even warring tribes have been known to make peace offerings in, uh, you know, recognition of their commonalities." Grace: "Did you just make that up?" He says he did, and they chuckle. He explains it's a sunflower seedling: "It's hard to believe it can grow over eight feet tall." Eight feet? Pfft! I've seen sunflowers on Dovercourt Road in Toronto that reached the second storey of a house. Some of them have blossoms the size of steering wheels. Scary, scary flowers. ["THANK you. Wing and I were saying one time that they're like the floral equivalent of a barking Doberman." -- Sars] Luke adds that he stole it from Joan. Grace snorts a bit, saying she can't believe Joan's still at it. It should be noted that she's giving her seedling quite a tender look. Luke says Joan's hypothesis has promise: "The idea of a community garden can be tied to some key aspects of quantum theory." So let's hear it, because it's not at all clear to me how. Grace: "Lay it on me. I can't get through my paper. It's too much research." Luke points out that they're having a conversation. Grace: "Not anymore. Just lay it on me." Luke starts yammering as they walk down the hall, and the music gets louder and louder so he doesn't really have to say much of substance.
Joan's outside planting some decorative kale, while Big Gulp Kid watches her and asks, "Why are you planting cabbage? Isn't it already, like, cabbage?" Joan: "Shut. Up!" He stands up, and retorts, "Yeah? Shut you up!" He laughs moronically and high-fives another burnout. Grace and Luke come over -- how is it even the often-oblivious Joan still hasn't noticed what's going on? -- and Grace asks, "Making soup?" Joan says, "Apparently they flower." She asks what they're doing there. Grace: "Boy Wonder figured out you're not brain-dead. Apparently dirt can equal physics." One of the bleacher burnouts decides to toss a pop can at Grace's feet. She narrows her eyes and says, "You so don't want to go there, dude." Big Gulp Kid's smirk fades slightly. Luke starts, "You see, if we posit that your indeterminate element is the unpredictable level of resistance --" Grace: "Stifle it, Einstein. Just pick up all this garbage and pile it over there." As they start picking up garbage, Joan says, "Hey, Grace? Thank you." Grace: "I'm doing this for me, dude." Joan smiles agreeably: "I know." As the scene fades out, you can see that it's the most miserable, ill-conceived little patch of garden ever. And I say that as someone whose yard currently looks like a missile site.
“ 'They live under the earth and guard their buried treasure. This is his fire spear. I had a serious Dungeons and Dragons habit. I'm better now.' Me: 'Thank God.' Frink: 'Hey!' ”
After some commercials, Judith walks out to the garden alone, smoking. She encounters Adam out there, picking up more garbage and throwing it to one side. Has no one in Arcadia ever heard of Rubbermaid, or Hefty? She asks him, "Want a cigarette?" Adam: "No, thanks. Big fan of the lungs." Hee. Judith: "Right. You know, usually I'm the only one around here this early, so I won't have to endure the breakfast inquisition with the shrinks. You?" He claims he just wanted to see Joan's garden. She says, "You could see it laterwith her." Adam says it would be weird if she were here: "You know, we always work on these kinds of projects together. This is the first time we're not." Judith asks if it's because of her. I'm not sure I believe she's able to conceive of anything as not being because of her in some way. Adam tries to deflect the question but finally admits that it is because of Judith: "Sorry." Judith, looking slightly sad, changes the subject and says she used to plant stuff with her father: "Then he got busy, he got a gardener and we stopped doing that kind of thing. Guess that's why I freaked when Joan said she wanted to do a garden, huh?" Adam shrugs. After a pause he says he's going to keep cleaning up, and asks Judith if she wants to help. She pretends to consider that and says, "Nah." She walks off.
Roebuck asks Will if he got anything from DeShawn Wallace. Will: "Apparently he lost his power of speech." Chewy plays Exposition Fairy: "With the witness dead, he knew he was going home." Roebuck: "So he didn't mention anyone in the department?" Will says no. Roebuck looks at Chewy, who stares back evenly. Well, as evenly as can a man who's barely fending off a Skittles attack. Roebuck asks if they know Stab Wound and Backward Cap, whose names are apparently Duncan and Simmons. Will: "Plainclothes, live on the street, yeah." Chewy says they were responsible for two of the year's biggest coke busts. Roebuck says he brought them over from arson. Will: "What are you saying, Roy?" Roebuck hands Will their files: "See if you find anything." They leave, and Will remarks to Chewy, "Who the hell are we investigating?"
Joan comes out to her garden to find Adam setting up a couple of...artworks, I guess. They're a little twee compared to his usual work. Adam points to one and says he made her a tree for her garden. Joan points: "Are those cigarette butts?" Ecch. Forget "twee." How about revolting? He says they are, and that he dipped them in leftover slushies. Okay, now I really am going to puke. Adam: "The sugar makes killer glue." Joan: "Cool." She points to the othersculptureand Adam indicates that it's a garden gnome. It's got some kind of plastic bucket for a head, with some sunglasses on it, and it's brandishing something made of brightly coloured yellow and orange cellophane. "They live under the earth and guard their buried treasure. This is his fire spear. I had a serious Dungeons and Dragons habit. I'm better now." Me: "Thank God." Frink: "Hey!" Joan giggles and thanks him, and goes to hug and kiss him, which prompts the burnouts in the peanut gallery to make lots of "aw" sounds and comments of "get a room." Joan gives up. Luke and Grace arrive with a wagon and wheelbarrow full of plants and supplies. Luke announces he's mapped out a planting plan based on the arc of the sun and hours of daylight last fall. Joan: "Okay, Luke, don't -- don't get all sweaty. All we're going for is 'not dead.'" Luke, undeterred, replies, "Despite the team leader's nonexistent expectations, the existing momentum propels the project forward." Joan asks Grace, who's unloading flowers, "What are the yellow thingies?" Grace explains they're mums (or "moms," as one local purveyor of autumnal horticulture has it): "They bloom in the fall, attract the bees, bees pollinate the non-flowering shrubs, which keep aphids from eating other plants." Joan just looks at her. Grace: "What?" Joan: "You researched all that?" Grace: "One episode of one show on the Home and Garden channel. Don't make me regret this."
“ But I've reconsidered; I think the scene was meant to be just as much about Helen's inability to access her memories and emotions of that night without fearing she would come apart and be too weak to support Kevin and get through the lawsuit. ”
Helen and Will are meeting with their lawyer, Tom Murphy. He says he found a witness who saw Andy yelling at Kevin during their conversation: "I brought up the act as hostile and threatening, and their attorney agreed to withdraw their request for an increase in damages." As he moves on to the subject, Kevin comes in without knocking. No one knows what to make of this. Helen asks, "Are you okay, honey?" Kevin says he's not. Tom offers to leave them alone, but Kevin replies, "No. I'm tired of being alone. I want to be a part of this." Will says they'll talk about it at home. Kevin parks his chair to Helen's as he says, "That's the problem, Dad. We won't talk about it." To Tom: "You need my statement, right? We're still in discovery?" Will apologizes to Tom for Kevin's unexpected appearance. Tom says they're going to need his statement sooner or later. Will says he's just not sure Kevin's ready for this. Kevin: "I'm not ready? Have you done your statement yet, Mom?" Will: "Kevin" Helen, looking sort of sadly guilty, says, "I'm -- I'm trying to put my thoughts in order." Kevin's arms are crossed over his chest and he replies, "No, you -- you're afraid of them. And so are you, Dad. You think if I'm not here to go over all the details, it'll be easier, like it happened to someone else. But it's never gonna be easier. It's gonna suck every time we think about it, soI'm sorry, that's just the way it is." Will says he doesn't want Kevin to go through it again. It's more than just basic parental love at work here; I think they can't forgive themselves for not somehow preventing the accident in the first place, so they're determined to try to shield Kevin from having to experience any other aspect of it, as if that will somehow compensate. Kevin: "But I have to. Don't take this away from me. I've lost enough."
He's a bit tearful as he says to Tom, "It's still kinda hazy for me. UmAndy didn't know how fast he was going. And I didn't want to show how s-s-scared I was." As he pauses and struggles to assemble his comment, Helen says softly, "There was music playing in the hospital. Some radio someplace. Bach, I think. It was so out of place. Andywas leaving with his father. They rushed past me. They couldn'tlook at me. And then, I heard all I those people working on you, behind the curtain, frantic. And yoursneakers, the new ones I had just bought, in shredsbecause they cut them off your feetlying in the blood on the floor" She breaks down completely and Kevin's in tears; he puts his hand on her back and rubs it and she leans over to hold him and cry into his shoulder. Will and Tom glance at each other and manfully repress their tears. Nice work by Jason Ritter and Mary Steenburgen. I know quite a few viewers were annoyed by what they saw as Helen horning in on Kevin's moment there, and I actually felt the same way when I first watched it. But I've reconsidered; I think the scene was meant to be just as much about Helen's inability to access her memories and emotions of that night without fearing she would come apart and be too weak to support Kevin and get through the lawsuit. Seeing that Kevin is willing and able to face up to it freed her to express herself and begin dealing, too. In addition: It's weird that they mention Helen hearing classical music at the hospital, though, since in another episode, Kevin mentions coming to after the accident and hearing classical music on the car radio.
“ Judith, however, steps out of nowhere and puts herself in front of the bulldozer, holding her hand up in a 'stop' gesture. Joan yells at her to watch out. The driver stops. Glynis remarks, 'A heroine goddess.' What? Maybe if you're spelling it heroin. Friedman: 'That's my girl.' Shut it, dweeb. ”
Ms. Lischak parades her AP Physics class out to the bleachers to regard Joan's garden/experiment. She's seen fit to bear a little pink parasol over her head. Me: "Oh, for" Frink: "She's so great." I roll my eyes. I have to give her this much: Lischak's one of those rare attention whores (outside of show business) who's managed to channel her neurosis appropriately, largely by picking a profession where getting and keeping people's attention is more than half the task. She bloviates: "Indeterminacy, my warriors! Who will catch a cold? Who will stumble and fall along the dusty path?" Grace takes that as an opportunity to trip Friedman, who takes a header into the dirt. Still cheap, and I still love it. "And will the horticultural efforts of Team Girardi survive the wasteland of poor soil and D students? Can you expand?" Luke finds a passage in their report and tells Joan, "Read. Remember, it's not just your grade." Joan starts, "'We posit' 'Posit'?" Luke: "Yes, 'posit.'" Joan continues, "'We posit that no one behaves according to predetermined assumptions. Humanity and beauty have the potential to coexist where the obstacles are the most challenging. We offer our garden as an inquiry into the nature of hope, the greatest indeterminacy of all.'" Lischak declares, "Poetic. As all great science truly is."
There's the noise of a large construction vehicle all of a sudden, and everyone looks over as a bulldozer lumbers up to the garden. Joan: "Oh, no." She runs for the garden. Luke, right behind her, complains, "Bulldozers were not part of my calculation." Everyone runs for the garden. Judith, however, steps out of nowhere and puts herself in front of the bulldozer, holding her hand up in a "stop" gesture. Joan yells at her to watch out. The driver stops. Glynis remarks, "A heroine goddess." What? Maybe if you're spelling it heroin. Friedman: "That's my girl." Shut it, dweeb. Luke: "The ultimate indeterminate." Judith bends down to fuss with the Charlie Brown tree as the bulldozer drops its scoop on the ground with a crash and Joan screams, "Judith!" Judith just glares at the foreman. The foreman comes over to tell her to stand aside. Lischak's folded up her parasol -- guessing (correctly, I would imagine) that the foreman isn't going to take her and her precious pink parasol too seriously -- and she informs the foreman that the garden is an AP Physics project. Foreman: "How charming. But we're putting in new bleachers." Joan seems distressed, but not especially surprised or outraged. Lischak: "Can it be spared the final deathblow until our research is complete?" He crabs, "Lady, I got a union employee, hourly wages, it's outta my hands! Everybody, see the garden? It's lovely. It's a lovely garden. Now move!" Judith stands up, dusts off her hands, crosses her arms, and gives the guy a defiant stare. Some of the students start chanting "Judith, Judith, Judith." Pretty soon everyone's doing it. On first viewing, I totally cringed. It just seemed so -- phony and contrived. While recapping it, it bothered me slightly less, but I honestly can't figure out if that's only because I knew it was coming. It's just a little hard to buy, but then again, some TWoP posters in high school have said they can easily picture such a response at their schools. Also, I know a lot of people were surprised that Grace was chanting, and even clapping, but actually, if you can get past the fact that anyone was, I think it was a pretty predictable impulse on her part, in that perhaps if she'd had time to consider the whole thing in context, maybe she wouldn't have. But in the moment, I think it's entirely consistent for Grace to instantly identify with and support anyone who appears to be standing up to The Man. I love Grace, but I think she's capable of knee-jerk responses, too.
“ It just reads as a cheap opportunity for Judith to both get attention and buy her way back into her classmates' good graces -- a grandstand instead of a stand. ”
The foreman finally comes over and picks Judith up and carries her off the plot. She makes a face and then sticks her fist in the air, as if she's somehow triumphant. What's that about? She hasn't achieved a damn thing. Frink: "Good thing she's not Palestinian. She'd be dead." ["Enough with the sugar-coating, Professor! (Heh.)" -- Sars] Everyone keeps clapping and cheering. And I'm not clear on what that's about, either. Seriously, if they wanted to stop the bulldozers, they should have all planted their asses in the garden. These tykes have a lot to learn about civil disobedience and passive resistance. Also, where is Mr. Price this year? This seems like the sort of thing he'd be all over. Up in the air, Judith smiles at Joan, who returns the smile. The music for this scene is Emmylou Harris's cover of Bob Dylan's "Every Grain of Sand." When the foreman puts Judith down, she and Joan embrace. The bulldozer immediately destroys the garden -- including Adam's sculptures, neither of which is much of a loss to the art world, leaving us with a score of Arcadians 3, Art 0. Oh, and: way to protect Adam's work again, there, Joan. Judith tells Joan, "Hey, I'm sorry." Up on the bleachers behind them, Joan sees Slacker God arrive and sit down. She tells Judith she'll be right back. Suddenly Judith is confronted with The Friedman, who simpers at her, "The Friedman likey." Oh, God. I told you. I told you you'd never get rid of him. Did I not tell you? She just looks apprehensive and walks away.
I think the real problem with the scene is not so much the cheesy chanting but the insincerity of Judith's behaviour. The chanting rings false because people don't change their feelings about someone so unlikable that easily. It's impossible for me, after two episodes of nothing but obnoxious, selfish, attention-whoring behaviour from her, to see her gesture as anything but self-aggrandizing and disingenuous. Even if some small part of her motivation is to defend the garden on its own merits and support her friend(s), we haven't seen enough of any other side of Judith to buy it as a genuine position. It just reads as a cheap opportunity for Judith to both get attention and buy her way back into her classmates' good graces -- a grandstand instead of a stand. There needed to be a little more sympathy developed for Judith, and her character needed to be a little more well-rounded, before I could buy this as an act of redemption. I don't fault Sprague Grayden's portrayal; I think she's done well with the material she's been given. I think the writers rushed the character development -- though not as much as they did with Iris, thank God. On the other handI have this little epigram taped up in front of me, which I took off a tea bag -- some of the teas Frink drinks come with little bits of wisdom on the bags, and I like some of them enough to stick them up on my monitor. Anyway, this one says, "If you cannot see God in all, you cannot see God at all." And thinking about that, I sort of suspect that the character of Judith is going to pay off, despite my dislike and misgivings at this point. On the third handshut up, teabag.
Joan stands in front of Slacker God, who says, "It was a cool garden, Joan. And I loved the fire spear." Joan asks, "Is she gonna be okay?" He replies, "She was planting crocuses and tulips. It doesn't matter if the ground gets bulldozed 'cause they'll still come up in the spring. She knew that." Well, I hate to differ with God, but if she planted them at the right depth, probably three to six inches deep, they're likely to get bulldozed, and if she planted them a whole lot deeper they're not going to get enough heat and light to grow. Joan: "So what I was growing" Joan gives him a questioning shrug. Slacker God: "Grew." Joan takes that in and then turns around to look at Judith, basking in celebrity following her ouster from the garden. God leaves with a Godwave, and Joan walks down the bleachers and leans toward Judith, putting her hands on her shoulders and letting herself fall off the last seat into a slo-mo hug with Judith. "I gaze into the doorway of temptation's angry flame / And every time I pass that way I always hear my name / Then onward in my journey I come to understand / That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand."