Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT I'll Be You
By M. Giant | Season 1 | Episode 15 | Aired on 02.15.2011
Back at home, Daphne gets a call from Chris, saying his bike won't start and he needs a ride. But it's actually Charlotte calling (she's a voice-shifter too, don't you know) to get her out of the house. That way Charlotte can shapeshift into Daphne -- clothes and all -- and head inside herself. A quick search of the master suite soon reveals Stephanie's lip stuff that so enflaccidates Jim's powers, not that Charlotte understands the significance; her Granola bar stash; and a copy of Freedom, about which all the buzz must be true, because Daphnot is instantly engrossed in it. So much so that she doesn't notice JJ has just come in all curious about what she's doing in there. Daphnot makes excuses, but is confused when JJ says it's time to go to the coffee shop. "Please tell me you haven't lost your memory again," he says. Daphnot asks why JJ needs her help, and after explaining that he's just spent an hour memorizing 37 books on criminal behavior, he says, "My super-brain can only get me so far. If I could read minds, I wouldn't need you, but I do, so let's go!" Daphnot's eyes light up as she says, "I can see how that would be very handy." But she says she has to go meet Chris. "Good chat. Very educational." Good thing she can shapeshift, because she's the worst spy ever.
Stephanie is in King's office, acting like she wants to continue Giles's research while he acts like it was too sketchy and shuts her down. Nice try, Stephanie. As she leaves the office, she gets a call from Jim, who is still hanging out in that office with the Powell-board. He tells her about it, and that they have to warn the kids.
Jim then calls Daphne's cell phone, and when she answers it, it's a little ambiguous as to whether he's talking to the real deal until she gets rather professionally curious as to how he plans to "take care of" this situation. Daphnot hangs up on an unsuspecting Jim and switches back to herself, looking concerned, or maybe wondering how she ended up with Daphne's cell phone. Does her phone shapeshift too? I can see how that would be very handy.
On the way to the coffee shop, JJ and Daphne (who has apparently already delivered Chris to wherever and returned home to pick up JJ, who had already left) are chalking up the confusion about their plans to their own miscommunication rather than the infinitely more likely scenario where JJ thought he was talking to his sister when he was actually talking to her body-snatcher. So much for his 37 books on criminal behavior. JJ's the one to approach the barista, and after ordering a double espresso, he compliments her on the locket and asks where she got it. She says her boyfriend gave it to her, and although JJ deploys some of his new criminology science, it's really not necessary; she's lying so badly that even people watching NCIS or Glee are all, "Dude, someone on ABC right now is full of it." Daphne takes her turn, and hears the barista think, "God, I hate nosy kids." Daphne pushes, "Stop lying. Just tell us where you really got the locket." She says she stole it from an antique shop. See how easy that was? She doesn't need to see Daphne's identification.
George is trying to get Jim to get out of there, but he's refusing to leave. It's not like he has a job to get to or anything. Is it even a weekday? I think maybe it is for the parents, but the kids are in the weekend somehow. It makes as much sense as the rest of the timeline. Jim notices the desk phone and decides to dust the handset for prints, just like a real policeman he's always wanted to be. He raids the kitchen, and MacGyvers up a little dusting kit with cocoa powder and Scotch tape. He's just finished lifting a complete and perfect print when he hears the front door open. Enter Charlotte, and Jim gives her just enough time to take in the scene (obvious conclusion: a puckish intruder with severe allergies and hydrophobia attempted to make himself a cup of hot chocolate while taping down her phone handset as a prank) before he bursts out of her closet demanding, "Who the hell are you?" He's all full of questions, but she fools him by acting all innocent right up until she squirts mace in his eyes. He pursues her out to the street, but as he peers red-eyed into the passing crowd, there are so many people walking by she could be anyone. Not that he knows that.
Back at King's office, Charlotte has clearly led with the good news: the kids also have powers, and are "maintaining permanence." And they don't even have to call the doctor when their powers last more than four hours! King thinks Stephanie has figured out how to do all this by herself, on purpose, unaware that she probably knows less about it than he does. Even Charlotte's news that Jim's onto her doesn't shrink his boner; he tells Charlotte to "eliminate" Jim and take his place. Charlotte thinks that's about King's amorous feelings for Stephanie, but King gets crabby in a hurry. Which, you don't have to be Daphne (or even JJ) to know Charlotte hit a nerve there.Back at the precinct, Jim tells George what happened at the apartment. George indulges in a little observational humor about hot women: "One minute they're right there, the next minute they take the good couch and they're gone." And her mug shot isn't showing up in the system either. "Nobody just disappears out of thin air," George assures Jim, like they haven't already tangled with a human cloud.
Katie's visiting a sick Joshua, but the Thai soup she brought him isn't going to take care of his serum-withdrawal symptoms. Joshua refuses to go to Dr. King for more, and he also rejects Katie's suggestion of getting help from Stephanie because it involves telling her about him. He wants Katie to help him instead by trying to synthesize some serum herself. Come on, at least try the Thai soup.
JJ and Daphne have found their way to the antique dealer who used to have the locket in his window (John Kapelos, the custodian from The Breakfast Club, because they're still not done mining that movie). He's not all that willing to give them anything on who sold him the locket, supposedly because he doesn't give out that information, but I think it's because JJ's drawing of the locket is rubbish anyway. Daphne steps in with a "please" -- along with that pushing sound effect that's getting so familiar, as well as that stare she does that makes her eyes seem even farther apart. Suddenly the proprietor comes over all forthcoming, and goes to get them the cancelled check he paid for the locket with. Tractor beam deactivated!
Out on the street, JJ is suspicious of Daphne's new thing, now that he's seen her do it three times today. "Just leave it alone, JJ," she pushes, and JJ agrees to do so. But a second later he realizes that she's Incepting people when they're fully awake. It just doesn't work on him because of his super brain. But now he wants them to go use her power to lean on Kyle Rainey, the guy who sold the locket to the antique dealer...ten years ago. This is quite the serpentine chain of custody they're backtracing.