Episode Report Card Al Lowe: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Playing Possum
By Al Lowe | Season 1 | Episode 2 | Aired on 03.09.2010
rget="_blank">Esalen back in the 70s. Hilarious. Adam barely has time to absorb this before Crosby mentions that, oh, yeah, the doc has a cancellation that afternoon. Adam can't get out of there fast enough.At home, he and Kristina are wrestling with Max, trying to get him on board for this appointment. It is, in a word, a struggle. He is being belligerent and generally pirate-like and won't put on his shoes. "This guy's the Bob Dylan of Asperger's," Adam says, trying to convince Max to hurry up. "Bob Dylan," Max counters, "never had a number one record." Adam: "He's a genius." Max wants to know how come, if that's the case, Dylan never had a number one record when the Beatles, Michael Jackson and the Bee Gees all had multiple number ones. "Well, maybe try not to compare Bob Dylan to the Bee Gees," he says. "Come on." Um, hold up. Dylan is definitely a genius, yes. No question. He really is. But due respect to the Bee Gees, man. They deserve it, for far more than "Jive Talkin'," which frankly would be more than enough to earn respect from anyone! Anyway, things are about to hit a fever pitch when Haddie walks in, hands in pockets. "Hey," she says. Adam impatiently asks her what she wants. "Um, it was mine. The pot. It was mine," she says. "I couldn't sleep last night and I felt like I had to tell you, so..." She says a couple of her friends chipped in to buy it and she realized it was stupid and she's not going to do it again. "Okay?" she says, kind of shrugging. The camera cuts back to her seriously beleaguered parents who have so much to deal with with Max, and their faces say it all. Disappointment and sadness. Now that right there? The confession to something I wasn't even busted for? That was me. WHY was I such a nerd? Y'all, I can't explain it. I was so afraid of getting in trouble, I just pretty much... didn't do bad things! I mean, some, but not really. Is that sad? It is, kind of, isn't it? More importantly... how quickly can I instill this same fear in my own child? Hold on. I need to call my mom.
Speaking of moms, Sarah is all chipper outside the high school waiting to pick up Amber and Drew when she gets a call from Edwin Chung. "Do you have a second?" he asks and she gets all bubbly, saying yes, that it was really fun meeting him today. Crushingly, he says that he's so sorry, but it's not going to work out for him to hire her. His bosses won't let him bring in someone who does not have a college degree. That sucks ass. He says he wanted to call her personally to let her know how sorry he was. Poor Sarah. "Oh," Edwin adds, kind of overly chipper after he's just smashed her heart to bits. "My bosses wanted me to be sure to thank your brother," he says. Sarah is confused. "Do you know him?" she asks. Edwin: "That's why you were brought in. I thought you knew." Sarah says yeah, yeah, and that she'll definitely say hi to him. Amber and Drew walk up, now, and sullenly get in the car just as she is receiving this rejection. "How was school?" Sarah forces herself to ask, and Amber gives her the brush, telling her to just drive. This, naturally, causes Sarah to flip. "All you do is complain!" she yells, causing Drew to flip, and beg her not to do this in front of the school, but Sarah's still going, ending her rant with something about Amber getting Haddie arrested. This is the last straw for Amber, and SHE flips. "I didn't smoke pot," she says. "And I didn't give any to her, and I didn't encourage her to smoke it. But you don't believe me, ever! And you didn't listen!" She adds also, a big sarcastic thanks to Sarah for sending her to this crappy school that is going to hold her back a year. Sarah is stunned to hear this and tries to find out more from the hysterical Amber, but the girl has had enough and jumps out of the car saying she's going to take the bus.
Finally, Adam and Kristina have reached the inner sanctum of the enigmatic Dr. Pelikan. Max plays in the waiting room as the doc tells his parents what a nice, wonderful son they have. Kristina makes him cut to the chase, and he says that Max is very high-functioning, but he does find that his behaviors are consistent with an Asperger's diagnosis. Bless their hearts, Adam and Kristina are devastated. "Oh my God," Kristina whispers, but Adam goes straight into coach mode. "This is fine," he says. "We can work through this, and it's not an insurmountable problem. I think we should work through this stuff one by one. So, pirate costume." Dr. Pelikan kindly tells him that it's better to start with the more big picture issues, but Adam in his way, is freaking out. Finally, Kristina insists that they should let the doctor talk. The doctor explains that though Asperger's is not something that can be "cured," it's not a prison sentence. Poor Adam does not understand. Kristina asks what they're supposed to do for Max. "You will help to uncover Max's gifts," Dr. Pelikan says. "You figure out how he learns." He explains that the research shows that the greatest barometer of success for children with Asperger's is their parents' involvement. All the irritation I felt about the Lessings has evaporated with the excellent way this information is being presented, here. Good job, show. Adam is still on the edge of the flip, shaking his head like someone just bumped his car in a fender bender. "Just in case we can never see you again," he says, with just the perfect amount of snark, "what do you suggest we do about the pirate costume?" Dr. P explains: it's not about pulling Max out of his comfort zone, it's about joining him in it. "And," he says, "when he's ready, you walk him into the world." So sweetly put. Adam and Kristina lean on each other. All right, yes, I cried.
The school fundraiser is in full swing with all adult Bravermans in attendance. On stage, Raquel is finishing up her co-chair speech, turning the evening over to Joel who will be the auctioneer. He's wearing a black jacket with a black shirt and a black tie, and despite this, he's hot. Raquel thinks so, too. "Does he clean up well, or what?" she asks the crowd, instantly getting Julia's back up. As Raquel goes on and on about Joel's amaaaazingness, Kristina's eyes narrow. "Who is this tramp?" she asks Julia. "Are they, like, screwing?" Sarah adds. "NO, what?" Julia asks, while Joel meanwhile loads praises on Raquel for all of her hard work. Julia responds to this with full-on bitch face and seriously, I cannot blame her. All this chit-chat is too much for Zeek, who impatiently yells out for Joel to get on with it before the platform (that Joel built) collapses. "That's my father-in-law," Joel tells the audience. "And I am not kidding." The auction begins with a doozy of an item -- a premium parking spot at the school for an entire year. "That's mine!" Julia tells her family, and when the bidding opens at $300, she happily raises her hand. The bids start flying pretty big, but Julia is glad to keep bidding. It's for charity after all, and finally she is rewarded when it appears she is about to win it for $650. An usher walks by and hands her a microphone, but just as Joel is about to call her the winner, Raquel jumps to her feet and ups the bid. Now, is she doing this out of competition, or because she wants to raise more money? You decide. Julia has decided it's the former, and her bulldog lawyerly streak kicks in hard. Her whole family gives her nervous glances as she stands up to continue bidding to the death. Raquel keeps upping it. Finally, Zeek turns to Julia asking what the hell is wrong with Raquel, as in how can she afford to keep doing this? "I know," Julia says in what she THINKS is an aside but is actually being spoken directly into a live microphone, "she doesn't even work." Zzzzrrrrt! The needle comes off the record. The crowd goes dead silent as Julia mumbles some stuff about how wait, not working is such a valid, wonderful choice and how she took an extra month of maternity leave and everything. Finally, Joel saves her, calling the bid going once and twice for $1,500 for Raquel. But, Julia's not going down like that. "Let's make it $1,920 in honor of the year women won the right to vote!" she says, raising her fist. "Solidarity." Wow. Feminism is dead.
In the parking lot, the sibs and Kristina are standing around when Julia walks up with the big, framed parking pass she just bought with humiliation dollars. Sarah is harassing Adam for the call he put in about the job which, by the way, she did not get, she tells them. Adam apologizes. "Dad thought it would be a good idea," he says, which makes her even more angry. Julia jumps in to diffuse the situation, asking how the meeting went with Max. Aw. Kristina quietly says that Adam can tell them. "It's official," he says. "Max has Asperger's." Crosby, Julia and Sarah all put their hands on Adam's chest to comfort him, before realizing how silly it looks. "What am I doing? I'm straightening your tie?" Sarah says. Adam laughs, but tells them that, just to make life suckier, they caught their perfect daughter with pot. To illustrate the point, he pulls the bag of weed out of his jacket. Julia says that, as his lawyer, she would have advised him not to bring that to the elementary school. "He was hunting a possum," Kristina says, by way of explanation, "while wearing a blazer and his underwear." Hee. "So," Sarah says, catching on to the bigger point, "it was Haddie's? Amber didn't lie? Amber... told the truth!" Adam says he's glad she thinks Haddie's drugs are such good news. "Amber told the truth!" she repeats. Adam repeats that yeah, but Haddie's smoking pot. "Well, Amber told me the truth," Sarah says again. "That's happened like, one other time." Meanwhile, Crosby is rolling a joint. "I'm just trying to figure out what kind of mischief my niece is getting up to," he explains. "It smells like Mexican mischief, but it may be Humboldt mischief." Julia tells him that if he gets caught and gets her kicked out of this school, she will take his skinny ass down. "Well, if you get booted," he says, exhaling, "then maybe that ho won't try to Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6Next