I won’t be here, since Ivylad and I are going to my office Xmas party, but please check in here to discuss the show tonight! Joan goes on a date with a Goth! Should be interesting.
(And while I will get by TWoP recap, I wouldn’t mind a few spoilers.)
Thanks!
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I really liked this episode. Things that stand out for me:
– The Joan/Luke relationship
– Continuity with previous episodes
– Grace in a dress. Grrroowwwwl!
– Grace & Luke kiss. woo hoo!
– Joan once again pays a price for obeying God
– It didn’t have a sappy, trite ending: although things turned out better for everyone than they might have, it’s still not ‘happy.’ Ramsey still ends up in jail. Adam gets his heart crushed by Joan even more.
Things that bothered me:
– some of the dialogue during the climactic standoff was kind of cheesy
– No Kevin! Or, almost none.
Was Goth-God kid the same actor who played God in the first two episodes (TWOP called him “HotGod”)? He voice sounded familiar but he was hard to recognize under the makeup. Nice to see Substitute Teacher God again.
If there was a preview for next week, my TiVo missed it. Can we hope for another new ep or are they going into repeats?
I liked how the story paralelled the quantum uncertainty that Luke was blathering about.
Yeah, I’m a dork.
Good point Friedo. By observing something, you change it. Cool.
I’m pissed. They pre-empted JoA here tonight for some St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital telethon. I know it’s for a good cause and all but seriously…during one of the only shows I like on that channel? sigh :smack:
If I observe a bunch of my students’ research papers long enough, can I change them (make them go away)? 
Poor Joan. Poor Adam. How much hell do these two have to go through ? It’s only been a few months and they’ve already been through the ringer.
Grace is a terrific character.
Good ep., though I still wish they’d give Joan’s younger brother more to do.
Actually, Ivylass the goth guy was God, telling her to go on a date with the school bully. I thought the same thing from the previews, but the bully was just normal looking.
He was played by the guy who played Chip, the little brother on “Kate & Allie” years ago.
I liked it.
It’ll be interesting to see how the whole police force being under investigation bit turns out. Funny bit of parallel there, since Baltimore’s former police chief (this takes place in Maryland, remember) is currently under investigation for misusing funds. He allegedly spent thousands on dinners and gifts for girlfriends and trips with high-end hotels rooms.
I like when God shows up as former Gods. (does that make sense?)
He showed up at the end as the Old Lady God again, at the school with the cupcakes.
Did anyone catch what her button said? Something about “Help Soccer…” something.
I love the fact that they aren’t afraid to shake things up on the show…but for God’s sake (if you’ll pardon the pun), how much more shit are Adam and Joan going to have to go through?
Maybe I’m in the minority with this opiniom, but isn’t a big part of the show’s theme about Joan going through shit and coming out the other side (inevitably having learned something)?
You’re not a dork, Friedo. At least, not for this reason.
I was pretty drunk when I watched the episode, but it seemed to me that Luke was explaining the Uncertainty Principle wrong – that is, applying it to entire atoms rather than subatomic particles. Of course my physics knowledge is a little rusty. (Sorry, I meant to say my physics knowledge has decayed. My chemistry knowledge is rusty.)
So, did the family only try one group therapy session and then give up on it? There was a chorus of “No!” from the kids when their Mom suggested trying it again.
Amber Tamblyn continues to impress me.
Yes, but far too much of what she goes through seems to be designed to hurt Adam’s feelings.
I’m probably going to be in the minority here, but I thought the episode was fabulous until the last 5 minutes. Maybe I prefer Joan not knowing exactly how far-reaching her actions are, or maybe I’m responding negatively to the pat ending of “the kid was gonna pull a Columbine and you stopped him,” but I just thought it was a bit… trite. I would have been entirely satisfied with the ambiguous idea that Joan kept Ramsey from becoming an irredeamable monster, or from offing himself.
I really liked the scene at the dinner table, when Will and Helen just looked at one another after Joan’s exposition on why she’d asked Ramsey to the dance, completely exasperated, like “dammit, we went and raised her TOO well…” Great bit of acting. And Grace in a dress!! Kissing Luke!!! Wooohooo!!
I liked the ending. What made it work for me is that no one knows the good that came out of Joan’s actions except for Joan and God. There was no discovery of a secret diary outlining plans to shoot up the school which I half expected. So Joan ends up having to deal with some people who are rather upset with her for her choices–and no one understands the good that came out of them. I never see that on television. Usually, someone deals with friends and family criticising their choices until the last 5 minutes where all is revealed and they get their congratulations. That didn’t happen here. Joan alone knows she did the right thing, but others don’t understand.
Exactly. That’s what I liked, too.
I like that it isn’t always made clear to everyone around her just why she does what she does.
I agree that the outcomes mostly seem to involve Adam’s feelings being hurt (believe me, I feel for the poor guy) but wasn’t he pretty shut down emotionally when first we met him? I assume that his mother’s death made an introverted kid go even more inside himself. Though he’s feeling lots of angst right now, at least he’s feeling something. I too, would love to see them let up on him a bit. Hopefully, there’s a plan in place for that to happen somewhere along the line.
It’s going to be near-impossible for any show to use a storyline in which a character prevents another Columbine without causing a lot of eyes to roll. It’s just such a self-consciously IMPORTANT subject. Although I think I’d have preferred a conclusion where it was revealed that Ramsey would have killed only that administrator he hated (Gavin something?) and not a whole bunch of other people, I think the show did pretty well. A lesser show would have numbered Joan’s friends or her mother among the victims – a cheap, formulaic play for importance.
Okay, I’m going to need a brief recap! Luke and Grace kissed? Woohooo! And how did Joan hurt Adam again?
(BTW, the Xmas party was great, but I woke up this morning feeling like someone was trying to unscrew the top of my head. That will teach me to drink a glass of wine, three Cosmopolitans, one Tequila Sunrise, and a Bud Lite. Ivylad drove, and I hardly ever drink. Fun, but major ouch this morning!)
Joan tried to comfort Adam after Ramsey bullied him, but he brushed her off. Then she asked Ramsey to the school dance and Adam knew it.
That’s as much as I can recall. I’m beat.
Damn. I thought that Adam was going to come around and realize that he still liked her when he saw she was in danger and went for help. 
The ending teared me up during God’s explaination, but that might just be PMS.
My shallow side would like to comment that Joan’s hair looked great when curled for the dance, and she should do that more often.
This is only the second episode I’ve seen of this show, but I’m hooked. I liked the way it ended, with Joan convinced she’d done no good and only caused a tragedy before she learned she had prevented a greater one. I like the reminder that we never know how the simplest action (observe, be present) might have great effects. Oh, and friedo, I also got a kick out of the quantum uncertainty parallel. I’ll toss out one other thing; After that episode, I read the last chapter of a book which a friend of mine is writing; it’s working title is Science of the Craft, and the friend has both a publisher and deadline.
I’ve got a couple of questions for those who discovered this show before I did. I checked out the website, so I know who’s who, with one rather large exception: God. How does Joan recognize Him/Her and how is the audience supposed to? I can handle the idea of a seemingly innocuous conversation which turns Significant; as one of the Board’s religious fanatics, I can see how that would happen, but I was wondering if it were somewhat more obvious.
Thanks,
CJ