S02.E06: Episode 6

[OtterMommy]

Quote

Bouncing back is the only option, so Otis throws a small gathering that turns rowdy, and Jackson deals with the healing.  Who can handle the truth?

Netflix drop date: January 17, 2020

[PWHCHCH]

I perfectly believe Adam and Michael are father and son. The casting is absolutely spot on. The actors look so alike! 
 

I hope Jackson doesn’t do anything silly and hurt himself. 

[Prower]

I'm really sad for Adam, that he's still too scared to show who he really is. I mean what has he got to lose at this point. It's not even like his father can kick him out of the house anymore and it doesn't seem like his mom would. Of course that's no excuse to treat othher people badly, but it doesn't seem like he's doing that anymore. Now he just treats himself badly.

I mean Oti's speach was a bit dickish but it wasn't far off, except for calling Maeve a selfish person.

Also am I just ignorant or did wheelchair asshole still lie about how he came to be in said wheelchair? Usually when your spinal cord gets severed high enough you lose the use of your arms and your hands, not either or. Also if the injury was that high, he should be strapped to the wheelchair, as he wouldn't be able to sit upright otherwise, but I couldn't see anything like that. In general it looks much more like he has a degenerative disease. So was he lying, am I just ignorant or could the show runners actually not find an actor who would fit their story? (but then why wouldn't they change it?)

When you think Groff couldn't be a bigger asshole (and not the good kind) he proofs you wrong. I mean copying private therapy notes and probably revealing them to the whole school, because your wife left you, on account of you being a massive prick and not even giving her your prick once in a while, that's suuuuuuper low.

But I think Jean is partly to blame here. She shouldn't be so careless with sensitive information. If you leave your shit lying around, at least don't use real names. Good god, woman.

Edited January 18, 2020 by Prower

[pootlus]

Lot to take in this episode.  I'm really, really glad they had Eric address the bullying by Adam.  I mean, he seems to click with Adam better than he does with sexy SEXY Rahim but the years of mistreatment is something that I don't know if Eric will (or even should) get over enough to be in a relationship.

Despite that, the actor playing Adam does make him a hugely sympathetic character and I'm interested - if dreading - where his path goes next.  I like that he got to bond with a (justifiably) pissed off Ola.

Poor Aimee - the trauma of her assault is wrecking her life and no-one seems to even notice.  I didn't like her walking off down the dark lane after the party.  Hope she gets some therapy.

Glad that Anwar is showing the non-dickhead side of his personality.

I guess the bonus of Netflix is that the question of "Who the heck was Otis naked in bed with?" gets answered in a few minutes...

[Garden Wafers]

10 hours ago, Prower said:

Also am I just ignorant or did wheelchair asshole still lie about how he came to be in said wheelchair? Usually when your spinal cord gets severed high enough you lose the use of your arms and your hands, not either or. Also if the injury was that high, he should be strapped to the wheelchair, as he wouldn't be able to sit upright otherwise, but I couldn't see anything like that. In general it looks much more like he has a degenerative disease. So was he lying, am I just ignorant or could the show runners actually not find an actor who would fit their story? (but then why wouldn't they change it?)

I wasn't too bothered by his story. Given the history, it's possible that he suffered more than one type of injury during the fall (e.g a spinal cord lesion at the lumbar level with a brachial plexus injury if he stretched out his arm to catch himself or even two separate spinal cord lesions) or he's simply regained differing degrees of function after rehab. 

[lh25]

21 hours ago, Prower said:

Also am I just ignorant or did wheelchair asshole still lie about how he came to be in said wheelchair? Usually when your spinal cord gets severed high enough you lose the use of your arms and your hands, not either or.

To be fair, I missed some of that in the show.  But about such injuries, my mom had a spinal cord injury about 2 years ago, she fell on an escalator.  She can move her arms, but has issues with fine motor skills with her hands.  She can do things like feed herself, but writing or typing is hard.

[DoctorAtomic]

Eric has the best line readings. NO CHICKEN!

I know Maeve doesn't do herself any favors, but the gall of the quiz team to ask her back.

Rahim just kills me with his matter-of-factness.

Of any of the characters, I don't know how the swimmer hasn't shot up the school with the mother constantly hammering into him left and right. I do like his friendship with the quiz girl.

I know Jean is chill, but I'm surprised she's letting Otis having a party with drinking. And drunk Otis is not a good guy. Yeesh.

I'm getting a little bored with the 'mean kids' group. They're largely one dimensional and it's starting to strain credulity no one told them to fuck off by now. I'm actually glad Rahim kind of told him off.

Aimee is so delightfully dim, but I feel really bad for her about the bus.

GA's reaction shot to seeing Otis in the bed was priceless.

Edited January 19, 2020 by DoctorAtomic

[DoctorAtomic]

On 1/18/2020 at 3:30 AM, pootlus said:

I guess the bonus of Netflix is that the question of "Who the heck was Otis naked in bed with?" gets answered in a few minutes...

I'm still watching this episode, but it was the popular 'Thursday is the new Friday' girl. They showed him making out with her in the living room during the dancing/chicken montage.

On 1/17/2020 at 11:15 PM, Prower said:

But I think Jean is partly to blame here. She shouldn't be so careless with sensitive information. If you leave your shit lying around, at least don't use real names. Good god, woman.

I assume she didn't think Otis would steal it out of her purse, but don't have a locked book or use real names is not good professional practice.

[caitmcg]

53 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

On 1/17/2020 at 10:15 PM, Prower said:

But I think Jean is partly to blame here. She shouldn't be so careless with sensitive information. If you leave your shit lying around, at least don't use real names. Good god, woman.

I assume she didn't think Otis would steal it out of her purse, but don't have a locked book or use real names is not good professional practice.

She left it lying on the desk in an unlocked room at the school. It was there for the taking, so yes, her professionalism was rather lacking;

[DoctorAtomic]

To be fair, it was in her purse, so it wasn't completely out in the open, but I wouldn't leave my shit out in HS anyway because you know kids are going to fuck around.

[possibilities]

She has NEVER been good with boundaries. She's always been both lax and invasive with Otis, and I'm not surprised she's doing the same at school.

 

[ahisma]

On 1/17/2020 at 8:13 PM, GSManiac said:

I perfectly believe Adam and Michael are father and son. The casting is absolutely spot on. The actors look so alike! 

Yes! That scene where he’s standing in the driveway waiting for Maureen was the absolute image of Adam pining for Eric. Except I want Michael to die in a fire and I want Adam to heal. Please be better than your dad, kid...

On 1/19/2020 at 12:47 PM, DoctorAtomic said:

Rahim just kills me with his matter-of-factness.

His anal douching lecture was gold. Also his advice—he should team up with Otis’s counseling practice.

Jean’s notebook was Chekov’s Gun from the very first scene where she was carefully writing out the student’s name and issues. (And the season 2 mirror of her book about Otis’s lack-of-sex life in season 1.) I just didn’t expect it to be Mr. Groff to pull the trigger. 

[Danny Franks]

So Otis and Eric's conversation at the start of the episode really summed up a huge flaw of this season - they don't interact with anyone. Not Maeve, not Lily, not Aimee. There were little flashes of potential friendship last season, but they're all gone. All we've had is Otis and Ola, Eric and his two guys and Maeve with the shittiest storylines of the season.

I don't know why they've added so many new characters, when there was so much unexplored potential in the characters they already had. This episode is the first time we heard more than three words from Anwar. Rahim is a good addition, but the rest are not.

Rahim's completely matter-of-fact douching lecture was excellent. Seems like Anwar would be best off skipping Otis and going straight to the expert.

So Maeve has to do the quiz team storyline, which is an absolute dead end. The questions they get asked are all just so rubbish.

But it was sweet that she made such an effort to go to Otis' party... and then the creepy guy tagged along. There is nothing likeable about him. Why is Maeve paying him any attention? She should have left him at the top of the stairs.

And why isn't Otis talking to Maeve? Why is he pissed at her? He's the one who sent the text saying they couldn't see each other any more. He was a complete prick this episode too, and I don't give people a pass for stuff they say when they're drunk. But I also don't give writers a pass for inorganic, illogical writing that has the sole purpose of driving a wedge between characters.

I did love Aimee's completely straightforward "why are you in a wheelchair?" She cracks me up, and it's a shame we've seen so little of her.

Meanwhile, Aimee is traumatised by sexual assault, Adam might be on the verge of a mental breakdown and Jackson is self-harming. Remember when this show was actually fun?

[Bastet]

Wow, an awful lot of ugly behavior in this one!  Thank goodness for Eric standing up for himself with Adam, because that was about the only positive thing.  Oh, and the anal douching instructions; I loved the teacher taking a picture of Rahim's drawings.

Otis is an absolute dick of a drunk, and Mr. Groff is pure evil.  (As has been said, Jean is also an idiot for leaving her notes in an unlocked room at school.)  Jackson telling Viv she's a robot, not a person, was painful to watch.  Because it's very real - he doesn't want to be talked about as a statistic, so he lashes out, but she's genuinely afraid for him based on what she knows.

This show is killing me with all the text messages shown on screen; my TV has a decent-sized screen, but my distance vision is weak even with glasses, so I can't read half of them.

[possibilities]

7 minutes ago, Bastet said:

This show is killing me with all the text messages shown on screen;

That's a problem for me, too. More and more shows are doing it, and I almost never can read what any of it says. It's a problem.