S03.E02: Breaking Chains

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

While showing Emery the ropes on his first day of middle school, Eddie reveals how he convinced the staff into believing fake Chinese customs that provide special privileges; Louis hires a housekeeper to help lighten Jessica's load at home.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

OF COURSE Eddie wrote "Shaq is a traitor" underneath where he signed Emery up for a club!

[Tiger]

Wasnt Shaq leaving Orlando a huge deal in the 90's?

Im disappinted we didnt get an entire episode's Eddie plot devoted to it.  

[vibeology]

Louis and Jessica's fight after he hired the housekeeper was amazing. That was such a real fight but it never once got nasty. The writing and the acting was so balanced. I'm really impressed with that. Also, I love Jessica and her mice. I'm glad that keeps coming up because its a nice trait for someone like Jessica and it's so true to the 90s. I remember greeting card and souvenir shops full of little figurines like that, all designed to be collected.

Emery being disappointed in Middle School was a great way to go. Eddie is obviously wrong but I do feel for him for having to deal with that much ignorance. It's been a few years, but he was right that his first day at school was awful. I get why that left a bad taste in his mouth and made him want to play those people for every advantage. It sucked for Emery but some of those things (the nice locker close to the door that didn't start with the number 4) were actually true. Jessica probably would have backed Eddie on that particular one. That was Eddie just using his actual culture for a win.

[angora]

Great episode, I thought.  Some of the jokes just killed me; I loved Brian still being tiny in Eddie’s fantasy, Jessica rooting her Nigeria in the women’s long jump because her culture was “winning,” and the mini-shrine Evan made in Emery’s old bus seat.

Agreed on Louis and Jessica's fight, vibeology.  That was awesome - very true to both characters.  I also adored the scene where Louis called Jessica to the restaurant to discuss what went down/get Jessica out of the house so the cleaning lady could go back in.  I like how Louis immediately realized why having her try to clean while Jessica was there was a mistake (he definitely had her number with the "you were probably staring at her the whole time,") and Jessica being mad at him but still admiring "the trickery" was perfect.  It also makes sense to me that, while she appreciated the job Mary did on the house, she still wanted to be the one to do the cleaning, especially since Jessica tends to have a hard time expressing her love for her family - it's easier for her to demonstrate it with how she takes care of and looks out for them.  So for her, I get why she ultimately didn't want to keep Mary on.

I was impressed with where they went with Eddie and Emery's plot.  At first, it just seemed like Eddie being a slacker/sticking it to the man (which, in part, it WAS - the whole thing was so Eddie,) but I really liked Eddie's confrontation with Emery in which he voiced some of the frustration behind it.  It was good to get a reminder of Eddie's first day there, and I thought it all seemed really in character.  Here were these white people who THOUGHT they had Eddie figured out going in (karate, violin,) when actually they didn't know the first thing about his culture (couldn't say his name, kids made fun of his food.)  In the face of that combined presumption and ignorance, I can totally see Eddie scamming the system with fake Chinese customs as a way to get back at them for making him feel that way.  His line about how he makes all his white teachers nervous was excellent.  At the same time, I liked that Eddie realized it wasn't fair for him to dictate who Emery was allowed to be, even if he liked stuff that was "stereotypically Asian."

[Camera One]

Eddie and Emery's argument was well acted.  Emery sounds a lot older already.  I agree they did a good job of showing Eddie's reasoning and made the subplot deeper than it seemed at the onset.

Unfortunately, I didn't find the cleaning plotline that funny.  

[tennisgurl]

I was honestly surprised by the turn Eddie and Emery's plot ended up going, and I really liked it. Yeah Eddie is kind of a lazy slacker kid, but his lies about his culture also came from a place of frustration over being stereotyped and picked on for his race.  I had kind of forgotten how hard things were for Eddie on his first day, as the school has "gotten used" to him, and he has his friends now. He was alone for quite awhile, and I imagine it must have been pretty miserable. And I can see why he gets upset by Emery seeming to live up to the stereotypes, but...thats how Emery is. And thats alright. 

[jmonique]

I loved every second of this. 

My elementary school was very white. My class had one or two black kids every year, one Asian, and me, the half-Taiwanese one. The struggle between Eddie and Emery was brilliant -- each represents the struggle Asian, or even half-Asian kids, faced at some point back in the 80s and 90s. Hudson's really grown into his role, and Forrest added some interesting layers to the normally cheerful Emery.

I love the callbacks, the vibrant fantasies (the boys being super-hot men, standing around in the hallway to be ogled, and the fifth one getting all put out that he wasn't included), Eddie's squad, etc. I loved Nahnatchka Khan's work with "Don't Trust the B* in Apt. 23," and you can see her hand in this show, as well. 

[theatremouse]

I also appreciated that Evan's plot dovetailed from the same issue as Eddie's. I actually thought his moment was the most poignant. It could be easy to read those scenes on the bus as "Evan just needs to let go of Emery not being with him and hey look a nice-seeming kid who wants to be his friend". But it was not at all so innocuous. When Even rolled his eyes after asking the kid to confirm he'd said Evan reminded him of his friend from where he used to live because they're both Chinese; that was the moment of the episode for me. Even though it was the most on the nose, I thought it was the better for it. I thought Ian Chen was great in that scene. He did roll his eyes, but it was more nuanced than just an eyeroll. It was great. 

[angora]

I thought that scene was great too, theatremouse.  Evan's resigned "I guess that makes my day a 5 now" (paraphrasing) was what really got to me.  Just such a "Yeah, so THAT happened - sigh" moment.

[Pristine]

Eddie's fantasy made my day.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On 10/19/2016 at 5:57 PM, tennisgurl said:

I was honestly surprised by the turn Eddie and Emery's plot ended up going, and I really liked it. Yeah Eddie is kind of a lazy slacker kid, but his lies about his culture also came from a place of frustration over being stereotyped and picked on for his race.  I had kind of forgotten how hard things were for Eddie on his first day, as the school has "gotten used" to him, and he has his friends now. He was alone for quite awhile, and I imagine it must have been pretty miserable. And I can see why he gets upset by Emery seeming to live up to the stereotypes, but...thats how Emery is. And thats alright. 

ITA - if Eddie's classmates and teachers had any clue whatsoever about Chinese culture, he wouldn't have gotten away with all the lies he told (heh, except maybe the one about his locker number). Even though he now has friends and is pretty comfortable, things were pretty rough for him when he started at that school, all because he looked Asian. Seeing that quick recap about his first day at school was a good reminder of that. One of the things I liked about his conflict with Emery was that it showed that there is a wide range in Asian kids even within the same family.

Ha, totally loved that in Eddie's fantasy, their one friend was still exactly the same.