S02.E06: S-H-- SHIPPING

[Drogo]

JJ's pressured to date a new student who also has cerebral palsy. Meanwhile, Maya and Jimmy teach Ray and his girlfriend to think less; and Dylan teams with Lafayette alumni to rebel against the school's no-prank initiative.

[GRChereck]

Wow, dang... I knew we'd get some insight into Maya and Jimmy's marriage -- like why they tend to let things go, be spontaneous and just do stuff without overanalyzing or overthinking it -- but that was a surprise. :( It was sweet that she took it in stride, but that must've been really hard for him to have lived with the guilt the whole time since then without being able to talk about it.

On a lighter note, I thought her reveal that she shoots rubber bands at his face while he sleeps was a funny sort of callback to her saying he "goes into a medical coma at night" in last year's Halloween ep (he's such a deep sleeper, of course he wouldn't feel them. xD ).

Nice to see more of Ray and Taylor's relationship, too -- even if I thought it was pretty twisted how Ray tried to "ship" Dylan with Kenneth so he could be assured of his sister marrying someone who'd be willing to let JJ live with them (while he and Taylor would take in her brother), not to mention terribly presumptuous of both him and Taylor to make decisions about JJ's and Logan's futures without them present. :p 

The JJ/Kenneth/Norah plot kinda reminded me of this 'Saturday Night Live' sketch from about a decade ago, in which Maya Rudolph and host Jake Gyllenhaal set up their friend (Jason Sudeikis) with a woman (Kristen Wiig) just because they both use wheelchairs: 

"Wheelchair Dates" (transcript) 

I'm glad they didn't go the sitcom-cliche route of having JJ and Norah develop real romantic feelings for each other while faking their "relationship." Also, I hope as the season goes on, we get to see more of each of the other new Lafayette students and their aides. :)

As for the Dylan plot, I've noticed so far this season they've backed off on her athletics and "winning" fixation -- she seems to be all about the pranks now, but at least it was good to see her focused on something bigger than just picking on Ray. Plus, I found it oddly adorable how she bonded with those old dudes, and responded to being pranked herself.

Edited November 2, 2017 by GRChereck

[bros402]

That was a good episode. Ray and Taylor are good together and I hope Ray prematurely saying I Love You doesn't doom the relationship. I hope we see more Nora - and at least a mention about Dylan's track & field?

The cold open was so something a principal would do to try to seem cool. Though they would hold the pep rally inside.

[71dude]

M.C. Gainey!

I really liked this one. I loved Ray trying to pair off Dylan and Kenneth, and Maya thinking there was hanky-panky going on with Ray and Taylor - and being disappointed that there wasn't.

I hope we see Kenneth's new woman again.

"I'm not here to educate anybody. All I want is to meet some girls and eat some candy."

"I think it means what it says 'I don't respect you or your rules, and I want to make you a grandmother.'"

"I feel like this could've waited"

"She's single, ready to mingle, and, most importantly, she has spina bifida."

 

[tennisgurl]

Ray and Taylor really are perfect for each other, they're lucky they found each other. 

Really fun episode! The principle trying to rap in the assembly (with Kenneth being totally into it!) everyone trying to hook JJ up with the other girl in a wheelchair, getting some more insight into Jimmy, it was all great. 

"What is your story man?" 

[Chit Chat]

I was hoping that they would've gone back to the storyline where Kenneth was going to meet the Principal for a coffee (or some other beverage) at her secret hiding place behind the school, but he got called by Maya to come to the hospital when Ray got appendicitis.  That scene left the Principal standing there wondering why Kenneth didn't show up.  I guess they decided to ditch that storyline. 

[kathyk24]

Quote

 

I didn't like this episode. I thought there was too much talking about JJ and not enough talking to him. I hated Ray trying to plan his siblings' life for them. Nora and JJ being nominated for homecoming king and Queen reminded me of Mack and Jodie being Homecoming King and Queen on Daria. Mack and Jodie are black while most of the students are white. It seemed patronizing to me.

[Ikki]

3 hours ago, kathyk24 said:

I didn't like this episode. I thought there was too much talking about JJ and not enough talking to him. I hated Ray trying to plan his siblings' life for them. Nora and JJ being nominated for homecoming king and Queen reminded me of Mack and Jodie being Homecoming King and Queen on Daria. Mack and Jodie are black while most of the students are white. It seemed patronizing to me.

Well, the nomination was supposed to seem patronizing. It was, and that was kind of the point-- that people, both in shipping them and nominating them, were treating them as their disability rather than people. And their speech was going to criticize that, but then they didn't win.

[GRChereck]

20 hours ago, kathyk24 said:

I thought there was too much talking about JJ and not enough talking to him. I hated Ray trying to plan his siblings' life for them.

I was a bit bugged by that too, especially after the devastation JJ felt and the flak he gave his family after having overheard them raising doubts about his future in 1x19 and 1x20; but then again, for all of Ray and Taylor's talk of plans and major responsibilities, they're still just kids, and thus probably likely to forget or otherwise not always be mindful about seeking their brothers' input on what they might want. (It's also possible that maybe they intended to show their plans to their brothers eventually but first wanted them to be as thorough as they could get.) :\

 

17 hours ago, Ikki said:

Well, the nomination was supposed to seem patronizing. It was, and that was kind of the point-- that people, both in shipping them and nominating them, were treating them as their disability rather than people. And their speech was going to criticize that, but then they didn't win.

^^ This. I believe this is what TV Tropes calls Token Minority Couple or Token Shipping. In fact, episode 1x6 ("D-A-T-E--Date?") had a couple examples of this mentioned in humorous passing reference:

Quote

Token Shipping: JJ accuses Kenneth of doing this with him and Clare just because they're both in wheelchairs. Kenneth retorts that JJ has been trying to get him together with the only other black woman in their neighbourhood, though JJ claims it's because she's a Libra.

How fitting, then, that the 6th episode of s.2 has a JJ/Kenneth plot in which that sort of nonsense -- especially coming from people who can't be bothered to know JJ or Norah well enough to see past their obvious physical similarity and consider their individual personalities or interests -- actually, seriously gets called out.

 

On 11/3/2017 at 7:58 AM, ChitChat said:

I was hoping that they would've gone back to the storyline where Kenneth was going to meet the Principal for a coffee (or some other beverage) at her secret hiding place behind the school, but he got called by Maya to come to the hospital when Ray got appendicitis.  That scene left the Principal standing there wondering why Kenneth didn't show up.  I guess they decided to ditch that storyline.

I think the writers may have missed the boat on that one*; and I wonder if they must've felt the same way by the end of s.1, since they had him do basically the same thing with Joyce the Physical Therapist (1x23) only for her to end up so furious with him that he still tries to avoid her (2x3)...

(* - In retrospect, I wonder if it says anything about Dr. Miller's personality or personal life that she apparently was able to let it go by the next episode -- or else she may have possibly said something to Kenneth off-screen -- rather than make a scene, carry a grudge, etc. I like the idea of the show spending more time at the school this season and getting to know some of the people who work there, and I hope we get to know a little more of her too.)

Edited November 4, 2017 by GRChereck