Jack & Bobby ongoing thread (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

10/27/04 "Valentino"

An episode featuring parallel stories of parents trying to help situations where their child could be placed in harm's way when perceived "undesirables" hit on Bobby and Courtney.

Peter overreacts and causes Courtney to be ridiculed in the college newspaper cartoon, and of course news travels to her high school where she get harassing emails and more ridicule from the cartoon that gets taped to her locker. Courtney just wants Peter to trust her judgment and to let her have some space.

Grace tries to have a sit-down with Dex's parents, and Bobby finally stands up for his relationship with Dex, surprising Grace and Dex's parents. Jack warns Dex to stay away from Bobby, and cut to her own insecurities and Dex gives in by staging a scene (where she'd be caught kissing another guy by Bobby) that would push Bobby away. Bobby is heartbroken.

Grace also rips apart her grad student's thesis on graphical literature, but he stands his ground, and later when Grace suggest they not work together, he wants her guidance even more because she challenges him. If they are knocking boots by the end of the season, I guess I missed on all the academic sexual tension that's been building these past weeks.

On the future history front, it's reveal that Bobby and Courtney had 4 boys, and the white house usher volunteered that Bobby's first born, Jack(AKA Valentino by the secret service), was his favorite. The story of Valentino wanting to take a girl on a date without secret service detail was told, and Bobby allows it for one date (though Courtney was against it) at a skating rink. The secret service was there, just hidden away. Valentino's date's knee gives way on the ice, and the secret service swooped into action, and Valentino was mortified by the illusion of it all. Valentino would not talk to his parents for a month, but Bobby knew the risks of a dangerous world and had to allow secret service to do its job, no matter how much Valentino hated his parents for the coverage.

So, the stories all involved how much protection do parents afford their children while allowing them the freedom to make their choices and live with the consequences.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Aw, crap - my Replay was still showing The Mountain running last night.



Ah, well. There was other good stuff on Fox, anyway.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Perhaps, once in a lifetime "good stuff".

 

[Craig S]

Wednesday's episode ("Election Night") should be interesting. They've filmed 3 different endings - one if Bush wins, one if Kerry wins, and one if things are undecided on election night.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Grace will be either estatic, pissed, or on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Wonder whether they'll use the Bush ending or the undecided ending. Kerry hasn't conceded, but Bush seems to have locked it up.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Nervous breakdown ending, it is!

 

[Lee Jamilkowski]

You know, I wouldn't have minded seeing this episode tonight. But I feel the past 24 hours have given me more of a dose of reality than I care for... not quite sure I'm ready to relive this all, given Kerry conceding.

Oh, well. I love this show. I just hope it stays around for a while. It's a shame they put it on up against The West Wing, though.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Ooops. I guess we get the "Grace is pissed off" ending now.

 

[Lee Jamilkowski]

Actually, we may end up just having the nervous breakdown ending depending on the chronology of the episode. Based on the title, Election Night, the episode may entirely take place the night of the election, and thus if they stick to life, there won't be any firm decisions made at that point. We'll see how it plays out.



However, if the episode extends into the time period of this morning and afternoon, they would probably do the pissed off ending.

 

[Patrick Sun]

11/3/04

Inspired by Grace's stories of great men professing their passion for what was important to them, Bobby showed a lot of guts reciting a poem in front of Dex and her friends, though she still reduced him to rubble, but later confronts him, and lets it slip that Jack warned her to stay away from Bobby.

What followed was a tough, dramatic episode of 2 brothers hitting each other below the belt. Lots of secrets see the light of day, casting doubt and confusion between Jack, Courtney and Missy. Bobby's romantic pain is the catalyst for Jack's love life turned upsidedown.

Tom and Grace smoke pot during the election coverage, and Tom slips in a compliment for Grace, but that pot smoking session is cut short as Bobby has an asthma attack, but loses his inhaler in a sea of students at Marcus' dad's diner which is hosting an election party. Peter gets Bobby the medical attention he needs, though Grace was out getting stoned once again.

The future history story has Cary reveal to us that Bobby's election was decided by the electoral votes from his home state of Missouri, which was also the home state of the republican candidate as well. A busload of 43 students from an Illinois college drove all night to get back to vote for Bobby, and they provided Bobby with the winning margin of 21 votes to claim Missouri's electoral votes which propelled him to the White House.

It would appear that Grace took the news of the Kerry loss well enough, and is looking forward to Hillary's run in 2008.

 

[Citizen87645]

I know it was only the second time Bobby had an asthma attack, but it already seems a bit of a cop out to force a resolution. I hope they don't pull that one out for awhile, though Bobby's mishap with the gutters shown in the preview is starting to make him look like a walking plot device.

 

[Patrick Sun]

11/10/04

I had a good time laughing at Grace drilling Missy's dad a large new one at dinner.

Marcus is just getting a taste of Courtney's mental health issues when he feels that Courtney is playing him so that news of her being busy with the college boys will get back to Jack in order to elicit some form of interest/jealousy from Jack. So what did she tell the bouncer to get into the dorm?

Jack sets Grace in her place pretty well after Grace's propensity of having to be "right" all the time causes the dinner with Missy's parents to spiral out of control. Time will tell if Grace is really serious about leaving pot behind and embracing reality all the time.

Grace has her plate full with Tom, and let's hope this doesn't get too messy for her since it's a sexual harassment timebomb lawsuit waiting to happen unless some arrangements are kept (like Tom keeping the other professor as his advisor).

Bobby learns the lesson of not capitulating to appease someone else for fear of loneliness and companionship as Peter challenges Bobby to play chess to the best of his abilities, lest he deprive his opponent the best game Bobby has to offer, it becomes a matter of respect. Bobby learns the lesson, though Peter does whip him on their "for real" chess match, but Bobby gains Peter's respect and a weekly match with Peter because of the promise Bobby shows in his game play and his observation skills.

 

[Patrick Sun]

11/17/04

Has Tom Cavanagh been reduced to playing the nutty brother in other shows now that "Ed" is off the air? As Jimmy, the gay screw-up in Grace's family, he is endearing, but with a self-destructive streak. Grace has to deal with Jimmy after he is kicked out of his former dwelling after cheating on his boyfriend. How long will he be hanging with the McAlisters?

The ending was so empathetically painful for me to watch, but the importance of Bobby seeing Jack's pain over what he didn't do to help a friend deal with his homosexuality and homelife is shown decades later when Bobby decides to personally deliver the bad news to a navy sailor's family when the USS William Jefferson Clinton has a sneak attack launched against it during the War of the Americas on its way home for Thanksgiving, and 10 sailors were wounded, and 1 died. Bobby not only delivered the bad news, but stayed for Thanksgiving and shared stories of his brother Jack while the sailor's family shared stories of the sailor. Good stuff.

 

[Citizen87645]

Yeah, Cavanaugh's doing the drunk brother guest star tour.

Good episode. It had me tearing up. Then I played Halo 2 for a couple hours to compensate

 

[Patrick Sun]

12/01/04

In an episode where each of the McAllisters gets a little something-something, close personal contact with people you're not quite into makes for a very confusing time.

Grace invites Jimmy to stay with them after his possession charges get plea bargained, but then Grace susses out that Jimmy is still getting high while in her home, so she is forced to give him the boot because she simply can't have Jimmy's cocaine drug use invade her children's childhood. Bobby, who loves Jimmy as a father-figure-stand-in, is sorely disappointed that Grace had to send Jimmy away while not divulging the reason why Jimmy had to leave.

Jack and Missy plan all week (it seemed) on getting to home plate, and the news of Courtney going on a date with another guy confuses Jack and his feelings and he starts to re-evaluate his feelings for Missy and for Courtney. Even though he and Missy did the deed, he wasn't quite there, and comes home flummoxed on what should have been the greatest night of his young life, but he realizes that he probably made a big mistake by getting it on with Missy for his (and her) first time.

Grace seemed very empathetic to Jack's confusion for a change after he comes home early because she got done with a booty call with Tom after the stressful boot out of Jimmy. Grace wanted to exit her hook-up with Tom by making it a one-time-deal, but Tom conveys to Grace that he is into her, and no matter what protestations she puts up, he'll still be on board for the ride. Grace just blithely accepts this arrangement, and Tom gets in a nice slap on her backside as she leaves.

Bobby helps Warren with getting ready for the big day, Warren's bar mitzvah. Warren is attracted to a redhead at school, so Bobby asks her to attend Warren's bar mitzvah, with a trip to picking out a gift for Warren along the way. The redhead was into Bobby, but Bobby just wants Warren to be happy with the redhead via a dance at the bar mitzvah, but the redhead challenges Bobby to a kiss in the walk-in closet for the coats, and of course, Warren catches them in the act. Warren goes hiding in a bathroom stall, but Bobby finally talks him to going back to the party and luckily has Warren focused on another girl at the party to help ease his transition from the redhead to someone more into him.

Now, the future story was a whopper. The head speechwriter for Bobby's big speech on the 40th anniversary of Sept. 11 was relating how much of a challenge it was to get the speech just right, and just as Bobby starts to deliver the speech at ground zero (you get the idea that the area has been rebuilt in these 40 years up to 2041), the teleprompter dies, and Bobby basically has to wing a speech, an impressive speech that called for the time of innocence reborn on this anniversary of that dark time for America. The very next day, Sept. 12th, an insurgent group snuggles into a nuke across the northern border and detonate the nuke in Chicago. Bobby was never the same again. And he never saw it coming. Juxtaposed on the words of this future story is Jack getting mugged in the back of the diner by 3 guys who beat him up and steal his wallet. And he never saw it coming.

 

[Elizabeth S]

According to TV Tome:

"The Golden Globes have nominated Christine Lahti for lead actress in a drama series! She will be up against stiff competition but the nomination should help boast the chances of its return from hiatus at the end of January."

This doesn't sound good, like they're not sure it's returning. :frowning: I love this show. . .

 

[Jason Seaver]

Oh, I'm pretty sure it'll return - WB ordered a full season, and the network doesn't really have the reserves to just sit on something they've paid for. Given its pretty darn poor ratings, though, I wouldn't be shocked if it wound up in whatever counts as the WB's burn-off slot (Thursday, I guess).

I mean, if they could afford to just shelf things, would they still be airing The Mountain?

 

[Elizabeth S]

A reminder -- FINALLY a new episode this Wednesday!

 

[Ken Chan]

Hey, actually not that bad.

No matter what time of day, a nuclear weapon going off in Chicago killing less than one thousand seems awfully light, even with hardening and shielding. Seems like there'd be too many people just walking down the street.

Aside from initially buckling to the blackmail, Grace didn't do anything overtly stupid. Well, maybe that lame lie about not being able to find whatshisname's apartment.

When talking about Jack permanently damaging his knee if he decided to race, I was thinkin' that he was going to die young anyway....