Overall: 9.3
This is a wonderfully redemptive story that teaches the oft forgotten virtues of hard work and honesty.
Plot Synopsis:
When a young man named Kareem is released from prison, he immediately buys a gun and goes to look for his younger brother. He ultimately finds his brother Marcus at a midnight basketball program where Gary and Chuck are volunteering. The sister in charge of the program, Sister Mary Alice, is none to happy to see that Kareem is out of jail, and when Kareem urges Marcus to join him, she tries to put up a fight. Unfortunately, she is unable to convince Kareem, Marcus and Marcus' friend Jo-Jo to stay at the gym.
As soon as the teens have left, Kareem takes the younger boys on a little armed robbery adventure. Gary reads about the impending robbery in the paper and tries to convince the shop owner to close down before the boys arrive. As you might expect, the shop owner thinks Gary is nuts. Therefore, he and Gary are still arguing when Kareem and the others burst in. As soon as the shop owner sees the gun in Jo-Jo's hand, he pulls out his own weapon and opens fire.
In the hospital, Jo-Jo wakes up just long enough to whisper something to Sister Mary, then dies of his injuries. Sister Mary takes this especially hard. As it turns out, years of losing her young charges to inner city violence has worn down her confidence and her faith. At Jo-Jo's funeral, she tells Gary that she has decided to leave her religious order. Meanwhile, Marcus too is grieving over Jo-Jo's death, but he feels torn between his conscience and the domineering Kareem, who demands that Marcus have nothing more to do with Sister Mary or Gary.
When Gary reads in the paper that Marcus will be killed in another robbery attempt, he decides to try to push Marcus in the right direction by offering him a job at McGinty's. Marcus is at first resistant, but after some prompting from Gary, he acknowledges that starting at the bottom is better for him in the long run and agrees to take the job. At the end of the night, Gary entrusts Marcus with the bar's daily take and tells him to take it to the bank. He then calls Sister Mary. At the bank, Gary and Sister Mary watch as Marcus stands up to his brother at last and does the right thing, and Sister Mary is astonished that Jo-Jo's last words urging Marcus to "stay in the light" actually came true.
In the end, Sister Mary returns to her order, her faith restored, and Kareem gets what he deserves.
Writing: 9.0
I'm not quite sure where I read it first, but I have often seen a certain inner city attitude described as the "lobster bucket mentality." Just as a lobster in a bucket will be pulled back down by the others if it tries to climb out, many at-risk kids who seek to better themselves end up facing the mockery and opprobrium of their peers. Even here in the suburbs, I see this happening on occasion; I've worked with low-achieving, disadvantaged kids who've told me that they would be teased mercilessly if they were caught in the simple act of reading a book! This is a terribly sad and destructive reality, and it is a reality that Sean Cholodenko captures with admirable simplicity here.
Acting: 9.0
I didn't find the mini-mart owner's reaction upon shooting Jo-Jo very convincing, but the rest of the cast does well enough that it hardly matters. Nia Peeples' line delivery at Jo-Jo's funeral is especially heartbreaking, and Kyle Chandler, as usual, impresses with his ability to project quiet anger and moral fortitude.
Message: 10.0
Of course, what really makes this episode special are its themes. What stands out first is this episode's clear message that honest labor will ultimately take you farther than will its opposite. Too often these days, kids leave college with the belief that they are immediately entitled to cushy jobs and cushy lives; in reality, it takes most people years to advance to the point at which they can truly enjoy the latitude many young adults demand as soon as they cross the graduation stage. Gary's repeated assertion than "everyone's gotta start somewhere" needs to be echoed in every school and home in this nation before we completely lose sight of the benefits of working one's way up from the very bottom.
This episode also tells us something very important about the adolescent psyche: teens want to be treated like adults, but they still yearn for guidance and respect those who are willing to provide it. In short, they want authoritative adult role models and rigorous expectations. When kids sense that you have faith in them, they try to live up to that faith; if they sense the opposite, they become self-destructive terrors. When Gary calmly but firmly questions Marcus' immature desire to dispense with the grunt work and get "rich" through dishonest means, Marcus quickly accepts what Gary is saying because Gary neither talks down to him nor goes easy on him. And when Gary trusts Marcus with the very adult responsibility of taking the bar's money to the bank, that too has an immediate and profound impact. Anyone who works with teens should adopt Gary's approach and set the bar high; I certainly try to do so in my own line of work.
The Benevolent Hand:
The paper's headlines in this episode seem to be deliberately calculated to put Sister Mary where she needs to be. Take, for example, the headline reporting Jo-Jo's miraculous recovery. If it weren't for this headline, Gary would not have called Sister Mary, and if Sister Mary had not come to the hospital, she would not have heard Jo-Jo's last words regarding Marcus - the very words that would ultimately lead to a restoration of her struggling faith. Speaking of which, one must also ask how Jo-Jo knew Marcus' future. A vision from God, perhaps?
SABR Matt's Addendum:
Without directly echoing every word of my co-author's critique of the message in this episode, I would like to say a few words about the importance of high expectations. In couples therapy, it is a common axiom when one of the two expresses frustration that the other is expecting him or her to be perfect and fulfill every need at all times: "Your expectations are too high - you need to learn to be happy with the better parts of your life and keep perspective." However, recent research shows that people who expect a lot from their mate get a lot more satisfaction from their relationships than people who expect less, and that marriages in the first group are as much as three times more likely to last beyond ten years.
In the world of faith, we find that religions that demand more familiarity with and understanding of their scripture and philosophy - and in fact those faiths which require (more strictly) adherence to a clear set of moral dictates - produce significantly happier congregations than supposedly progressive (and more inclusive) orders. This can be confirmed in a variety of ways: adult converts are more likely to stay in the older, more rigorous faiths; crimes of passion, suicide and depression are more common amongst those outside the big four (Conservative/Orthodox Judaism, Catholicism, Episcopalian , and Eastern Orthodox Christianity) conservative faiths than within them. If you want a reducto ad absurdem, look no further than groups like the Quakers, the Hasidic Jews and the Jesuits, where crime is almost unheard of and marriages are spectacularly more likely to thrive despite (in some cases) being based only on agreements between the parents of children who have never met.
In education, we find nothing but evidence that schools that abandon remedial education and expect slower students to master the same concepts as everyone else produce harder working, better-adjusted children who learn far more than we might assume them capable of learning. In fact, this is one of the great strengths of the fading system of "Department of Defense" schools...they have no concept of remedial education and everyone involved expects nothing but excellence from the students...this goes for the parents, the teachers, the administration, and the military authorities who run the system.
In the world of parenting, I believe there are a number of reasons that teenage hooliganism, crime and suicide are rising, but chief among them is the lack of respect parents show their kids these days. I hear, all too often (in support of everything from modern sexual education to a relaxation of liquor laws, to handling the flaws in the juvenile justice system with kid gloves), cliches like "Kids are going to get in trouble...there's nothing we can do to keep them from drinking, having sex, and wrecking their cars." Kids know when you don't think very much of them. Do you have any idea how damaging it is to a kid when he thinks his parents believe him to be destined for trouble simply because he's young? Do you know how frustrating it is to a child when his parents give up on him long before he's done anything wrong? We have to have faith in our kids...we have to believe they're capable of being morally strong, intellectually driven, and productive people...and we have to make sure they KNOW this by giving them real guidance and real discipline while at the same time expressing how proud we are when they do well for themselves.
In my personal experience as the son of parents who believed in trusting their children (but still keeping an eye on us from the distance)...who believed in high expectations educationally and morally, and who made me want to be the kind of person they couldn't help but be immensely proud of, I can tell you that it is ENTIRELY possible to direct your child away from danger and evil. Assuming that "kids are going to get in trouble" is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's nice to see a TV show deliver this message so well and so boldly.
Highlights:
SISTER MARY: You know, a little while back, I looked into getting a transfer. Mother Superior said I should wait six months... to think about it, you know? Maybe I just... needed a breather. Gary, it's been sixth months, and I don't know... if a transfer is gonna be enough.
GARY: Listen, sister, I... you're doing your best. No one works harder than you do, and I gotta tell you something: those kids, they need you.
SISTER MARY: Maybe they just need somebody better.
GARY: I've got something to tell you, sister...
SISTER MARY: I know about Jo-Jo. The hospital called and told me that he died. (We can see here that she has lost hope.)
GARY: McGinty's... McGinty's will pick up the, uh... the cost of the funeral.
SISTER MARY: And what about the next one... and the one after that? You gonna pay for those too?
GARY: Listen, sister, you can't think like that...
SISTER MARY: That's the way it is. I can't change it.
GARY: Sister, those boys that are gonna be at that gym tonight, they count on you. Those kids need you. (A long pause) You're making a difference.
SISTER MARY: It's not enough.
KAREEM: (to Marcus) Looks like somebody got lost.
(Gary walks up to the corner.)
GARY: Marcus! I need to talk to you.
KAREEM: He don't got time, man.
GARY: I think he'll make time. Jo-Jo's dead.
MARCUS: (coming out from behind Kareem) Oh no, man, I thought he came out of it!
GARY: He did for about... fifteen minutes. He came out long enough to look around the room, and he saw Sister Mary. Where were you?
MARCUS: Kareem!
KAREEM: Marcus, what the hell are you doing here? I told you to stay at home.
MARCUS: Look, man, I know what you're gonna do --
KAREEM: You don't know nothing. This is between me and the man who shot Jo-Jo.
MARCUS: Yeah, man, but it's wrong!
KAREEM: (disbelieving) It's wrong?
MARCUS: Look, man, we never should've went in there in the first place!
KAREEM: Marcus, you're just a kid. Go on back to the house.
(At the phone booth, Gary whispers "Marcus..." to himself and rushes over.)
GARY: Hey, wait! Listen, you go in there, you're gonna get hurt.
KAREEM: Man, you're really startin' to piss me off.
GARY: I already called the police.
KAREEM: Well, good for you. Cops in this part of town? They'll get here about three hours from now.
MARCUS: Look, Kareem, don't do it, all right? I don't want you to go back to jail.
KAREEM: I don't care what you want!
(Marcus can't believe what he's just heard.)
MARCUS: (smoldering) The hell with you.
GARY: Kareem?
KAREEM: Where's Marcus?
GARY: I don't know. I was hoping he'd show up here.
KAREEM: Basketball? It's a waste of time.
GARY: Well, I don't know. (pointedly) At least Marcus won't get shot playing basketball...
SISTER MARY: Some say you should remember how a man lived, not how he died. Not me. Today, I say, remember how this man - this boy - died. The word of God says, 'Judge not, lest ye be judged.' But I say to you - I challenge you - to judge your own hearts. Jo-Jo made the wrong choices. Did we? For we all shared with Jo-Jo responsibility for his life. Those of us who led him down the wrong path... and those of us who failed to lead him down the right. And perhaps worst of all, those of use who promised to illuminate his path and then failed to provide enough light. Jo-Jo was my friend, and I let him down. I don't ever want to do that again. So I say, remember how Jo-Jo died, and judge your own hearts.
MARCUS: It sounds like a bus boy job.
GARY: It is a bus boy job, and if you want it, it's yours.
MARCUS: Well, I never done nothin' like that before.
GARY: It's not that difficult. Look, it's an entry-level job, I understand that, but everyone's got to start somewhere, yeah?
MARCUS: Oh yeah? Where'd you start?
GARY: Where'd I start? At a 24 hour diner washing dishes - and believe me, bus boy is a promotion. Come on.
(They enter the kitchen.)
MARCUS: How much does this pay?
GARY: Minimum wage to start.
MARCUS: What's that, like five, six bucks an hour? That's nothing!
GARY: Well, yeah, but you gotta start somewhere.
MARCUS: Man, I know guys making ten times that amount in ten minutes --
GARY: Yeah, and where are they ten years from now, huh?
KAREEM: Hey! Here's what I'm thinkin': what kind of errand is so important you got to be runnin' it in the middle of the night?
MARCUS: Look, I told you, so just leave me alone.
KAREEM: You told me?! When did you start tellin' me? I'm your brother! You forget who I am?
MARCUS: I know who you are.
KAREEM: I'm the one that's lookin' out for you, boy!
MARCUS: Oh yeah? When you're not in jail or gettin' me shot at?
KAREEM: What you say?
MARCUS: (shaking his head and turning) Nothin'.
KAREEM: (grabbing his brother) Don't turn away from me, Marcus.
(The money pouch falls to the ground. Marcus hurriedly picks it up.)
KAREEM: So that's your little errand, eh? How much is in the bag?
MARCUS: Doesn't matter, cuz I'm puttin' it in the bank.
KAREEM: You don't wanna do that.
MARCUS: This is not our money, man! This guy's trustin' me with it!
KAREEM: You understand what that money can do for us?
MARCUS: If we take it, it ain't gonna change anything.
(Marcus turns to put the pouch in the slot. Kareem then pulls out his gun. Over at the curb, Sister Mary tries to get out of her car, but Gary tells her to wait.)
KAREEM: Guess I'm gonna have to take it myself.
(A tense moment passes.)
MARCUS: (steeling himself) No.
(Kareem cocks his gun and points it at Marcus again.)
KAREEM: Give me the money, Marcus.
MARCUS: Do what you gotta do, brother.
KAREEM: So that's your choice? You're choosing them over me?
MARCUS: No. I'm choosing myself.
(Another tense silence passes. Finally, Kareem puts his gun in his jacket and walks away. Marcus then puts the money pouch in the deposit slot. His errand complete, he walks over to the curb, then turns his face up to the streetlight. Gary and Sister Mary look on.)
SISTER MARY: (amazed) 'Tell Marcus to stay in the light.'
GARY: What's that, sister?
SISTER MARY: That's what Jo-Jo said in the hospital. 'Tell Marcus to stay in the light.'
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