MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE PROJECT:
Project Trivia: Ziggy is going through mood swings in this episode (which Al suggests could be resolved by placing a female computer in close proximity). Could Ziggy be contemplating a gender-switch? (MPB)
GENERAL NITPICKING:
General Nit #1: Would somebody with
a twelve-year-old’s mentality really be safe working on a dock? (LW)
PCR: Maybe, maybe not. But actual twelve-year-olds
have been successfully doing what we now consider adults’ jobs in factories
and on farms for centuries. (MPB)
General Nit #2: How had Blue been able
to pick out the correct crates all the time he’d been working on the docks?
Wouldn’t somebody have noticed that he had problems? (LW)
PCR: People who can’t read often spend
amazing amounts of energy covering up for that fact, and actually become
quite adept at it. You will often hear of adults who’ve only recently learned
to read lamenting that they should have spent as much energy learning to
read as they did hiding the fact that they couldn’t. Blue probably got
away with a considerable amount, either by blustering, hiding his mistakes,
or by blaming somebody else. He did all three through the course of the
episode. (MPB)
General Nit #3: How could Connie expect to defrost and cook a big pot roast in an hour? Even with a microwave, that’d be a feat! (MPB)
General Nit #4: When Sam is washing the truck with Frank, the side Sam’s working on is absolutely dry one minute, and then the next it’s suddenly covered with soap suds. (HJK)
General Nit #5: It’s not surprising that
Sam drops the platter, holding it across his palms like that. (LW)
PCR #1: Maybe Sam retained some of Jimmy’s
awkwardness (see Matter Over Mind). (MPB)
PCR #2: Maybe Sam was concerned about
leaving fingerprints, or shattering it by holding it too hard. (HJK)
General Nit #6: Why didn’t Corey seem
surprised that Jimmy suddenly became good at fixing bikes and storytelling?
(LW)
PCR: Corey didn’t have the same preconceptions
about Jimmy’s abilities (or lack thereof) as other people did. He always
seemed to take Jimmy at face-value, rather than expecting him to be clumsy
or stupid. He was therefore more accepting when Jimmy showed previously
hidden talents. (MPB)
General Nit #7: Although Sam didn’t leave the spigot open to the solvent tank, he wasn’t working all that far away. Why didn’t he notice it was open and shut it off? (MPB)
General Nit #8: It was strange that Al
seemed unfamiliar with the word "dyslexia." The problem got national attention
beginning in the mid-1980s. (MH)
PCR: In all the excitement, Al was just
a bit tongue-tied. (MPB)
General Nit #9: Why didn’t Sam jump
into the water to help Frank rescue Corey? It seemed out of character for
him to just stand by and watch. (LW & HJK)
PCR: Maybe for once, Sam thought with
his head and not his heart, and realized that a) Jimmy might not have known
how to swim, and/or b) Jimmy’s presence in the water would have been a
distraction for Frank, as he’d be worrying about two "kids" instead of
one. (MPB)
General Nit #10: Sam’s CPR technique stinks.
The pre-cardial thump is now a no-no--especially with children, who are
more likely to have broken bones from improperly performed CPR. The way
Sam positioned Corey, as well as Sam’s arm movements, were wrong. Having
Corey all propped up on everybody’s jackets wouldn’t open his airway properly,
and the CPRer is supposed to lock his elbows and use his body weight, not
arm movement, to administer the compressions. (MBP)
PCR: Emergency medicine isn’t Sam’s specialty,
either. (MPB)
General Nit #11: Why didn’t Connie recognize that Sam was doing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation? Although CPR was developed after 1964, people have been doing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for a very long time. It also seems odd that nobody else seemed to know what to do. You’d think that, with all those people working on the waterfront, somebody would know how to do mouth-to-mouth. (MPB & HJK)
MATTER OVER MIND:
Al tells Sam, "You’re not retarded...Jimmy is." Obviously, it’s Sam’s body that’s Leaping as well as his mind. (SA) But Sam does seem to have retained some of Jimmy’s awkwardness, which leads to a real chicken-and-egg question. Was Sam’s clumsiness a reaction to the way people were treating him, as Al suggested, or was it a mental and/or physical synergy with Jimmy? (LW)
DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS:
Detail #1: Not only do we have Jimmy and Frank’s lives paralleling Al and his sister’s, but once again Sam is in a big-little brother situation. Frank, of course, is looking out for Jimmy in a much different way than Tom looked out for Sam. But the affection of the brothers is similar. Sam can also relate to the death of Jimmy and Frank’s father. (MPB)
Detail # 2. The name of the institution, Wayside, is significant, since in the 1960s many people with learning and physical disabilities were cast to the wayside, but, because of Sam, Jimmy was brought into the mainstream. (MH)
OH, BOYS:
There’s no opening "Oh, boy," but Sam says "Oh, boy" when Al tells him Jimmy has a twelve-year-old’s IQ.
NAME THAT TUNE:
Connie sings "My Guy" to Corey--an interesting choice, as the lyrics say that nothing would ever make the lady be untrue to her guy. Connie, however, is faced with a real challenge--coping with Jimmy may be too much for her, and may endanger the strong relationship she has with Frank. As a counterpoint to Connie’s doubts, the lyrics of the song effectively portray Corey’s unswerving loyalty and devotion to his uncle. (MH & MPB)
FAVORITE QUOTATIONS:
Al: "[Ziggy’s] going through mood swings. I think we need to get a girl computer and put it right next to him--one with a nice set of hard disks."
Sam: "How do I act retarded?"
Al: "Just act
natural."