Original Airdate: October 2, 1999
Characters:
1) Lindsay Weir
2) Sam Weir
3) Neil
4) Bill
5) Daniel
6) Nick
7) Ken
8) Millie
9) Cindy
10) Kim
11) Jeff Russo
Lindsay and Sam's parents are going out of town for the weekend, and on the suggestion of Daniel (whom Lindsay has a crush on), who happened to just break up with Kim, Lindsay agrees to throw a party at her house. Bill and Neil overhear this, which causes Neil consternation: he believes that they are bad influences on her, and will ruin her life. More so, as Bill points out, Neil has a bit of a crush on her. Lindsay lets Sam know about the plans, and he promises not to tell their parents. After a school assembly displaying skits about alcohol deaths, though, Sam begins to share Neil's concern about the party, and decides they need to take measures to prevent any shenanigans: they plan to switch out the beer keg with a keg of non-alcoholic beer.
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| Daniel resting head on Lindsay's shoulder during school assembly |
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| Neil, Bill, and Sam buying non-alcoholic beer |
Sam, Neil and Bill are able to switch out the kegs, with Sam and Bill doing the heavy lifting and Neil smooth-talking Lindsay, occasionally awkwardly, though his Sabbath joke was pretty amusing. Daniel, Ken and Nick arrive, and the party begins, Daniel telling her not to be nervous - he knows it'll be great.
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| Daniel, Nick, and Ken arriving at party |
With Bill guarding the beer in Sam's room, Sam and Neil patrol the party, making sure things don't break and people don't do stupid things. The first setback comes in the form of Millie (who in fact participated in the anti-alcohol skit earlier that day), who is immensely uncomfortable in the situation, decides to stay and keep an eye on things, though as she says, she will have more fun then anyone else, sober. Next, older friend's of Daniel arrive, far past high school age, along with Kim. Neil and Sam worry, while watching the party unfold, that while the beer is non-alcoholic, the placebo effect will cause damage to the house regardless. Bill, alone in the room with the keg watching Dallas, begins to drink.
Lindsay catches Daniel looking over her extensive collection of pictures and medal, and while Lindsay acts as though it reflects a past geeky life, Daniel backs up her right to be proud of her achievements, seemingly flirting with her. Millie, being her self-righteous self, begins playing a hymn on the piano when the music cuts off, and while most are annoyed, Nick jumps in and sings with her. Daniel prevents a fight between an older guest and Ken. Cindy, Sam's crush, comes over, and a drunken Bill insists that he show dominance to gain her attraction.
After looking around for Daniel, Lindsay catches him and Kim making out in her bed, thoroughly disgusting and hurting her. She tries to calm down outside, and Nick attempts to comfort her, but while hugging her, undoes her bra-clip, only disgusting her further. Nick immediately apologizes, blaming the fact that he's "wasted," but Lindsay goes back inside and cries in an empty room.
Lindsay catches Daniel looking over her extensive collection of pictures and medal, and while Lindsay acts as though it reflects a past geeky life, Daniel backs up her right to be proud of her achievements, seemingly flirting with her. Millie, being her self-righteous self, begins playing a hymn on the piano when the music cuts off, and while most are annoyed, Nick jumps in and sings with her. Daniel prevents a fight between an older guest and Ken. Cindy, Sam's crush, comes over, and a drunken Bill insists that he show dominance to gain her attraction.
After looking around for Daniel, Lindsay catches him and Kim making out in her bed, thoroughly disgusting and hurting her. She tries to calm down outside, and Nick attempts to comfort her, but while hugging her, undoes her bra-clip, only disgusting her further. Nick immediately apologizes, blaming the fact that he's "wasted," but Lindsay goes back inside and cries in an empty room.
Neil tries to comfort her, telling her that while things may not be working out, she is a beautiful young girl, and is able to do anything she wants. They hug, Lindsay seeking comfort. Wanting the party to end, but afraid to look lame in front of everyone, she's not sure what to do. Neil then comes up with a plan - calling the police, pretending to be a next door neighbor, and shutting the party down. Just as Sam begins talking to Cindy, Neil clears everyone out by saying that the police are outside.
Miserably, Lindsay heads off to bed, telling a drunken Bill that he should get off the floor, as that's how the drummer of Led Zeppelin died.
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| Millie arriving at party |
While on the surface not as substantive as the pilot, Beers and Weirs holds within it some great emotional nuggets worth examining.
First thing's first, though - while I identified the actor playing the father of Lindsay and Sam last episode as one I knew (mostly from Happy Gilmore), it just hit me this episode I knew the mother also. She played one of the characters in the 1999 mini-series Storm of the Century, an extremely good horror story worth watching (and written by Stephen King). Her face just clicked, so I thought it was worth mentioning.
Insofar as the characters go though, who better to start off with than Lindsay? Trying to impress her new friends, and specifically Daniel, was a poor idea, but once it's done, there's only so much you can do to salvage the situation (one of the reasons Neil's solution at the end was quite welcomed). As she bemoaned near the end, her old friends (such as Millie) think that she's throwing her life away, while her new friends believe her to be a goody-two shoes. Lindsay is in a confusing situation, and doesn't know how to move forward. More so, Daniel's misleading behavior in the episode (which I personally feel was clearly flirting) has hurt her deeply, given her crush on him. Where will she go from her? Whatever she may think of Daniel now (though I suspect she'll still harbor feelings for him), at the very least we know that she'll stick with her new friends as opposed to backpedaling into her academically-focused life. She's put too much into it to do otherwise. Down the line, she may even attempt a relationship with Nick, but more on this later. Suffice it to say, the next few episodes should be an interesting trip for us, and a gut-wrenching one for Lindsay.
On Daniel, I am rather mixed. It's not clear if he knew that Lindsay was hosting the party only to impress him, but some glances he gives her, and actions toward her, seem to suggest that. At the very least, he should be aware enough to realize when he lays his head on someone's shoulder, that could be misconstrued as flirting. I don't know if Daniel is intentionally using Lindsay, but even if he is, I don't think it's being done maliciously. If anything, I think he just wants Lindsay to live life a little. If this is his intention, though, he is going about it the wrong way, and at the end of the episode, when he and Kim are leaving the party, there is no indication he feels bad that Lindsay caught the two of them making out on her bad. I'm not overly impressed with his actions, but perhaps they'll be expanded on as the series goes on.
Nick, throughout the episode and the pilot, has been nothing but kind to Lindsay as she's adjusting to her new friends. Showing her his drum set and telling her to pursue her passion was well-done, and here, trying to comfort her outside initially started out well. I do believe the hug was purely well-intentioned, and his actions thereafter due to the placebo effect of being drunk. I do feel he felt quite bad about what he did, indicated further when he attempts to have Sam apologize for him. We know already, though, that Nick is a gentle soul, even if he does make mistakes. When Millie began playing a hymn during the party, Kim openly mocked her. Despite being Kim's friend, Nick joined in with Millie and sang with her, standing up for her when no one else would, and urged others to join in. All-in-all, I hope that Nick is able to apologize properly to Lindsay, because despite all the fuss over Daniel, Nick seems a far better guy.
Millie is someone we don't know much about, but what we do know makes her character a mixed bag. The bad: She is quite judgmental toward those who don't live life the way she does (somewhat similar to Neil, actually), which may be due to her strict religious upbringing. She simply cannot understand why Lindsay would want to throw a party or drink. Now, it's perfectly okay to believe in the straight-edge lifestyle (I myself didn't drink until I got to college), but when she starts pushing that belief in other's faces (as she tries to do at the party), it comes across, rightly so, as annoying. Millie's a sweet girl, and I hope Nick sticking up for her opens her eyes to the fact that what people do to themselves is their choice, and not one that she has the right to dictate. Though I do give her some kudos - she did not call the police on Lindsay, and instead stuck around at the party to make sure things went okay.
To finish off the freaks, though, we have Ken and Kim. Ken, we still don't know a whole lot about, as he's not much of a talker. He did, though, seem to bear no ill-will toward Sam when he revealed that the beer was non-alcoholic, and despite his deadpan, gruff exterior, seems mostly a nice guy. Kim, I'm torn on. Well I can imagine a man being oblivious to how girls take his actions, Kim should have known perfectly well that making out on Lindsay's bed with Daniel was not okay. In fact, I suspect that Kim knows Lindsay has a crush on Daniel, and has known from the beginning. Given that she and Daniel are dating on-and-off, I can understand the jealousy, but the passive-aggressive attitude she displayed at the end of the episode just struck me as catty. I don't much like her character, though I do hold hope that she can become more accepting toward Lindsay as the series drags on.
Sam was pretty on point this episode. While he didn't tell his parents about the party Lindsay was planning, he did, with the help of his friends, work hard to ensure that people at the party would be safe from what he believed to be the dangers of alcohol. Personally, I think it was wrong to switch out the kegs, but I understand fully the reasoning behind it. He is opening up slightly more to Cindy, and if not for Neil's announcement of police, who knows what he might have revealed.
Neil here showed a maturity which I would not have expected from him (though possibly it has something to do with being raised Jewish). Though awkward as it may be for both parties, he is perfectly able to handle a conversation with Lindsay, and more so, able to speak to liquor store owners and get non-alcoholic beer out of it. His crush on Lindsay is cute, and he was a big help to her insofar as clearing the party, so while a relationship is not likely to happen (given age differences, not to mention a plethora of other things), he did show a very mature and sweet side. I think if he had been five years older at least, he could have had some chance. Nonetheless, Lindsay saw him in a different light, and I hope that she remembers he is there for her if need be going forward.
Looking back, that's quite a lot of thought put into this episode, but then again, I felt this episode had a lot packed into it. Overall, I was skeptical a typical house party episode would hold up a match to the pilot, but it did, and did it well. The emotional drama in this episode was high, and Cardellini, the actress portraying Lindsay, was as spectacular as I'd have expected. Insofar as other call-outs to good performances, Martin Starr (Bill) and Sarah Hagan (Millie) did extremely well in this episode, and hope to see them continue to shine.
This was a fantastic episode despite my initial beliefs, and, like the first one, is getting my highest rating.
Rating: Superb
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To finish off the freaks, though, we have Ken and Kim. Ken, we still don't know a whole lot about, as he's not much of a talker. He did, though, seem to bear no ill-will toward Sam when he revealed that the beer was non-alcoholic, and despite his deadpan, gruff exterior, seems mostly a nice guy. Kim, I'm torn on. Well I can imagine a man being oblivious to how girls take his actions, Kim should have known perfectly well that making out on Lindsay's bed with Daniel was not okay. In fact, I suspect that Kim knows Lindsay has a crush on Daniel, and has known from the beginning. Given that she and Daniel are dating on-and-off, I can understand the jealousy, but the passive-aggressive attitude she displayed at the end of the episode just struck me as catty. I don't much like her character, though I do hold hope that she can become more accepting toward Lindsay as the series drags on.
Sam was pretty on point this episode. While he didn't tell his parents about the party Lindsay was planning, he did, with the help of his friends, work hard to ensure that people at the party would be safe from what he believed to be the dangers of alcohol. Personally, I think it was wrong to switch out the kegs, but I understand fully the reasoning behind it. He is opening up slightly more to Cindy, and if not for Neil's announcement of police, who knows what he might have revealed.
Neil here showed a maturity which I would not have expected from him (though possibly it has something to do with being raised Jewish). Though awkward as it may be for both parties, he is perfectly able to handle a conversation with Lindsay, and more so, able to speak to liquor store owners and get non-alcoholic beer out of it. His crush on Lindsay is cute, and he was a big help to her insofar as clearing the party, so while a relationship is not likely to happen (given age differences, not to mention a plethora of other things), he did show a very mature and sweet side. I think if he had been five years older at least, he could have had some chance. Nonetheless, Lindsay saw him in a different light, and I hope that she remembers he is there for her if need be going forward.
Looking back, that's quite a lot of thought put into this episode, but then again, I felt this episode had a lot packed into it. Overall, I was skeptical a typical house party episode would hold up a match to the pilot, but it did, and did it well. The emotional drama in this episode was high, and Cardellini, the actress portraying Lindsay, was as spectacular as I'd have expected. Insofar as other call-outs to good performances, Martin Starr (Bill) and Sarah Hagan (Millie) did extremely well in this episode, and hope to see them continue to shine.
This was a fantastic episode despite my initial beliefs, and, like the first one, is getting my highest rating.
Quote of the episode:
Jeff Russo [during student assembly]: Now, I know what you're thinking - Mr. Russo, you don't understand. If I don't drink, I won't be cool. Well, you know what I say to that? Maybe if you don't drink, you will be cool."
Rating: Superb
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