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'Tos 04-16-2009 01:51 PM

The Everwood Rewatch Fest: "Friendly Fire" (S1, Ep. 3)
 
We'll keep this up for one week and then go on to the next episode. After you've watched the episode, you can comment on it anyway you'd like, big or small. You can focus on certain characters, scenes, quotes, or the episode as a whole. You can tie the episode to the rest of the series, or comment about it as a self-contained episode. It's all up to you! You can always give your thoughts after the one week period, as all rewatch threads will stay open for more thoughts and anymore discussion. Thanks!









Friendly Fire
Written By: Oliver Goldstick
Directed By: Danny Leiner

Quote:

Original Air Date—30 September 2002
Andy's neighbor and friend Nina is ostracized by the townspeople when they discover she is a surrogate mother for a woman in her mid-50s. Andy's clumsy attempt to come to Nina's defense backfires, but she turns to him and Ephram for help when the baby makes an unexpectedly early arrival. Meanwhile, Ephram is dealt an emotional blow when Amy dis-invites him to a party in order to gain the approval of her friends, and Delia attempts to befriend the school bully, Magilla.
Imdb

If you haven't already, please feel free to comment on our previous episodes:

The Pilot
The Great Doctor Brown

Thief Of Love 04-17-2009 12:25 AM

This was one of those episodes that told me that Everwood really was different. It’s not many family dramas that would reveal that the kindly pregnant neighbor lady was actually a surrogate for a never-previously-mentioned 55-year-old woman. :look: This, it should go without saying, is a Good Thing.
  • “I dig legs.” Somehow I had blocked the memory of Amy being this occasionally weird, hee.
  • AUGH! Wendell! I have nothing else to say to that, just...AUGH! (And yet, I'm the one who reintroduced him into the 300,000,000,000 Word Story.)
  • Oh, but how much do I love Andy’s middle-of-the-lake freakout? So very, very much. “I’VE MOVED INTO A SNOWGLOBE! WHAT AM I DOING HERE?!” :lmao:
  • Similarly, Ephram with a whisk! :lmao:, the Sequel.
  • And, I’m sorry, but the baby’s mother looks way older than 55, at least based on the mid-to-late-50-somethings I know *cough*myparents*cough*
  • Finally, Ephram’s reaction to the surrogacy has been interesting to me since the first time I rewatched this episode after all the Madison drama. “I don’t know how she did it. I don’t know how anyone could just hand over a baby.” It’s the kind of line that’s fairly unnecessary, really, which makes me wonder if Berlanti had actually thought things through at this stage in the game – was Ephram always supposed to father a child? I could believe that Berlanti had planned that far in advance, and yet, there were certain elements of that story that just seemed so much soapier than the kind of vibe with which Everwood started. Of course, Everwood started with a guy who talked to visions of his dead wife and a girl desperate to procure help for her comatose boyfriend, so...what was I talking about, again?

everwoodfan52 04-17-2009 09:27 AM

Quote:

Similarly, Ephram with a whisk!
To this day....I'm trying to figure out how Andy managed to cut the cord with that wisk!





Quote:

AUGH! Wendell! I have nothing else to say to that, just...AUGH!
I kind of liked Wendell. He was pretty disheveled...but he was kind of a cool character in his own way. He had decency, he was empathetic, he was smart (well, he was in the honors Science class), he was funny, and I believe that he could have been a good, caring friend to Ephram.
I wish that they had kept him on.

Abomasum 04-17-2009 12:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by everwoodfan52 (Post 34051346)
To this day....I'm trying to figure out how Andy managed to cut the cord with that wisk!

He didn't. He chewed. :look:

Sorry, I have been quiet.... I watched "The Great Dr. Brown" a few days ago, but when I came back online everything had already been said. :look: And I had forgotten a lot... I should start taking notes, something is wrong with my head.

everwoodfan52 04-18-2009 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Abomasum (Post 34056905)
He didn't. He chewed. :look:

Yuck!

Quote:

Sorry, I have been quiet.... I watched "The Great Dr. Brown" a few days ago, but when I came back online everything had already been said. :look: And I had forgotten a lot... I should start taking notes, something is wrong with my head.

Magilla wasn't mentioned. What did you think of him?

Abomasum 04-18-2009 01:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by everwoodfan52 (Post 34083077)
Yuck!

:lol:




Quote:

Magilla wasn't mentioned. What did you think of him?
I adore him and Delia together... I haven't watched Friendly Fire yet, though... (I just couldn't stop myself from making that "he chewed" comment...)

everwoodfan52 04-18-2009 10:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Abomasum (Post 34091238)
:lol:
I adore him and Delia together... I haven't watched Friendly Fire yet, though... (I just couldn't stop myself from making that "he chewed" comment...)


I really didn't care for the Magilla storyline. Poor Delia! She had difficulty finding friends...I find that fact really difficult to believe. An adorable girl like Delia would have found a couple of nice girls to sit with. She was cute, didn't have purple hair, stood up to Miss Violet (that would have earned her respect and a following). Here comes Magilla.....he bullies her and becomes her friend....then acts mean to her when he's with his other friends....then plays barbie dolls with her.....then has to move and is not allowed to see her again! How much should that poor girl take! :eek:
I really didn't see a need for that particular storyline.

'Tos 04-18-2009 10:46 PM

The only major problem with Magilla I had was that I could never actually buy him as a bully, even a grade three or four bully. His insults were awful, he wasn't even that big and he was not scary at all, and in fact actually looked scared of Delia at times! Now, we know that Delia can throw one heck of a punch, but he sure didn't know that!

Quote:

Sorry, I have been quiet.... I watched "The Great Dr. Brown" a few days ago, but when I came back online everything had already been said.
I would just say, for future reference, even if people have already kind of said what you want to say: say it again. That's totally what I do when I'm not first. :lol: The whole point of the thing is for everyone to give their thoughts, so it's not a big deal if anyone is repeating. Heck, if I didn't repeat people's points, I'd barely post at all! ;)

Abomasum 04-19-2009 05:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by everwoodfan52 (Post 34106870)
She had difficulty finding friends...I find that fact really difficult to believe. An adorable girl like Delia would have found a couple of nice girls to sit with. She was cute, didn't have purple hair, stood up to Miss Violet (that would have earned her respect and a following).

Oooh, no that does happen. It happened to me. And I was an adorable, strong-minded little girl, I don't mind saying so, and I had difficulty finding friends when I came to school. It only takes all the other kids already knowing each other, really. My hair wasn't purple, by the way.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 'Tos
I would just say, for future reference, even if people have already kind of said what you want to say: say it again. That's totally what I do when I'm not first. :lol: The whole point of the thing is for everyone to give their thoughts, so it's not a big deal if anyone is repeating. Heck, if I didn't repeat people's points, I'd barely post at all! ;)

Repeating others isn't really my thing... I don't like to do that. I like to repeat myself... :P but others... I could just agree, though, if you want me to. I just think agreeing is not productive and thus completely unnecessary, not a person of big words, if I have nothing imortant to say... I prefer to shut up. Except if it's late in the night. Like now. :look: Bye!

Thief Of Love 04-19-2009 06:18 PM

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It only takes all the other kids already knowing each other, really.
This is very true. By the time Delia arrived, most of the other students had spent enough school years together to have formed their little cliques and general friend groupings, and Everwood wasn't the kind of community very used to seeing newcomers anyway, so she was really something of an anomaly -- different from what it might be like at a school that was used to seeing a couple of new kids a year, as would be likely in most other places. At the same time, though, I can accept her sudden transition into popularity between S1 and 2, since the others girls were still at a young enough age to be willing to eventually embrace a newcomer like Delia, as long as she was acceptable to them in particular ways. I would have had a much harder time envisioning as dramatic a turnaround for her if the Browns had moved when she was 12 or 13, though.

Abomasum 04-19-2009 07:32 PM

Also, with Delia's situation it is pretty realistic: To be socially more passive when your mother just died and you have been moved to the middle of nowhere. It is obvious that she really wants friends, but she isn't very active, she doesn't do that much about it, because God knows she has enough things to worry about at that point. By the time summer rolled along and everybody was having fun at the pool, she was ready to have fun again and really wanted to have fun again, that's why she became more active, socially, because a pool isn't all that much fun when you're on your own. I believe when the summer came, she was a different person towards these girls, she acted differently, because she didn't just want friends anymore, she needed them.
That explanation would work with a 12-year-old for me as well, but from what it looks like from the outside, the cliquism you have in America is a lot worse than what I have ever experienced in my entire life, so you're probably right and at the age of 12 Delia wouldn't have made friends so easily anymore...

ShadowMagist 04-19-2009 08:24 PM

^ Agreed on both points you two.

Not much more to add to the discussion though. Andy's, "I was once a happy sack of hormones" remains to be one of his best lines. Ever. :lol:

Some people didn't like the whole speechifying scenes in Mama Joy's(maybe at TWOP), but I still like how they work so well together. Plus, Treat makes an ass of himself in front of Nina for the first time! What's not to love there?

:)

Thief Of Love 04-19-2009 08:46 PM

Aw, I actually rather like the speechifying, as well. Mainly because, while it could come off as this stagey, expository exchange, it's so totally in-character for Andy and Harold both. Plus, Nina reacts the way a normal person would, so that helps mitigate the stageyness, too.

'Tos 04-20-2009 03:58 PM

  • Longest Previous-lies EVER?
  • Ephram and his chicken legs! Wendell really does seem like something out of a more typical high school show, the quirky, loser, weirdo, freak teenager with random confidence. Doesn't fit on Everwood at all, though. But his few appearances are worth it for this great exchange:
    Quote:

    WENDELL: Wonder what they're talking about?
    EPHRAM: Ah... well, no. I don't care.
    WENDELL: It's probably not that exciting anyway. It looks exciting because of all the wild gesticulating and massive hair flippage that's going on? You'd think they were solving the world's energy crisis, or better yet... revealing their secret crushes. That's what they want us to think. My guess is, they're debating which lip gloss has the best flavor.
    EPHRAM: They come in flavors?
  • I also adore this exchange:
    Quote:

    EPHRAM: Look, Delia, you wanna make a friend? The first step, don't look so needy.
    DELIA: Is it these pants?
    So cute. Although, Ephram's solution to Delia's inability to make any friends being a yo yo just proves just how much he has no idea how do make any friends either.
  • Harold going "hmm" at the end of the scene where Andy puts his foot in his mouth (he's so good at doing that, hee) is soooooo funny. Cracks me up every single time. His exaggerated pleasure in the face of Andy's humiliation never gets old.
  • I've got to say, as much as I hate Amy's friends, that is damn good popular, bitchy teenage girl writing. "Yo, goth guy".
  • Another example of Andy's loneliness. At least it's a little funny with the snowglobe line, but I absolutely love the writing of this line:
    Quote:

    ANDY: I hope you're watching this, Julia. You'll be getting a big kick out of this! 'Cause this is for you, sweetheart! That's right, Mrs. Brown. Your whole family left a civilized life in a civilized city for some godforsaken mountain town 'cause your train stopped here in 1964 and you fell in love with some purple mountains and some fluffy clouds! But you didn't know this town, Julia! You didn't meet the people! 'Cause you didn't get past the gift shop!
  • I love that Irv and Edna are playing Monopoly at the diner for some reason, I love that Irv does end up getting Edna fries even though she cheats, I love that Ephram is eating a doughnut after Andy helps Nina give birth, and I LOVE how obvious it is that Sarah is NOT holding a real baby.
  • Aww to Harold coming through in the end.
  • I've always thought that last scene could have used an Irv voiceover. It just kind of ends out of nowhere.

Yeah, nothing really all that profound to talk about in that one, heh, but I still like it. :) It's clearly nowhere near as good as the first two episodes, or even the fourth, but it does work in its own way. Maybe because of how quotable so much of it is.

ShadowMagist 04-20-2009 06:42 PM

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Longest Previous-lies EVER?
I was gonna mention this too! Like, I understand a season finale being that long, but the third episode?! Tsk. :lol:

Oh! And continuing the lip gloss discussion, Gregory's, "you're making me uncomfortable Wendell" delivery is so perfect there. The epitomy of deadpanned goodness. ;)


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