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Fan Forum Legend
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 306,234
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I thought that this was a really well-done episode where certain characters pondered their future, and we saw that some of those characters weren’t on the same page with their future plans, and some characters were basing their future plans on each other, which may not have been the best thing to do.
The expression “Shoot the Moon” means to try to try to do or get something that is very difficult to do, and it set the theme for this episode, as Ephram was trying to get into Julliard, which, as Andy said, had 4,000 kids applying and only 30 spots for piano, and Andy was trying to find a breakthrough for Amanda’s husband John. We also Amy at a crossroads where she was trying to decide what college to go to, but her focus seemed to be more on her love for Ephram instead of her own future, much to her father’s dismay. We also saw that Irv and Edna had different views on what they wanted to do with their future, as he longed to travel and she wanted to stay put.
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You found it once again. 
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I liked the opening scene, where Ephram, in a voiceover, was writing an essay where he was supposed to describe who he was and where he wanted to be, and he said that two years ago, he knew the answers to that question, but now he wasn’t so sure, which hearkened back to how Julia’s loss changed his world forever.
We then saw Ephram and Amy in the school hall and it seemed that she was making plans to only apply for schools that were near Julliard, which set the tone for the rest of this episode, as her love for Ephram seemed to preclude her original plans to go to her dream college, Princeton University.
We saw that a recruiter from Colorado A & M met with Ephram and he encouraged him to consider going to his school, telling him that Colorado A & M could give him a more well-rounded education than Julliard could, but Ephram had his heart set on going to Julliard. This scene ended with Ephram, in another voiceover writing his essay saying that plans are candy to the Fates, and that the only thing you could ever be sure of is nothing ever goes the way you imagined and that he should be used to that by now, which was an incredibly prophetic statement, not just for this episode but in future episodes to come, as all of Ephram’s best laid plans would soon come crashing down.
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Yes, indeed. We see Ephram and Amy so happy and in love, but Ephram's Voice-Over gives us an indication that not only will college plans all be changed (both, single, start out at Colorado A&M, not NYC or Boston as planned) but he will be headed down a dark path the second Madison's mug appears in NYC.
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We saw Irv tell Edna that he had decided to retire, but she later learned that he had been let go in an obvious case of age discrimination, and she confronted him and she told him that she intended to fight that decision, but Irv told her that he was happy to retire and he was ready to move on to “Phase III” of his life and travel the world with her, but we saw that she wasn’t ready to do that.
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I still think this bit about Irv never wanting to stay in Everwood together long-term was invented. He looked way more fine with the town of Everwood in S1 than even Edna did.
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We saw that Jake was unnecessarily harsh with Edna when she came in late and she quit in a huff, but when she went back to gather her things, he correctly told her that she wasn’t ready to retire and he refused to accept her resignation, which led to the heart-to-heart talk that she had with Irv and she told him that she had gone all around the world but now she had put down roots, and those roots were in Everwood, and Irv reluctantly agreed to stay with her in Everwood, for now.
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Jake was a prick yelling at Edna but in the end, he actually helped her out a lot.
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We saw Andy go to see Amanda and tell her about a possible technique for helping her husband John that involved mental stimulation through music, and although he had put a lot of time in to researching this technique, Andy, as was often the case, was a bit overbearing in recommending this technique to her, and she later told Andy that he needed to listen to her and he needed to learn who John was before his stroke, and she showed him a video of John when he was himself, and we saw happy her and John had been together before the debilitating stroke that changed their lives forever.
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You can already see the beginning signs of flirting between them, too. Initially I thought it was more sarcastic dry wit on Amanda's end (since we see from day one she has a sense of humor given how she handled Delia's party) but you can see some flirty moments at the same time. It isn't obvious but you can tell where the writers are going now since we actually do know... precisely where they went.
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As always, Harold was over the top with his excitement for Amy’s future as he had gotten her information, complete with hats, on the top 50 schools in the country, and he was disappointed when she told him that she had already decided what schools she wanted to apply to, and he was especially disappointed when she told him that she wasn’t considering Princeton University, which had been her dream school since she was a child. What I find ironic about her not considering Princeton is that she was considering Harvard, which is farther away from New York than Princeton is, so her not considering Princeton really didn’t make sense, but it became an important part of this episode as we would see.
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Cambridge to Boston is only 20 minutes, due to Ephram.  Ephram, in his mind, was either going to be in NYC or Boston.
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Ephram told Andy that he was going to go on a walking tour of Colorado A & M, and Andy insisted on going with him, much to his dismay, and Delia hilariously turned to Ephram and said “you have no learning curve.” 
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Delia is a sage.
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Andy was so incredibly obnoxious and dismissive on the Colorado A & M Tour, embarrassing Ephram who hilariously said that his father had a stroke recently, and he then confronted Andy about his boorish behavior, but Andy was insistent that Ephram needed to solely focus on getting into Julliard, and Ephram said that Andy had been pushing him so much that he didn’t know what he wanted and he didn’t want to be so focused on playing the piano that he wouldn’t make time for anything or anyone else, like Andy had been before Julia’s death.
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I've never seen Andy so out of control, obnoxious.
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At the Abbott dinner table, Bright called out Amy for only applying to schools where she could be near Ephram and Amy sneeringly said that her and Ephram had applied to Colorado A & M as a backup because it was a school that “anyone with a pulse could get into” alluding to the fact that Bright had failed to even get into that school, and Bright, hurt, left the table. Harold was completely correct when he told Amy to not limit her college choices for a boy, and in an incredibly prescient statement he told her that she shouldn’t base all her dreams on something that might change.
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What I find interesting is Harold did the same thing for Rose.
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I loved the scene where Harold went to see Ephram and Ephram thought it was Amy at the door, and he said “Amy, this isn’t gonna be another one of those make-out apologies is it?” only to discover, to his horror and embarrassment, that it was Amy’s father at the door, and when he told Ephram that he was there to see him and not his father, Ephram asked “Should I be scared?” and Harold answered “Every day of your life,” but I loved how he gave Ephram the application to Princeton for Amy and he asked Ephram to ask Amy to consider applying there, telling Ephram that Princeton had been Amy’s dream school since she was a little girl, and acknowledging that she listened to him more than she listened to her own father now. I also love how Harold told Ephram that he had a gift and he didn’t even realize how much of a gift he had, much like Andy did, and that he had also wanted to play the piano but like his original ambition to be a surgeon, he just didn’t have the hands for it. I found this scene to be so moving and incredible, as Ephram got to see a side of Harold that he usually only reserved for his family, and it showed how much he had come to acknowledge and respect that his daughter loved this gifted and complicated young man.
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Pure Gold. 
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I loved how Amy saw that when Ephram mentioned New Jersey to her she figured out that Harold had talked to him, but she still refused to consider applying to Princeton, but I loved how honest they were with each other and how she lovingly told him that she wasn’t worried about them.
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They work so perfectly together. Nothing could break them up... only outlandish, ridiculous things like pregnancy and even that didn't stop them in the end.
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I loved that Rose reminded Harold that he didn’t apply to Princeton so he could be with her, and her telling him that seemed to give him some peace of mind.
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Exactly. You have to wonder how much Harold really wanted Amy at Princeton for AMY or for Harold to also live out his original dream of attending Princeton via his daughter.
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I liked Andy and Ephram’s final talk and Andy told him to picture where he would be in four years, and Ephram told him that he’d be playing at Julliard, and Andy told him he would do everything to make that dream come true, but as we would soon see, that dream would soon come crashing down.
I loved how this episode ended with Ephram writing Amy’s Princeton Essay for her, as we realized that his voiceover wasn’t him writing an essay for himself, but for her, because she was the love of his life and like Harold, he wanted her to realize her lifelong dream of being able to go to Princeton. I also loved how so much of what had happened to him in the last two years mirrored what had happened to Amy in the last two years, and his writing that essay from her perspective truly reflected his own perspective because they were so in sync with one another.
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Both moments were beautiful and incredibly powerful.
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Overall, I really enjoyed this episode as it set the stage for everything that was to come.
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I love S3. Even with Madisongate hanging around ready to explode, we still have some time to just enjoy really wonderful moments between all the characters we cherish.
I still think there was a way more clever way to show drama and tension between father/son and the main romantic pairing (Ephram and Amy) instead of an illegal pregnancy. It sucks.
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