I hearby pillage and despoil this ep (SPOILERS)
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I think the main theme of this episode was the absurd emphasis we Americans are putting on high school sports. Kevin, being Kevin, does something stupid and hurts himself, causing Lawndale to lose some football games. What follows is an absurd overreaction.
Gloom and despair settle over the sillier students. That's to be expected. But then shops start treating the FC as second-class ... property values drop ... it's very obvious that even the larger world beyond the high school considers this triviality to be of vital importance.
Ms. Li hires a ringer to be quarterback of the team. (For non-Americans: a "ringer" is someone who isn't really a student at the school, but is bribed to pretend to be in order to let him play on the local team. This is technically against the rules, but it happens often enough that we have a slang word for it).
The ringer's clearly retarded and rather psychotic. In the show, this has the comedic result of scaring the rest of the team off the practic field, making matters even worse. In real life, the results aren't always so comedic: ringers or near-ringers of this sort have committed assaults, rapes, and even murders in American schools.
(I'd say that the *very* common practice of giving school athletes free passes on courses, to let them stay on the team, counts as "near-ringer" status. I'll also note that these non-students are serious crime risks, both during and after their "education").
The ironic thing here is that Ms. Li, who is fanatical about "school safety", has thus let a wolf into the midst of her flock. It has no serious consequences in the show, but that's because this is being played as comedy.
The really disturbing thing is that her decision makes sense, given everyone's reacting so strongly to the football reverses. If losing football games really means falling property values and economic embargos, of *course* a winning team is of vital importance. (Her plan doesn't work, but that's because the new QB is just *too* scary!)
The larger point is being made that we are too concerned about "winning", especially in the collective sense. The FC's point that *they* don't even play football is (for once) valid. The scary point is that so is the shopclerk's point, given the way that other people will react to see people from a "loser school" shopping there.
(Reality check, especially for non-Americans: I have *never* seen any real store turn away customers for being "losers", though once when I was in one of my shaggier and more unkempt phases a restaurant tried to seat me where I wouldn't be visible from the street ... I walked out on them. *Daria* is satire, and hence exaggerates. But the exaggeration is mainly because the real ways in which we discriminate against low-status schools and their students are more suble ... and sometimes, more damaging. In particular, this sort of thing *can* affect school budgets, and long-term it *can* affect a town's economy).
== The other interesting thing this ep was the near-breakup of Kevin and Brittany. The show's been hinting that a breakup's going to happen; this episode it nearly did (technically, they *did* break up, but only for a very short while). Their reasons for doing so were childish; their reasons for not wanting to do so reveal that there really is *some* love there. OTOH, one wonders just how *much* ... c'mon ... "stay together forever ... until we graduate" ... ???!!!
It was amusing seeing Kevin without his pads. He's not really that big or strong, and he sure isn't smart ... one assumes that he must substitute near-fanatical dedication for strength and smarts. Mack's indecision absent Kevin was interesting and unexpected. How much is his heart really into the game, and how much is he just doing it because it's "expected" of him?
Tom's involvement worked well. We can see that Daria's warming to him. He also solved Kevin's problem (and indirectly the school's) with a single, positive suggestion. Kevin's involvement in the safety program (farcical as it was) gave him back the courage to rejoin the team (it's obvious that his problem was mainly psychological; a sprained knee usually doesn't take more than a few weeks to heal, I've had an injury very similar to the one Kevin got this ep ... and I received it doing something even stupider!)
Tom's quiet, but he's clearly an intellectual match for Jane and Daria.
=== The "ghost of Tommy Sherman" bit was funny. I gather someone's been reading the fanfics. I'm glad that the writers remembered the late and overly-lamented Lawndale football star. I'm also glad they remembered that Brittany did *not* like him.
Incidentally, did anybody notice the irony of Kevin getting slightly hurt in a manner similar to, but even more extreme, than the way Tommy Sherman got killed? Looks like Kevin had a guardian angel that Tommy was lacking :)
Sincerely Yours, Jordan