HOPE IN A JAR

Writer: Wendy MacLeod
Director: David Petrarca

It's 'The Mating Game' show and Sugar is your host. Brooke questions three potential dates (Stone Cold Fox, Josh and Harrison) in turn. It is Harrison's thoughtful, sensitive [Feminine?] answers that impress Brooke the most. [Is it really a guy she's looking for?]

A note thrown by Stone Cold brings her back to reality. She's in class watching a nature film. She decides she's been judging guys by the wrong criteria, looks are out.

She reads the note. Stone Cold is asking her to ask him to the Sadie Hawkins Dance. She smiles at him and puts the note with all the others she's gotten in a folder.

Josh is not happy about this, and wonders if it's gay to think that Stone Cold is hotter than himself.

Sam is thinking that Josh is available, but probably likes big breasts. Don't all guys? [Well, Sam, the answer is, no, not all guys. Brooke has small breasts and she had Josh, but then he might be gay and that's why he liked her boyish figure.]

Carmen is also dreaming of Josh, hoping that he might like someone with curves for a change.

Harrison is calculating the odds of Brooke asking him to the dance, but 596/1 does not sound good.

Everyone in class says they hate their body.

In the changing rooms Sugar tells Josh he's 6lbs over his wrestling weight. Harrison checks out Josh via a mirror. Emory pops up to reassure Harrison he's down with this as he has a cousin that enjoys coupling with other men. [Emory is gay friendly, isn't that nice?]

Harrison declares he doesn't want to 'do' Josh, he wants to be him, or at least have his abs. Emory commiserates on Harrison's complete lack of masculinity.

Ms Ross discusses unrealistic body images and talks about the Sadie Hawkins Dance, when, once a year, the girls have the chance to ask the boy of their choice for a date.

[Sadie Hawkins is the ugly girl that no boy wanted. She lived in Dogpatch, the town featured in the popular daily comic strip Li'l Abner (1934-1977), created by Al Capp (1909-1979). The first Sadie Hawkins Day took place on November 15, 1937. On that day the unmarried girls chased the unmarried guys, and if they got caught they got married. This then is the basis for the real life tradition of the Sadie Hawkins Dance which began the next year. Incidentally, Chris Gorham (Harrison) previously attended (sort of) a Sadie Hawkins Dance (as James Stanley) in the Buffy episode I Only Have Eyes For You.]

At lunch Harrison fishes for compliments from Sam but gets none. April Tuna invites him to the dance (despite having bondage fantasies about Stone Cold) but Sam claims to have snagged him first. April storms off, dismissing Harrison as a beta male unworthy of her attention. [She's now out of her cast. That was a quick recovery!]

Meanwhile Nicole, Poppy and Mary Cherry are busy drooling over Stone Cold. Nicole suggests a weight loss race to decide who gets him. The others agree.

Josh fishes for an invitation from Brooke. She curtly reminds him they have broken up.

Carmen fails in her attempt to ask Josh. Lily then criticises her for chosing the studly type instead of someone like Harrison. "My favourite activist in training." This compliment does not ease the unflattering implication that Harrison is not studly and he leaves the table in a huff.

The cheerleaders are entranced by Mr Calorie, a high-tech weighing machine newly installed in the Novak. [A plot convenience and, I assume, a swipe at all those dispensing machines that litter American high schools. See the Daria episode Fizz Ed for a more comprehensive satire on this topic.]

Outside school, Harrison bumps into Brooke, spilling her many invites. They discuss (barely) J D Salinger's Franny and Zooey (1961) and The Catcher in the Rye (1951), thus lending Harrison an intellectual depth that persuades Brooke to invite him to the dance.

Next day, Josh and Sugar 'mummify' themselves in order to lose weight. Sam tells Harrison about the new dress she's bought for the dance. He doesn't tell her about the change of plan and then lies to Emory [How did he find out about Brooke?] that he has.

Lily is campaigning for healthy weight when she gets into an argument with Nicole. Nicole challenges Lily to go to the dance with "Little Dick" (Emory). She will make April Tuna into a fashion victim and thus prove image is everything.

Carmen asks Sam's advice on how to ask Josh as she's not good with words. Sam's reply reveals some intimate knowledge of the younger Josh. [See Windstruck for details.]

Sugar, Josh and Harrison hit the gym. Emory arrives to crow about his date with Lily. "The woman of his dreams." He lets slip about Harrison and Brooke. Josh is furious and questions how such an 'adonis' got Brooke. Emory moves on to insult Lily with remarks about her attire and physical imperfections.

Harrison asks Brooke about the reason she asked him, suspecting a pity date. Sam interrupts with news of a double date with Lily and Emory (now being referred to disparagingly as "The Dick"). [Did she learn nothing from last week?] Harrison is trying to explain his double booking when Josh turns up, ostensibly to seek Sam's advice. She asks him to the dance just to spite Brooke and Harrison.

Back at the Palace, Sam and Brooke argue. Sam warns Brooke that Harrison has real feelings for her and shouldn't be used as a pawn. Brooke insists that her motives are genuine and that it's Sam's choice of the "dumb jock" that is suspect. This 'mature' discussion ends with mutual jibes about their breasts. "The pot calling the kettle flat," says Sam.

[The pawn metaphor is well chosen as all the boys are being used, but this argument is really about something else - their mutual attraction and their refusal to acknowledge it. Brooke is clearly hurt by the suggestion that Sam might actually want Josh, which to some extent she does, but neither will say what is really in their hearts. What they really want to say is: Why didn't you ask me to the dance?]

The cheerleaders, plus April, inform Stone Cold of their wager and that the winner will claim him at the dance.

Carmen tells Lily about her plans to go stag and then ask Josh to dance. Lily tells her about Sam and Josh.

Josh and Harrison work out hard. Carmen confronts Sam, who comes clean. They sit on the stairs and compare their supposed faults.

The cheerleaders give April an industrial-strength makeover in the Novak. Sam tests her inflatable bra at the Palace.

Brooke and Harrison, Sam and Josh, Lily and Emory (in the hot-tub) take the limo to the dance. Harrison and Josh clash and stop for a fight which doesn't happen as they're too tired and hurt from all that training. The girls are not impressed by the macho posturing anyway.

The cheerleaders draw in the final weigh-in. Mary Cherry produces a super-laxative (Convulse) to settle the issue. The glammed-up April is unveiled to wolf-whistles from the crowd. Carmen arrives stag.

On the dancefloor Josh informs Sam that he's only here for the purposes of revenge. Sam is distracted from this slight [She wanted Josh to want her and thus validate her attractiveness, of which she is unsure.] by the collapse of her inflatable superstructure and rushes off.

By now Harrison is too stiff to move let alone dance. He explains he did it to impress Brooke. She explains she wasn't looking for brawn. He finds the fact he was chosen for his brains disappointing. She asks would he want to be with her if she wasn't pretty? He doesn't answer, which she takes as a no. Nevertheless, she offers him another date then goes to find some painkillers for him.

The cheerleaders are amazed to find April has snagged Stone Cold and has cast off her designer image. He likes her as is and also likes the fact that she can see his soul. Then the laxatives kick in so the cheerleaders have to dash off to the Novak.

Carmen tries to ask Josh to dance but he collapses from dehydration before he can answer.

Outside in the limo, Lily is flattered that Emory finds her beautiful. [Indeed she looks stunning, but who did she get dressed up for, surely not Emory?] He claims his previous comments were caused by nerves, but now he's hurt by the fact he's not really Lily's date just a political statement. He leaves.

The cheerleaders emerge from their purge and decide to smash the tyranny of the weighing machine, literally, with a hammer.

Ms Hall, and husband, Olaf, hold court in order to press home the moral of the episode, that beauty is just skin deep and that love is blind. At her request Sugar plays I Only Have Eyes For You by The Flamingos [The 1959 song that also features in the Buffy episode] so Ms Hall can dance nice'n'slow.

Josh asks a delighted Carmen for a dance.

Nicole gingerly sits next to Lily, concedes defeat and negotiates changes to the Glamazon archer icon as promised. [I think they make a very cute couple here. Go for it Lily!]

Free of Josh, Sam turns and smiles at Brooke with a lift of the eyebrows. Brooke smiles back. [I think we all know what this means. Brooke's getting lucky tonight!]

The End

PS. The title, in case you didn't know, refers to the range of cosmetic products marketed by Philosophy that offer hope in a jar for those who are willing to pay for it.

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