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When Doves Cry II
We begin the next part with a shot of a shirtless Craig looking at himself in the mirror, and it's just my luck that the only time we get to see Jake Epstein half naked is both while the right side of his chest and whole middle section is darkly bruised, and when he's way too jailbait to be of any interest. He brushes his stomachs and flinches, making a breathy sound of pain. Poor baby.
Cut to what I thought at first were Paige's sunglasses, but turn out to be some random chick's sunglasses, used to make a good, pseudo-artsy transition. We see Craig open the passenger door of his father's car but before he can get out, his father hands him a handful of cash: there's enough in there to make several hundreds since there are both 20s and 100s. He suggests that Craig buy a new camera, maybe even a *gasp* digital one, and Craig 'wow's and thanks him. "And if you need anything else, just ask," Daddy Dearest adds. Craig thanks him again, and his father asks, "No hard feelings?" Craig looks at the money for a few seconds, then agrees that there are no hard feelings without taking his eyes off it, then gets out of the car without looking at his father.
Cut to Paige, Hazel and Spinner in the school. Hazel is giving out the rules of the date: there has to be a dinner and a movie. Paige refuses, since it apparently goes against her conditions we never heard, but Spinner reminds her and us that they're paying her for the date and want to be entertained. Cut to JT and Toby in the cafeteria. JT's once again assuring Toby that he and Paige will get out on a date this year, even if it will be "all in good time," and of course just then Paige appears, a smirking Spinner and Hazel not far behind. JT starts to ramble on, to the horror of Paige and the amusement of Spinner and Hazel, until Toby kicks his arm to make him shut up. Paige apologizes for the way she reacted when he asked her out, and I laugh because even though this is JT's one chance in a lifetime, he can't stop his eyes from repeatedly wandering south of Paige's neck. You can literally see him force himself to look up into her eyes. "Movie and a bite, your treat," Paige goes on, looking more like she's threatening him than asking him out on a date. JT's eyes once again go to her breasts before he asks if she's serious, then he grins and agrees. Paige tells him to be at the mall at 5 pm that evening and leaves, and JT looks at Toby who's all, "No. Way. In. Hell." Ahh, afternoon-dates. Young love is so cute.
Cut to Craig and Sean, playing basketball in the courtyard. And who-hoo, Sean's half naked! Except, again, too jailbait for me to really care, but it's the forces of habit. Craig's not, of course, because it would be pretty hard to explain his giant bruise. Craig scores - you know those shots, when you're in front of the basket and can't move, just shoot once? Yeah, one of those. My lack of knowledge of all things sport-related is pretty scary. Sean cheers and grabs the ball, then dribbles and tells Craig that he should try to join the school team. Aww, he wants to spend more time with his boyfriend! Craig tells him he's not really a team-sport kind of guy (could this boy be any more perfect?), but Sean assures him he didn't think he was either, but that it's cool. He tries to score from just underneath the basket but misses - it's really one of those shots I thought I was the only one capable of missing, which makes me love Sean even more. Craig laughs that he should maybe join the team if Sean's the star player, and Sean's smiling too! Because they love each other! They play one on one for a little while until Sean bumps into Craig's bad side - I'm not exactly sure how, but it certainly seems to hurt. Craig screams in pain and holds his side, doubling over as Sean backs away. Once Craig is recovered enough to speak, he screams at Sean, accusing him of playing too rough. Sean, of course, can't understand what he did that could cause so much pain, and he has those adorable wrinkles of worry on his forehead. He apologizes, but Craig's not done: "For what, being a total idiot?!" he yells. Sean's all, excuse me? What's the hell the matter with you? But Craig, still angry, throws him the ball, snidely remarking that he needs the practice, and leaves the courtyard in a huff. Sean calls him back to no avail, and seriously, would he have done that with anyone else? I love those two together; it's too bad Craig mostly starts to hang with Jimmy, Spinner and Marco afterwards, and only sees Sean from time to time.
Cut to Craig sitting in a hallway and looking at a picture of Angela and a drawing she made for him in his binder. Right next to them is the money his father gave him, and he takes it into his hands, contemplating it. At the same moment, Emma comes forward while carrying a dozen books in her arms. Someone we don't see bumps into her and sends her pile of books sprawling -- what a coincidence! -- just at Craig's feet. Craig greets her and helps her pick up her books, asking as he does so how the rest of the party went. He's sorry he's missed it, and Emma is, too: she thinks he shouldn't have had to. Craig thinks Joey talked to her, but she just heard them talking - not eavesdropping, she specifies. Craig looks away in possible embarrassment and Emma, taking pity on him, tells him she's supposed to baby-sit Angela after class. "Has your dad said you can't hand out with me too?" she asks all innocently, and Craig gets it, a smile forming on his face as he agrees that, hey, how was he supposed to know his good friend Emma was supposed to pick up his sister?
We immediately cut to Angela's school where Craig is thanking Emma for having invited him to the party. Emma says it's not a big deal, but Craig breaks my heart by insisting that for him, it was, and that it was really nice and "comfortable" to be there. Just then, Angela runs to him and jumps on his back, and seriously, I would be happy with just an hour-long Craig & Angela Show. Angela wants to go to the park, but Emma has a lot of homework to do, so it's mostly the TV that's going to be baby-sitting. "But I waaaaant to!" she whines, so Craig offers to take her and drop her off on his way home. Emma's not sure, but finally agrees after both Craig and Angela beg her. "Just for a little bit."
And we cut to said park, where Craig is holding Angela on his shoulder and running around. He tells her to pretend she's flying far far away from here, and damn the boy, even in the middle of this onslaught of cuteness he manages to bring the angst. They finally drop to the grass, and the music as they do so? Seriously reminds me of Nightmare on Elm Street. Just a couple of notes, but I swear there are the same in the movie theme. Angela climbs on top of Craig as they both laugh - until, of course, she rams her knees on his bruise and he 'ow's loudly in pain. "What is that?" Angela asks when she sees his bruise, having inadvertently rolled up his shirt. Craig stalls for a few seconds, trying to find an explanation fit for a five year old, and finally asks if she remembers the dinosaur from the sidewalk. "Hmm hmm," tells Angela. "It also likes boys named Craig," he tells her, then explains in a false scary voice that it bit him. "Does it hurt?" Angela asks him, and Craig simply says "yeah," no sound of laughter or joke in his voice, then stays silent for a moment. He thinks that it would be great if they could go somewhere where the dinosaurs could never get to them, and when Angela asks him where such a place could be, he smiles in a not entirely sane way and gets up, telling her to come and grabbing her hand as they starts to run. This scene breaks my heart into a million tiny little pieces every time I watch it, even when I have to hit pause every five seconds to write this. Sniffle.
Cut to Emma doing her homework on her front porch as Joey drives up. Seems he closed up early and is here to pick up Angela, but when Emma fails to tell her where the little girl is, he starts to get worried. Emma finally fesses up that she's in the park with Craig, then adds as Joey turns to go that it's only fair, since his dad won't let him. "Excuse me?" says Joey at that, turning around, and I don't understand: is he surprised that Dr. Manning doesn't want Craig to see Angela? Because if I remember correctly, he told Joey that himself the day before. Or is he surprised that Emma knows about it? That wouldn't make sense either, as it's something Craig's free to discuss with her. Maybe it's because he didn't think Emma knew about that when she let Angela go, and thinks she shouldn't have done it in that case, but it's not completely clear. In any case, Emma thinks Craig has a right to see Angela since he's her brother, but Joey's not happy that she's taking those kind of decisions for him. "Leave the parenting decisions to me!" he says before leaving for the park.
Cut to the mall, where JT is impatiently waiting for his date. Paige walks up to him and taps him on the shoulder to signal it's her, and JT asks if she's really Paige, which is an understandable question when you see her attire: she's wearing black sunglasses and a large hooded grey sweater, the hood of course on. She takes it off and sort-of apologizes for being late, to which JT answers that he'd thought she'd maybe stood him up. He hands her a present, a little green stuffed teddy bear, and instead of aww-ing and melting for this boy who's gotten her a green bear, Paige just ask to go see the movie already. Cut to said movie, which seems to be a horror one from the sounds of it. Paige doesn't seem to be a fan and spends her time grimacing and half looking away. JT keeps stealing glances at her until he finally works up the courage to lay his hand on one of her on the armrest in comfort, but this disgusts Paige even more than the movie does and she removes it asap, to the great amusement of JT. Boy's strange sometimes. Finally, the movie and the company are too much for Paige who gets up to leave; just before she does, though, she spots Hazel and Spinner a few seats over, both smiling broadly. They wave at her, and she sits back down, an expression of great suffering on her face.
Cut to Joey running in the park and yelling Craig's and Angela's names to no avail, and we immediately cut to Craig and Angela in what I suppose is another area of the park. Craig's buying her an ice cream that he's paying with the money his dad gave him, and when Angela sees all the bills she asks him if it's a million dollars. Craig acquiesces that it's a lot, though not as much as a million; he stares at the bills for a moment then asks Angela if she remembers British Columbia. She doesn't, and Craig tells her it's because she was just a baby when they went there, but that it's a beautiful and warm place. And even though Craig doesn't have a million dollars, he has enough to get them there. "Together?" Angela asks him, smiling, and Craig grabs her hand and tells her to come, that the bus station isn't far. I smell trouble. Or, actually, I know there'll be trouble, but I remember guessing it the first time I saw it. Because, generally speaking? Planning to kidnap a child never ends well on TV, especially when you're a 14 year old. And to prove me right, Joey finds them while they're still in front of the ice cream truck. Angela, as usual, runs into his arms, keeping her left arm open to hold her ice-cream far away from Joey's body as he picks her up. Aww. Joey tells Craig he thought he was taking Angela to the park, so maybe they're not in it anymore, but Craig tells him Angela got hungry so Joey, looking really more worried than he should considering he doesn't know about the whole British Columbia and physical abuse things, just tells him he'll take it from here.
And then, of course, Angela screws up and asks Craig if Joey can come with them. Told you it was coming. Craig widens his eyes, either in alarm or to signal that she should shut up, and Joey asks where. Not having understood Craig's eye signal, Angela says: "On a bus. Craig's got a million dollars in his pocket." Ooh man. Craig grows even more alarmed (right there with you, hon), then tries to laugh it up and tells Joey they were just pretending. Joey's not sure what's happening, so to make it clearer for him Angela runs to Craig and grabs the money from his pocket. Craig takes it back from here but it's too late: Joey's seen it, and when Angela happily declares that they're going to British Columbia, there's no going back. Joey, more bewildered than angry, grabs Angela and incredulously asks Craig what he's doing: "You think you can just take her and go somewhere with her?" Craig keeps trying to pretend that they were playing, but Joey doesn't buy it, not after having seen the money. He orders Craig to stay away from Angela like his dad wants him to, and even though Craig's all, I can't, Joey doesn't care. He leaves with Angela in his arms, who waves adorably at Craig with her ice cream.
Cut to Craig's living room where he's sitting at the table and playing with golf balls, looking like he's waiting for the judge to declare him guilty of murder. His dad comes home, all whistling and in a good mood, bringing Chinese food and videos with him. He grabs the golf club that's on the table and asks Craig if he bought his camera, but Craig, who's of course saving the money to run away, lies that the one he really wanted was a hundred dollars more than what he has. His dad keeps being all buddy-buddy, saying they'll just go buy it together the next day and have dinner out, make an evening out of it. The phone rings and Craig, who until then looked tenser than a prisoner about to be lethally injected, has his stress level brought up another dozen notches when he hears his dad greet Joey. We don't get to hear Joey's side of the conversation but from Dr. Manning's furious glare at Craig, what's being said is more than obvious, both to us and Craig who runs upstairs and locks his bedroom door behind him: there are three bolts on it, and he locks them as fast as he can before grabbing his cell phone. And who could he be calling but... Sean! He casually asks him if he's busy that night while grabbing a bag and stuffing his clothes inside, and we cut to Dr. Manning on the stairs, his golf club still in hand. He knocks on Craig's door with it, calling Craig's name and Craig, who looks about a hundred times more terrified than Paige at the movies, tells Sean he'll be right over. His father keeps banging on the door and demands that he open the door, and Craig throws his bag out of the window and quickly follows through the same way.
Cut to the mall, where Paige is sitting at a fast food table while playing with her (green!) teddy bear. JT sits down and puts the tray he's carrying on the table, then asks if she wants to hear a joke. "You gotta promise not to get upset or something," he says, proving he really doesn't know Paige at all. "As if I could get upset at a joke," Paige tells him, surprisingly not as snottily as I would expect her to be. So, the joke? "What is a cheerleader's favourite drink? Root beer." Yeah, it's as lame on paper as it is on screen. Not only Paige doesn't laugh, but she's also indignant that he would dare make a cheerleading joke to the head cheerleader. Still, she'll forgive him if he can answer one thing: "What's the difference between a North Park cheerleader and a bag of trash? The trash gets taken out more often." Hee! Which also seems to be JT's opinion, as he snorts his drink through his nose; they both laugh, Paige obviously having a good time, and so of course Spinner and Hazel choose that time to interrupt. They're both wearing black sunglasses, by the way, and Hazel takes hers off, probably thinking she's unrecognizable with them on. She's surprised Paige is having fun and a little disappointed, too, but I don't know whether that's because she expected better of Paige or if she's just not as entertained by a good date than a miserable one. She hands Paige her 30 bucks, telling her she's more than earned them, then leaves with Spinner. Of course JT's all, you got paid to get out with me? And Paige, who seems more contrite than anything else, manages to get out a barely snippy "Sue me," before running off, leaving the (green!) teddy bear behind.
You know, it's not that I didn't like this storyline because I adore both JT and Paige, but it was really poorly executed. For one thing, I don't get why Paige would go from "No way I'm going on a date with It," to "Oh My God I feel so badly about taking advantage and breaking his heart!" so quickly, especially since we didn't see anything that could rightly make her change her mind about JT. In the movie scene, she obviously still doesn't like him and wants the whole thing to be over, and suddenly at the fast food she's all agreeable, telling him jokes and not ripping him to shreds for telling her a bad, cheerleading one. I just don't buy it. And why would Spinner and Hazel interrupt them then? I mean, either the date would have gone well, and they'd have ample blackmail material, or Paige would have gone back to her Eee-vil ways, and they'd have had more fun witnessing the whole thing. Doesn't make any sense.
Cut to Craig and Sean on the railway; Craig's holding his bag in one hand and his skateboard in the other, and neither he nor Sean are wearing their usual Sexy Jackets, but Sean does have a chain on his jeans and Craig his leather wrist band, so they still mark some points. Craig asks Sean about his parents, since he already knows Sean lives with his brother (dude, they've known each other for all of three days and Craig already knows about that? Told you they loved each other), and when Sean tells him they live far away which is "good", Craig immediately asks if they "beat him or something." Sniffle. To be fair, it is a valid question and once he asks pretty casually, but still, the angst! In any case, Sean's parents never beat him as they were apparently too drunk to do much (did we know that before? I can't remember most of season 1). "Total welfare cases," he tells Craig jokingly, and I don't know which one to hug first. Mah boys! All alone! And suffering!
Sean then asks about Craig's "dad" which I take to mean he already knows about his mother and which really makes me wonder when they first shared all this stuff about each other. Was it when Sean took a whole hour to show Craig his MI lab? Before they fought on the basket ball court? After they made up off screen? It's just hard to believe two 14 year old would reveal such things this fast - not that I'm complaining, mind you, but it's still a little weird. Craig's all, he's a surgeon! He fixes people, and then comes home to break me! Except not for that last part, but pretty much what he meant anyway. Sean thinks it's cool that he's rich ("Crazy rich," confirms Craig, and I have to wonder how surgeons who seem to work during the day yet have time to drive their kids to school in the morning and pick them up in the evenings, do random surprise visits to salesmen, pick up dinner and videos, shop with their kids and spend two whole evenings with them all in the space of three days can really make that much money, but I'll take Craig's word for it). But Craig points out that his job's stressful (is that what his father tells him, or did he make that up himself to excuse him?), and so they fight.
They sit down on the railway as Craig finally unfolds his plan: he wants to go solo. He has the money for it, and he's thinking about going to B.C. He's smiling as he says it, obviously convinced it's the best idea he's ever had, but Sean's not so sure about it, thinking Craig could end up on the streets. Except it's more 'will' than 'could,' but thanks for trying, Sean. "Then come with me!" says Craig, and whoa. Doesn't anyone find it a tiny bit strange that two teenagers who've known each other for less than a week are already this close? Even ready to 'live' together, in one case? Craig thinks it's the perfect idea, since they'll be able to look out for each other, but Sean's all, come on, dude. I can't leave! Craig gets this awful disappointed and sad look on his face and looks down, and Sean, sensing that something really wrong is going on and that he has to do something, grasps at straws and remembers that Craig asked him if his parents beat him. Craig's all, yeah, so? And Sean, who's my favourite Smart Boy EVAH!, asks if Craig's dad hits him. And then the strangest montage follows: Craig stares at Sean silently for a bit, then we see his skateboard hit the railway in close-up as he runs away and Sean asks, or actually yells to be heard, what's wrong with him. Did The N cut something there? Because it really doesn't make any sense.
Cut to Emma on her front lawn, painting her toenails black. Wait; wasn't black nail polish already over by the time Buffy's pilot aired? What, has it already made a come-back? Sean runs up to her, looking all distressed with his little worry lines back on his forehead, and tells her he's there about Craig. Emma asks if he's alright but looks pretty unconcerned for someone who cared enough to break rules for him earlier that day, and Sean, holding up Craig's bag, answers that he doesn't think so. Two things: why didn't Craig grab his bag before running off, and why didn't Sean also pick up his skateboard?
Cut to Joey's place, where Angela is drawing something as he shows her math cards. She successfully answers that 2 + 2 is 4, and before Joey can go on with 1 + 6 Emma and Sean barge in. Doesn't he lock his door? Emma quickly exposits the whole, going to BC but probably gonna end up on the streets thing, but Joey doesn't see what he can do save maybe call his father again. Emma nixes the idea, and Sean hesitates a little before admitting that Dr. Manning beats him. Joey's not so sure he believes them, though, and it's not like he can go around and accuse the guy without any proof. Thankfully for all those concerned, Angela chooses that moment to butt in: she wants to know if something's wrong with Craig, and when Joey tries to shush her she goes on to talk about all the "purple" on Craig where the dinosaur hurt him. Aww. Music swells up as the three others realize their show isn't a spin-off of Jurassic Park and that the big dinosaur is probably Dr. Manning; Joey asks Emma to stay and baby-sit Angela, and he and Sean go off to look for Craig on the railroad tracks (how does he know he should look there? Aren't there a dozen more entertaining places in Toronto? And shouldn't they first go to the bus station to make sure he isn't there and no-one saw leave?).
Cut to Craig, walking in the streets. It's already completely dark, which I don't think it should be yet as it was completely sunny when Sean went to Emma's. But streets are scary in the dark, which is exactly what TPTB wants us to realize Craig is thinking: we can hear a police car in the background, and there are two guys sitting in front of a fire, wearing leather jackets and looking like thugs-in-training watching Craig walk. We see Craig watch them, then just keep walking, and then we're back with Joey in his car, driving and looking around with Sean.
Cut to Emma looking through Craig's album; we see a picture of Joey and Angela in the park, from the first scene of the episode, a color picture of Angela in the snow and a torn up wedding picture of Joey and his mom - only Joey is on it, because TPTB doesn't want to choose an actress for Julia, since they'd have no coice but to make her white and we'd be even less able to make sense of Angela. Cut back to Joey and Sean on the railroads tracks: Joey's holding a torchlight and they're both calling Craig's name to no avail. Joey asks Sean where else he might have gone, but Sean has no idea, seeing he's only known him for a couple of days. What, didn't you talk about your favorite places to hide in between two dark and deep confessions about your childhood? They go back into the car to keep looking, and we cut back to Emma answering a phone call from Joey who lets her know that they're going to look around some more then call the police. The real reason for that call, though, is for Emma, who's still browsing through Craig's pictures, to find a creepy one of Julia's tombstone with the words "We miss you mom!" written above. Seriously: creepy. Couldn't he have found a picture of her alive instead? A very big close-up indicates that Julia Jeremiah, who had apparently no maiden name and was born in 1964 and died in 1998, will always be remembered by Joey, Craig and Angela. Eh. I think I would have put Joey's name after the kids' because even if he'll always love her, he can get married again while her kids will always be orphans, but whatever. The important thing here is that seeing this picture makes Emma realize that Craig is probably at the cemetery. I'd have thought they wouldn't need a picture to realize that a kid who's planning to run away forever will want to visit his mother's grave one last time before leaving, but again, whatever.
And so we cut to the cemetery, where Craig is kneeling near the gravestone and caressing his mother's carved name. Joey, who's here with Sean (blink and you'll miss him), calls his name from behind and Craig gets up, ready to flee. Joey tries to reassure him, holding his palms out in peace and assuring he only wants to help, but Craig's jittery and angry that Joey dare think he's not fine. Joey finds the idea that he is laughable and keeps trying to calm him down; "Let's get out of here, okay?" he says, but Craig's all, where am I gonna go? "Back home so, so dad can..." He can't finish the sentence but Joey saves him the trouble and asks point blank if his father hits him. Craig turns around and just tries to breathe and swallow around the lump in his throat, and it is all so very very sad. He finally turns back to face Joey and admits the truth, then jumps into his arms as both Sean and I retain to hug him. Sean because Joey's already there, and me because we're unfortunately not in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and I can't very well reach through the screen. Follow much tears and Sad Music as the hug goes on, and on, and on.
Now that Plot A is nearly finished, we need to wrap up Plot B. Cut to Paige the next day at school, walking up to JT who, when he spots her, immediately turns his face away to not have to see her. Paige apologizes and explains that she's feeling guilty about the whole 'being paid to date him' thing, even though she really needed the money. And talking about that, I don't notice any change in her hair; am I the only one who has difficulties to believe she wouldn't have had it fixed the next morning, or even that evening if she had the time? "You know what, that makes me feel a whole lot better," JT answers with his best sarcastic voice, but Paige rushes to assure him that he's a good date (Why? What he did do save pay for the whole thing and make a bad joke? I don't doubt that he could be a very good date, but in this case he really didn't have enough time to do anything, at least that we saw). In fact, Paige goes on to say, if he wasn't so short and on the negative scale of popularity, she'd maybe even go on another date with him. JT smiles broadly at that, but you can see he's really touched. But he's a smart kid, and he knows how to get what he wants: he plays the poor victim for a while longer and admits that he'd always thought his first date would end with a kiss. Paige is like, no way dude, but JT put his sad little boy face on and adds that she'd be making his dream come true. *snerk* Well, I'm not doubting that, that's for sure. Paige realizes that she's being played, but probably also that he deserves his kiss so, after checking behind to make sure no-one important is watching, she gives him a quick peck on the cheek. Aww, young paid-for love is so cute! At least now they're even, Paige says, and JT is too happy to argue. He hands her the green (!) teddy bear she'd forgotten (Me! Want!), and she takes it and leaves. JT watches her go, wearing this cute little smile of a 12 year old who just got his first kiss. I love JT.
And finally, cut to Joey's car pulling in in front of Craig's old house. Craig, sitting in the passenger seat, says he wants to do "this" alone and Joey agrees, but advises him to do as they planned: get in, say as little as he can, get his stuff and come back out. Craig gets to the door and is about to knock when his father opens the door; they stare at each other for a moment, Craig visibly bracing himself, until Dr. Manning looks over Craig's shoulder at Joey standing a few feet away and looking as menacing as - well, as JT, really. But a grown-up JT who has a cell phone in his pocket, ready to call the police, so I guess it's at least that. Dr. Manning opens the door wide to let Craig go inside, and then closes it behind. When Craig starts to go upstairs he asks him to sit down and "talk things through", but Craig doesn't want to do any more talking. And then, in a scene that must be really close to the one that took place when Julia left, he tells Craig he's "breaking his heart". And he does in fact add that it's "just like his mother", so score one for me. He knows he's been "impatient" but work has been very stressful, and he loves him. At those words Craig stops then turns around to face his father and tells him there are three options: "I can go to Children's Aid right now, I can go and stay with Joey while we sort this stuff out, or I can come back here and let you beat me." Sniffle. And of course Dr. Manning, as the typical abuser, gets this 'what are you talking about?' face on and almost snickers that he doesn't beat Craig. Craig shakes his head and goes upstairs, and we cut to him getting out of the house carrying a bag and a box, which seem like surprisingly little. His father is just behind him and he and Joey measure each other up as Craig puts his things in the car; Joey doesn't even look angry, just bewildered. We see Dr. Manning getting smaller and smaller as the car drives away, then cut to Craig's face as he looks behind, presumably at his dad.
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