Season 1 Rewatch: 1x04 "Jason Mendoza"

[sorchasilver]

I'm so behind on rewatching already (it's deadline season at school, I've been dividing all my non-teaching time between the endless piles of paperwork and trying to get teenagers to hand in assignments), but I'm now off work for the next two weeks so I should be able to get caught up. I've been reading the discussion in the comments as the inbox notifications arrive, and enjoy seeing everyone's theories and ideas. I promise I'll break my vow of silence though! :D

Anyway, you know how it goes: watch the ep when you can, then come and share your thoughts in the comments.

Writer(s): Michael Schur (creator), Joe Mande
Director: Payman Benz
Originally aired: 29 September 2016

Synopsis:
Eleanor has a hard time remaining hidden; Michael asks Tahani to assist a neighbor in finding her true purpose.

Memorable Quote:
Jianyu Li: Everyone thinks I'm Taiwanese. I'm Filipino. That's racist. Heaven is so racist.

Useful Links:
Episode Transcript
IMdB entry

Comments

[enemyofperfect]

I love how Chidi writes his name on the blackboard for a class of one person who already knows him. It could just be habit, but given Eleanor, it might also... not?

It was especially fun to rewatch this Jason-centric episode after the discussion about him in the comments a couple of weeks ago. And Michael is clearly continuing to do an excellent job of torturing Tahani by setting her up to fail!

It was also interesting to see Jason's commitment to being his true self. When I'm playing with contrasts between characters, I tend to set his impulsive nature against Chidi's anxious inhibition, but for the first time, I can see how casting Jason and Tahani as opposites makes sense on a more than surface level.

Because it isn't just that she's rich and glamorous and he's neither of those things -- she's also willing to do almost anything to endear herself to others, while Jason explicitly rejects any praise that isn't for who he really is. ("These cheers are fake. They hit my ears like boxing gloves of sadness.") I can't help but feel like their dalliance in S2 helped her to decide that maybe she didn't need her parent's approval. Maybe in a later season she'll end up teaching him something Chidi can't?

And then going back to this episode -- I continue to love Michael's little alien quirks, and also how well Tahani rolls with them. And I love Patricia the chef! Fun side characters like this still make me sad that most of the neighborhood turned out to be demons.