”Die slowly, you shitbirds!”
It’s graduation day, a more than usually meaningful moment to Sam; it’s an achievement he’s never been able to take for granted, as well as a symbolic moment leading towards uni and the challenges of greater independence. So it’s lovely to see Sam inviting a very pregnant Julia, and the two of them getting to chat normally again after all that earlier awkwardness. Less lovely, but at the same time cathartic, is Doug driving to the bar to punch barman Nick but, well, at least Nick has the decency to admit he deserves the punch.
There’s some amusement value in that Sam asks everyone in his life to stop helping him, with comical results, but the core of the episode is deadly serious. On Sam’s last day it takes him considerable courage to ask his classmates to sign his yearbook- yet he gets called a freak, and worse, on what’s supposed to be a special document. Paige is damn right in her furious denunciations.
And yet Sam does something amazing, in front of all his friends and loved ones. When Paige freezes up and is unable to deliver her valedictorian speech, Sam actually delivers it for her, and does it so well. This moment has really been earned, and we are left in no doubt what a wonderful thing has just happened. It’s a brilliant scene. Ernest Shackleton famously spurned the chance at glory so he could get all of his crew out alive, unlike that stupid wanker Scott, and Sam is a real Shackleton here.
With Casey there’s a sudden triangle with Evan (she gets her second first time) and Izzy, but that’s for next season. So is Elsa’s firm insistence, after finding out about the punch, that she and Doug talk about whether or not there’s any chance of him forgiving her... and then he blows her off to confide in Megan. I fear, next season, that the roles are to be reversed. And next season is probably a long way away. Ouch. Watching in real time sucks.
Another awesome season, then. How long do we have to wait now...?
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