Atypical: The Essence of a Penguin

“There are no rules!”

It’s an interesting problem for Sam this time- he can draw an anatomically perfect penguin, but how does someone so literally minded manage to capture the essence of a penguin? Some of his fellow students are excited by the assignment, but Sam’s response- to set about recording in great detail the daily habits of his favourite penguin- shows, as ever, his capacity to miss what’s in front of him by being distracted by the little details. That is, perhaps, the essence of Sam. And yet he succeeds brilliantly, saving a penguin’s life while he’s at it.

Paige, on the other hand, has hit rock bottom. She’s suffered a massive knock in dropping out of uni, something which happened to me- but failure is often the secret of success. A few years later, after a while working in a factory amassing savings and playing at being working class, I got into a slightly better uni and thrived- propelled onwards by a great fear of my own potential laziness and procrastination. I’m sure the same will happen to Paige- that horrible waitress job isn’t her future; it’s something which will spur her to future awesomeness. And yes, Elsa is being quite brilliant in her meddling by telling Paige that. Meddling can sometimes be a good thing.

This is so for poor Izzy, too- it’s Elsa’s suggestion that leads Casey to lift the lid on her chaotic home life. And it’s clear that Izzy’s feelings towards Casey are more than just platonic... but not reciprocated.

Fortunes elsewhere are mixed. Evan impresses Doug on his ambulance practice. But Zahid is besotted with a nightmare of a woman in Gretchen- someone who wears her ignorance smugly and is a conspiracy theorist- and conspiracy theorists are a real beet noir of mine. Yes, the Moon landings happened. Yes, Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Both of those things are clear and obvious. And no, I could never be in a relationship with someone who insisted on changing my dress style and that the “joie” as in “de vivre” was pronounced “joy”....

This is a particularly strong episode. The writing in particular is superb.