Subtext Report: "Who Am I?"
(Posting a day early this week because I probably won't have time tomorrow.)
We've been spoiled up till now, people. The fourth episode of Season 2 doesn't have much going on in the way of Jo/Blair, but the upside of that is that we can dwell on what little interaction they do have in greater detail. Plus the theme of difference is highly relevant.
Here's the episode on YouTube: (Clip 1) (Clip 2) (Clip 3)
IN A NUTSHELL:
As the yearly dance contest approaches, Tootie meets a boy named Fred who asks her why she would want to go to a white school. At first she's defensive, saying the girls at Eastland are her friends and she's never been treated as anything but an equal there. After spending more time with him, though, she starts taking his "stick to your own kind" philosophy to heart, which leads to dumping her white dance partner and brushing off Natalie, Blair and Jo in favour of some black acquaintances. The contest rolls around and Fred can't dance, yet he insists he's better than their white competitors. Tootie realizes she can make up her own mind and competes with the white boy instead.
FOL FACTS:
Jo and Blair come into the cafeteria together in the first scene. Jo hands Tootie her sketchbook, which she left in the library.
BLAIR: What were you doing in the library? Reading Dumbo?
JO: I don't have to read Dumbo. I bunk next to her.
Tootie says she would like to sew a dress from one of her designs, but she doesn't have any material. Blair goes into drama queen mode, complete with hand on chest.
BLAIR: I'm getting another one of my brilliant ideas.
JO: It's just the tacos from lunch.
Blair basically ignores both of these comments. (Probably because she started it.) But Jo's next retort -- after Blair suggests Tootie make a dress for her with some material she just received from her dad -- earns her a withering look.
BLAIR: It won't take that much material. I am only a size 7.
JO: Where? Your feet?
BED BUDDIES
The second scene is in the girls' bedroom and stands out for the simple fact that Blair is lying on Jo's bed. Jo is sitting close to her and they're facing each other. There's no apparent reason for this, except maybe the open case of... something on the bed between them (can anyone tell what that is?). And there's very little snark. Natalie is insecure about asking a boy to be her partner for the dance contest, but Jo has the solution.
JO: Just call him and say, "Hey Al, you're dancing with me in the contest, or you'll never dance again."
BLAIR: Thank you Dear Abby.
She says this teasingly rather than meanly, with a very affectionate smile. This is such a couple moment!
I'M BLAIR WARNER AND YOU'RE NOT
Blair makes a good point (even though Tootie won't listen) when she says "we all know we're different." Tootie is black and the other girls are white. But Blair's comment draws attention to the fact that race is not the only difference. Their class backgrounds vary, with Jo and Blair on opposite ends of the spectrum. Natalie is Jewish and the other girls are (presumably) Christian. There's an age difference that comes into play in episodes like "Growing Pains" when Tootie feels left out as the youngest of the roommates. In short, each of the girls has good reason for feeling like the odd one out.
We're reminded of Jo's "differentness" near the end of the episode, during the dance competition. She's sitting in a chair while everyone else is mingling or warming up, and a boy comes up and says hi. She glares at him: "What are you smilin' at?" The boy, crestfallen, goes away. Another one approaches. "Just keep walkin', nerd." I think this speaks for itself, doesn't it?
This is a very hetero event, with boy-girl couples dancing together, but Jo and Blair gravitate to each other. They have this intense-looking conversation in the background of the final scene (watch the left side of the screen when Tootie says "I know you want me to know who I am"). They're standing close together, Jo is looking at Blair's body a lot, and Blair pushes her hair back repeatedly in a flirty kind of way. Very interesting, don't you think?
POTENTIAL FICS
Inspired in part by one of caveatreader's 31 Slices of Jo/Blair Life ( #16): In this episode, Tootie rounds up black girls to try to make friends based on race alone. What would happen if Jo and Blair felt they had to make friends with the only other gay couple at Eastland?
We've been spoiled up till now, people. The fourth episode of Season 2 doesn't have much going on in the way of Jo/Blair, but the upside of that is that we can dwell on what little interaction they do have in greater detail. Plus the theme of difference is highly relevant.
Here's the episode on YouTube: (Clip 1) (Clip 2) (Clip 3)
IN A NUTSHELL:
As the yearly dance contest approaches, Tootie meets a boy named Fred who asks her why she would want to go to a white school. At first she's defensive, saying the girls at Eastland are her friends and she's never been treated as anything but an equal there. After spending more time with him, though, she starts taking his "stick to your own kind" philosophy to heart, which leads to dumping her white dance partner and brushing off Natalie, Blair and Jo in favour of some black acquaintances. The contest rolls around and Fred can't dance, yet he insists he's better than their white competitors. Tootie realizes she can make up her own mind and competes with the white boy instead.
FOL FACTS:
- Natalie likes a boy named Alan.
- The cafeteria candy machines are usually stocked by a Mr. Davis.
- Tootie's art teacher is named Miss Wilson.
- Tootie won the dance contest last year and won a Frisbee.
- When Mrs. Garrett was a teenager, she was the Jitterbug Queen of Appleton, Wisconsin.
- Eastland has a Latin club.
Jo and Blair come into the cafeteria together in the first scene. Jo hands Tootie her sketchbook, which she left in the library.
BLAIR: What were you doing in the library? Reading Dumbo?
JO: I don't have to read Dumbo. I bunk next to her.
Tootie says she would like to sew a dress from one of her designs, but she doesn't have any material. Blair goes into drama queen mode, complete with hand on chest.
BLAIR: I'm getting another one of my brilliant ideas.
JO: It's just the tacos from lunch.
Blair basically ignores both of these comments. (Probably because she started it.) But Jo's next retort -- after Blair suggests Tootie make a dress for her with some material she just received from her dad -- earns her a withering look.
BLAIR: It won't take that much material. I am only a size 7.
JO: Where? Your feet?
BED BUDDIES
The second scene is in the girls' bedroom and stands out for the simple fact that Blair is lying on Jo's bed. Jo is sitting close to her and they're facing each other. There's no apparent reason for this, except maybe the open case of... something on the bed between them (can anyone tell what that is?). And there's very little snark. Natalie is insecure about asking a boy to be her partner for the dance contest, but Jo has the solution.
JO: Just call him and say, "Hey Al, you're dancing with me in the contest, or you'll never dance again."
BLAIR: Thank you Dear Abby.
She says this teasingly rather than meanly, with a very affectionate smile. This is such a couple moment!
I'M BLAIR WARNER AND YOU'RE NOT
Blair makes a good point (even though Tootie won't listen) when she says "we all know we're different." Tootie is black and the other girls are white. But Blair's comment draws attention to the fact that race is not the only difference. Their class backgrounds vary, with Jo and Blair on opposite ends of the spectrum. Natalie is Jewish and the other girls are (presumably) Christian. There's an age difference that comes into play in episodes like "Growing Pains" when Tootie feels left out as the youngest of the roommates. In short, each of the girls has good reason for feeling like the odd one out.
We're reminded of Jo's "differentness" near the end of the episode, during the dance competition. She's sitting in a chair while everyone else is mingling or warming up, and a boy comes up and says hi. She glares at him: "What are you smilin' at?" The boy, crestfallen, goes away. Another one approaches. "Just keep walkin', nerd." I think this speaks for itself, doesn't it?
This is a very hetero event, with boy-girl couples dancing together, but Jo and Blair gravitate to each other. They have this intense-looking conversation in the background of the final scene (watch the left side of the screen when Tootie says "I know you want me to know who I am"). They're standing close together, Jo is looking at Blair's body a lot, and Blair pushes her hair back repeatedly in a flirty kind of way. Very interesting, don't you think?
POTENTIAL FICS
Inspired in part by one of caveatreader's 31 Slices of Jo/Blair Life ( #16): In this episode, Tootie rounds up black girls to try to make friends based on race alone. What would happen if Jo and Blair felt they had to make friends with the only other gay couple at Eastland?