My Twenty Favorite Desperate Housewives Episodes

The last Desperate Housewives will be on this coming Sunday.  Last year, when Smallville was ending, I wrote a post that discussed my fifteen favorite Smallville episodes.  This year, I’ll talk about my twenty favorite Desperate Housewives episodes.

Season 1

“The Pilot” (Episode 1):  I fell in love with the show from the start.  There is so much to praise about the pilot episode, but I’ll focus on what I particularly liked.  I enjoyed the part when Mike Delfino first met Susan Meier at the reception for Mary Alice’s funeral, tasted Susan’s macaroni and cheese, and remarked to Susan that it tasted burnt and undercooked at the same time.  It was hard not to like Mike, but (like most viewers) I was wondering what exactly he was up to.  And then there was the end, when the ladies read the note that Mary Alice received shortly before her suicide: “I know what you did, it makes me sick, I am going to tell.”  Mary Alice narrates beyond the grave that she did not want to burden her friends with this, and one of the ladies says, “Oh Mary Alice, what did you do?”

“Running to Stand Still” (Episode 6): My favorite part of this episode was when it showed Carlos and Gaby signing their prenup, as Carlos’ mother (or, as Carlos called her, his “Ma-MA) looked on.  Savvy woman!

“Your Fault” (Episode 13): Bree tells the pharmacist, George, about how she met her husband Rex.  She met Rex at the Young Republicans Club, and after meeting him she talked late into the night with him about big government and other issues.  (Incidentally, the actor who plays Rex was the Republican Speaker of the House in episodes of The West Wing.)  This stands out to me because I like it when television touches on politics.  And, although I am more liberal nowadays, I enjoy watching Republican TV characters, such as Archie Bunker and Alex P. Keaton.  As an honorable mention, I’ll refer to the opening scene of Episode 15, where we see that Bree has a huge picture of Ronald Reagan with a cowboy hat hanging on her wall.

“Sunday in the Park with George” (Episode 21): Susan is estranged from her boyfriend, Mike Delfino, because she has learned that Mike has a criminal record for killing a cop.  Susan goes to Noah Taylor’s house to question him about what happened.  Noah Taylor (played by Bob Gunton) is the wealthy father of Deirdre, who was Mike’s girlfriend (and Deirdre is now missing and dead).  Noah does not answer Susan’s questions, but Deirdre’s sister Kendra privately tells Susan what happened.  According to Kendra, Deirdre was a drug addict who had been in and out of jail, and an undercover cop caught her using and made her have sex with him in exchange for her freedom.  When Mike found out about this, he was furious and tried to put a stop to it.  When the cop pulled a gun on Mike, the two of them struggled and fell over the balcony.  Mike got up, whereas the cop died.  When Susan learns that Mike killed out of self-defense and went to jail for trying to save Deirdre, she cries and says “I knew he was good.”

“One Wonderful Day” (Episode 23): This was the final episode of Season 1.  In it, the mystery of why Mary Alice killed herself, what Paul Young was hiding, and why Mike Delfino was in Wysteria Lane is solved.  Essentially, Deirdre (a drug addict) sold Angela (a nurse) her baby, and Angela then changed her name to Mary Alice and moved to Wysteria Lane with her husband and her new child, whom the Youngs named Zach.  After Deirdre uses her rich father’s money to track Mary Alice down, she comes to Wysteria Lane and wants her child back.  Mary Alice thinks that Deirdre is still on drugs and does not want to give Zach up, so Mary Alice kills Deirdre.  But Mary Alice then looks at Deirdre’s arms and realizes that Deirdre had quit using drugs.  Mary Alice and Paul dismember Deirdre’s body, place its parts in a toy-chest, and bury the chest underneath what would later become their pool.  Mary Alice kills herself years later because Martha Huber, whose sister was a nurse who worked with Mary Alice back when Mary Alice’s name was Angela, knows that Mary Alice bought the baby, and Martha sought to blackmail Mary Alice in an attempt to solve her own financial problems.  In this last episode of Season 1, Mike Delfino takes Paul Young into the desert, points a gun at him, and demands to know what happened to his girlfriend Deirdre, but Mike does not shoot Paul after learning the truth; rather, Mike leaves Paul in the desert.  Mary Alice’s closing narration is inspiring, for Mary Alice says that she roots for her friends, even if she’s not sure that all of them will make it.

Season 2

“I Wish I Could Forget You” (Episode 6): Zach Young was the biological son of Deirdre and Mike Delfino, and the adopted son (if you will) of Paul and Mary Alice Young.  Susan pays Zach to go to Utah in search of Paul, since Susan wants to keep Zach away from her daughter, Julie.  Mike finds out about this and is upset with Susan, and he confronts her when she is trying on a wedding gown, hoping that Mike will propose to her.  Susan runs after Mike into the streets, crying and begging him not to leave.  After Mike drives away, the other ladies rush to the street to comfort Susan.  I love this scene because, a lot of times, we try to keep our pain private and hidden from our friends, and it’s beautiful when our friends can support us, even when we show our sadness in public.  You can watch the scene here.

“Coming Home” (Episode 10): Carlos has found religion, and the insidious Sister Mary wants him to go with her on a mission trip to Botswana, to Gaby’s chagrin.  When Carlos tells Gaby inside of a church that there are a lot of suffering people in the world, Gaby responds, “And there will be a lot of suffering people in this church if you don’t wipe that patronizing look off your face!”

“One More Kiss” (Episode 11): Betty Applewhite and her sons, Matthew and Caleb (who is developmentally-delayed), have moved to Wysteria Lane.  Nobody else in Wysteria Lane knows about Caleb at this point because his Mom keeps him locked up in the basement.  This is because Betty thinks that Caleb killed Matthew’s girlfriend Melanie in Chicago, after Melanie rebuffed Caleb’s request to be her boyfriend.  The residents of Wysteria Lane think that the Applewhites are hiding something, but they’re not sure what.  Melanie’s family hires a private investigator, Curtis Monroe (played by Michael Ironside), to track down Caleb.  Curtis enters the Applewhites’ residence to take Caleb hostage, and he falls through the stairs to the basement while his gun goes off.  Curtis dies.  When Betty and Matthew come home, they see Curtis’ corpse and decide to put it in his car.  The corpse is accidentally discovered by Susan, and the residents of Wysteria Lane gather to see what’s going on.  Betty at first says to Matthew that she is not worried, but, when she sees the ladies looking at her with suspicion, she says, “Now I’m worried.”  Betty was a mother who knew how to keep her cool, but she was worried that her secret would be exposed once the ladies started to talk.

“Silly People” (Episode 14): After Bree sneaks into the Applewhite’s home and sees Caleb in the basement, she demands that Betty tell her what is going on.  Betty tells Bree the story, and I’ll quote from wikipedia’s summary of it: “Melanie Foster was Matthew’s on-and-off girlfriend in Chicago. After one of their feuds, Caleb called Melanie and asked to meet her at the lumber yard. Melanie saw this as harmless and agreed to meet him. Caleb told Melanie that if he was her boyfriend he would never break up with her or fight. Melanie laughed in his face. Caleb tried to kiss her, but this made Melanie uncomfortable and she slapped him. This angered Caleb who picked up an axe and killed her. This, Betty believes, is the reason why she felt it was her fault and not his for not protecting him ‘from himself’ since she is his mother and could not see him going through imprisonment or even death.”  After hearing this story, Bree puts her hand over Betty’s hand to show compassion.

“Thank You So Much” (Episode 15): Bree has a drinking problem, and Lynette suspects that something is wrong after Bree babysits Lynette’s children and falls asleep, during which time the kids leave the house and go to town.  Lynette learns from Mrs. McCluskey that Bree was drunk, but Bree brushes off the accusation when Lynette confronts her.  Lynette looks through Bree’s garbage and finds a bunch of wine bottles, and she lines them up in front of Bree’s house (which would make an impression on the socially-conscious Bree!), leaving a note that says “Do you still think you don’t have a problem.”  Bree and Lynette then look at each other in silence.

Season 3

“Bang” (Episode 7): I’d say that this is my favorite episode of the series.  Laurie Metcalf plays Carolyn Bigsby, a former neighbor of Orson Hodge, who has recently married Bree.  Carolyn thinks that Orson abused and killed his first wife, Alma, and so Carolyn tries to warn Bree about Orson.  Bree then informs Carolyn that Carolyn’s husband, Harvey, is having an affair.  Carolyn is outraged, and she goes to Harvey’s supermarket and holds it up with a gun.  Lynette is in the supermarket with Nora, with whom Lynette’s husband Tom had a one-night stand (before he met and married Lynette) and a child.  Nora recently tried to seduce Tom, and so Lynette is upset with Nora (not that she liked Nora in the first place).  When Carolyn learns about this, she shoots Nora, who then asks Lynette to take care of her daughter.  After Nora dies, Lynette gives Carolyn a sermon about how life is hard, but we should deal with it.  When the hostages finally make it out of the supermarket safely, we see Lynette lying on a bed, having her recurring nightmare about the time that she saw Mary Alice shortly before Mary Alice’s suicide.  Lynette sees Mary Alice reading the note, “I know what you did, it makes me sick, I am going to tell”, but this time Lynette does something different.  She puts down her shopping bags, goes up to Mary Alice, and asks her what is wrong.  Mary Alice tells Lynette that she cannot save her, but that she should enjoy each beautiful day.  Mary Alice narrates that this was the last time that Lynette dreamed about her.

Season 4

“Sunday” (Episode 11): I wrote about this episode here.  It gets into such issues as going to church and the Bible to find answers, and the difference between ritual confession and genuine repentance.

“Free” (Episode 17): Season 4 introduced Katherine Mayfair into the series.  I will not describe her story in detail, but what happens in this final episode of the season is that her abusive ex-husband (a cop) finds her and threatens her, and he is killed.  Bree quickly gets her friends together to coordinate their stories so they can lie to the cops and protect Katherine.  I found this to be a beautiful scene because the ladies did not get along with Katherine before, but they came to have compassion for her.

Season 5

“Home Is the Place” (Episode 11): I talk about this episode here.  What I liked about this episode was that it highlighted how much Gaby had to give up to take care of her husband Carlos while he was blind.  Gaby (a former model) loved jewelry and beautiful clothes, but she had to give those up to meet the family’s expenses.  And Carlos had to decide whether to take a job working with the blind, which he felt would nourish his soul, or take a six-figure job in which he could be the shark he didn’t want to be.  For Gaby, he picked the latter.  I had to admire Gaby for the sacrifices she made, since she can easily come across as a shallow character.  But there’s depth there!

“The Best Thing That Ever Could Have Happened” (Episode 13): I talk about this episode here.  Beau Bridges plays Eli Scruggs, a handyman who helped people.  We learn that he did so because Mary Alice helped him when he was dirt poor, and he felt awful after she killed herself.

“Mama Spent Money When She Had None” (Episode 14): I talk about this episode here.  Gaby joins a boot camp to lose weight and fit into a dress.  When she does not show up one morning, the Israeli drill sergeant of the camp brings boot camp to her front door!  This episode is also noteworthy because Eedie gives Gaby a lecture about humility.  Eedie was good at giving convicting lectures, even though she herself was far from perfect.

Season 7

“Down the Block There Is a Riot” (Episode 10): Paul Young is exacting his revenge on Wysteria Lane because the residents abandoned him during his legal problems.  His revenge is to construct a halfway house for released convicts, which troubles the inhabitants of Wysteria Lane.  A disturbing riot erupts in protest, and Paul gloats to Lynette that the residents of Wysteria Lane are obviously no better than he is.  Lynette is sorry about her role in causing the riot.  This episode was disturbing rather than enjoyable, on account of the riot, but my favorite episodes are the ones that stood out to me, not always the ones that I enjoyed.

Season 8

“Always in Control” (Episode 7): The ladies are covering up that Carlos killed Gaby’s step-father (who raped her when she was younger and came back into her life to threaten her) and that they buried the body in the woods.  But Susan is in an art class, and her instructor (played by Miguel Ferrer, whom I know from The Stand) wants Susan to create honest art.  And Ben Faulkner, a construction man who has hired Mike, has learned from Bree about what she did to Gaby’s step-father (since Ben is using the land where the guy was buried). Ben asks Mike to bury the body under the concrete of their construction project, and he is surprised that Mike agrees to do so without question (for, unknown to Ben, Mike is protecting Susan).  As dramatic music plays, Susan paints a picture in which she and the ladies bury Gaby’s step-father.  And Mike is supervising as concrete is poured over the place where he buried the body.

“Suspicion Song” (Episode 8): Carlos is drinking heavily because he feels guilty about killing Gaby’s step-father, and his work suffers.  When a rich client learns about this from Gaby, he demands to see Carlos right away.  Right when you think that the client is about to chew Carlos out, the client pulls out his sobriety chip and strongly recommends that Carlos get help.  You never know who is in AA!

“Any Moment” (Episode 18): Mike Delfino has just been killed, and his and Susan’s son, MJ, is acting out at school.  Susan figures out a way that she and MJ can release their anger over Mike’s death—-they throw jars of jam (which were given to them as a gift) against the wall.  MJ throws the jars against the wall, and then he just drops a jar to the ground, with a look of dejection on his face.  This was a very sad scene.  At first, MJ was mad; but then he was just sad.

This series has made me laugh, cry, and think.  I picked my favorite episodes based on the ones that made the greatest impression on me.  I’ll miss Desperate Housewives, and I wish those involved with the show the best.

2011 on My Blog and Other Blogs

Some bloggers I know have been listing their top posts for 2011, or their favorite posts from other blogs.  I’ll be doing something like that in this post.

My Blog

On my blog, my focus this year was largely on my reading for my comprehensive examinations in rabbinics and Hebrew Bible.  I like a lot of the posts that I wrote for that, especially the ones about John Van Seters’ work.  Van Seters, in my opinion, is not always the easiest author to read, but there was a sense of satisfaction that came to me when I took a look at some of his arguments and broke them down so I could understand them, and my process for doing that was blogging.  I am also glad that I got to write some posts that can be a source of information for anyone interested.  For instance, I had long heard that the camel was not a domestic animal in the time of Abraham and that Genesis is thus inaccurate on this issue, and I also knew about scholars who disagreed with that claim.  But I did not know what the evidence was, pro or con.  As a result, I did some research and I wrote a post about it: The Domestic Camel.

Also in 2011, I have done a weekly blog post on the Book of Psalms.  Before I got into this project, I was afraid that blogging through the Psalms would be rather boring, since many of the Psalms say the same sorts of things.  Well, so far, I have blogged about Psalms 1-57, and I’m not bored yet!  Each Psalm, in my opinion, has its own eccentricities.  There are hard verses, and interpreters have different views about what those verses mean.  The whole experience of researching the Psalms and their interpreters has been satisfying, and it’s gotten better with time.

Other posts have been a pleasure for me to write.  I have enjoyed reading about Second Temple and rabbinic views about the Torah, and whether or not Gentiles had to observe it.  I was glad to finally read Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois for Black History Month, since I heard about them on one of my favorite miniseries, Roots: The Next Generation, but I did not know precisely where they differed.  Women’s History Month was also good, for I learned about feminist and womanist Christology, as well as feminist constructions of history.  In the process, I have taken a look at my own theology and approach to the Scriptures—-Do I pick and choose what I will believe in the Bible, and, if so, what is my criteria?

Starting in 2011, I began to attend a Presbyterian Church (USA), which is walking distance from where I live.  I have appreciated the hospitality of the people there.  I think that blogging through my church’s Bible study on Tim Keller’s The Prodigal God helped me to get more out of it.  My favorite post from that experience was The Am Ha-Aretz, Sinners, and the Prodigal Son.

My blog has gained new readers and commenters this year, and I have appreciated their insights, as well as the insights of long-time readers.  I’d like to highlight one interaction that I had that taught me a valuable lesson.  In my post, Childs on the Covenant Code and Exodus 24, I said that Exodus 21:21 says that if a master beats his slave and the slave gets up after a day or two, then the master will not be punished.  I had long assumed that the law was saying that the master would not be punished if the slave survived the beating, but he would be punished if the slave died.  Paul D., however, brought to my attention translations that said that the law is saying something different: that the master is not punished if the slave lives for a few days and then dies.  I checked out the Hebrew, translations, the Septuagint, and Jewish and Christian commentaries and learned that there was a strong tradition that interprets the verse as Paul does, but there were a few that read it my way.  I guess my lesson there was that what I assume the text means is not necessarily what the text means, or the only way that the text can be interpreted.

I did not blog as much about entertainment as I have in previous years, but there were a few posts that were meaningful to me: my post on my favorite 15 Smallville episodes (which I posted on the day of the final episode), and my post on the Temple Grandin movie.  I also enjoyed writing about Terra Nova (see here).

Other Blogs

I read a lot of blog posts, but I did not always pay attention to who was writing them.  One controversy this year was over Rob Bell’s Love Wins, which has been accused of promoting universalism (the view that all will be saved in the end).  I really appreciated one post that I read (whose author I forget) that argued that there are different ways to interpret the Bible on this issue, which contradicts the claim of my conservative Christian friends that Rob Bell and his supporters were neglecting the plain words of Jesus and were preferring their own wishes instead.  I think that there are different ways to interpret passages in the Bible.  Universalists choose to take Paul’s statements about Christ saving all or reconciling all literally, and they harmonize what the Bible says about eternal punishment with that concept—-by noting that eternal punishment can be a temporary period of correction, since eternity in the Bible is not always forever and a Greek word for punishment can mean correction.  Other Christians, by contrast, believe that eternal punishment is literally eternal punishment, and so they harmonize the passages about God saving or reconciling all with that particular concept—-by saying that God is offering to reconcile all but that people still need to believe, that all does not necessarily mean every single person but rather people from every group, or that salvation does not always mean eternal salvation.  In my opinion, none of these groups is being unfaithful to the Bible.  They’re just prioritizing different things, and harmonizing other elements of Scripture with what they choose to prioritize.

I’ve learned of new blogs this year, which I really enjoy: JohnShore.com, Fallen From Grace, Think and Wonder. Wonder and Think…, Respectful Atheist, and The Screaming Kettle.  Some of these are from atheists, and some are from unconventional Christians.  I have appreciated their honesty and also their tactfulness, which sometimes coexists with their edginess.

I’d now like to highlight some of my favorite posts or series for this year:

Rachel Held Evans had some excellent posts in her “Ask A…” series.  Ask a Gay Christian, by Justin Lee, was my favorite, for Justin struck me as a person who recognized and respected that people (including himself) are in different places on their spiritual journeys, and so he did not look down on gay Christians who chose celibacy.  Justin Taylor’s post, Ask a Calvinist, was also good.  I did not expect to like it because I hate Calvinism and find a lot of Calvinists to be self-righteous and annoying.  But Taylor was quite judicious and tactful in his presentation.

From Rachel’s blog (see here), I learned about David Nilsen’s blog, and I really appreciated his series on teaching children about the Bible and his family’s reasons for leaving one church to search for another.

Finally, I have enjoyed some of Rodney Thomas’ posts.  His critique of William P. Young’s The Shack was excellent.  I liked it because I consider The Shack to be an overrated book, and it was interesting to see how the book actually reinforces stereotypes.  Rodney’s thanksgiving post was also good because it sought to transcend the usual patriotic and politically-correct narratives about that holiday.

I’ve enjoyed 2011, and I wish you all a Happy New Year!

Hidden Secrets, and John Schneider’s Testimony

I watched a Christian movie today, which (like most Christian movies) was cheesy, but I actually enjoyed it.  It was Hidden Secrets, which was released in 2006.  It’s about a group of people who gather at the funeral of a Christian friend.  I don’t want to get bogged down in the details of the plot, so you can read a good summary here.  Rather, I’ll be talking about the actors I like in the movies, as well as my favorite scenes.  Then, I’ll talk some about John Schneider’s testimony, which is in an article about this movie.

There were familiar faces in the movie.  There was Reginald Vel Johnson, who played Carl Winslow on Family Matters.  There was Staci Keanan, whom I know from My Two Dads and Step by Step.  (Yes, my family watched the entire TGIF line-up on ABC in the 80′s and 90′s!)  There was also Corin Nemec, whom I know as Harold Lauder on The Stand miniseries, but I also learned today that he received an Emmy for portraying 14-year old Steven Stayner in I Know My First Name Is Steven.  And there was John Schneider, whom I love as Jonathan Kent in Smallville, and he also played an all-right Michael Landon in Michael Landon: The Father I Knew.

A significant part of the movie was a love-triangle, and I won’t be getting into that.  The three characters who stood out to me were Rhonda Mirfin, a judgmental conservative Christian who gets into people’s faces; John Schneider’s character, Gary Zimmerman, who is a skeptic and challenges Christians with his village atheist points and questions; and Corin Nemec’s character, Michael Stover, a likeable and humble Christian who is struggling with his homosexual past (and homosexual attraction that he still has).

In my opinion, the most entertaining parts of the movie were Gary’s one-liners, especially the ones that irritated Rhonda.  “Christians…where are the lions when you need them?”, Gary asked after Rhonda had berated him for being involved in embryonic stem-cell research.  And, when Rhonda prepared a little witnessing script to convince Gary (who was half-Jewish) that Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies, Gary had some zingers and surprises up his sleeve.  Rhonda asked Gary if he was familiar with the Old Testament, and Gary responds that, to his people, it’s the only Testament.  Rhonda then asked Gary if he knew about Isaiah 53, and Gary proceeded to recite much of the chapter to her.  Surprised, she inquired what that meant to him, and if he believed it was about Jesus.  Gary replied, “The way I see prophecy is like this: I could predict that there will be two baseball teams, and one will win, and the other will lose.”  The others then reply, “Yeah, that could happen.”  Gary’s point was probably that it doesn’t take divine inspiration to guess at what will happen in the future.  I’m usually interested in how movies address Isaiah 53, because that clues me in to how much their writers know about the debate concerning the chapter: whether it’s about Israel, the Messiah, a king, etc.  I was a little disappointed that this movie did not get into that, but I thought that Gary’s point was valid: So Isaiah 53 talks about a person who will suffer and die.  Many people suffer and die, so what does this prediction (if it even is that) prove?

Gary brings up good points, such as the way that even the Christians around him disagreed on what God’s will was.  (They were debating over whether or not to go dancing.)  And, sometimes, Gary lost the debate.  When Gary tells Rhonda that he believes in what is life-affirming, Rhonda glibly responds, “So you’re pro-life now”, prompting even someone who didn’t care for Rhonda to say, “You walked into that one, Gary!”  At the end of the movie, the characters make up, and Gary actually becomes open to faith.  It’s not because of any argument that he heard, but rather it was on account of how the Christians he was around kept their faith through all of the chaos that they were experiencing.  He admired that.

That brings me to John Schneider’s own testimony about how he became a Christian, which you can read in the article here.  Essentially, John became a Christian because of his Grandma’s belief that she would be with God after she died, and also on account of something that he saw at church when he was 29.  The article states:

“He saw a little old man being helped off the floor after prayer by a huge young black man with braids and gold around his neck, and there was a hug of appreciation between the two. Somehow in that little moment John saw Christ. He saw acceptance; He saw appreciation; He saw selflessness. From that moment on, he understood. It was a tiny little thing that probably took all of four seconds, much like it took four seconds for his grandmother to say that she’d be with God. But he saw something there that made him want to know more about what that was. That was the moment when the first little piece of green sprouted up from the bulb John’s grandmother had planted all those years before. After he accepted Christ, he started reading the Bible and looking at things from a different perspective. It was no longer a question of what could he get out of this day. It was, If God is always up to something, what is He up to today and what is my part in it?”

There’s something wholesome about that—being drawn to Christ by seeing one man helping another man, and both appreciating each other.  Even someone who isn’t convinced by apologetics (like me) can admire that.

My Fifteen Favorite Smallville Episodes (and Other Things Smallville)

Today is the day of the very last Smallville episode—after a remarkable ten-year run.  Although I have been dissatisfied with the last four seasons, I still want to pay homage to the series, for it has been a comfort to me for the past three years, as I have watched all of the seasons.  I promised to discuss my fifteen favorite episodes, and here they are.  It was a tough choice!  And I’ll confess that I cheated a few times by talking about a few episodes that are not among my top fifteen!

Season 1

“The Pilot” (Episode 1): This set the stage for the series, as pilots usually do.  I liked how it portrayed Clark Kent as a nice teenager who wasn’t overly popular, and who championed the marginalized.  Clark tripped and fell whenever he came within a certain distance from Lana Lane, his crush, who was dating a popular high school quarterback.  You’d think that Clark didn’t have a chance with Lana!  But the two of them developed a friendship.  At the end of the episode, we think that Clark and Lana are dancing in Clark’s barn, but it turns out that Clark is day-dreaming.  That made me hope that Clark’s dream would become a reality—and that Clark and Lana would have a romantic relationship.  On this episode, Clark also learns that it was the meteor shower that brought him to earth that killed Lana’s parents—a story that was featured on the cover of Time Magazine.  Clark feels horrible about that, but, throughout the series, he learns to cope with the implications of who he is, and the impact that has on those he loves.

“X-Ray” (Episode 4): The plot-line that I appreciated here was the developing friendship between Chloe and Lana.  Chloe at first saw Lana as a superficial cheerleader, whereas Chloe was a school newspaper nerd who liked to chronicle the weird happenings in Smallville (i.e., people developing superpowers as a result of the meteor shower that brought Clark).  But Lana learned that her mother when she was younger was a discontent cheerleader who gave a graduation speech in 1977 that was controversial and thus was not printed.  Lana asked Chloe to find the speech, and Chloe realized that what the mother said must have been controversial for it not to have been published that year!  Chloe digs up a recording of the speech, in which Lana’s mom expresses the hope that her children will make a difference, whereas she has not.

“Leech” (Episode 12): When Clark tries to rescue fellow student Eric Summers and is struck by lightning, Eric receives Clark’s powers, whereas Clark gets to become a regular teenager.  Eric was abused by his father and bullied by his classmates, and he was hopelessly in love with a girl who had a jock boyfriend.  When Eric gets Clark’s powers, he terrorizes his dad and his classmates.  Clark tries to convince Eric that he needs help—and this will be a recurring theme in Smallville: Clark attempts to convince villains that they can turn around and live a better life.  In the end, after Clark gets his powers back, Clark is appreciative that he was raised by good parents, Jonathan and Martha; otherwise, he could have turned out like Eric.  (Note: This theme shows up later in the series.  We learn in “Relic”, which is Episode 6 of Season 3, that Clark’s biological Kryptonian father, Jor-El, actually visited Earth in the 1960′s and planned for the Kents to become Clark’s adoptive parents—a concept that, unfortunately, was not developed as the series progressed, though I suppose that it does reveal that Jor-El specifically intended to send his son to Smallville.  And, in Season 10, we see a parallel universe in which Clark was discovered and raised by the diabolical mogul Lionel Luthor, thereby becoming one who terrorized that universe with his powers.  In that universe, Lionel sarcastically asks Clark, “Can you imagine how you would have turned out had you been found by an ignorant corn farmer?”  But that is what happened in the primary Smallville universe—only Jonathan wasn’t ignorant—and that’s how Clark became the decent person that he was.)

Notes on Season 1: Before I move on to Season 2, I want to mention one more episode that I liked from Season 1, but which is not among my top fifteen: “Hothead”, which is the third episode of Season 1.  It has Dan Lauria, who played Jack Arnold on the Wonder Years.  On this episode, he plays a psychotic yet legendary football coach named Walt Arnold!  Also, I should note that Amy Adams played a role in Episode 7, “Craving”.  This was before she became a major movie star.  And what’s ironic is that she will play Lois Lane in the coming Superman movie!

Season 2

“Rosetta” (Episode 17): On this episode, Christopher Reeve (the Superman with whom my generation grew up) plays reclusive physicist Virgil Swann, who enlightens Clark about who Clark is (Kal-El) and where he came from (Krypton).  At the end of the episode, Clark reads a message by his biological Kryptonian father, Jor-El, exhorting him to rule the flawed human race with strength.  Clark wonders if he was sent to conquer, and he fears that this might be his destiny.  But his adoptive father, Jonathan, reminds Clark that only he (Clark) can decide his own destiny.

“Precipice” (Episode 19):  On this episode, Lana is assaulted by a bunch of fraternity thugs at her coffee shop, right before she is rescued by Clark.  Lex Luthor trains Lana so that she can defend herself, and, to goad her on, he asks her how she felt about Clark Kent stepping in to rescue her.  That comment certainly lights a spark within her, and she proceeds to lay into the punching bag!  This was a good episode because I was definitely rooting for Lana when she walloped the fraternity thugs at the end of the episode.  And it also revealed the complexity of Lex Luthor: He was smart enough about human nature to know what buttons to push.  But it wasn’t always easy to determine what his agenda was.  Lex was a good friend of Clark because Clark saved his life in the “Pilot”, and he encouraged Clark to pursue Lana.  And yet, Lex himself had feelings for Lana, and he helped her out by training her in self-defense, and also by helping her start her own coffee shop (the Talon).

Season 3

“Perry” (Episode 5):  I wrote a post about this episode over two years ago.  In the Superman movies, Perry White is a demanding boss who appears to have his act together, and who expects his reporters to have their acts together.  (BTW, rest in peace, Jackie Cooper.)  In this episode of Smallville, however, Perry White is far from having his act together!  He’s a drunk who writes sensationalist stories—after he fell from his high status as a Pulitzer-winning journalist on account of his attempt to expose Lionel Luthor’s shenanigans.  Perry is obnoxious (yet likable) in this episode, and he comes close to learning about and exposing Clark’s secret!  But Perry learns his lesson.  At the end of the episode, “Walking in Memphis” is playing (which is an awesome song), and we know that Perry is getting on his feet again.  He is on the way to becoming the editor of the Daily Planet (which must occur after the very last Smallville episode, for it’s Season 10 right now, and he’s still not the editor!).

“Hereafter” (Episode 12): This episode is about a teen named Jordan who sees the future of whomever he touches.  He is considered to be a freak by other students, for he does not like to be touched, plus his attempts to warn people of their future make him look weird.  But Clark reaches out to Jordan, as does Lana, which is why I like their characters: on this episode and others, they accept outcasts, rather than rejecting them.  This episode is also good because we get to see glimpses of Superman.  When Jordan touches people, he sees how they will die.  But he does not see a death for Clark.  Rather, he sees the back of Superman’s red cape.

“Truth” (Episode 18):  In this episode, Chloe inhales a truth gas and gains a remarkable ability: whenever she stands near somebody, that person tells her the truth!  But it doesn’t work with Clark.  Chloe uses her newfound ability for her journalistic advantage, as she gets a popular teacher to confess that she’s been on the run from the law because she (the teacher) was part of a radical leftist group that blew up a building in the 1970′s.  Chloe writes an expose about that for the Torch, and she also tries to learn Clark’s secret (which his friend Pete almost blurted out to Chloe, in a humorous scene).  When the teacher’s son tries to kill Chloe for getting his mother into legal trouble, Chloe learns the value of discretion.  I like this episode because it’s part of Chloe’s growth as a character.  We wonder from this episode if Chloe would be a trustworthy person in keeping Clark’s secret.  When she learns Clark’s secret later in the series and keeps it faithfully, we see that she has grown from the time of the “Truth” episode.

“Memoria” (Episode 19):  In this episode, we see the memories of Lex Luthor and Clark Kent.  Lex remembers back to when he was a child and invited his school-mates to his birthday party, but nobody came because Lex was unpopular.  Lex’s father, Lionel, then encouraged Lex to be strong—and we get a glimpse at how good of a father Lionel once was, and could have continued to be had certain events not happened.  I appreciated that scene because I liked Lex when I saw that he knew what it was like to be marginalized, and that explains why there are episodes in which he reaches out to people who are unusual or on the social margins (i.e., Clark, Ryan).  In another scene, we get to see Clark’s memory of his biological Kryptonian mother, Lara, in which Lara and Jor-El are sending baby Clark (or rather, Kal-El) to Earth in a space-ship.  At the end of the episode, Clark is talking with his adoptive mother, Martha, about his memory of Lara.  Clark is surprised to learn that she was a kind and compassionate person, since the Kents’ experience with Jor-El was far from positive—as Jor-El was one who liked to play games with people and teach his son some hard lessons.  And Martha admires Lara, a woman who sent her child into the unknown, wondering if he would be raised by caring people.

Season 4

“Blank” (Episode 19):  In this episode, Clark loses his memory, and so Chloe has to “Clark-sit.”  At this stage of the series, Chloe knows about Clark’s superpowers, but Clark does not know that she knows.  Chloe is hurt when even Clark with a clean-slate becomes attracted to Lana, since Chloe has feelings for Clark.  But my favorite scene is when Clark is talking with Chloe about his powers—which he is discovering (since, having lost his memory, he forgot that he had them).  Chloe tells him that there’s a reason that he’s been keeping his powers a secret, even from her.  When Clark asks Chloe if she would ever tell anyone, she replies, “Never.”  At the end of the episode, after Clark regains his memory, he talks with Chloe to see if he did anything unusual—something that gave away his powers.  Chloe replies that he basically made the same decisions that he made before he lost his memory (i.e., falling for Lana), except for one: he trusted her.

Notes on Season 4: Margot Kidder—who played Lois Lane in the Superman movies—played a small role in this season.  This was also the very first season that had the character of Lois Lane, who is played by Erica Durance.  I don’t think that Margot Kidder’s appearance was a coincidence!  Also, Jane Seymour played a role in this season as the sinister Guinevieve Teague.  I also enjoyed Episode 6, “Transference”, in which Clark and Lionel Luthor trade places, as Lionel’s mind is in Clark’s body (with its superpowers), and vice versa!  You can tell the talent of an actor by if he or she is able to step out of character to play somebody else—and Tom Welling and John Glover did that quite well!

Season 5:

“Reckoning” (Episode 12):  This was a sad episode because it’s the one in which Jonathan Kent died of a heart attack (and after he had won a state Senate seat, at that!).  I loved John Schneider as Jonathan Kent, and I was dreading the episode in which he would die—and Clark would no longer be able to benefit from Jonathan’s fatherly guidance, his wisdom, his encouragement, and (when necessary) his rebuke.  Clark blamed himself for his adoptive father’s death because Jor-El in a previous episode weakened Jonathan’s heart when he gave Jonathan powers to stop Clark—who was wreaking havoc under the influence of red kryptonite (which brings out Clark’s bad side).  Moreover, in “Reckoning”, Clark tells Lana that he has superpowers, and Lana dies, so Clark asks Jor-El if he could repeat that day.  Jor-El allows Clark to do so, but he tells Clark that he can repeat the day never again after that.  In Clark’s second try, Jonathan dies of a heart attack while confronting Lionel Luthor.  When Lionel blackmails Jonathan, Jonathan replies that the Kents will survive because they stick together as a family, something that the Luthors never do.  And that is what happens, even after Jonathan’s death.  Although Clark blames himself for his adoptive father’s death, his adoptive mother, Martha, comforts him.  Clark also encounters Jonathan later in the series.  Jonathan tells Clark later in Season 5 that Clark has a special destiny, and he says in Season 10 that Clark did not cause his death; rather, his heart condition was caused by his resentment of Lionel Luthor for hurting so many people in Smallville, and Jonathan states that he was proud to die defending his family.

Notes on Season 5: In the episode “Thirst”, Carrie Fisher makes an appearance as an editor at the Daily Planet.

Season 6

“Zod” (Episode 1):  In this episode, General Zod takes control of Lex Luthor, and I believe that it was an image of Terrance Stamp (Zod in Superman 2) that was leaving Lex’s body when Clark exorcised him.  (Incidentally, Terrance Stamp does the voice of Jor-El in Smallville.)  What I most appreciated about this episode was Jor-El’s affirmation of Martha Kent at Clark’s Fortress of Solitude.  Martha expresses anger that her husband died on account of Jor-El’s games, but Jor-El tells her that many of his people died.  He also thanks Martha for being a good mother to his son.  That was probably the nicest Jor-El ever was to anyone in the entire series!

Season 10

“Homecoming” (Episode 4): In this episode, a new version of Braniac (which is actually a good version, in contrast to the previous evil ones) helps Clark to deal with his inner demons and to move on with his life.  Clark was weighed down by his guilt over his adoptive father’s death, and he was neglecting his friends in his present.  Brainiac takes Clark on a tour of his past and his present, and I found Clark’s therapy session to be quite moving.  But what was really interesting about this episode was that we got a glimpse into Clark’s future—how the Superman universe that was created on Smallville will play out.  Many of us are used to the Superman universe in which Lois Lane does not know that Clark Kent is really Superman.  And that created questions for me as I watched Smallville all those years.  Lois had known Clark for so many years, even living in his house (and this was before they were even a couple).  She had seen him numerous times without his glasses.  So how would she not know that he was Superman?  In the scenario that Smallville presents, however, she will know—and she will be Clark’s greatest supporter.  That’s what convinces Clark to continue his romantic relationship with Lois and to share his secret with her (even though, by this point, she already knows that he is the Blur—which was Clark’s superhero identity before he became Superman).

“Booster” (Episode 18):  The question of this episode (in my paraphrase) is “What is a true hero?”  A new superhero, Booster Gold, is upstaging the Blur—arriving at scenes and saving the day before the Blur gets there.  Clark learns that Booster is from the twenty-fifth century.  Booster was once a prominent athlete, but Booster fell from his athletic status and desired to be a hero again.  Consequently, he went back in time and targeted certain situations in which he could be a hero.  Clark tells Booster, however, that whether one is a hero depends on who he or she is on the inside.  In the course of the episode, Booster learns his lesson, and he becomes a superhero mentor to Jaime Reyes, a bullied teenager who discovers a super-suit that gives him powers.  In a sense, the question of “What is a true hero?” has been somewhere throughout the duration of Smallville, for Smallville is about people who gain superpowers as a result of a meteor-shower—and many of them misuse their powers.  But the question was more pronounced in “Booster”, and I appreciated seeing Booster’s growth.  This episode is also notable because, for the first time, it became believable to me that Clark could have a secret-identity as Clark Kent while performing the role of Superman.  For a long time, I wondered how that could be possible.  If so many people have seen Clark without his glasses, wouldn’t they recognize Superman as Clark Kent?  At least when Clark is the Blur, people can’t see his face and recognize him!  But, in “Booster”, I saw that Clark could cultivate an image of being a mild-mannered geek, and, eventually, that would be how people would define Clark.  In their eyes, he’d be far from being a superhero!

“Prophecy” (Episode 20):  This episode wasn’t all that good, and, to be honest, I really couldn’t care less about the Toymaker (or whatever his name is) or Granny Goodness.  My mind was someplace else when they were on this episode!  What’s profound about this particular episode, however, is the question that it raises: What are the implications of being married to Superman?  In this episode, Jor-El gives Lois Lane Clark’s superpowers, whereas Clark is reduced to a mere human being.  Lois learns that she has to prioritize whom she helps—for there are always people who need help, and she can only be in so many places (even with her new super-speed powers).  At the end of this episode, she breaks off her engagement with Clark, for she fears that—were they married—she might take him away from someone who needs help.  She does not want to be that selfish.

I hope you enjoyed my top fifteen.  Feel free to share with me your favorite Smallville moments!  And enjoy the final episode tonight!

Coming Soon…

This coming Friday (May 13) will be the date of the very last Smallville episode—after a ten-year run.  In honor of Smallville, I will list my fifteen favorite Smallville episodes on this blog.  It’s a tough choice, since there were so many beautiful episodes, especially in the first five seasons.  But I have selected fifteen.  And, believe it or not, they’re not all from the first five seasons!  Stay tuned!

John Schneider on Desperate Housewives

Am I the only one who is dissatisfied with John Schneider’s role in Desperate Housewives? I like him as the kind, wise, yet brash dad on Smallville. His Desperate Housewives character appears shallow and cartoonish.

V (2009)

I’m looking forward to the new V on Tuesday, November 3, on ABC! Not only did I like the original miniseries, and not only does this remake look awesome, but it has some of my favorite actors from some of my favorite shows! Elizabeth Mitchell (“Juliet”) from Lost will be on it, as will Joel Gretsch (“Tom Baldwin” from 4400 and “Owen Crawford” from Taken) and Laura Vandervoort (“Kara”) from Season 7 of Smallville. Moreover, one of the executive producers of this series is the creator of the 4400, Scott Peters!

Mother’s Day 2009

For Mother’s Day this year, I want to list ten of my favorite television mothers. In many respects, they resemble my own mom in that they love their kids. Enjoy!

1. Annie Camden (7th Heaven): She is feisty and firm in her beliefs, but she has a strong moral center and tries to teach her kids to do the right thing.

2. Caroline Ingalls (Little House on the Prairie): She has a sweet motherly demeanor, and she always tries to make her kids feel better, or at least to give them another way of looking at things. Sometimes, her advice can be tough, as when she told Laura to act like an adult after Charles called her a “little girl” in front of Almonzo.

3. Olivia Walton (The Waltons): She’s often busy with the housework, but she’s always there for her kids when they have problems.

4. Martha Kent (Smallville): She’d give her life for her son, Clark! She had always wanted a baby but was not able to have one (or so we thought until Season 2). Adopting Clark brought a lot of risks and perils, including the death of her husband, Jonathan. But she still loved her son.

5. Lara (Smallville): Lara is Clark’s biological mother who lived on Krypton. Although she realized that she had to send Clark to earth because Krypton was falling apart around her, she wondered if the people on earth would take care of him. That’s a sign of a good mother: she thinks about the well-being of her kids even when they are far away.

6. Nora Walker (Brothers and Sisters): I’ve only watched the first four episodes of this series, but she’s probably the most realistic mom I’ve seen on television! She loves her kids, yet she is estranged from her ultra-conservative daughter Kitty, as both try to build bridges with one another. She blames others a lot and isn’t always willing to acknowledge her own role in the family’s problems, but she usually seeks to change when someone confronts her with something she’s done wrong. She tends to nag, but that’s what moms do, I guess! It shows that they care.

7. Pauline (“Posey”) Benetto (Mitch Albom’s For One More Day): This book was made into a movie in 2007, and it’s about a man who was estranged from his mother, yet was blessed to spend one more day with her years after her death. Posey loved her son, even though he tended to prefer his father. When her son was a little boy, and the librarian only allowed him to check out children’s books, she marched right into the library and told the librarian never to limit her son! She also tried to make a home for her kids after their father left them, as when she dressed up like Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.

8. Mrs. Kovic (Born on the Fourth of July): Born on the Fourth of July was an Oliver Stone movie about Vietnam veteran and anti-war activist, Ron Kovic. Kovic’s mother had a sense of destiny about her son, presumably because he was born on the fourth of July. When the family was gathering around the television set watching JFK’s inauguration, she said she had a dream in which her son was speaking before a lot of people, saying great things. She still faced challenges, though, especially when her son came back from Vietnam and was disrupting the family’s life!

9. Hester Crane (Frasier): She was the mother of Frasier and Niles and the wife of Martin. She was a rather complex character. Her husband remembers her as someone who always looked for the best in people, and she accepted her gay friend in a time when homosexuality was a lot less accepted by society. Yet, she came across as cold and manipulative on Cheers, since she didn’t care much for Diane, Frasier’s fiancee. Maybe she was looking out for her son!

10. Lynette Scavo (Desperate Housewives): I think about this one story-line this season, in which Lynette is chatting with her son on the Internet, but he doesn’t know that the person he’s chatting with is his mother. He thinks it’s a girl his own age! The two really bond, but he gets mad when he finds out that he was talking to his mother the whole time. After he leaves the room, his mom says that she’ll miss the talks. Like a lot of moms, she enjoyed getting to know her son and learning about who he was as a person.

On that note, have a happy Mother’s Day!

Comps: Focus on Israel, Not the Temple

Today, for my comps, I read some of Jacob Neusner’s Introduction to Rabbinic Literature. Neusner, like Martin Jaffee (I think), says that rabbinic literature moved from a focus on temple to emphasizing the sanctity of all Israelites. That was why they focused on table purity. The question would then be, When did this development take place? After the destruction of the temple? But the Gospels present those sorts of concerns existing before 70 C.E. But people can always say that was an anachronism.

I somewhat disagree with Jaffee when he says that rabbinic literature differs from the Torah in that the latter is concerned primarily with sanctuary purity. That’s true, but people had to wash and be pure away from the sanctuary. But Jacob Milgrom suggests that’s because the impurity could travel to the tabernacle, almost like defilement floats. If the rabbis thought the purity of the Israelites was the important thing, though, that would explain why more observant Jews today–even in America–are concerned about defilement from a corpse. At least I heard something to that effect at Jewish Theological Seminary.

Sorry that I’m not too precise today in my documentation. I have somewhere to go tonight. When I get home, I’ll watch Smallville. I have missed who knows how many episodes of the new season!

Looks

I was watching an episode of Smallville last night, “Facade,” which is from its fourth season. It’s about a girl with scabs all over her face, “Scabby Abby,” who tries to fit in at high school. She even plays the school’s mascot! But, in spite of her many attempts to win people over through her inner beauty, all she gets is teased. And so she goes to her mother, a homely-girl-turned-beauty-queen, who performs an operation on Abbie that makes her into a supermodel.

The problem is this: every time Abbie kisses someone, the person goes crazy, since the operation was done with kryptonite meteor rocks. And so Louis Lane conducts an investigative report for the school’s newspaper. She tells Abby’s mom that she wants to undergo the operation, which is not very believable, since Lois is hot herself. When Abby’s mom suspects that Lois is recording their conversation, she tries to force Lois to have the operation–only this time to make her ugly. Lois then says, “I’ve always been one to believe that true beauty is on the inside.” Abby’s mom responds, “The only people who say that are those who are already pretty on the outside.”

That reminded me of a scene from Liar, Liar–only it claimed the opposite. In it, Jim Carrey’s son, Max, remarked that his teacher said true beauty is on the inside. And Jim Carrey replied, “Oh, Max, only ugly people say that!”

Despite their contradiction, I think that both scenes are right, from a certain point of view. So many of us try to convince ourselves that we’re all right. The problem is that it’s hard to do so if the rest of the world believes the exact opposite. I can tell myself that I’m beautiful on the inside–that, even if I’m not physically attractive, I’m still a good person, and that’s all that really matters. But what if no one is attracted to my inner beauty, and chooses to judge me on the basis of superficial criteria? In that case, telling myself that I’m beautiful on the inside is not exactly going to help me. I have an image of how the world should work, but that’s not exactly how the world does work. In the real world, attractive people get the breaks in life. And that’s true in the church as well, believe it or not.

Incidentally, that’s one reason many women cannot stand Sarah Palin (see Why Some Women Hate Sara Palin): she’s too pretty. She reminds them of the pretty girl in high school, who’s friends with the other pretty girls. According to this article, a lot of women are plain-Janes, so they tend to resent Sarah the pretty girl.

Society seems to favor the attractive. I encountered this last night in my daily quiet time. I read the deutero-canonical Letter of Jeremiah, which states:

“And the women, with cords around them, sit along the passageways, burning bran for incense. When one of them is led off by one of the passers-by and is taken to bed by him, she derides the woman next to her, because she was not as attractive as herself and her cord was not broken” (1:42-43, NRSV).

The Letter is referring to a custom that Herodotus describes in History 1:199: In Babylonia, women had to “sit in the temple of Aphrodite and have intercourse with some stranger once in her life” (BibleWorks translation) as part of a fertility ritual. If no one wanted them because they were unattractive, then they had to wait. They couldn’t go home! No wonder one of them was mad because her cord was not broken!

But we see the same sort of thing in the canonical portions of the Bible (canonical from a Jewish and Protestant perspective). Jacob loved Rachel over Leah, since Rachel was the curvaceous one (Genesis 29:17-18). Sarah and Rebekah were knock-outs (Genesis 12, 20, 26).

Some have suggested that the Bible itself supports that kind of discrimination. I once read an article that said the author of the David stories conveys that David is good by presenting him as handsome (I Samuel 16:12). Perhaps. But there are Bible passages that seem to oppose a focus on outer beauty:

Genesis 29:31: “When the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, he opened her womb; but Rachel was barren.”

I Samuel 16:7: “But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.’”

Proverbs 31:30: “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.”

And the New Testament also prioritizes inner beauty over outward appearance:

I Peter 3:3-4: “Do not adorn yourselves outwardly by braiding your hair, and by wearing gold ornaments or fine clothing; rather, let your adornment be the inner self with the lasting beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in God’s sight.”

My problem is this: I can criticize the world and even the church for focusing so much on outward appearances. But the fact is that I do so as well. And I’m not sure if I can help myself on that.

When I lived in New York and attended Redeemer, Tim Keller was talking about dating. He asked us if we focus more on superficial things when we look for a mate–such as looks, body, wealth, success, etc.–or if we instead seek good character. He related that a frustrated young man told him that Redeemer is just like the world when it comes to the dating game: the women blow you off if you’re not successful.

I can sympathize with that young man, since I feel blown off a lot. But can Tim Keller tell us whom we should be attracted to? Can God even command us on this? We’re attracted to whom we’re attracted. Evolutionists say it’s evolutionary–women are drawn to the strong men who can protect them and give them lots of babies. Wasn’t that what Lucas said about Charlie Sheen in Lucas?

I hate the line “Let’s just be friends,” but maybe that’s the solution to my whole dilemma. We can’t help whom we’re attracted to. But we can treat everyone with respect and dignity. At the same time, hopefully what attracts us is more than skin deep, and we can look at character too.