My So-Called Life – Summer DVD Review – Why Jordan Can’t Read

my so-called life

My So-Called Life
Why Jordan Can’t Read

Original Air Date: Oct 6,1994

Theresa – Staff Writer
theresa@thetwocentscorp.com

“Love is when you look into someone’s eyes, and suddenly you go all the way inside to their soul, and you both know… instantly.” – A great quote, though somewhat ironic. This episode has Angela thinking she knows a lot of things just because she knows one thing, and is one of the best episodes of the show.

Angela’s school is at an art museum on a field trip – something she analogizes to animals being let out of their cages. Of course, no one’s actually looking at the art. Sharon and Kyle are making out, Angela’s watching Jordan, Brian’s watching Angela, Rickie’s watching Rayanne (drink), and Rayanne’s flirting with the security guard.

Angela pulls Rayanne aside to show her a letter she wrote for Jordan, expressing everything she wants to say to him. She has absolutely no intention of sending it to him; it was for her own catharsis. She’s over him now, she announces. She lets Rayanne take it to read, but Rayanne leaves it on an exhibit while distracted.

Jordan finds Angela looking at sculptures, and they talk randomly about a song he’s writing, and how he takes his coffee. I remember watching this and being so excited that Jordan Catalano took his coffee the same way I do (black with 3 or 4 sugars)! When Angela happily tells Rayanne that Jordan was actually having a nice conversation with her, Rayanne reveals she lost the letter. Angela freaks out and thinks that Jordan probably found it, and that’s why he was talking to her.

Back at school, she finds out her paranoia was valid when Jordan returns her letter. She tells Jordan the letter was about a dead boyfriend, and that she just used his name to cover it up, but she’s really annoyed when Jordan tells her he didn’t even read it. Jordan says it didn’t hold his interest, and Angela gets in his face about it until she says something about big words, and Jordan flips. She suddenly realizes that Jordan *couldn’t* read the letter. He’s never told anyone else.

Angela suddenly feels connected to Jordan. After some awkwardness, he tells her she can come to his band’s rehearsal that night and hear the song. The band is called Frozen Embryos, but more importantly, the song is called “Red” and Angela thinks it’s about her. Jordan drives her home and kisses her again. In a callback to the second episode, he apologizes for interrupting her. Everything is going just perfectly.

The next morning, Angela is humming and drinking coffee (black with 3 or 4 sugars), wondering if she’s allowed to date. Patty lays down some normal rules, and also tells her they have to meet him first. Angela awkwardly hints to Jordan that she’d like to go see a movie, and when he agrees, she brings out the dealbreaker. Surprisingly, Jordan agrees to come meet her parents. Still, perfect.

Then comes the crash and burn. Brian has been bugging Angela about getting his copy of Malcolm X back, and he gets an extra excuse to come over when a flirty Danielle asks him for saxophone lessons. Brian comes by while Angela’s waiting for Jordan, and Brian does not hide his disgust well. This is a great scene between the two of them, one that sticks in my mind. The movie Angela wants to go to is The Bicycle Thief, which Brian had to explain to her, and Brian starts screaming that Jordan is an idiot she shouldn’t be watching it with. Angela won’t really get while Brian’s yelling at her until the end of the series, but we can see Brian lashing out because everything is changing too fast and he’s quickly losing his fantasy while Angela gains hers, putting her further away from him.

And then Jordan doesn’t show up. Because the song? Was about his car.

That connection that Angela was so thrilled about is actually too much for Jordan. He doesn’t want someone intense and serious, making things complicated. Angela walks away when he comes to talk, and spends the next few days depressed.

Meanwhile, Patty thinks she may be getting sick and/or fat. It occurs to her suddenly that she’s 8 days late for her period. Sharon’s mom suggests it could be pre-menopause, which is about as depressing as the thought of being pregnant. When she’s about to take the test, she gets her period, but Graham misconstrues her happiness for a moment. It turns out he was actually looking forward to maybe having a son.

At the end of the episode, Brian comes over and ends up playing a quick game of catch with Angela. She tells him that they’re not talking about Jordan, and that he couldn’t possibly understand what she’s going through. When it happens to him, she says, she’s going to laugh. The look he gets after this is just amazing. It’s a knowing sadness, like a thousand different things he wants to say running through his head but nothing sticking together, and maybe nothing he even wants to say right now.

“This life has been a test. If it had been an actual life, you would have received instructions on where to go and what to do.”

As I said last week, this is truly one of my favorite episodes of any series, and not just because of all the Jordan Catalano. It’s a perfect statement on how involved we can be with ourselves, especially as teenagers, and how we are only just beginning to understand that not all motivations are the same. So, it doesn’t occur to Angela before she gets mad that Jordan may have had a valid reason for not reading the letter. And then, since red is central to her in a different way, she jumps to a conclusion about his song. Finally, she is completely oblivious to the fact that Brian is dealing with the exact same thing she is, but he can’t show it the same way she does.

On that note, next week’s episode is “Life of Brian”, told from his POV. In the meantime, leave your Two Cents about Why Jordan Can’t Read!

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