Hi everyone. So yes, I’m a week behind. A Not What I Expected review is comin’ out real soon, don’t worry. But right now you’re stuck with The Good in People.
Alright. This one’s a little weird to follow, so let me break down the plot real quick. Basically, Olivia is elected of her school’s drama club as the result of a promise she made about going to theatre con or something. So, she and Suzu are at Whit’s End when all of this is explained. He responds in typical Whit fashion like, “yeah okay maybe you shouldn’t have done that.” Sixteen-year-old Olivia who’s still in Middle School, admits it was a dumb decision, but she doesn’t regret cuz um, she “wanted to”? Morrie walks up and scares everyone by not being loud enough for them to hear him coming. (GET IT EVERYONE: CUZ HE’S ACTUALLY A BAD GUY!) I guess he’s just there to tell Suzu it’s time to come home and emphasize how difficult it will be to raise $500 in two weeks. Which is silly. I mean, Olivia’s old enough to work. Get a job, get paid minimum wage and work for two weeks. You’d have about $500. Or you could have each kid contribute $50. That’s not really that much money. But I’m getting off track. Suzu and Morrie leave, Morrie chuckles randomly, claims it’s innocent, Suzu doesn’t buy it, and then Olivia adopts a milkshake. Next thing ya know, she’s brushing her teeth when a strange man calls her, asking if he could give her money to go on the trip if she and her friends make half the money. So $250. They’ve got a cute lil’ montage of the kids asking for money, working for money, etc. And by the end of it, huzzah! They’ve got $250! So they text the guy and he doesn’t answer. She calls him a lot and he doesn’t answer.
Deciding it must be Mr. Whittaker, she goes to him, asking for the money, only to find out that he wasn’t the person, and the only money he has for her was the money from the donation jar. ☹ Olivia has a little mental breakdown, she talks to Morrie, who’s like, “Boy that sucks. Let’s tell everyone.” Olivia says the shouldn’t because they’re going to the thing after all. Woo. Later, Suzu and Zoe barge into Olivia’s room and ask if she used this other money that was supposed to be used for a church thing. This scene drags on for a while, and eventually Olivia’s like,
“No! It wasn’t me! Here’s the money! I took it out of….my college fund!” (Too bad she’ll never get to use that money. I think she might be permanently trapped in middle school) So the girlies makeup and everything good. BUT the episode can’t end without a meaningless, unconnected creepy night time in the hallway Morrie and Suzu scene can it?! OF COURSE NOT! It’s pretty much like the rest,
“Morrie? How did you know this thing that you weren’t supposed to?”
*SUPER STUPID LIE THING*
“BUT THAT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE! IT WAS YOU ALL ALONG!”
“Yup. It was me BUT *deceptively phrased question to get Suzu and the audience to think*”
Suzu gives the dreaded answer that no one wants to admit.
“Goodnight sis.”
“Goodnight Morrie.”
I’m starting to think Suzu’s the villain here.
Alright. I’ll start off by saying that this is an episode that I do not like listening to. It’s sort of slow. It has Olivia being weird in it. I like Morrie, but he doesn’t do anything special in this episode. Suzu’s cool too, but again, she barely talks. We have so many episodes centered around Olivia making a bad decision and her having to fix it. This episode doesn’t have anything in it that really means anything. We don’t learn anything about the characters, there’s no character development, nothing of significance actually happens, and at this point, it just feels like they’re making it up as they go. I really hope they’re not. But it feels like they are.
So since my next episode review is also on Olivia, I’d like to focus on Morrie in this one. Because I really like theorizing about him.
Here’s what we know about Morrie:
– His name is Morrie Rydell
– He’s in middle school, so 11-14 years old
– He’s run several successful international school elections
– He has a sister named Suzu, who was adopted from Japan, somewhat recently seeing as she still has her accent, and I think Matthew called her new in that locker mystery episode.
– He lies and sets up situations for people to see what they will do
– We don’t know who his parents are
– He probably has a pet boa constrictor named Edison
Not a ton to go off of. But that might be good because it makes theorizing more fun.
Here is a master list of everything Morrie could be really up to, and who he’s connected with. Buckle your seatbelts Odyssians, it’s gonna be bumpy.
– THEORY 1: After Buck left Mr. Skint, he was lonely and looked to replace him. Morrie came out of the pool of foster kid geniuses that Nicholas Adamsworth and Eugene Meltsner belong to. He was taken in by Skint soon after Buck left. Having similar goals in life, Morrie has much respect for Skint, and he eventually adopts another kid from- Japan. He’s now using them to get information about the kids of Odyssey to accomplish some big master plan. *cough*
PROBLEMS WITH THIS THEORY: Well- there are a lot. Mainly the fact that adopting from another country is super difficult, and impossible if you’re a criminal on the run from the law. Also, I can’t imagine what master plan Skint could actually be cooking up.
– THEORY 2: After Richard got out of Odyssey General hospital, he went back to Chicago, only to find out that there was an ex-lover/girlfriend with a child – that was his. Feeling responsible to look after this young chap, Richard marries said ex-lover and raises this child in Chicago. (In case you’re not following, the child is Morrie.) The Maxwells have another baby, but it dies less than a year after it’s born. The whole family is devastated, but no more than Morrie, who’d always wanted a sibling. He was about eight at the time. To escape the negative memories and help themselves grieve, the Maxwells travel for a while, turning their vacation into somewhat of a mission trip. While abroad, they decide to adopt from Japan. They adopt Suzu and decide to return to the states, but not Chicago. Richard remembers Odyssey and decides it’d be a good place to settle down. The family moves back to Odyssey, ready to start a new life.
But Morrie has other plans. Morrie grew up well taken care of. His parents were Christians and rather wealthy, but he wanted more. He was as brilliant as his father, holding the same love for computers, but he had another level of interest that Richard doesn’t- the interest in the human mind. He loved to know what makes people tick and conducted harmless experiments accordingly- mostly during the time right after his sibling died. Now that he has a sibling, he really loves her and makes sure she knows it. He also takes it upon himself to look out for her- as if she too will be taken away from him. But he needs to take his experiments further. While away from the states, his curiosity was peaked. His small, harmless experiments were conducted through his oversees elections, and he was ready for more. Now in Odyssey, who can tell what his master plan is. But he’s testing people. Whether the kids of Odyssey Middle School are who he’s after, or mere guinea pigs for something bigger, his intentions are evil and must be stopped. Also, his mom is probably someone special like Katrina Meltsner’s cousin or something.
PROBLEMS WITH THIS THEORY: Well, Richard’s last name is Maxwell, not Rydell. Also, I think we’d know if Richard was back in Odyssey and comfortable with being there. Other than that, I think this one’s pretty good. I don’t know. Discuss below!
– THEORY 3: Richard has actually recruited Morrie after finding out about him- somehow. And he’s also turned bad, and basically, there’s some big ol’ plot they’ve scheme they’ve got going where they’re trying to take over the world or something.
PROBLEMS WITH THIS THEORY: It’s a generally nonspecific one, so there aren’t really a ton of issues with it. I guess Suzu mentions something about doing what’s right for their family in- I believe it was their first episode- idk that locker one! You know what I’m talking about. So that doesn’t automatically fit into it. Maybe it could be tweaked to though.
So there you have it! Some food for thought on Morrie. Like I said before, I wasn’t really crazy about this episode in general. It felt pretty useless, so I’m not a huge fan of that. Little character development or further information. But it was well acted and written- aside from the montages- ew.
Jules popped up in Life Expectancy, June’s funeral which you already know.
