First off before I start anything, I’d like to thank Sarah S for donating to the blog. You are amazing, and during these crazy times it is very appreciated, thank you so much. ❤
Hey everyone…. damn what the fresh hell is 2020 even. I hope you guys are all handling everything ok and are staying safe. I’m currently not doing too badly, I am working from home which I feel better about as it feels safer. Unfortunately I work in an industry hard hit by COVID-19 (travel insurance), but as of now I still have a job and will hopefully be keeping that job into the future. It’s really hard to know when things will even remotely go back to normal, but I’m pretty much an introvert and homebody, so staying inside isn’t a big change for me. Plus now that I heard killer hornets are the newest addition to the 2020 crapshoot so I definitely won’t be going out.
I realize I could (and should) be updating this site much more often, as I really have no excuse whatsoever other than I play video games too much and that eats up a lot of my time. Well without further adieu, let’s get started on Heroes.
So this episode is up there with Season 2’s, Monkey See, Monkey Do in that I always skip it when I rewatch of this show. I remember the first time seeing it finding it a really boring, and all I remember is Busy feeling uncomfortable around a dude in a wheelchair. So let’s go forward and see if I end up changing my mind and liking it a bit more seeing it 20 years later.
The episode opens with Busy bitching about Sam and how she’s his new target because Lucy grew a backbone and now has a new life as a student and is far too busy studying to take his crap anymore. They continue having small talk when Busy mentions something related to a farm which has Amanda remembering she left her mom’s sweater in gym yesterday (I guess sheep = wool = sweater). She decides to give Busy her food for some reason and jets off towards the gym. If I was Busy I’d be pretty annoyed at being given her garbage, what is she her damn personal assistant? Doesn’t matter because 0.2 seconds later some dude runs by and knocks all the food/books out of Busy’s hand. We then see two shiny wheels that roll up and a hand reaches to help Busy pick up her crap.
Turns out this new student’s name is Derek Wheeler, but he goes by Wheels on account of his last name/his wheelchair. Nah his name is Aiden and yes he is a new student. He asks Busy where the elevator is, and Busy gives some rushed answer as she’s clearly worried about being late for class. Aiden is still like yeah… no idea what you are saying and Busy decides it is just easier to show him.
So naturally Busy is late for class, and the damn teacher doesn’t even give her a chance to explain why and instead gives her detention during lunch. All the teachers at Dorsey with the exception of the art teacher Amanda loved seem like huge assholes. One second later Aiden rolls in, and we hear the teacher introduce him to the class. Busy is now lacking a science partner because the teacher assigned new ones and it’s two guesses who her new one is going to be. Actually at first the teacher asks some girl in the front to move to the back, but Aiden says he’s ok taking the back seat, much to Busy’s annoyance for some reason.
At lunch Busy is acting all awkward, saying to Sag that it’s weird how Aiden moves around. WTF is he supposed to float around like Professor Xavier or something? Sag is like the hell are you talking about. Naturally Amanda is the welcome wagon, and has Aiden sitting at the table with them for lunch. Amanda tries to bring up small talk, stating how Aiden likes sports to which Sag states he can’t relate because he is uncoordinated. Busy gives him a kick under the table for that which makes no sense but I guess to her that sentence = related to being in a wheelchair, I’m not sure. She also keeps nervously looking around and seeing people talk and look at the group, so it’s evident she’s extremely uncomfortable with his disability. Honestly, was this a thing in the 90’s? Being weirded out by people in wheelchairs/with disablities? Basically anything the group says to Aiden, Busy gets annoyed about. Thankfully her awkwardness ends quickly as she has to leave to go clean the science room for her detention.
Later on, Busy is finally finished her cleaning duties and is about to leave the room, but see’s Aiden wheeling down the hall. She quickly ducks inside so he can’t see her and say hi to her again(seriously, his dialogue has mainly consisted of him saying “hi” about six times, give him some decent lines Ready or Not writers).
Later on in the eve, Amanda and Busy are chatting on the phone and Busy is going on about how annoyed she is that Amanda tried to force Aiden’s friendship onto her. She once again mentions him being in a wheelchair as like a huge negative against him…. has Busy literally never seen someone in a wheelchair before? It’s highly bizarre how reactionary she is to this guy’s existence. Sam comes in and starts bitching at Busy because she’s sucking at making dinner and for some reason that’s really making him irate. Sam takes his damn food seriously. Seems like all the Ramone’s are in a pretty sour mood for some reason. Amanda and Busy end their phone convo unresolved on the Aiden non-issue.
Next day in science class the students are all doing some experiment with a pink chemical. Aiden and Busy are talking about an upcoming field trip to a lake while working on the assignment. Amanda turns around to ask for a pen and knocks the fake chemical all over the damn floor. The teacher borderline freaks out on Aiden, blaming his wheelchair for the spill, even though it’s clear he hasn’t moved an inch at all and Amanda’s standing in the delicious chemical sludge. The teacher then yells at them not to touch anything or move lest they “break their necks”. Yikes on that choice of words, sir. Anyway, the teacher is totally being condescending/babying Aiden when he had zero to do with the spill. For some reason this also prompts Busy to whisper to Amanda that she wished she was working with her even though Amanda’s dumb ass was the one that caused the biohazard.
Later on Amanda and Busy are checking the list of stuff they need to bring on the field trip. Aiden wheels on over which of course annoys Busy. She’s not even trying to hide how much she hates this guy. Amanda asks him how he likes Dorsey and he says it’s fine but he wants to make some friends. Amanda then invites him to a movie entitled Heroes with herself and Busy. Aiden agrees, and then not even a second later Amanda conveniently remembers she has a dentist appointment today and also can’t go the next day because she’s babysitting. So now the only person Aiden and Busy liked is bailing, but they both awkwardly agree to keep the movie date.
Next scene we see Aiden in line at what I’m pretty sure is the old Uptown movie theatre in downtown Toronto that closed in like 2003. I remember seeing The Matrix at this movie theatre when I was around 16. They go into the theatre and Aiden has to sit at the back because that’s the only spot his wheelchair will fit. Busy kinda makes a remark, and Aiden says if her vision is up not to par than she can move her ass on up, but she remains where she is. They start discussing the movie Heroes and the people in it (sadly no David Bowie). Apparently there’s a famous basketball player who Busy is super excited about, but Aiden asks how the hell being able to play sports and earn tons of money makes you a hero. He states that someone who risks their life to save someone if they didn’t have to is more of a hero, while Busy states because the basketball player is a role model that makes him a hero. I think they both are sort of right in a way, but I’m leaning more towards agreeing with Aiden.
Their argument gets so heated that the people in front tell them to shut their goddamn yaps.
The next day Amanda’s hanging at Busy’s house and Busy is bitching about how annoying and opinionated Aiden is. Amanda apologizes for bailing which has Busy stating she thinks she did it on purpose lol. Amanda said her mouth had to be drilled for a cavity to which Busy says she’d rather deal with a cavity then Aiden. She lists off all the annoying shit she had to deal with while hanging out with him like sitting at the back, having to find a wheelchair accessible bathroom at a restaurant because the theatre didnt’ have one, him spilling a drink etc. etc. Amanda then says yeah you hag, he has to deal with that forever you had to deal with it for two hours so stop being a bitch. I dunno why that gives Busy some epiphany because Amanda’s sentence made her like suddenly realize….YES disabled people do have it much harder than us. I swear Busy is such a simpleton at times.
That night Busy gets up in the middle of the night because she can’t sleep on account of feeling badly at treating Aiden like trash. Manny’s sleeping on the couch because Shelia apparently has restless leg syndrome and keeps him up all night. He wakes up and they start having a heart to heart talk about Busy feeling shitty. She doesn’t come out and say exactly what happened, but just states she is sometimes a moron and treats certain people differently. Yeah and for some reason they are arm wrestling during all this.
Next day Busy is at school shooting baskets and we see Aiden is watching a couple dudes playing basketball as well. The ball rolls over to Aiden and he picks it up and three points it from a great distance which impresses Busy. Inside the school, Busy comes up to Aiden at his locker and notices he has a picture of himself standing holding a basketball as apparently he was MVP before he got into an accident. Busy is surprised that Aiden still plays basketball. I guess she’s never heard of the Special Olympics before as she seems shocked that someone in a wheelchair could still participate in sports.
In class the teacher is handing out the permission slips for the field trip and bypasses Aiden because apparently the site is not equipped to meet his needs and they had booked the trip before he joined the class. Aiden is of course pissed at this. The teacher is very whatever about it, not even slightly empathetic to Aiden’s situation. Busy decides she’s had enough of this ableism bullshit, especially since she hung out with Aiden and has seen the dude is capable of taking of himself and dealing with situations. She stands up and says she’s not going on the field trip if they all can’t go and that if the site can’t accommodate Aiden they should look elsewhere. The teacher starts getting annoyed that she’s standing up for this just cause and tells her to sit down and shut up. Busy then calls his ass ignorant which of course lands her with a detention. But it’s pretty interesting to see Busy go from hating Aiden to being his number 1 supporter. I am kind of surprised Amanda didn’t also stand up with Busy since she was the one who opened Busy’s eyes about how much harder Aiden’s life is.
Later on Busy is waiting in the hallway to hear her punishment and we see Sam coming up the stairs and he looks hella pissed. He approaches Busy and you think he’s about to ream her ass since this whole episode he’s been giving her a really hard time, but he tells her she did the right thing and that he’s proud of her. Wow, Sam has come a long way since his racist ways of season 2, glad he cares about issues beyond his butcher shop now. Sam goes into the office to give the teacher a piece of his damn mind.
Aiden comes by and asks Busy if she feels like shooting some hoops after her verdict is determined. She says she’s kinda rusty but sure. Aiden brings up the movie and how he thinks Busy is wrong because the basketball player isn’t a hero but some guy that survived a plane crash is because he had courage. I’m assuming that’s some commentary basically saying that Aiden doesn’t consider himself a hero for what he goes through daily, but Busy is because she had the courage to speak up in the face of injustice. Really I think I’m the true hero for getting through this snoozefest of an episode.
I think it would’ve been a lot more interesting if Busy didn’t like Aiden because of his personality (because I thought his personality was pretty lame) and everyone thought it was because he was in a wheelchair but it turned out to be never about that and Busy saw Aiden as a person beyond someone just in a wheelchair. But I guess the show had to tick off “disabilities” from it’s list of issues covered. I’m actually kind of surprised they waited til this long in the show to do that since the first couple of seasons was all about making sure they covered a variety of issues. Of course Aiden as a character is never seen again as he has served his purpose and is now rendered pointless. I actually find that a lot more insulting to disabled people. I’m glad shows like Degrassi featured characters in wheelchairs and treated them like human beings i.e. Maya in the original and Jimmy in the later series.
Next episode, Amanda wants to be friends with the popular snobby girls, but Busy may jeopardize that by revealing a secret of Amanda’s.
This review is dedicated to Julie Nichols-Clements. I miss you friend.
Ready or Not Reviewed! 