About:
Young Americans S1.E06 “Gone”
Total Tallies
Rowing: 4
Ending Up in the Lake: 0
Shirtlessness: 2
Coca-Cola Product Placement: 5
Nick Drake Songs: 0
Previous rewatch: “Kiss and Tell” and “Cinderbella”
Episodes 5 and 6 come and go today, marking this as the penultimate post of my Young Americans rewatch. I’m kind of sad that the end is drawing near; I’ve been having a lot of fun revisiting my youth (and the early aughts) through the rose colored glasses of The WB.
1.5 “Winning Isn’t Everything”
It’s Rawley Regatta time, folks, which also means Parents’ Weekend. When Scout accidentally drops his phone at the garage, and his father calls, Bella answers the phone and ends up talking to “her father.” Scout tells her that their father is coming up for the weekend, and Bella tells him how bizarre it would be to meet him. (P.S.—His father’s a senator.)
Jake gets a surprise email that her mother will be coming into town for the weekend, too. She panics, because her mom think she attends Rawley Girls. Jake puts on a dress and some pearls to impress her mom, and Hamilton quips that the only time he thought he’d see her in a dress would be at a gay pride parade.
Scout tells Bella he thinks she’s crazy for not wanting to meet Sen. Calhoun. Bella turns him down, saying that she already has a father, and that Scout needs to think about people other than himself, that Sen. Calhoun might not want to meet her.
Jake’s mom arrives, all hustle and bustle. Hamilton saves Jake from having to show her mom around the girl’s campus by offering to take them both on a tour. Jake’s mom immediately starts “mom flirting” with Hamilton: “Call me Monica.” She also offers to give his headshot to her people in New York. When her mom asks Hamilton to join them at the coffee shop at noon for the Rawley Girls’ Luncheon, both Jake and Hamilton realize that noon is the same time as the first heat of the regatta. (Two-timer date trope ahoy!) Hamilton’s mom catches Jake running off toward the boys’ school. The next day, she asks Jake if she and Jake are getting it on. (Bonus points for a most excellent use of Salt-N-Pepa’s “Let’s Talk About Sex.”)
Bella, after a heart-to-heart with Will, tells Scout she’d like to meet the senator. When Scout tells his dad about Bella, Sen. Calhoun says that she’s crazy, and that “he knew a lot of girls” in his Rawley days. (Ew.) Scout lies to Bella when she shows up at the regatta and says that he’s changed his mind about telling him; that the pressure and the stress of the Senator’s campaign makes it the wrong time. Later, Scout tells his dad that Bella was indeed crazy; his dad apologizes for his past mistakes.
Oh, and—SPOILER ALERT—the Rawley Boys’s rowing team wins the regatta.
Exam Time!
How many times do you see someone rowing on the lake?
4
How many times does someone end up in the lake?
0
How many times is someone seen without a shirt on?
1 (Jake, again.)
How many times does someone drink a Coke/is a Coca-Cola logo seen?
2
On a scale of 1–10, how adorably awkward does the flirting between Hamilton and Jake get?
8. Hamilton picks Jake up from the luncheon in a speedboat and races to get her to the regatta. When he asks what kept her, she replies, “sex,” and he slips on the accelerator and nearly throws her out of the boat.
On a scale of 1–10, how uncomfortably awkward does the relationship between Scout and Bella get?
2. Scout’s kind of a dick to Bella this episode, first telling her that he thinks she should meet their dad and then calling the whole thing off.
Essay Questions
What was the most obvious rich kid vs. poor kid moment?
Will gives the other guys crap for complaining about their “rich kid” parental issues.
What was the best example of Finn trying to pull a Dead Poet’s Society?
Finn gives the boys a pep talk before the rowing team goes into the finals, telling them that in order to win, they need to overcome their own personal obstacles. If they can do that, then only then will be a true team.
What familiar faces appeared in the episode, and in what else have they appeared?
None this episode.
Extra Credit
How many times does a Nick Drake song play?
0
Final (Arbitrary) Score
60/100. This episode was filled with parent issues. Will with his dad, Scout and Bella with the Senator, Jake with her mom. It was sweet that some things got resolved, but it just seemed like a bit of a filler episode. And with only eight episodes total, you can’t really afford filler.
1.6 “Gone”
This episode opens with Bella driving a shiny red Corvette convertible with Scout in the passenger seat and Will riding in the back. When the Corvette slams to a stop on the side of the road, we hear Bella chanting in a near panic “I just stole a Corvette, I just stole a Corvette.”
12 HOURS EARLIER …
Bella’s writing a letter to Senator Calhoun, and Hamilton and Jake are discussing women with Scout and Will. Scout heads over to the garage to ask Bella to join them, and she freaks, shoving the letter into her pocket. Of course, worst younger sister ever Grace takes the jacket as she heads off with her friends. Grace shows up the following morning sans jacket, and when Bella questions her about the whereabouts of said jacket, Grace can’t remember, but thinks she’s left it in Ryder’s dorm room, where Ryder is holding an illicit poker game.
When Will joins the game, he surprises everyone (or no one, really) by being a total shark. Before long, Will’s made a pile of cash. Ryder bets big, and Will puts up his brick laptop as collateral. Ryder wins the hand, of course, and Will loses his computer. If he can get together $500, however, he can get it back.
As luck would have it, Finn checks in with Will, who’s moping in his room, and gives Will an application for a writing prize worth $1,000. The kicker: the application needs to be postmarked by 5 p.m. that day, and the essay Will needs to send in is on a disk, which is currently in his computer.
Will and Bella break into Ryder’s room to get her jacket and his essay, and Ryder walks in while on the phone. It turns out that he owes someone a lot of money, and he takes the jacket and computer to pawn. After Ryder leaves, Scout catches Will and Bella leaving the room, and is therefore made an accomplice to their schemes. When berating Bella about how stupid it was to write the note, Scout accidentally reveals that he told his dad about Bella. Rightly so, she’s pissed.
Jake and Hamilton head out on a fancy date, which involves her wearing a dress and heels. Hamilton calls her foxy, and when Jake laughs at his terminology, he gets mad and calls her a “cross-dressing she-man.” (Trouble in paradise alert!) Hamilton tries to smooth things over by ordering for Jake, taking on the the “guy role,” and it’s evident that the two of them are not quite sure how to act around each other outside of school.
When Will confronts Ryder and tries to get the disk out of his laptop, Ryder tells him to shove off and then puts both the jacket and the laptop in the trunk of his car—which just so happens to be a shiny red Corvette convertible. Bella hotwires the car and they speed off. A cop pulls them over, and it turns out that he used to babysit for her. He flirts, he flirts, and the guys get in trouble for not wearing their seatbelts. They go about two feet … and run out of gas. When they finally get the car back to the garage, they find the laptop in the trunk, but don’t find the letter. Will eventually finds the letter at the house of the guy Ryder owes money to. … Because Grace is the worst.
When Hamilton and Jake are making amends after their failed date, Hamilton reveals that he’s in love with her. She reciprocates and things are good again in Jamilton (Hake?) land.
The episode ends with Hamilton and Jake joining Bella, Scout and Will in the diner, and Jake complementing Bella’s jacket with “Cute coat,” which earns her some very strange looks from the guys.
Exam Time!
How many times do you see someone rowing on the lake?
0
How many times does someone end up in the lake?
0 (No one’s ended up in the lake for at least two episodes. This makes me sad.)
How many times is someone seen without a shirt on?
1
How many times does someone drink a Coke/is a Coca-Cola logo seen?
3
On a scale of 1–10, how adorably awkward does the flirting between Hamilton and Jake get?
7. When discussing who’s hotter, Chloë Sevigny or Hilary Swank, Hamilton says “Hilary, definitely” and looks knowingly at Jake.
On a scale of 1–10, how uncomfortably awkward does the relationship between Scout and Bella get?
8. Bella is in Will and Scout’s room when Scout returns from the shower, in nothing but a towel. She totally up and downs him.
Essay Questions
What was the most obvious rich kid vs. poor kid moment?
When they steal Ryder’s corvette, Bella knows how to hotwire the car. (Although, that might be due more to her working in the garage than her being a poor townie …)
What was the best example of Finn trying to pull a Dead Poets Society?
Finn gives Will the application, and tells him that he usually reserves the opportunity for upperclassmen—but Will’s such a talent that he can’t resist offering it to him.
What familiar faces appeared in the episode, and in what else have they appeared?
No one news, but Charlie Hunnam reprises his role as Ryder. (Ryder turns out to be the character’s last name—his first is Gregor. Ha! Thanks, Wikipedia!)
Extra Credit
How many times does a Nick Drake song play?
0
Final (Arbitrary) Score
70/100. I enjoy when the team of Will, Scout and Bella get into trouble, and although there was trouble in paradise for Jake and Hamilton, they made up in a super cute way by the end.
