#and clearly and consicely explain why it is wrong

[harrypotterheretic]

Imagine commenting this under someone's post and considering yourself to be the righteous one on the right side of history 😂

[smartguyreviewed]

1x3 - The Code

Original air date: April 2, 1997

Everyone remember the whole “No Snitching” moment from the early 2000s c/o of Dipset? I remember it being blown up when Cam’ron went on 60 Minutes to let Anderson Cooper know that he would not snitch on his serial killing neighbor next door. Sorry future murder victims, Cam’ron’s consicence lies with the streets!

This is essentially what goes on in this episode, except with no Parental Advisory sticker. The episode begins with Mo and Marcus discussing an upcoming basketball game in the bathroom. Mo begins smoking a cigarette and Marcus clearly disapproves. TJ walks in and is wide-eyed at the thought of someone purposefully doing something that would cause their body harm. When he’s older, he’ll understand. Clink, clink.

The boys leave and TJ is holding the cigarette that Mo just chucked, curious at the little cancer stick. Just as he’s about to toss it, Principal Dowling shows up to bust the culprit. TJ, not wanting to go back to the office and be forced to mingle with more Airheads extras, immediately snitches on Mo. TJ is about to leave when he reminds Dowling of the reason why he came into the men’s bathroom in the first place and she skedaddles, suddenly aware that she just barged into the men’s room and totally could have seen underage peen. 

Meanwhile, across the hall, Marcus is taking a gander at the mural being painted of the Penguins and is not okay with how small his chest looks. Yvette overhears this and walks over to Marcus, telling him that he needs to lift more because he looks like the “Black Gilligan.” 

Mo rushes over and asks about what they’re going to do to TJ since he’s snitched on him for the whole smoking thing. Marcus says he once left TJ in the woods but he located the North star and beat Marcus home. Yep, Marcus abandoned his younger brother once for...reasons. Becuase of TJ’s snitchery, Mo is out of the game. How did he know TJ was the one who gave him up, though? Does Piedmont not have trusted authority figures who can keep secrets when their students desperately need them? No, of course not. They have no IT department and no AP classes, so I guess any promise of confidentiality is out of the window as well. 

Anyhoo, Mo is blaming TJ for his misfortune although Mo shouldn’t have been smoking in the damn bathroom to begin with. He snarls at TJ and says that if he were his age he would have beat the shit out of him. Marcus then explains to TJ what the code is: no snitching. Lester, who will later sexually assault Yvette, but under the pseudonym Ramon, is hovering above TJ while clamoring about how mad he is that someone ratted on Mo. Marcus says he doesn’t know, but if Mo knows who snitched and it got around, shouldn’t he know too? Then again, he does seem a little...odd and that factoid could have gotten lost somewhere. 

He and Mo show up at the Henderson home later to warn Marcus of a planned scoreboard theft. TJ wants to be included, which I honestly have no problem with seeing as Lester is the UBS guy on steroids and would probably fuck everything up, but TJ knows he’s on the outs with the guys. Why even bother to ask? After he gets his feelings hurt, he talks to his pappy, who attempts to get him to open up, but is disappointed to learn TJ is taking this non-snitching doctrine to heart. 

At school, the boys are horrified to learn that their mural has gone from this:

To this:

And while I do commend the amount of time it took Truman to come and do this very elaborate painting, wouldn’t it have been easier to just deface the mural instead?

Dowling warns the boys to not retaliate and they agree until she walks away. Unfortunately, all three of these morons can’t come up with any good revenge plans. Enter TJ, who worms his way back in the clique by bringing up district report card day. He asks the gang, “And what does that mean?” Mo painfully replies, “a whooping?” Ha! Black childhood trauma is funny and relatable. 

TJ’s plan is to lower all of the grades of the best Truman basketball players so that they don’t qualify for the game. Because the Penguins suck so hard that they have to play against other shitty players to even the score. Hey, I guess if you can’t beat them, fight their less competent constituents. 

TJ and the gang meet up at Truman. You already know that somebody is going to fuck something up and blow their cover, but at least it’s fun to watch the mess go down. TJ has a code to open the school’s gate but revels in watching Marcus and Mo attempt to scale the fence. TJ is a petty little asshole. 

After successfully getting into the computer lab, TJ then successfully gives the correct players their terrible grades. Mission accomplished! But then Mo goes and undoes it all by writing about their plan, putting his fucking name on the paper and somehow leaving this note behind during their break-in. Dowling already knows Marcus and Mo are too dumb to have come up with such an elaborate plan. Rather than follow the “code,” they instantly snitch on TJ and give him up as the ringleader. 

Naturally, TJ is confused. How come the code wasn’t applied in this situation? He and Marcus begin saying how they didn’t have choices when their asses were on the line and did what they had to do, just like Henry Hill and Tekashi 6ix9ine. I can’t think of any other famous snitches. Floyd is there to witness the boys duke it out over the code and he gives his Lesson of the Day, that you should speak up when you know something is wrong. 

But TJ can’t just accept that he fucked up and leave it at that. Oh, no! Time to drag a few people down with him, first up being Lester who was in on the plan. Petty, but that makes sense at least because he has proximity to why they’re all there to begin with. Does TJ stop there? Nope! Next up is some kid who cheated on a geometry test. Next is a janitor! Yes, TJ very likely could have gotten some old guy fired from his job for stealing lightbulbs. And last but definitely not least, his sister, who has literally nothing to do with anything that just happened. He outs her for having a fake ID that says she’s 28, and of course, Papa Bear Floyd pounces right on that. Like I said before, TJ is a petty little asshole. This isn’t even the last time he does something shitty to Yvette.

During the end credits, we see everyone, including Yvette, who had literally nothing to do with anything, get their “sentences.” Mo is picking up cigarette butts around school. Marcus gets six weeks of grounding with extra laundry duty and rain gutter detail. TJ gets a month grounding, no snacks, and no recreational education. Yvette is grounded for a month and her fake ID is taken away. Case closed, bring out the dancing lobsters.

Stuff I noticed:

- Yvette’s 90s-does-70s outfit is insane and amazing. Kinda reminds me of Tamera’s outfit in the last episode but better.

- Mo’s dad likes to peep on his neighbor through binoculars at night. 

- TJ outs his sister by saying she has a fake ID listing her age as 28. Essence Atkins was 25 at the time of filming. Close enough!