#boomboxes face bothered me since the beginning but its all good now

[q-uzi]

hi medbox nation

[smartguyreviewed]

1x4 - Lab Rats

Original air date: April 23, 1997

The master manipulator is back at it in this episode, this time to help our very own Morris L. Tibbs earn his first A on an assignment. 

This episode is only 15 seconds in when Marcus starts bothering this girl who sits in front of him. She refuses his advances because he’s a) loud and annoying as hell b) interrupting her viewing of this NatGeo rip-off where they’re discussing lions. 

The teacher then gives her assignment: study an animal and write about its behavior. I think she forgot her lesson plan that day, because all she did was show a video and then tell them to write a paper on an animal. Any animal? And they have to work in pairs, which seems so unnecessary for such an easy task. Mo revels in being paired with TJ and the two begin to contemplate what animal they should study. Since TJ is most likely on the spectrum for socio or psychopathy, he is including humans. After witnessing a queen bee relinquish one of her subjects and an alpha male bullying another guy out of his locker, they happen upon Marcus, once again chasing after this Alena girl, the same one from earlier. And again, she curves his ass. TJ then decides that his brother’s misfortuned attempts to get some pussy would make for a great case study. Mo, who is Marcus’s best friend, is totally okay with this.

After school, while TJ and Mo work on their assignment, Marcus actually calls Alena. How did he get her number if she won’t even talk to him? Why is he calling her when she’s clearly not interested? Marcus is harassing this poor girl and I wouldn’t be surprised if he just walked up to her house holding up a boombox after this.

Alena, once again, shows Marcus that she’s not interested when she hangs up on him. Mo was filming the entire time with a jerry-rigged camera-in-a-book. Mo suddenly has second thoughts about making his friend look like the ultimate simp but TJ insists that he does this all by himself. 

Yvette suddenly comes in and is pissed about her boy toy Tyler’s constant tardiness. Then Floyd does the adult thing and suggests a logical solution (dumping him) but Yvette quickly comes to his defense. Sounds about teenager to me. Tyler shows up and she eventually leaves with him, although Floyd is confused since he was on Yvette’s side. Mo caught this on camera as well. TJ tells him to keep it because instead of at least exposing only one sibling, he is now going to expose his sister, too. TJ is a petty little asshole.

Mo and TJ get to work on Marcus, selling him on wearing a bright red sweater to help him get the bitches. TJ postulates that Marcus would get more girls if he dressed a bit more loudly and flashy. They convince him that Michael Jordan wore something similar, so naturally, our desperate Marcus is going to take this advice at face value. For Yvette, they put altered instructions on how to train a dog, making it appear that the article is about how to train your man, inside one of her magazines. She of course, reads it right then and there. The next day, Alena miraculously comes around and starts flirting with Marcus and Yvette’s boy toy is letting her boss him around and give him treats for good behavior.

But trouble is afoot. Alena’s ex has “magically” re-entered the picture since she began dating Marcus all of five minutes ago. I put magically in quotation marks because I have this theory where she never broke up with her boyfriend but gave Marcus the time of day so that her man, the one who got stomped out by Loc Dogg, could beat his ass for harassing her. Like, I’m pretty sure Marcus knew she had a man, especially if Mo knows him by name. Warren tells Marcus that he’s gonna pound his ass the next day. Marcus, who can’t fight at all, is terrified. TJ realizes this is going too far and now he must try to undo his wrongs. But only for Marcus, not Yvette.

Mo and TJ watch Marcus flub free throw after free throw at their house and he tells TJ that his A is more important than the livelihood of his alleged bestie. TJ hatches another plan to get Warren off Marcus’s back that involves Mo auditioning for a role 4 years in advance and TJ intervening as the brother of one of Mo’s victims. 

It’s so silly because Mo is pretty much the same size as, if not bigger than Warren. But Mo is soft, and when Marcus tries to walk to Warren to get out of his beating, he ruins the plan. After he catches wind of what seems to be Mo going after Alena, he hits Mo and Mo winces! Warren realizes that this is plot-contrived bullshit and then they all fight. TJ and crew (minus Mo, for some reason) end up at home, watching the results of his findings. Floyd is more than fine with Yvette and Marcus kicking his little ass. But before that, Floyd has to inject TJ with some fatherly advice. He tells TJ that he needs to consider people’s human feelings and that they’re not test subjects. This is one of the many conversations Floyd has to have with TJ where I really begin to wonder if TJ is a budding narcissist because he is so good at manipulating everyone around him.

Case in point: the next scene, where he turns it on and plays that innocent role, only for Floyd to coddle him. When he leaves to grab his stuffed animal, TJ begins bragging to his camera about his deception. Thankfully, Floyd catches him and grounds him. He was grounded in the last episode, so I guess TJ is double grounded now? Womp. 

Stuff I noticed:

- Yvette somehow became a dom after reading that article. She actually hits Tyler with a rolled up newspaper when he’s bad, gives him treats when he’s good and she even bought him a collar!

- This sarcastic ass face TJ gives Marcus after he gets curved.

[dailyurbine]

Fic: Disco Stick (aka Karl Can't Dance or the Lady GaGa Chronicles)