Joan is asked to stop Adam entering his piece in the school art competition, Will tries to determine if the death of a burglar was in self-defence, and Kevin discovers that being in a wheelchair makes him immune to the law.
A rather lacklustre episode of the series, as Joan ponders the unknowable of cause and effect. She has to find faith in what God is telling her to do and that it will turn out for the best despite believing it is the wrong course of action. It takes Adam’s decision to ditch school in favour of art after his first sale to make her realize that some form of action is necessary, even if she hasn’t enough imagination to do something other than destroy his work. Her guilt and sadness makes it all the more realistic as she runs the risk of losing her friend for all the right reasons. What doesn’t work quite so well is Joan wondering if the Devil is asking her to do bad things rather than God. It’s never really much of a question, and too much time is spent with her talking to Father Ken, and to Grace’s Rabbi father about what she should do.
Will’s test this week is whether to follow his training and his own viewpoint or whether to toe the party line. Once again he makes the right decision, but like Joan, it could end up costing him something major, in this case his job. Grappling with issues like these is what makes the show so fascinating to watch, but there’s not as much depth here as we’ve been used to until now.
The saddest part, and the thing that nearly brought me to tears this week, was Kevin’s plot, where he learns that being in a wheelchair makes people feel sorry for him and treat him differently. Luke’s reaction, getting annoyed with the shopkeeper who lets Kevin shoplift, is very well played, as is Kevin’s insistence that he will make his brother proud of him again. Michael Welch is still getting very little to do as Luke, losing out to his brother and sister, so hopefully he will become more involved as he’s an extremely good actor.
This episode, though, while throwing up some interesting questions, doesn’t really have the must-see factor of other entries in the series.
**
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