My Connection to The Class
One of my favorite television shows is a show called The Class. It's all about the relationships between eight people who were all in the same class in third grade: Ethan, Kat, Lina, Richie, Duncan, Holly, Nicole, and Kyle. They all get together because Ethan invites them all back together for a reunion. See, in the first episode it's the 20th anniversary that Ethan met Joann, who was also in that same class. Then Joann breaks up with Ethan in front of a crowd of strangers. Kat feels so sorry for Ethan that she decides to help him learn to stop being so nice that people step on him.
Then Kyle reunites with his ex-girlfriend Holly Ellenbogen. She had dated him at the high-school prom, and that same night Holly found out that Kyle was gay, with a man named Aaron. Now Holly was married, and a successful news reporter.
Also in that same episode Duncan Carmello met up with the love of his life Nicole, who was now married to the football star Yonk Allen. Duncan deeply misses Nicole.
This is my favorite part of the first episode. Richie Velch is depressed and he longs for something more in his life. He meets up with Kat's younger sister Lina, and they start to love each other. After the reunion, they go out on a date at a local coffee shop. It goes perfectly until they leave. Lina walks behind Richie's car and Richie suddenly backs up, running over Lina's feet. He is so upset about the accident.
At the very end of the first episode, Nicole feels so sad about Duncan that she asks Yonk on the way home, "Am I the greatest thing that's ever happened to you?" Yonk says, "Well, I'd have to say that you are after winning the Super Bowl, but come on, it's the SUPER BOWL! Wait, there was that million dollar check and that time I had dinner at the White House, but you're still Number Four." Nicole is flustered about this and goes to Duncan's house. They kiss in his mother's bathroom before Nicole goes home.
In the second episode, Richie goes to the hosptal to visit Lina. He finds out that every bone in Lina's feet had been shattered and that she would be in a wheelchair for the next six months. Ethan and Kat are there when he arrives. Ethan tells Richie, "I ran over a squirrel once." Richie is so offended that he yells at Ethan. "Did you take your squirrel on a date before you ran over it? Did you kiss it goodnight? Did you connect to that squirrel the way you never connected to any other squirrel before!"
Kat doesn't want Richie to see her sister, and tells him to go home, and Richie is so heartbroken that he decides he is going to kill himself. When he arrives at his house, he takes an entire package of sleeping pills, hoping that he will die. Immeditaely after, he gets a phone call from the hospital. Kat says, "Don't ask me why, but Lina wants to see you again." Richie has no idea what to say, since he just attempted suicide.
Duncan goes to Yonk Allen's house to see Nicole. He sees Nicole and then realizes that he did one of his first building jobs at that house. "Yeah, I did some work on this house as one of my first jobs. This place is not well built!" He gives Nicole a long list of things wrong with the house. Then the two agree never to see each other again. Nicole, however, tells Yonk about all the structural problems with the house. Yonk wants Duncan to come over and fix the house. Duncan agrees, despite the agreement he and Nicole had made.
Kyle, Holly, her husband Perry, and Aaron have brunch together, where Holly asks Kyle if he can try to get her daughter Oprah into Pembridge Academy, the school where Kyle works.
In the third episode, "The Class Learns About Hurricanes," a hurricane begins to strike in the area where they live. Kat and Ethan meet back up at Ethan's house, where Ethan is folding all his ex-girlfriend's stuff so Joann can get it the next day. Kat is curious after all he had gone through, why he would fold her stuff. Joann shows up with Ethan's stuff just thrown together in a garbage bag. Ethan is hurt. "We were engaged. We were going to get married, and I gave you my grandmother's ring, and after all that, I get a sinch sack?" Joann says, "I'm sorry." Ethan responded by saying in a mean tone, "You know what, I'M NOT!" Kat is rather pleased with him for saying that.
Richie calls an ambulance in a desperate attempt to save his life so he can see Lina again. It turned out that he was going to the same hospital where Lina was staying. "Everything is going my way." Richie tells himself. "Unless I die." Then he offers to take Lina home. Since the huricane has made landfall by this time, when Lina is faced with an open umbrella and goes outside, she gets whisked away in the hurricane. Richie runs out after her in time to see her crash into a hybrid car. When they arrived at Lina's, Richie tells her, "Maybe this isn't going to work out, you and me." Lina asks why not. Richie explains, "When I'm around you, terrible things happen." "That's not true!," Lina cries. Richie supports his statement. "In three days I've broken 52 of your bones, got you lost in a hurricane and sent you flying into a hybrid car!" Lina admits that she still loves him, however, so their relationship remained intact.
Since Holly is a news reporter, the news anchors, rather stupidly, send her out live in the middle of the strongest part of the hurricane, where she gets hit with a stop sign that was flying through the air. Kyle and Aaron are watching the broadcast. Kyle jumped up and gasped, "Oh my god...WE HAVE TO SEE THAT AGAIN!" He and Aaron are up until 2 a.m. watching Holly get hit with the stop sign over and over.
Duncan and Yonk then debate over the price of the renovating project. Duncan still lives with his mom, so he saw the perfect opportunity to make a lot of money. He insisted, "I can't take this job for a penny less than $200,000!" Yonk agrees. Then Nicole yells at Duncan. "We said we wouldn't do this, remember?" Duncan replies smartly, "I can't remember anything before the nice man with the checkbook said two hundred thousand dollars!"
In the fourth episode, "The Class Blows The Whistle", Holly bugs Kyle constantly about getting Oprah into Pembridge Academy. Kyle doesn't want to because he thought that Holly would be too annoying to have around. He finally lied to Holly and told her that he wouldn't let Oprah in because there were too many white kids at Pembridge and that the school had a new diversity policy. Holly was devistated.
Duncan and Yonk begin to bond over their love of football and video games, and Nicole continues to remind Duncan of their agreememnt. Then Yonk tells Duncan that he is allowed to go to the Eagles game with him and Nicole. Nicole is frantic, so she agrees to stay home and Duncan and Yonk go to the game without her.
The highlight of the episode is when Lina and Richie go out on their first date. The waiter recognizes Richie because in his past, he worked as a scientist and then caused the entire company to lose their jobs. The waiter says, "I hope you die a slow, painful death, you miserable bag of crap!" Richie explains to Lina that his company had depended on a sleep medicine called Somasil. The medicine had some side effects like death. Richie had found a causal link, so he blew the whistle and brought down the whole company. Since no one wanted to hire a whistle blower, he now drives toxic waste to a landfill in New Jersey. It is also revealed that Richie is already married. When he gets home, there's another girl in his bed.
The next episode was called "The Class Gets Frozen Yogurt." It was called that because Kat tastes a lot of free yogurt samples without ever making a purchase, and then challenges Ethan to get ten yogurt samples without buying anything. Ethan reluctantly accepts Kat's challenge. He manages to do it but the child behind him was sad because his dog had just died and Ethan had made him wait. Kat told him, "You came in a cartoon deer, but you are coming out of here a giant jackass!" Ethan ends up feeling bad about his bet. "That kid's dog died and I made him wait? What have I done!" he thinks.
Kyle finally tells Holly that he lied about the school's diversity policy and that he didn't want Oprah to get into the school because he thought Holly would be too much of a pain to deal with every day, but Holly thinks that Kyle really still has feelings for her. Even so, Kyle gets Oprah into his class.
Duncan installed some wheelchair ramps into Lina's house under Richie's instruction. Then he goes over with Duncan to help with Yonk's renovating project. While he's there, he manages to start a small electrical fire. Then he and Duncan half-relate to each other's problems. Both of them have the same issue: They both want something, but something else is in the way. Lina is desperately struggling with a wheelchair at her office. While trying to put water in the water filter, she flooded the offfice. Then she calls Richie. Richie is unable to go on a date because under his wife's order's, he has to deal with a rat that his wife found in the refridgerator.
The most recent episode, "The Class Goes Trick-Or-Treating", there are plenty of surprises. The first is that Holly was being put up for anchorwoman of weekend news. She is doing a live report at a petting zoo and steps on a bunny with her spiky shoes, killing it. The footage is placed everywhere. Kyle even comes by to tell her that the footage was also on the Internet, where it was titled, "Can I see this bunny in a size 8?"
Another part of the episode was where Ethan arrives at Lina and Kat's house in a Superman costume. When Kat makes fun of him, he dangles her in the air and refuses to set her down until Kat tells him that he's Superman. After several hours, Kat finally gives him to Ethan's request. Lina starts to see love developing between them and when Ethan and Kat deny this, Lina says, "I'd better leave you two kids alone."
The biggest part of the episode is when Yonk, Duncan, and Richie go to the casino. Richie loses thousands of dollars playing blackjack and has only one chance left to win back his money with the cash he borrowed from Duncan. He told Duncan, "For once in my life, I need to not lose."
He actually wins the next round and leaves with several hundred dollars. He uses this money to buy a trumpet as a present for Lina. Lina is thrilled and uses the trumpet to brag at the neighbor, who has an electric guitar.
I can't wait to see the next episode. In it, Richie and Lina will get even closer.
My character connection is Richie. He's so depressed, like me, and he loves someone he doesn't deserve, also like me. I wonder if he can save his relationship with Lina before she finds out he's married.
I consider myself connected to Richie in ways I cannot imagine. Whatever happens to him will happen to me. I hope everything turns out okay, because if he loses Lina, that means I'll lose Alex forever.
Ciao for Now, from the girl who is connected in a surprising way to her favorite sitcom,
-Jess