Freaks and Geeks Episode 18
'Discos & Dragons'
Original airdate: July 8, 2000
Writer: Jon Kasdan, Judd Apatow, Mike White
Director: Jake Kasdan
Cast: Linda Cardellini, John Francis Daley, James Franco, Sarah Hagan, Samm Levine, Seth Rogen, Jason Segal, Martin Starr, Busy Philipps, Becky Ann Baker, Claudia Christian, Joe Flaherty, Tom Wilson
What does Lindsay Weir want?
The writers of Freaks and Geeks knew the series was about to be cancelled, so 'Discos and Dragons' doesn't feel like a show ending prematurely. It's ambiguous, the way life always is. But if the biggest question Freaks and Geeks asked was 'What does Lindsay Weir want?,' 'Discos and Dragons' gives us some kind of answer: spiritual fulfillment.
In the pilot, Nick showed Lindsay his drums, and expressed to her how the drums are his reason for living. 'You gotta find your big, gigantic drum kit.' Now, without those drums following his dad's selling them, Nick finds himself completely lost while Lindsay finds her true calling (at least for a short while). It's the sort of tragic yet hilarious irony that the series has delighted in since the beginning.
Without his drums, without Lindsay, Nick begins dating Sara, a disco fan who gets Nick into dancing. It turns out he actually has a talent for it—funnily enough, more of a talent than for his drumming. But it's not him. Ken sees this, determining that Nick's continuing feelings for Lindsay have led him down this path. He tries to convince Lindsay to get back together with Nick, or at least make it clear that he doesn't have a chance with her. But when Lindsay has her final talk with Nick near the end of the episode, she finds that he's stopped smoking weed, the big issue that led to their breakup. And suddenly, she's not so sure that she doesn't still have feelings for Nick. It's a real why couldn't you have been this person for me? moment, but nevertheless, I do think that, even sans weed, the two would never work. Nick needs a Sara—someone who reciprocates his infatuation. But Sara isn't that person either, her feelings for Nick clearly more intense than Nick's feelings for her. Surprise surprise—high school relationships are temporary, and will generally crash and burn.
Ironically, both Nick and Lindsay are drawn in by dying trends. It's funny that the freaks are so preoccupied with hating disco, considering that by late 1980, it was on its death bed from a mixture of overexposure and a backlash that carried a bit of implicit homophobia and racism. When the D.J. defends disco to Ken by bringing up that even The Rolling Stones know disco rules, saying "Have you heard that new Stones song, 'Miss You?," that song was already three years old. The disco in town is said to be closing down soon. And that's the time when Nick picks up disco dancing as his thing, a void to fill both his still burning love for Lindsay and the loss of his drum kit.
Then there's Lindsay, who has her awakening by way of American Beauty, the Grateful Dead album that, by 1981, was nearly a decade old. Early in the episode, she learns that she's been chosen for an academic summit, a clear indicator of the path in life that's been set for her. She's not happy about it, and Mr. Rosso tries to cure her of her woes by giving her a copy of American Beauty. Suddenly, Lindsay finds herself taken in by the Dead, finding a sense of belonging and purpose in the music, and in Deadhead culture overall.
By his lonesome in the narrative, like always, is Daniel. He's never been a character who was searching for an end, due to his upbringing. He's not a middle class kid like Lindsay and Nick, so he doesn't have many options. All he can do is find new passions, things that bring value to life when he has nothing. In "Discos & Dragons," Daniel and Kim break up, likely for good (though who knows with those two) after he winds up in A.V. as punishment for breaking a fire alarm. Then he's invited by the geeks to play Dungeons & Dragons, and we get to see Daniel mingling with the geeks, something that's been teased for a bit (with Daniel giving Sam the porno and in his occasional talks with Harris).
The D&D scene isn't especially focused on the game itself, so much as the way that Daniel interacts with Sam, Bill, Neal, and Harris. There's the great bit where he agrees to play as a dwarf, but only if his name is Carlos. This scene leads to Bill asking if this means that Daniel is a geek now or if they've become cool guys. Isn't that the thesis of the entire show? The meaninglessness of cliques once you isolate their individual pieces? Earlier, Sam asks, "What's so geeky about us? We're just guys?" True! But Cindy and Vicki could say, "What's so cool about us? We're just girls." Same with the jocks who the A.V. instructor characterizes as being headed for jobs at McDonald's. No matter where you stand on the social ladder, concrete labels accomplish nothing but limit the full extent of your person.
Lindsay understands this fully. While being smart may seem to be a better reputation to have than being a burnout, for Lindsay, it doesn't capture her essence, who Lindsay Weir is.
So who is Lindsay Weir? Is she a smart girl headed for an Ivy League school? Is she a burnout, destined for alcohol poisoning? Is she a Deadhead, following the band across the country?
Well, for now, she's the latter. Her parents watch her leave on a bus to go to the academic summit, and she gets off early, joining Kim and all the Deadheads for an experience she's far more likely to remember than spending some weeks at the University of Michigan. In the moment, where you don't know for certain what's going to happen, there are no real right or wrong answers. You make choices based on what you feel you need at a particular moment, and those choices can end horribly, amazingly, or somewhere in between. Lindsay makes a call based on who she is.
Some have said the ending is tragic—that Lindsay is giving up on her potential. I think the show ending here is so poignant because we don't know what happens. Maybe Lindsay will take some bad acid and drop dead. Maybe she'll be fine, happy, with lifelong memories. Hell, maybe the bus to the academic summit would have crashed and killed her anyway. Who knows? Not her. But also not Mr. Rosso, Harold, or Jean. And not us. Because the show was cancelled. We got one near-perfect season of television, Lindsay went on tour with the Dead, and we get to imagine what happens next. I think that's beautiful.
Grade: A
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