Freaks and Geeks Episode 3
"Tricks & Treats"
Original Airdate: Oct. 30, 1999
Writer: Paul Feig
Director: Bryan Gordon
Cast: Linda Cardellini, John Francis Daley, James Franco, Samm Levine, Seth Rogen, Jason Segal, Martin Starr, Busy Philipps, Becky Ann Baker, Joe Flaherty
In the first two episodes of Freaks and Geeks, the freak and geek plots showed the two groups as being alike in many ways. Between the general why am I here and how do I fit in? energy of the pilot and the theme of external influence in "Beers and Weirs," the focus was on the universal experience of being an outsider and trying to find your place in a world that doesn't seem to have any room for you.
In "Tricks and Treats," the comparisons turn to contrasts. This episode's theme — the awkwardness of being in between childhood and adulthood — is portrayed with the freaks and the geeks in completely opposite ways. The geeks are reluctant to grow up but forced to admit that they aren't children anymore, and the freaks' desperation for the freedom of being grown up forces them to see how immature they actually are. Lindsay and Sam are both adolescents, but are holding on to two very different sorts of false self-perception, and they each fall back to Earth when Lindsay genuinely hurts Sam for the first time in the series.
Halloween is the perfect avenue for exploring this division. You're a kid, and Halloween means trick-or-treating. Then you hit a certain age, and you realize that you've outgrown it. There's no clear correct age where you can't go door-to-door picking up candy anymore, which means it's more personal, based on your own energy, maturity, and (crucially) sense of self. And this episode is all about how the characters' reactions to Halloween, what it means to them, reveals things about themselves they don't want to admit. Harold's view of Halloween, shown when he shares the story of an acquaintance of his who kept trick-or-treating into his 20s ("You know where he's living now? At home! With his 90-year-old mother! He's the laughing stock of the community!"), is a symptom of his general coldness and desperation to maintain traditional ideas of normalcy. Jean's attitude, that of unbridled enthusiasm, shows her naivety. She's singing "Monster Mash" at dinner, excited to hand out candy with Lindsay, oblivious to the people around her. So when Lindsay decides to ditch handing out candy with her mom to go raise some hell with her friends, it's the beginning of an awful night for Jean, which only gets worse as she realizes the cookies she's baked are being tossed on the Weirs' lawn by parents uncomfortable with giving their kids unwrapped foods.
Lindsay's decision to go hang out with Daniel, Kim, and Nick — what she calls a double date — is spurred by seeing Millie with her secret love. Lindsay has been trying so hard to mature, to change in light of her existential awakening at her grandma's death bed. But these changes are all mundane — a new look, a new attitude, a new friend group. And here's Millie, the square, uptight Jesus freak, with her first boyfriend — an actual milestone that signals an ascent, placing one a little closer to adulthood. From here, Lindsay jumps at the chance to go on a date with Nick (who, let's not forget, tried to unhook her bra without consent last episode).
Sam is also struggling with his self-perception. Anonymously called out by his English teacher for writing his book report on the novelization of Star Wars, he and the entire class are assigned Crime and Punishment, a book Sam is intimidated by ("I guarantee you it's not gonna be cool. I mean, look how small the printing is!"). Though he's perhaps more intimidated by the teacher's claim that he's a young adult. He's not ready for this, so he invites Neal and Bill trick-or-treating, fighting their insistence that they're too old for it. By the end of the night, Lindsay's attempts at forcing herself out of adolescence and Sam's attempts to resist entering it collide when Lindsay and her friends accidentally egg Sam.
At home, we see all of the Weirs' attitudes collapse under the weight of this cruel night. Harold seems the least affected — muttering "Stupid kids' holiday," remaining his usual grumpy self. But he's gone from being annoyed at Jean's appreciation of this stupid kids' holiday to being heartbroken upon seeing how much the world is crushing his wife's spirit on a day she loves so much. Jean is saddened by how mean the world seems to be getting, and Lindsay tries to help her regain her joy by throwing on a costume and finally helping her mother hand out candy. For a moment, she gives up on proving how grown up she is, and for the first time in the episode, she actually seems grown-up.
Then there's Sam, who is infuriated at Lindsay, and shoved into the reality that he's been trying to avoid. "I'm not a baby!" he yells at Jean, rejecting the illusion he's been holding on to that young adulthood is something he can hold off. "No one thinks you're cool, you know," he tells Lindsay, maybe the angriest line-reading John Fracis Daley delivers on the entire show. And now, they're on the same level — feeling terrible, acknowledging that they're scared and confused, unable to either rush this transitional period or resist it. Sam begins reading Crime and Punishment and Lindsay hands out candy, both of them ending up right in the places they tried to resist being. Growing up is hard. Sometimes it leaves you with egg on your face. But there are worse places to be than at home with some Dostoevsky.
(Also, I read like 80% of media as trans without even trying, so I'm trying not to dwell too much on my trans interpretations of Freaks and Geeks. Still, it's wild that there's two gender-bending costumes in "Tricks and Treats," right? Bill looks fabulous in his Bionic Woman costume and Lindsay dresses as a prince after her mom buys the wrong costume.)
Grade: A-
