Freaks and Geeks Episode 9
"We've Got Spirit"
Original airdate: Jan. 24, 2000
Writer: Mike White
Director: Danny Leiner
Cast: Linda Cardellini, John Francis Daley, James Franco, Samm Levine, Seth Rogen, Jason Segal, Martin Starr, Busy Philipps, Becky Ann Baker, Joe Flaherty
While the last episode was titled "Girlfriends and Boyfriends," that name would also fit "We've Got Spirit." Here, the Weir siblings find themselves with the opposite problems: Lindsay is stuck in a relationship with Nick that she wants to leave, and Sam seemingly finds himself moving further and further from the possibility of a relationship with Cindy. This all surrounds a basketball game—dubbed the big game, a phrase that's repeated over and over until those words sound like nonsense.
This all starts with Nick and Lindsay hanging out in his basement—the same place he performed his excruciating version of Styx's "Lady" to her. Stoned out of his mind, with "Dust in the Wind" in the background, Nick tries to have an intellectual, spiritual conversation with her. But when Lindsay tries to use his prompt to talk about her grandmother's death and the impact it had on her, he cuts her off, and instead talks about his deceased hero John Bonham. Then Lindsay sees a picture of Nick back when he was on the basketball team, standing next to his ex-girlfriend Heidi Henderson, whose face is cut out of the picture.
Nick is a giant, walking red flag. He's a good-hearted dude, but one whose intensity and immaturity make him not at all ready to be a good boyfriend—at least not to Lindsay, who can't handle a relationship that requires this much emotional energy. Lindsay begins thinking about dumping him, an idea the other freaks respond to unanimously: don't do it! Turns out, Nick has a track record of responding poorly to being dumped. What her friends expect her to do never gets answered. Do they want her to stay with Nick forever? Just until graduation? (To quote Gene Belcher, "Can't I just wait till we go to different colleges and lose touch?!")
On the flip side of the dilemma, Sam decides to be the new school mascot after the previous one (played by a very young Shia LaBeouf) breaks his arm from falling off a lunchroom table. Neal, at first desperate to become the mascot in order to flex his comedic chops, relents, allowing Sam to don the Norseman head. Sam hopes that being the mascot will get him closer to Cindy, which doesn't work, as she continues getting closer to Todd, who from the outside seems like your typical jock—airheaded, cocky, and aloof.
For the most part, these conflicts end with the realization that people aren't always who they appear to be on the outside (the ultimate thesis of Freaks and Geeks as a whole). Nick's relationship with Heidi is more complicated than it at first looks, a mere week-long fling with Nick being her rebound after a breakup, that ended with her showing Nick's love poems to everyone and making fun of him. He's an intense boy with a lot of feelings, but with the right partner—someone who likes him as much as he likes her—maybe things could work out. Unfortunately, Lindsay Weir is not that person.
When Lindsay continually puts off breaking up with Nick, Jean unintentionally does the job for her, telling Nick she's sorry things didn't work out before her daughter gets a chance to inform him that things haven't worked out. Nick pulls a "you can't fire me, I quit," breaking up with Lindsay before she gets a chance. Is this him making things easier for her, or sparing his own pride? Hard to say, but it's painful for him either way, as he drives off with The Who's "The Song is Over" blaring from his car speakers. Jean, who's spent the entire episode trying to offer life advice for her daughter, comforts a crying Lindsay.
This is also a top-tier Harold episode, as he fruitlessly tries to convince his family that he's a "community leader" ("I could be the mayor and I wouldn't get any respect in this house!"). And when Sam says that he thinks Cindy likes him and that he got to form a human pyramid on top of her, Harold remarks, "Well, that'll do it!"
As for Sam? He doesn't get a chance to be the mascot in the game, not that he minds. He never really wanted it in the first place, and after Todd asks Cindy out, he explodes at her—telling her that Todd's a jerk, that he's not even nice to her, and that her being a cheerleader who wants to date a jock is so obvious. Cindy, always oblivious to Sam's clear-as-crystal feelings for her, assumes that his outburst is just because he's nervous about the big game.
So Neal gets to be the Norseman, putting on the very disturbing mascot head and delivering the comedic performance of a lifetime, proving to the skeptical Bill that he is hilarious while also pissing off the perfectionist head cheerleader Vicki Appleby. McKinley wins the big game, not that it matters—a show about freaks and geeks couldn't be less concerned about sports (though the next episode will do its best to prove that stereotype wrong). Daniel, Kim, and Ken manage to find some school spirit and cheer on their team, but only because of their rivalry with some dickish kids from the rival school, Lincoln (one of whom is Logan from Gilmore Girls!). Earlier in the episode, Daniel says that he hates "all this rah-rah crap," but spite can make preps of us all.
And what about Todd? As Sam sits in the locker room, pouting over his broken heart, Todd is in the stall, throwing up, suffering from major performance anxiety before the big game. Todd compliments Sam on how funny he was as the Norseman. Todd's alright, Sam concludes. And another student at McKinley High proves to be more layered than he initially appeared.
"We've Got Spirit" has always been a personal favorite for me, simultaneously one of the funniest and most emotionally complicated episodes. It seems like I'm pretty alone there, however—it tends to be ranked in the lower tiers by fans. Oh well. This may be the last time I have any disagreement with the consensus over this show. We're entering the peak stretch of the series. It's all bangers going forward.
Grade: A+
