A Hot Piece of Tail: This is the golden age of televangelism, with Pat Robertson, Jimmy Swaggart, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, and Jerry Falwell eating up the airwaves -- and blaming homa-sekshuls for everything from teen pregnancy to hurricanes/ They were especially eager to proclaim that homa-sekshuls were trying to destroy society by infecting straight people with AIDS. In 1989, the number of new cases peaked at 80,000.
Before the broadcast, Aimee-Leigh walks around, being friendly to the crew. Very diverse crew: -- old and young, black and white, women in jobs traditionally held by men, probably gay people. She compliments Eli as "a hot piece of tail," and he agrees: "I'm sizzling hot."This seems a little gender-transgressive. Men aren't typically referred to in this way. Just before the curtain rises, Aimee-Leigh tells Eli, "I'm pregnant." How playful, and borderline mean!
Family Dinner: Lots of gross closeups of 1980s food. When Aimee-Leigh says that she has news to share, Jesse guesses that Judy has been put up for adoption, and she guesses that he has AIDS. In 1989 evangelicals -- and most of the general public -- thought that only gay men contracted AIDS, so she is "accusing" him of being gay.
No, Aimee-Leigh says without disciplining them, she is actually having a baby. Jesse wishes that she has a miscarriage, again without discipline, then backtracks: : "I will never like them. They will never be my friend." This is a call-back to the Episode 1.1 scene where Jesse is upset with Kelvin because "we used to be friends."
Judy hopes that it's a boy, so she can teach him how to pee standing up. Is she accusing Jesse of being a woman?
The Misbehavin' Tour: At the office, Baby Billy tells the Gemstones about his idea for a Misbehavin' Comeback Tour this spring. But she can't do it: she is pregnant, due in July (in Season 2, Kelvin says that his birthday is near Christmas, but never mind).
Baby Billy insists that they go on the tour anyway, but she insists that she can't. How about waiting until after the birth? Nope.
Billy blames Eli for ruining his come-back: "You're the one who splashed all that sperm all over her." This is a very odd way of describing heterosexual intercourse, more accurate for guys beat ing off. Billy seems very jealous; does he wish that Eli had splashed sperm all over him?
The screenshot shows Baby Billy in pain, behind window slats that look like bars. He is trapped, unable to move beyond his days of performing with Aimee-Leigh, blaming Eli for ruining his life. In Season 3, Eli's other brother-in-law will blame him too, with more violent results.
The Birthday Party: After scenes where Jesse is caught arranging little-kid fights and complains that his parents are never around, a we cut to Judy's birthday party. Guests eating food in disgusting ways (a regular trope in this episode); riding a slip-and-slide; riding ponies.
What Jesse is looking at after the break. Warning: Explicit.
Jesse is having fun gazing at the ponies' penises. Does this suggest an interest in human penises, or is he just being bad?
Judy sits on a throne, while guests line up to give her gifts. A clown offers wordless enthusiasm over each one, but Judy hates them and insults the givers. Neglectful parents need to tell her that this is no way to behave.
Baby Billy appears with a pink Corvette, which Judy likes. But Eli says that she can't have it, because they don't want to spoil her. Having been rebuffed, he hangs out with Jesse and offers him beer. He explains that beer is ok because America got it backwards: all the violence you want on tv, but not "someone's backside or a woman's beautiful set of titties." You could read the vague "someone's" as Billy envisioning a man's butt.
His plot for getting even involves encouraging the increasingly-drunk Jesse to make Eli "look like a fool." After a dozen cans of beer, Jesse confronts his father: "If you have this baby, every time your back is turned, I'll pee in its face." Into water sports, Jesse? He then throws up all over the burgers that Eli is grilling. Why is he grilling five burgers for a party of about 50 people? And nowhere near the rest of the food? This is a major humiliation for Eli.
Jesse's parents don't punish him; they nurse him through his hangover, and upon discovering that Baby Billy furnished the "hooch," Aimee-Leigh volunteers to "take care of it."
Back to the Smoky Mountains: As Aimee-Leigh drives to her childhood home in Freeman's Gap, we see the Pumpkintown General Store (in the mountains of western South Carolina) and then the Sauldam Baptist Church (near Charleston). Geography alert: she's going backwards.
At Freeman's Gap, Baby Billy explains that he was depending on the tour to clear out his mountain of debts after three divorces. They have to do it now because their fan base is "rapidly aging": the average fan is 68 years old. So they were in their 40s when "Misbehavin'" was popular? He begs: "We can do it for three months, and be done by July." Nope.
Well, then, he'll have to start selling off parcels of land. "You can't do that! Freemans have lived her for over 200 years! Mama and Daddy wouldn't want it." Timeline alert: Freeman's Gap is probably near Pumpkintown in Pickens County, in the northwestern part of the state. In 1791, the Cherokee were forced to cede their lands, which became Washington District, and wide-scale European settlement began. In this case, the show is historically accurate.
Billy complains that their Mama and Daddy would want them to stay together, but "you broke us up to start a new career with your new husband." Again, this sounds like dumping a romantic partner. The Billy-Aimee Leigh- Eli relationshp sounds like a love triangle. Ok, she's guilted into it.
"I'm Doing the Tour": As Eli sits at the breakfast table, wearing a feminine-yuppie pink sweater around his shoulders, thinking of jokes for his broadcast, Aimee-Leigh breaks the news that she's doing the tour after all. Jesse is irate, but she insists, "He's my brother, and I love him."
Cut to the broadcast, where Baby Billy and Aimee-Leigh perform "Misbehavin'," one of the highlights of the season.
Branson: Baby Billy and his family with the Gemstones at dinner. They're all excited that the tour ends in Branson. Baby Billy cautions Eli to not "get jealous. I'll give her back to her when I'm done."
Uh-oh, Baby Billy mentions that he's already sold some of their land -- which Aimee-Leigh is going on the tour to prevent! He lied! Tour's off: "I never should have trusted you. You are bitter and angry and pathetic." Funny, they're friends again in 1993.
"You only had eyes for her": After scenes where Eli reconciles with the siblings, we cut to Baby Billy visiting him at work, again blaming him for keeping Aimee-Leigh from the tour. They compete: "She's my wife!" "She's my sister."
Baby Billy is irate: "You never even gave me a chance! From the moment you came to our first show, you only had eyes for her." Did you want him to have eyes for you, Billy?
In the present, Baby Billy is sitting in his car, smoking a cigarette and listening to "Misbehavin'", while Eli visits Aimee-Leigh's memorial. I guess we know who won. The end.
There are a surprising number of queer codes in this episode, mostly involving Eli, who will have a gay subtext relationship next season, and Baby Billy, who will be confirmed bisexual. Was Baby Billy interested in Eli, back in the day? Did they actually date, before Eli lmoved on to his sister? Or were they competitors in a weird game? Oddly, Jesse also had some queer codes, which never appear again -- or do they? What, exactly, was he doing at that sex-and-drugs party in Atlanta?
See also: Eight penises and packages of South Carolina
Next: Episode 1.6: Kelvin sees Keefe's cock, and gets a big head. Sounds like a fun evening
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