Speechless – N-E– NEW JJ

By starrymag | November 8, 2018

By: Taylor Gates

 

 

JJ (Micah Fowler) has his last-ever IEP meeting, and although he doesn’t want to make a big deal out of it, Maya (Minnie Driver) has enlisted the entire family to perform a ceremony complete with balloons and Jimmy (John Ross Bowie) talking like a wrestling announcer.

 

The next day at school, Kenneth (Cedric Yarbrough) makes fun of JJ’s jacket, telling him he won’t be complicit in his fashion choices and zip it for him. JJ defiantly does it himself, shocked that he managed to do it. Someone told him he wouldn’t be able to do it when he was little and he hasn’t tried since.

 

Using this newfound ambition, JJ goes to the last IEP meeting in order to make some requests in regards to test-taking and college attendance. Although Maya is happy for him, she has a crisis about what she should do. Just then, Ray (Mason Cook) comes in, frantic that he got a C on his English paper and that he’s going to fail driver’s ed. Maya is relieved she has a new project with which to work.

 

Dylan’s (Kyla Kenedy) friends invite her to a concert at nine, but Dylan tells them that she always goes to bed by eight. They’re all confused by her super early bedtime, making her rethink everything. She decides to sneak out of her room that night and finds everyone playing Jenga without her. Maya and Jimmy tell her that three kids are a lot to handle and decided to never end her bedtime in order to make their lives easier, and Ray and JJ like the downtime as well. Dylan is furious and vows to never sleep again.

 

The next night, Jimmy begs Dylan to go to bed, but she refuses, afraid she’s missing something awesome. Jimmy finally admits he turns off his brain by doing dumb things like cornhole and cup stacking. Dylan is impressed by how awesome he is, telling him she’ll go to bed as not to get in his way, but Jimmy takes this opportunity to teach her a thing or two about his talents.

 

Unfortunately, Jimmy gets called down to the school because Dylan keeps falling asleep in class and nobody can wake her up. That night, Jimmy gives Dylan decaf coffee instead of regular. She’s upset, as she loves staying up late and doing dumb stuff with Jimmy, but Jimmy tells her she needs her sleep. Jimmy smiles as he watches her fall asleep on the couch.

 

Kenneth plays poker with the Lafayette High School staff during JJ’s free period, and JJ joins them in the lounge and demands to be dealt in. Kenneth tells him he shouldn’t be gambling with adults, but JJ is confident ever since the zipper situation.

 

The next day, JJ tells Kenneth he forgot his paper at home so he can go with Mr. Powers (Jonathan Slavin) to play more poker. When Kenneth gets back to the DiMeo house, he finds the paper with the words “I’m bluffing” on it.

 

JJ ends up badly losing the poker game without Kenneth there, gambling away his wheelchair. Kenneth asks him why poker is so important to him, and JJ admits he just wants to do things himself. Kenneth tells him he has to be patient. Plus, what he did that day wasn’t because of a disability–it was just because he was stupid. Kenneth makes a deal with the janitor to do nightly trash pickup for him in exchange for the chair back.

 

Maya has gone down to the school to get Ray’s grade C changed to a B+, and he thanks her for investing so much interest in him. Maya takes it to the extreme, mapping out detailed binders of study schedules, teaching him how to talk to girls, and picking out his clothes for every day of the week. JJ warns Ray to set boundaries with Maya, but Ray assumes he’s just jealous.

 

Maya decides to meet with Ray’s driving instructor and Dr. Miller (Marin Hinkle) in order to discuss the best way to teach Ray. Ray has a nightmare that Maya turns Ray into JJ–wheelchair, talking board and all–and decides he has to put a stop to her behavior.

 

Maya drives next to Ray during his driver’s ed test to give him positive reinforcement, which messes up his concentration. He decides to go rogue and drive away from her as fast as possible. He ends up failing his test and tells Maya he can’t be her new JJ.

 

Maya sulks that night, sad she doesn’t know what her future looks like. JJ tells Maya she’s always helped him so they’re going to help her figure out how to make her next year the best that it can be. She tears up, emotional at their kindness.