Speechless – On the R-O-Road A-G-Again

By starrymag | April 4, 2019

By: Taylor Gates

 

 

Kenneth (Cedric Yarbrough) and Dylan (Kyla Kenedy) tell JJ (Micah Fowler) that they found a perfect aide replacement for him when he goes off to college: Tim, who was named one of the 30 hottest aides under 30. He’s in Seattle and in demand, so they make a plan to road trip up to meet him.

 

Kenneth recommends Jimmy (John Ross Bowie) drive them through a shortcut even though a scary bald man (Gary Ballard) randomly comes up to their car and warns them that the path is dangerous. They decide to go anyway, and their car hits a rock and gets a flat tire. While they’re on the side of the road, Maya (Minnie Driver) twists her ankle. Though she tries to power through it, Jimmy tells her to stay by the car while he carries the tires into town with Dylan and JJ to find help.

 

The three of them come across a waffle restaurant where someone who looks exactly like the scary bald man is standing. He says they must have seen his brother earlier. The three of them are creeped out by him and decide to go into the waffle restaurant, struggling not to have too much fun–they promised they wouldn’t make any really great memories without Maya.

 

While Dylan goes to the back with the prize machines, JJ admits to Jimmy that he’s nervous about going to college and being on his own without his parents and Kenneth. Jimmy reassures him that people will see how great he is despite being nonverbal. Although it can be a slow start, he’ll make great friends eventually. He is so happy to be talking to JJ one-on-one that he caves and lets himself take a bite of the waffle and start to have fun.

 

He even decides to delay their ride home by telling the mechanic he wants all new tires, which have to be retrieved from the next town over. He and JJ play pinball, put coins into the record machine, and ride around on a stranger’s tractor. Dylan loses the bouncy ball she got from the prize machine and wants to leave. She learns from the mechanic their tires have been ready for an hour and confronts Jimmy about delaying their return to the woods.

 

Jimmy admits he was making sure Maya got enough time with JJ, he wasn’t focused enough on making sure he got enough time with him. He’s going to miss JJ so much and just wanted one more day together. JJ tells him not to worry and that he’ll make time for both of them.

 

Meanwhile, The comprehensive JJ care binder Maya wrote also falls into a stream, so she and Kenneth decide to recreate it while it’s still fresh in Maya’s mind. She has trouble remembering it, so Kenneth gives her the copy he made. However, Maya is furious, as he changed some of it. Kenneth tells her to relax, promising he just filled in some gaps, but his trying to teach her about JJ makes her even angrier.

 

Ray (Mason Cook) has decided to take this trip as an opportunity to test his Eagle Scouts skills in order to beef up his extracurriculars for his college application. He tries to mediate their argument, but instead, it ends with Maya throwing Kenneth’s book into the stream as well and kicking him out of the car.

 

While Kenneth is outside, he sees a bear. Panicking, he begs Maya to let him back in. However, Maya refuses, still holding a grudge. Kenneth runs away from the bear, finding shelter in an abandoned cabin. Maya chases after him in order to save them, but they both end up in the cabin together with the bear right outside.

 

They argue with each other, telling each other things like their friendship was just borne out of convenience. However, when face-to-face with the bear, they admit they genuinely like and respect each other. Ray ties some cans to a stick and tries to scare the bear away, but instead, he ends up seducing it towards him due to the jerky smell on his notebook.

 

Although Ray is originally reluctant to throw the notebook to get the bear to go away, he eventually realizes he doesn’t need a record of his achievements to get into college. The bear goes away, leaving the three of them alone.

 

Kenneth finds some of the binder pages in the stream, and they realize their instructions are better together than apart. Kenneth helps escort Maya back to the car, as her ankle is still hurt and she taught him how to lead JJ around in a similar way.

 

They get back in the car, with Jimmy in the back to sit next to JJ and Maya in the front to hang out with Kenneth. When they get to the coffee shop where they’re going to meet Tim, they disrupt the place in typical DiMeo fashion, causing Tim to run out the door.