Speechless – S-P-Special B-Boy T-I-Time

By starrymag | March 14, 2019

By: Taylor Gates

 

 

JJ (Micah Fowler) is frustrated that Kenneth (Cedric Yarbrough) is devoting so much time to coaching girls’ basketball and thus neglecting him. He even makes a crucial flub when he distractedly looks down at his phone as JJ is trying to tell Izzy (Kayla Maisonet) he loves her car and ends up mistakenly saying that JJ loves her.

 

Though they catch up to the car Izzy is in and set everything straight, JJ is still irritated at Kenneth’s constant mistakes. JJ talks to his friend Lee (Zach Anner) about it who understands the difficulties of a relationship with an aide. Lee yells that being an aide isn’t supposed to be a long-term gig. Although Kenneth tells JJ that he doesn’t know how good he has it and that he’ll miss him in six months when he goes off to college, JJ doesn’t believe him. At Lee’s suggestion, JJ gives Kenneth the day off and takes Lee’s assistant Randy (Dan Mintz) instead.

 

JJ tells Lee to write a card to Izzy and practice how they’re going to chase down her friend’s car to give it to her. However, Randy shows no emotion or energy, not getting into the excitement of the caper with JJ. JJ decides they should see a movie instead.

 

The movie isn’t much better, as Randy isn’t much fun to watch with. JJ hears Kenneth laughing by himself across the room and wheels over to meet him. Kenneth picks up the card JJ has on his chair and proposes the same idea about throwing it in Izzy’s friend’s car. JJ realizes he does miss Kenneth after all, and the two leave without Randy.

 

They laugh about the fact they couldn’t make it one day without each other until they remember they won’t be together the next year. JJ proposes that Kenneth come with him to college, but Kenneth gently says it’s time to move on. Kenneth promises not to leave him high and dry and says he’s going to find the second-best aide out there. JJ tells Kenneth he loves him, and Kenneth replies that he loves his car.

 

Dylan (Kyla Kenedy) tells Jimmy (John Ross Bowie) that she has a boy coming over to study with her. She’s excited because Kai (Noah Urrea) is a bad boy who got kicked out of his old school. Jimmy gets protective, trying to intimidate him by sweeping with a large vacuum when he gets there and eating a banana with a spoon. Dylan calls him out, telling him to act normal, and Jimmy agrees to try.

 

Jimmy starts interrogating Kai about weed until Kai spies one of Jimmy’s guitars and starts playing it. Jimmy picks up the other one, and they have a great time playing music. Dylan is now frustrated that Kai wants to hang out with Jimmy more than her, but when Jimmy tells Dylan he’s actually opening up to him, she sends Jimmy to pump Kai for information she can use to make him like her.

 

Jimmy reports back to Dylan that Kai is deep and soulful, but Dylan doesn’t care about that. She only wants to be with Kai for his looks and the fact that all the popular kids at school like him. They grill each other about their intentions with Kai, and Kai overhears before excusing himself.

 

Jimmy drives Dylan around looking for Kai. Jimmy tells Dylan to tell her what she wants from him, and Dylan realizes she’s been completely unreasonable in her demands. Jimmy tells her that’s okay and that he can handle it–they’re clearly entering a new phase, and he’s cool with that. Dylan tells Jimmy to forget Kai. Instead, she wants to get milkshakes…in order to hang out with a cute boy named Henry who works there.

 

Ray (Mason Cook) tells Maya (Minnie Driver) that it’s the ten-year anniversary of when she told him she would take him to a waterpark but then they never want. Every year, he pretends to be sad about it so Maya will make it up to him in some other way. However, Maya has been onto his scheme for years, and this time, she plays him back by taking him to a waterpark. Though neither actually wants to go–Ray gets ear infections in water and Maya’s hair gets huge–they are too stubborn to crack.

 

They are at the top of a tube slide before they both admit to each other they don’t want to be there, but the employee pushes them down anyway. Surprisingly, they both end up loving the slide and run around doing more activities together.

 

Ray is finally old enough to ride the big, scary slide, and Maya promises to be there for emotional support while he does. When her bank calls, she abandons him to speak to them, making Ray angry. She apologizes, assuring him it was about her loan application and that she wants to grab lunch together, but Ray refuses, swimming away.

 

Maya finds Ray in the small children’s play center and apologizes. She’s surprised anything she did could hurt him, as he didn’t go on this trip to bond. Ray didn’t realize that Maya would actually be fun. He admits that, now that JJ is off doing his own thing, he doesn’t want work to become the new JJ. Maya tells Ray that in addition to loving him, she also really likes him and is going to make time for him. Ray promises to ask for what he wants in the future instead of playing games.