Speechless – The S-T-A-Staircase

By: Taylor Gates

Maya (Minnie Driver) and Jimmy (John Ross Bowie) seem that JJ (Micah Fowler) has received his first college decision email. They go to school and gather Ray (Mason Cook) and Dylan (Kyla Kenedy) from their classes so the whole family can open it together. He learns he got into Long Beach Technical College, and the entire school celebrates.

Jimmy tries to convince him that he should at least consider LBTC although his heart is set on NYU. He recruits Kenneth (Cedric Yarbrough), who went to LBTC for a time, to film some videos on campus to get him excited about it. Kenneth has so much fun that Jimmy asks if he’s ever considered going back and graduating.

Jimmy is sad that JJ isn’t there to experience the tour with him, and Kenneth misses his college days and wishes he had a dad to share the experience with them. Because of this, Jimmy and Kenneth fill the voids for each other, Jimmy leading Kenneth around on a tour, attending classes and buying merch from the book store.

Eventually, they go into the admissions office to find out what it would take for Kenneth to re-enroll. Unfortunately, Kenneth didn’t almost graduate like he thought he did–he only completed three classes.

Kenneth gets discouraged, admitting that he feels worried that once being JJ’s aide is over he’s going to go back to being a screw-up. Jimmy continues to encourage him, saying that he believes in him and thinks going back to school would be a good idea.

Melanie (Sarah Chalke) gets invited to an event for the Cerebral Palsy Foundation. Although Maya doesn’t want to go at first–assuming it will be self-congratulatory–Melanie convinces her, and Ray and Dylan decide to tag along as well.

At the banquet, Melanie’s son Logan does a surprise musical performance onstage in her honor. Maya gets jealous, convincing Ray and Dylan to go retrieve JJ and bring him to the banquet so she can feel special as well. Though they can’t deliver, Dylan still tries to solve the problem, forcing Ray into a wheelchair and telling him to pretend he’s JJ. It ends in disaster, Ray falling off the stage and then getting up and running out of the room.

Dylan apologizes to Maya for messing things up, but Maya says it’s her fault–she drove them to it. Melanie comforts Maya, telling her that JJ is soaring. She wishes Logan was too busy to come to these things and had a girlfriend and college aspirations.

JJ goes to meet Izzy’s (Kayla Maisonet) parents for the first time and is nervous to meet her father. However, when her dad and mom see that JJ is in a wheelchair, they’re not concerned about Izzy being alone with him and don’t make an effort to get to know him.

Izzy and JJ are both upset her dad wrote JJ off so quickly and concoct a plan to worry him. They decide to get in bed together so Izzy’s dad will freak out and be more overprotective, treating JJ like any other boyfriend. In order to do so, they first have to get JJ up the stairs in order to reach Izzy’s room.

They struggle to achieve this on their own and call Joyce (Liz Cackowski) to help them out. Though they finally reach the top of the stairs, they find another obstacle upon entering her room: a loft bed. Izzy calls a muscular man in to help lift JJ up, and although he makes it up there, JJ feels embarrassed and doesn’t think Izzy will view him as a man.

Izzy tells JJ not to feel ashamed–everyone needs help sometimes, and he’s the only boy she wants to be with. They kiss before hearing Izzy’s dad come up the stairs. Izzy panics, forgetting why they ever wanted to get caught. Izzy’s dad threatens and yells at JJ while carefully carrying him down the stairs.