Speechless – U-N-Unforgettable P-A-Pain

By: Taylor Gates

Ray (Mason Cook) is devastated after Taylor (Sedona James) breaks up with him. He hasn’t eaten in a week, claiming food has no taste now. Dylan (Kyla Kenedy) announces that Taylor is coming by to pick up her sweatshirt, but Ray—too weak to take a shower—is upset she’s going to see him in such a bad state in such a bad state. JJ (Micah Fowler) points out that the family has experience helping someone shower, and they all pitch in to clean Ray up.

When Taylor arrives, she tells Ray he looks good. Ray unconvincingly says that life is going great for him. He invites her to come inside, but she declines. The second Taylor leaves, he breaks down again, saying the interaction was cold and distant.

Maya (Minnie Driver) hears Ray expressing his heartache through a song he wrote called “Unforgettable Pain.” Maya tells him it’s been a week and he needs to move on. She’s especially horrified when she finds a large chunk of Taylor’s hair in Ray’s “wallow box.”

The next morning, Maya wakes Ray up, saying he’ll never see his wallow box again unless he goes out with her for some mother-son bonding time to cheer him up. Maya takes him to an electronics store and offers to buy him a drone and return it in a few days. Ray starts feeling a little better, and they make their way to the fancy mall across town. Ray tells Maya he’s going to window-shop on his own for a bit, bringing the drone and the wallow box with him. Maya is suspicious that he has something up his sleeve.

Maya follows him inside and sees Ray flying the drone into the store Taylor works at while a recording of “Unforgettable Pain” plays. Maya knocks the drone down, telling Ray it’s for his own good. She doesn’t want him to embarrass himself. Ray is furious that Maya ruined his plan, wanting to beg Taylor to take him back—the exact opposite of what Maya would have done. All he wants is for Maya to support him unconditionally. Maya understands the desire for blind loyalty and pledges to have his back no matter what he wants. And what he wants is his guitar.

Ray goes to Taylor’s work and starts playing his song, but she quickly cuts him off. She says that kissing another girl, not trusting her, and coming to her work is not okay. Maya apologizes to Ray for things not going the way he wanted, but he’s just glad Taylor showed some emotion towards him, thinking she may still feel something towards him—even if what she feels is hate.

During film class, JJ connects with a student named Aaron (Christian Lees) over their shared love of directing and movies. They start quoting films at each other until the end of class, much to Kenneth (Cedric Yarbrough) and Mr. Powers’ (Jonathan Slavin) dismay.

Later that day, Aaron texts JJ, wanting to hang out at the movies that weekend. JJ, however, doesn’t want to go. One-on-one friend dates aren’t his thing, as he becomes less a friend and more someone to take care of. Having an adult go with him is out of the question, so Dylan offers to go and make sure everything runs smoothly.

Dylan goes to the theater usher, anticipating that nothing is not wheelchair accessible and the staff is going to be unhelpful. She wants to be proactive and fix the problems before they run into them. Unfortunately, right after they get all the problems taken care of in that theater, Aaron says the theater down the street is showing Goodfellas in 35mm. Dylan is hesitant to go, but JJ wants to try, and the three of them hit the road.

Dylan takes the blame for all the obstacles they run into throughout the trip, such as not being able to find any accessible cars and there being roadblocks on the sidewalks. Sadly, it starts to rain, which short-circuits JJ’s wheelchair. Aaron pushes Ray down the sidewalk while Dylan goes to get plastic bags, and it’s all going fine until they run over dog poop. Aaron wants to stay and help JJ, but JJ tells him to go. Aaron reluctantly leaves him there in the rain alone.

Dylan is horrified that Aaron abandoned him, but JJ admits he told him to go since everyone gets sick of putting up with him eventually. Dylan says it doesn’t matter if the world is accessible if he’s not. She can’t move him out of his own way. She goes to fetch Aaron so the two can talk. Aaron assumes JJ is the one who got tired of him and his constant references, but JJ promises that’s not the case and wants to give their friendship another chance. Aaron spies a cart and pushes JJ in it all the way to the theater. Although they only make it for the credits, Aaron doesn’t mind. He had a crazy fun time with JJ and wants to hang out again next weekend.

Jimmy (John Ross Bowie) sees that someone has changed the lightbulb in the kitchen, and Maya tells him it was Kenneth. Jimmy feels threatened, as that was supposed to be his job. Kenneth has even taught Pepper tricks, which sends Jimmy over the edge. He tells Kenneth that he’s taking all control from him in his own house. Kenneth tries to teach Jimmy how to be an alpha, telling him to make eye contact and use an authoritative tone. He tells him to learn how to train Pepper by practicing on him first, which makes the mailman uncomfortable.

Jimmy is still having a difficult job training Pepper, and Kenneth tells him to berate him in front of the dog in order to teach it he’s in charge. Jimmy starts off by ranting about Netflix but soon reveals the real reason he feels out of control at home—he thinks Kenneth is replacing him in JJ’s life. Kenneth apologizes for making him feel that way, assuring him JJ will always be his guy and saying he can always tell him to back off if he feels that way again. After this honesty, Pepper finally sits for Jimmy.