“Are we happy, Wonderboy?”: John from Cincinnati

“Are we happy, Wonderboy?”: John from Cincinnati

By Todd VanDerWerff on July 23, 2007 in Television Jump to Comments (0)

by Todd VanDerWerff (While Keith is off on vacation, I'm cross-posting my JFC post from my blog here as an open discussion thread. Discuss it here or at my blog.—Todd V.)

So what if Shaun has been the Christ figure all along?

I mean, yes, I briefly considered this after the second episode when he was the one resurrected (by a parrot, you'll recall). But, by and large, I've lost all of this in the John from Cincinnati as Christ speculation. But what if John from Cincinnati is more of a John the Baptist figure after all—here to tell us all that a little child shall lead us and all that. If you'll recall, in the New Testament, Jesus was initially seen as just a follower and rip-off of John the Baptist (OK, I'm paraphrasing and speculating here, but you'll notice that Jesus is referred to as John's cousin more often than not until he really takes off on his own). Now, there are a lot of holes in this theory (not the least of which is that speculating about this show still feels kind of irreverent), but I'm going to jump onto it—for this week at least. I don't know exactly what Shaun's message to the world is (and John certainly seems to claim God as his father), but some of the other pieces fit.
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I have to say -- confess -- that so far, I find the beginnings of a transformation in Linc the least credible of any character on the show.

I mean, not everyone can be saved! Some people are not redeemable, at least not here in this life. I don't mean to be saying Linc is a "bad seed" or that he's the embodiment of evil, just that I am least convinced by the possibility of a hardcore manipulator like Linc being able to transform.

I realize, of course, that hints have been dropped all along that this guy's not so easy to read. And I adore most of Milch's ambiguous and ambivalent characters. This one's just testing my credibility limits at the moment.
Posted by Nomi on 2007-07-25 19:03:00 I found the ending song choice interesting. Not because it was a John Lennon song, but because it was performed by Matisyahu, a reggae Lubovicher.
Posted by kishkeking on 2007-07-24 23:56:00 My previous post was much longer than I had intended. Thank you for your patience. Here is a thought about the Stinkweed Board Meeting.

I still have no idea how sincere Linc was in his speech to Shaunie (Mitch and Cissy) in Episode Two when he spoke of making "the thing itself" - the artistic sport of surfing - the object of his enterprise more so than merely pushing an image which in turn sells items and makes money. However, I found his meeting with the board members in this past episode revealing.

Linc has always maintained that the core surf shops like the one the Yosts own were the "soul" of Stinkweed. But, the growth of the internet and E-Commerce in a world-wide market has rendered Stinkweed's reliance on the core shops less and less a factor. Any dipshit with a laptop can go online and order all the boardshort-wetsuit-ski-jacket-snowboards he wants without ever having to visit a shop like the Yost's. Wonder-Boy has increased point of purchase incentives to help boost business at those small, local, core shops, but Linc essentially is correct that Wonder-Boy thinks it amounts to pissing money away when the real cash is to be found in overseas markets and other E-Commerce ventures, cutting out the middle man whenever and wherever possible.

Meanwhile, domestic sales are "on plan", which is simply to say they are "level", or doing about as well as can be expected with a "maturing market". They have no Mass Communication paradigm by which to assess all this, but Wonder-Boy and the rest seem fairly certain that their future is no where near mom and pop hard core surf shops like that run by the Yosts. Such shops may have been "the soul" of Stinkweed in the past, but the young turks on the Board see it simply as the past. They are not at all sympathetic to the soul of surfing, or the thing itself, which is why it is so telling that when Linc begins the meeting by asking them if they've ever been to Imperial Beach, with all its surfing history and the likes of Dempsey Holder, Towney Cromwell, Don Okey, John Blankenship, Jack "Woody" Ekstrom, Jim Voit, and all the rest, none of them have.

Linc, on the other hand, knows that something special has happened in IB, and he seems to have lost his taste for the soulless commercializing of a sport which at its core is all about soul. Linc was showing Wonder-Boy and the other Board members his ass before he ever dropped his pants.

However, the internet is big, and can perhaps have its own way of helping fans once again focus on the thing itself. Dwayne might help. Maybe Cass helps, too. We'll have to wait and see.
Posted by Ecclesfan on 2007-07-24 17:11:00 Thanks for your great post, eccles.
Posted by tc12 on 2007-07-24 12:29:00 If it wasn't for the brilliance of Deadwood, I would have given up on JfC a week or two ago.
Posted by Steven on 2007-07-24 07:17:00 Nice post, Eccles.

(NSpector)
Posted by Nomi on 2007-07-23 23:01:00 Oh I get it now:
John From Cincinnati == JFC == Jesus Fucking Christ.

I guess I'm a bit slow.
Posted by Anonymous on 2007-07-23 22:10:00 What I think so far ...

"A miracle, half our base runs the other way."

What Jake (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) says to Linc about the response to miracles might well have been uttered by some HBO executive to David Milch concerning JFC. Who knows? What is certain is that our response to the unknown, the miraculous, or to any catalyst for change, natural or supernatural, says much about ourselves and own journey into meaning, and this is something we can understand even while the precise origins of the catalyst eludes us. Linc Stark has slowly come to realize, or admit, that something unexplainable happened to Shaun, and pursuing that story requires cutting ties with the promotional empire he worked so hard to build. His board meeting meltdown was just that. The ice is melting for him, leaving him capable of motion, and taking a new direction, getting back in the game. We will have to stay tuned to see where this leads him.

John Monad announces early on in the episode that he is going to spend the day with his father. He resorts to the IB elephant cage, the Naval Radio Receiving Facility (NRRF) in Imperial Beach, and makes himself scarce for most of the episode. Mitch Yost has been making himself scarce since his last fight with Cissy. He is soul-searching at what Butchie calls the Restoration Center, presumably somewhere in Mexico, maintaining radio silence, as Cissy puts it. As Butchie, in Mitchâ€™s absence, behaves more and more like a father to his son, and goes to visit with him at the home of Bill Jackâ€™s, a man who, as Butchie admits, has been more of a father to Shaun than Butchie ever had, Bill makes himself scarce, even in his own home, so that father and son may talk in private. Sometimes, you have to intervene, and sometimes, you just have to get out of the way. As the physician says to Freddy in another scene, donâ€™t try to force an outcome because youâ€™re worried about your friend.

Butchieâ€™s journey becomes even more compelling this episode as he acts more and more as a father to Shaun. Butchieâ€™s almost fatherly treatment of John, who is child like, has already given us a glimpse into what is possible in this regard. When Dwayne, a man with a hair lip and the keeper of the Yost Website, expresses his shyness and discomfort in approaching Shaun to offer his help, Butchie immediately backtracks on his initial refusal to go along. Butchieâ€™s compassion is showing again. After finding Shaun in back of the closed surf shop smoking weed, he tells him to extinguish the joint. He chastises him for his tone of voice. After an unkind, albeit private, remark is made by Shaun about the Dwayne character, Butchie smacks his son on the back of the head. And yet, this is as new to Butchie as it is for Shaun. Those recovering from addiction have as much and perhaps even more fear of the normalcy most of us take for granted than they do of having to face trials and tribulations. Sure, any crises and disappointment can serve as an excuse for using again, but the real fear is in being straight and coping with gifts weâ€™ve come to think of as burdens, such a holidays, family gatherings, and being a parent or a child. AA meetings tend to get a little crowded around Christmas time. And, Butchie, junkie that he is, thinks he should cop a little heroin after his encounter with Shaun. Maybe it was seeing Shaun so obviously despondent that convinced Butchie not to shoot up back at his place. Whatever the cause, so far the real narrative arcs in this story are mostly internal, taking place in the lives of the characters. Butchie thinks he might be experiencing some freedom from the chains of his addiction, and it is a freedom he employs by returning to his son and trying to be a father.

After being confronted in the last episode with the truth about the source of her angry, bitter, ball-busting way of pushing everyone from her, Cissy made the decision to live on feeling every bit as miserable or worse. Figuring out how to live comes no more easily to Cissy than it does to Butchie. After bringing an ailing Palaka to the motel where he is cared for by the physician, Cissy is looking for Attorney Dickstein with reference to the physician, and for someone to lash out at. She tries with Kai who returns neither her tone nor reproach, and then with Butchie who seems unaffected by her. She is moved, though, by seeing Butchie, sober, and planning to go see his son. Cissy knows something special is happening, and she walks away, allowing it to sink in.

We continue to witness another transformation in the person of Barry. Here is a man who was horribly abused as a child, tormented by his peers, and about to end his own life when we first meet him. We can only imagine what he meant by having subjected himself to Vaudevilles of degradation, but it is clear that his has been the life of a lonely and tortured soul. Now that he has mega-millions to live on, he spends his time acting as nurse to a seriously ill man. The caring, compassionate expression on his face, and the joy he derives from being able to help, is truly something beautiful to behold.

Also beautiful to behold was Bill Jacks showing Shaun a book about learning to live in bereavement. Bill needs the book more than does Shaun. Bill explains that sometimes we are sad without even knowing it; the sadness manifesting itself as anger, bitterness, fear, and resentment, as it does with Cissy and Butchie, and other characters as well. He further explains that it sometimes takes an outside influence to show us that, and give us some helpful hints. Is that the purpose of the Monadâ€™s visit?

So, John Monad goes to be with his father. Meanwhile, the father of the Yost clan is away, on radio silence, leaving Cissy no one on whom to focus her wrath and finding something far more rewarding in the process. Father and son spend time together as Butchie, straight and sober, makes an effort with Shaun. Bill Jacks, Shaunâ€™s surrogate father, gets out of the way, climbing his stairway to Heaven to give the guys the privacy they need. In each case, the absence, or the getting out of the way, not trying to force an outcome out of concern or misplaced guilt is crucial. As all this happens, two men who have run up against each other as potential enemies are each finding it necessary to leave what they know behind. Linc, who has denied the miracle talk as fanaticism, has come to admit the contrary. It opens him up to possibilities which pursuing requires leaving former enterprises behind. The physician, a man who follows his textbook procedures and protocols, feels the full brunt of having left the hospital facilities behind him in order to care for a patient in a new place and in unlikely circumstances, even as the hospital prepares to offer him up as a sacrificial lamb. Linc and the physician, two men who when they first meet are at odds with each other surrounding a miracle, now have in common the fact that having come to believe in the miracle requires leaving behind institutions which no longer have use for them. I guess it is hard after all to keep new wine in old wineskins.

This was an episode which often found me in tears. It was a happy episode in that way, with light shining through the cracks in the broken characters. It makes me worry about what is in store. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.
Posted by Ecclesfan on 2007-07-23 21:22:00 I'm actually kind of bothered by Bruce Greenwood's absence. While Mitch is certainly not very likeable, he's understandable, and I just find it rather bothersome that the character who seemed to be being set-up as the main character in the first couple of episodes is now completely absent. I hope he's back next week. Otherwise, he's just been a waste of our time.

Other than that, great episode though.
Posted by Andrew on 2007-07-23 20:30:00 What I think is interesting is how little Bruce Greenwood is missed after being absent for two episodes and how this is really the first episode since about the second (I think) to actually involve surfing.
Posted by Edward Copeland on 2007-07-23 15:05:00

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