Freaks and Geeks - E02

Beers and Weirs
First Aired: Saturday October 2, 1999

When Lindsay and Sam's parents go out of town, they leave the children alone instead of getting a babysitter. Words gets around and Lindsay ends up hosting a kegger while Sam tries to stop it from happening.

The episode begins in the Weir household where the family argues about whether Sam and Lindsay need someone else to watch them while the parents are out of town. Lindsay ultimately convinces their parents to let them alone. In school, Lindsay mentions the party in passing to the "freaks" and they suggest having a kegger. Lindsay agrees due to the snarky nature of Kim, who had apparently broken up with Dan. Lindsay tries to get same to keep quiet, but he is worried their father will be mad at him if he doesn't tell on her. Sam and his friends try to devise a plan to stop the party from getting out of hand. Bill gets the idea of replacing the keg of beer with the non-alcoholic kind. They are successful in doing so, but as the party goes on, the guests don't seem to notice any difference as they seem to get wasted anyway. Millie, Lindsay's old friend, shows up as well and vows to have fun sober. Cindy also shows up to Sam's delight. A bit later on, Lindsay is looking for Dan and stumbles into her room to find him and Kim making out. She retreats outside since she is upset and talks with Nick, who tries to unhook her bra. Disgusted, she goes to her parents room. There, Sam's friend Neil consoles her and suggests that they call the cops to make the people in the house scatter. She worries at first but then he lets he know it is non-alcoholic beer. As Sam lets out the call, everyone scrambles to leave. The episode ends up with Bill, who had started drinking from the real keg while watching Dallas, passed out on the floor being kicked lightly by Lindsay.

I think this was a good follow up to the pilot. This episode seemed about 75% drama and 25% comedy. I think I like it a bit more than the pilot because it was more human. While certainly not the most original idea for an episode, I believed it showed a good progression of Lindsay's character, of how she feels for Dan, and of how both Neil and Nick have feelings for her, even though the latter is her younger brothers friend. One of the things I personally enjoyed the most were the references to the time period, including Dallas (hahaha, "Dallas rules") and the mention about Jon Bonhman dying.

Score: 4 / 5