Aliens in America 1.17 "Wake at the Lake"

Aliens in America 1.17 "Wake at the Lake"
Air Date: May 11, 2008
Recap & Discussion

Aliens in America Episode Highlights:

• Medora High has two graduates on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. A thing to be proud of.
• Justin talks through unpopular Medora extracurricular activities, including SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions), whose president is Raja (the only one there not on court order)
• The SADD club prepares an annual "Wasted Life" event, and Raja has been procuring things like blood and a coffin as part of his job as Grim Reaper (he must also choose which student to die in the mock car accident
• Medora’s oldest teacher, Mrs. Lockard, is retiring and Claire is sad to lose her favorite teacher (who would give her an A, instead of an F, just for being pretty)
• Gary doesn’t even flinch when Raja mentions finding a student to kill – he just remembers his own senior yearbook portrait (due to beer, his friends drew a moustache and his name onto his face with permanent marker)
• Justin informs Raja that the most popular kid always gets to be the mock-accident victim – that’d make the choice Dan Archer for this year. Popular kids always get everything.
• Franny goes to a bachelorette party with a stripper and finds it a little too X-rated for her tastes. Not so for Raja’s pediatrician or the president of the PTA! Franny leaves with her sex toy party gift
• Raja, dressed as the Grim Reaper, comes into Justin’s class dramatically announcing that a young life has been snuffed out by an accident. But, the Grim Reaper is not pointing at Dan Archer, but at Justin Tolchuck!

• Justin is worried no student will come to his mock funeral, but the students rally behind Justin as deserving to be just as dead as Dan Archer. People are sick of popular kids getting everything handed to them.
• The student body may even want Justin to run for Class Treasurer – take another spot back from the popular kids. Justin is proud people are happy he’s dead.
• Claire finds the sex toy in Franny’s closet, but Franny tries to pretends it’s a potato masher. With three speeds. Claire doesn’t buy it.
• The popular kids go to the principal in complaint of Dan not getting picked as the drunk driving victim – Mr. Matthews argues Dan dying has more oomph, but Raja and Justin say Justin is already dead. The alternative: both Dan and Justin die?
• Claire comes home with potatoes for Franny to mash, and watches while Franny uses her new Williams Sonoma "masher" to do the job
• Gary decides to lick the masher!! "Mmm, fluffy!"
• Raja tries to sell Justin on a joint funeral, but Justin wants to be the only one dead, a political statement
• Dan has staged his own drunk driving accident to upstage Justin’s. And has planned a wake at the lake at the same time as Justin’s fake funeral
• Gary comes to Justin with exciting news, that he’s gotten him a job at Dan Archer’s lake party – so he’s technically "at" the party
• Justin puts up really sad posters of his own funeral to compete with the ones Dan Archer is putting up, and has pins "Good Mourning Justin" – it’s a Funeral War
• Raja is not happy that the sobering reminder of death has been turned into a circus – and thinks Justin is working for himself now, not making a statement on behalf of the little people
• Claire has gotten a "potato masher" for Mrs. Lockard’s retirement party, but Franny keeps up her pretence about it
• Nobody shows up to Justin’s funeral, not even the geeks. Dan got gets of beer for the Wake at the Lake
• Raja points out that everyone will now drive drunk from a drunk driving funeral
• Claire makes a point when leaving the gift for Mrs. Lockard, but Franny turns tail saying she "hopes she likes it", but they both rethink it soon after
• Unfortunately, Mrs. Lockard has opened the gift, and is stumped as to what it is. Franny lies and calls it a potato masher
• A woman who really lost her son to drunk driving comes to thank Justin and the boys for what they’re doing – Justing tells her he’s sorry, but Justin is really apologizing for losing sight of what the event was supposed to be about
• Justin and his friends to to the Wake a the Lake to serve as designated drivers

What was the message in this episode? Usually the theme is re-iterated through all sub-plots – how did Franny/Claire’s plot tie in with Justin/Raja’s plot? Was the message about popularity, about responsibility, or about being a better person, over it all?

Image: used with permission by Newscom ; Tags: aliens in america, aliens in america season 1, wake at the lake, justin tolchuck, scott patterson