EUPHORIA 203 features one of the more unexpected turns in the show (until 205) (and then 206)...the start of a redemption arc for noted crazy person and monster Cal Jacobs.
Well, not a redemption arc per se. It's not like he's trying to help anyone or fix the messes he's made exactly. More like an empathy arc. You know that noted crazy person and monster Cal Jacobs? Well here's where he came from.
The opening sequence with him as a boy and the best friend he was in love with packs a great punch. And 204 will take all of that in interesting ways.
But the scene in 203 that really grabbed me is the moment that he gets grabbed by Ash outside his house and then questioned by Ash and Fezco.
A big part of what makes it work both as a scene in and of itself and for Cal's arc is that it is absolutely NOT the tone you would expect. There's no danger here, no ranting or guns. Instead we get screwball absurdity. Cal thinks Fezco has the disc of him having sex with Jules. Fezco has no idea what he's talking about. And it's very much played for the misunderstandings of it all. At times we're about two steps away from someone shouting "Third base!"
(Yes, that is a "Who's on First?" reference, and I am old, but also if you haven't already you should watch that Abbott & Costello routine because it is the basis for so much comedy writing.)
I could dig into the beats of their back and forth, but what's really essential is the comedic tone, and the fact that it emerges very naturally and believably. In the abstract it absolutely shouldn't. There is nothing about Cal that is funny. But somehow dropping him into that low status position really lands, maybe because we already dislike him so much, it's enormously satisfying to see him getting beaten on, let alone by a middle schooler.
There's definitely some interesting takeaways for our own work. First, there's what you might call Chekov's Asshole. If you establish someone is a real monster in the first act, we expect them to get their comeuppance at the end.
And there's a corollary: If you can find a way to undermine the fearfulness of the monster, make them an object of ridicule rather than fear, it can actually change our hate for the character into something more sympathetic. Even though he's doing it with a shotgun, Ash beating on Cal is funny, because he warns Cal what the rules here are and then Cal keeps breaking them anyway. Rather than in danger Cal just looks stupid.
And Fezco saying "What is it with your family?" is one of the great lines of the season. It's exactly the question we have. What is the deal with these people? In hearing a character say it, we laugh. When a character says the thing we've been thinking (but no one else in-world is saying), it's satisfying and so unexpected it often feels funny.
There's more work for Cal to do (understatement of the year), but we really leave him at the end of that scene no longer pissed at him or freaked at him. He's been revealed to be the Emperor with no Clothes. And so now he's an object for our entertainment and curiosity.
