We've Got Spirit (Freaks and Geeks)

Throughout my scholastic career, my school mascots have been less than threatening. In chronological order, I have been a Cardinal, a Quaker, an Explorer and a Buckeye. No Wildcats, Tigers, or skull-bashing Yetis to be found. I appreciate this to a degree, as all of these names take more creativity to think up than merely choosing any old animal with big teeth. Still, when your team heads out on the field for battle, being a Quaker or an Explorer isn’t so intimidating. How is all this related to “We’ve Got Spirit,” yet another awesome episode of Freaks and Geeks? Well, only tangentially. This is a show that has always been about the groups of students that live on the fringe rather than the forefront, and “We’ve Got Spirit” offers a new take on the stereotypical “big game” episode. It’s not about the players, but instead it’s about the mascots and the students who would normally only watch these games ironically.

In other high school shows, the various plots would revolve around The Big Game. On Freaks and Geeks, The Big Game revolves around the various plots. When we last left Lindsay Weir, she was starting to regret her new relationship with the clingy, constantly stoned Nick Andopolis. By the time “We’ve Got Spirit” begins, she is anxious to get out at all costs. She confides in her mother that she’s ready to call the whole thing off. The main dilemma: it turns out Nick is something of a psycho when it comes to women. The big danger is that if Lindsay were to dump him, he might just lose his mind.

Meanwhile, brother Sam aims to continue his infiltration into the everyday life of Cindy Sanders, despite her crush on the star basketball player Todd. After the school mascot (Holy Shia LaBeouf!) suffers an injury which throws him out of commission, Sam decides to try out to be the next Norseman. After he gets the job, he spends day after day going through grueling practices, and all just to impress an uninterested Cindy. After he sees Cindy finally kissing Todd, Sam decides it’s all not worth it. He made himself look like a fool, and it was all for naught. Of course, this heartbreak leads to Neal taking over as the Norseman for Sam, and hilarity ensues.

Sam is easily the character who must endure the most abuse throughout the series, or maybe I just see it that way because his stories often hit a wee bit too close to home. Not an episode goes by where Sam isn’t thrust into the middle of a horrifically uncomfortable situation. Even when he gets his way, which he will theoretically get in the coming episodes, it always ends horribly for him. However, when all’s said and done, Sam ends up being perfectly happy with who he is. This is impressive, as if I went through the crap he goes through I would hardly be able to smile.

Meanwhile, Lindsay’s grand plan to break up with Nick derails when her mother gets involved. She and Nick run into each other right before the game, and when she starts offering her condolences Nick is caught off-guard. As a result, Lindsay is unable to break up with her boyfriend. Her mother does it for her. At long last Lindsay is freed from relationship purgatory, but leave it to Freaks and Geeks to make it feel like anything but victory.

“We’ve Got Spirit” also boasts one of my favorite c-stories in the history of everything. It’s a simple one, but it’s emblematic of the kind of joy Freaks and Geeks can produce when it’s running on all cylinders. At the beginning of the episode, freaks Daniel, Kim and Ken are far from interested in The Big Game against Lincoln. Heck, they’re planning on going just to laugh at the jocks when they lose. Things change when they are ambushed by Lincoln students in the parking lot, and soon begins a game of revenge piled upon revenge. After all these incidents, the freaks show up at the basketball game ready to cheer their team onto victory. They’ve gone from non-fans to super-fans in the course of one episode. This was one of the more straight-up comical storylines Freaks and Geeks ever did, but even this works with flying colors. The greatness of the show lies in the little things it accomplished as well as the big.