The Diary (Freaks and Geeks)

In the latter half in Freaks and Geeks’ existence – once the Lindsay/Nick relationship reached its brutal end – the series started to cycle its characters around and shine a light on each of their personal stories and issues. The Weirs always remained the central family, but only in the later episodes do we get a look at what makes characters like Neal, Bill, Daniel and Ken tick. Freaks and Geeks was a great show from episode one, but in its later episodes it displayed an attention to character – every character – that most shows lack.

Martin Starr’s Bill would get a couple episodes of his own, and – funnily enough – both of them involve his relationship with a man who would seem to be his polar opposite: Coach Fredricks. Like most other characters in the Freaks and Geeks-verse, Fredricks seems to be an archetype from afar, yet certain episodes have revealed him to be a much more caring man than his jockish exterior would suggest. On the flip side, Bill appears to be a wholly un-athletic geek, but deep down inside he truly wants to entertain the idea of playing sports. The only problem is that he’s always picked last and stuck in the deep outfield with Gordon.

As an act of revenge, Bill steals Fredricks’ phone number and begins a series of prank calls designed to give the geeks more power in the gym class hierarchy. Ultimately this backfires, and Fredricks discovers that Bill was the one making the calls. It seems as if Bill is about to be in serious trouble, but after making begging for physical education equality, it turns out Fredricks is a bit more sympathetic.

“The Diary” seems to foreshadow the coming revelation that Fredricks is dating Bill’s mom. Let’s face it: would any gym teacher in history be this receptive to Bill’s needs if he wasn’t sleeping with his mother? I think not. This is the first step in Fredricks’ grand scheme to get on Bill’s good side. However, as we’ll learn in “Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers,” they just aren’t the same person, nor do they exist on the same planet. More on that in a later post.

As far as Lindsay is concerned, the second half of the series begins to take a look at the negative consequences of freakdom. Specifically, how it can lead to crashing your car into other cars or even living creatures. This comes later, but “The Diary” begins with she and Kim learning that hitchhiking may not be such a good idea; especially when the driver frequents your father’s sporting goods store. The Weir parents give Lindsay a stern talking to, and they invite Kim’s mother over for a conversation about their daughters’ behavior.

As far as the journey of Kim Kelly is concerned, “The Diary” acts as a sequel – or perhaps as a remake – of “Kim Kelly is My Friend.” It isn’t as unbearably uncomfortable, but it also revisits, albeit briefly, the household where Kim came from. Remember, “Kim Kelly is My Friend” never aired during the show’s original run, so when Mrs. Kelly enters the Weir household most viewers didn’t have the knowledge that she was out-of-her-freaking-mind insane. We, the informed DVD viewers, know that everything coming out of Mrs. Kelly’s mouth is… embellished. The Weirs, along with NBC viewers, are more inclined to take her at her word.

After the eye-opening dinner, the Weirs forbid Lindsay from ever hanging out with her burnout friend Kim Kelly. Also, they start to wonder about their own parenting. What have they done to cause Lindsay’s rebellion?

Thus begins the room-snooping. They enter Lindsay’s room and start searching for any and all signs that she’s become a drug-addicted harlot. After some top-notch Joe Flaherty riffing, they find and begin to read Lindsay’s diary. What they find isn’t so much a graphic sex diary as it is a pretentious lament about the horrors of suburbia.  Eventually they find a passage about them, and they don’t like what they see. Lindsay complains about the robotic nature of her parents’ relationship. They have the same dinner every night, say the same things and act the same way. She seems to be unsure as to whether her parents are still in love.

Interestingly, the parents start to reflect on Lindsay’s words. Have they become boring shells of themselves? Mrs. Weir, as a reaction, starts baking exotic dinners and trying new things at home, but Mr. Weir is less than thrilled. He argues that their lives are routine because the routine is what they like best. Mrs. Weir is initially unhappy with this, but the two eventually reconcile and lock themselves in their room for some private time – much to the disgust of the Weir kids. Once they unwind a bit, it turns out they aren’t so worried about their daughter after all.

Before “The Diary,” the audience had given little thought as to whether the Weir parents are happy together. They seemed like a perfectly happy, normal TV couple. This episode looks a bit more into the history of the Weirs, and it answers a question not too many viewers thought to ask: what makes this family tick? Freaks and Geeks was a show that explored every nook and cranny of its universe, and it made a habit out of answering these unasked questions. After a while, it seems to exist in the real world rather than a scripted one.