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maxymama (maxymama) wrote in qaf_coffeeclub,
@ 2009-10-09 15:11:00

Entry tags:

117

117 questions and thoughts
Watching 117 again, I wondered how Debbie went from the diner scene where Michael bluntly tells her not to come to his party and she accepts this, to showing up with the gang all dressed in very conspicuous outfits. (Debbie gets a pass in her outfit though, since this is how she usually dresses for fancy occasions.) What went on that we didn't see? Did she purposefully go there to embarrass Michael? I doubt it, yet it seems incongruous that she would then show up with her loud and obnoxious motley crew. How can she be so "ashamed" of him when he asked her not to come, yet she did anyway and completely overtook the party? This Debbie reminds me of the Debbie that fights with Vic right before he dies, and I don't like it. But I still wonder who said what to whom to get her to go to the party. Was it Vic? Brian? Did she think sneaking in wouldn't be so bad, but then everyone else dressed up and acted up, so she let her true personality out? What do you all think?

I love BJ together and the 'no kissing others' rule that comes in 206, but I super LOVE watching Brian kiss that waiter and other men in general. YUM. He kisses like no one else, with his whole body.

Brian: Well, don't think that you've won... 'Cause the minute you do that, you're dead.

Woe foreshadowing. Somebody hold me.

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vl_redreign
2009-10-10 12:00 am UTC (link)

Michael didn't tell her not to come. He said "it's not your thing". Of course to you and me, that means don't come, but Brian was sitting there, as was Vic, and they saw how hurt Debbie was by Michael's attitude. So instead of showing up looking respectable, they decided, "if Michael thinks we're an embarassment, then let's be one!" I thought what Debbie said to Michael was right on, because, as we see in 513, he finally got what she meant. Remember? Another congressperson, another instance of being hidden in the back.

And as it turned out, the Senator liked Debbie a lot!

There are times when Debbie is rude and pushy, but this wasn't one of them. Michael was being an asshole.

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maxymama
2009-10-10 03:13 am UTC (link)

I agree that Michael was an asshole, no doubt. But I also think Debbie was wrong too.

they decided, "if Michael thinks we're an embarassment, then let's be one!"

I can see the guys doing this, but I can't see Debbie doing it on purpose. Yet if she did, then why is she surprised when Michael acts out too? Her intention is what confuses me and I wonder how the topic of crashing the party was brought up and by whom. It was probably just a casual comment of, "Brian's giving a donation so we can all go to Michael's fancy party, yay!" At the end of the diner scene, she honestly seemed like she accepted Michael's desire to not have her at the party.

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arcady
2009-10-10 01:22 am UTC (link)

He didn't flatly tell her not to go. He did his grumpy "I don't want to" mode. Michael frequently gets that stubborn "leave it alone!" tone of voice, and then Brian, Debbie, or the gang ignore it, continue the conversation, Michael stops protesting, and is often better for it. He tends to have this first-level defense that no one respects and he doesn't always really want them to. The problem, though, is that it diminishes the impact when he actually means it. By going to the party, Debbie responded how she (and Brian, and sometimes the rest of the gang) usually does when Michael gets huffy and stubborn. She didn't realize how serious he was – and neither did I, the first time I saw it. I generally like Michael a lot, but his outburst at the party was a rare, serious asshole moment. No one saw it coming, including his mother, and that's why she was easily swayed into party crashing.

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	maxymama 2009-10-10 03:15 am UTC (link)
	I totally get your point about Michael not really meaning his protests most of the time and agree he was an asshole to his mom at the party. :) (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	arcady 2009-10-10 03:27 am UTC (link)
	The more I think about it, the more I think Brian had a hand in it. It was his idea to contribute their way into the party, so I can really see Debbie looking crestfallen after the outburst and Brian (who probably ignores Michael's half-hearted protests as much as anyone) patting her on the back and telling her to go find something hideous to wear. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	maxymama 2009-10-10 05:07 am UTC (link)
	Brian obviously wanted to knock Michael down a bit, but before your comment, I never thought about how he probably wanted to make Debbie feel better too by taking her to the party. This kind of gesture is in character for Brian and I am surprised I missed it before. Thanks for the thoughtful response! (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

arcady
2009-10-10 05:23 am UTC (link)

Thanks for the discussion post! It was a really interesting episode, I think. I remember back when I re-watched the series with my mom a few years ago, she wasn't too hot on Brian, but this episode helped begin shifting her opinion of him. Not because he was faultless, because he wasn't, but because having Michael as the snobby "nouveau riche" character really illustrated how classist Brian isn't, in spite of being arrogant in other ways. She always knew Brian was well-off, but it took seeing Michael react unfavorably to his sudden new wealth to show how down-to-earth Brian is when it comes to social status. I'm probably missing one, but off-hand, I can't think of a moment in the show that Brian does anything to suggest that his affluence makes him better than anyone he knows. Even his offers to help Michael and Justin financially (and the Rage party, for that matter) lack any real condescension you might expect from someone in Armani with a loft out of Architectural Digest loft.

Which was totally a tangent, sorry! That's just something that struck me in that episode.

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opal11
2009-10-11 01:02 am UTC (link)

do you remember emmett asks brian what he is going to wear and he says"i wasnt invited"...that is when he gets the idea to contribute to political fund to go to the party...so i think it was totally brian's idea to crash the party and to be as outlandish as possible,michael had been snooty, brian pointed that out to him.."when are you going to introduce your old friends to your new friends".. debby was just being debby there, and the senator really ended up liking debby,the senator says so, that most of the fund raiser partys are boring,this one was not.

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