Grunge angel

I would guess that there is a limit to the amount of pain that the human mind can take. Whenever possible, it's best to avoid testing this limit.

Which brings me to the Christmas episode of My So-Called Life.

It was decided in committee a couple episodes back that this show, a hallmark of 90's programming, blew. Angela is literally the only likeable character, and even then Daines besmirched the legacy of this spunky kid with l'affaire Crudup. But, half-heartedness never got the dishes done, so we have soldiered on, chipping away at the sheer granite face of the these nineteen episodes. I mean, we made it to the bitter end of Footballers' Wives, so it would seem that nothing is truly insurmountable.

Or so I thought. I KNEW as soon as I saw poor Juliana Hatfield sitting on a snowy curb as Rickie ran past, face all beat up, that she was a XMAS GRUNGE ANGEL, come to teach us all a lesson. Not one in pitch, but a lesson nonetheless (I searched in vain for a pic of Ms Hatfield in this guise; I would guess that she has a staff working twelve hours a day searching for and eliminating evidence of this Guest Shot from the net - I present the Bjork on a Half-Shell pic at left as a way of all of us trying to cleanse). Oh, man - MAGIC REALISM, or something. Mom (her every passing thought denoted with a twisting of her mouth into some new, ever more hideous rictus) and Pop, like good leftover baby boomers, debate the morality of whether they should have left their daughter's friend to go sleep in a ditch (barely figuratively) on Christmas eve. GASP! I mean, this BOY wears MAKEUP (later, of course, he is shown in prayer in some Catholicky grotto thing [ask my mother-in-law] which shows he's a spiritual person, moreso than Mom and Dad who are lax on matters churchy)!

Oh, god, I'm losing it. Anyway, Juliana Hatfield is a dead SPIRITCHILDE from another REALM who COULD HAVE BEEN ANGELA IF ANGELA EVER RAN AWAY, HUGS EVERYONE.

Then, as a final subtle coup de grace, the family, with Rickie and Brian Krakow in tow, leave the church (what church? doesn't matter) as snow begins to fall, watched by GRUNGE ANGEL who then lifts out of frame and a smidgen of WING is visible.

We're a long way here from "guns in school" and other Clinton-era concerns of earlier episodes.

DANDO TAKE ME AWAY!

(query: would a high school dance committee really have had Saturation album track "Dropout" playing at the fall hop? Not in the aforementioned episode, an earlier one...but would they have???)