'The A Word' Season 3 Episode 2 Review: Joe's inappropriate fixation on his teacher is tricky teaching moment
For Joe, 'home' as a secure stable space no longer exists. He is slowly adjusting to the continuous travel, traveling between homes, getting in and out of Alison, his mom's car. To say that he was feeling displaced is understating it.
Rebecca, his sister, has been one of the "good" things in his daily charts about how he is processing the world. But it is also Rebecca who drops the bombshell news on him -- she is going to have a baby who will become part of their family.
Joe's first questions are about the baby crying and about where it will sit in the car. The questions point to his worries -- that the baby will push him out, take his place and displace him even more. As the idea of 'home' and 'family' gets more muddled, Joe retreats into the security of routine and stability provided by his school and his teacher, Heather.
He then gets fixated on her, especially after she helps Alison and Paul understand his concerns about the new baby. Heather realizes too late that Joe is getting too attached to her and by then, Joe already doesn't want to leave school or her to go back home with his mom.
Heather asks Alison the time to allow her to make Joe understand that she is more than just his teacher and has a life outside school. She does this by gently introducing Joe to the idea that she doesn't live in school as a teacher -- a common misconception among kids, neurodivergent and neurotypical. She also gets him to understand that just like Joe has his mom at home, she has her kid, Michael, and "Mr. Meadows" at home too.
Joe spends hours with Heather after the school day has ended while Claire waits patiently outside. In those hours, Heather manages to finally get through to Joe. Joe realizes it is necessary to say goodbye so that they can meet again tomorrow. We also get to see Heather suggesting using Rebecca's pregnancy to talk about sex education to Joe -- an idea that Paul is distinctly uncomfortable with but Alison understands the need to do so as Joe is growing up.
We go into other story arcs as well besides -- Maurice who doesn't think twice before interfering in other people's love life (including shipping Alison with her new 'friend' Ben), ends up needing advice from her. His problem is that Paulina, a lonely widow, develops a bit of a crush on him and gives him an expensive smartwatch. Maurice instinctively hides this from Louisa, his girlfriend. He even tries returning the gift.
But Louisa ends up finding the watch and in the end, jealousy prompts Louisa to try to tell Joe how deeply she feels for him. In the meantime, Katie and Ralph go shopping and bring back a heart-shaped centerpiece for their wedding -- a clear indication of how they feel toward each other. It shows that sometimes what is difficult for neurotypical people, is surprisingly easy for neurodivergent people.
That said, the world does "sh*t on them" equally as Paul points out to Mark, the autistic waiter in his gastropub who resents his 'label'. He thinks he has been 'cured' because he no longer bangs his head on walls and decides he wants to join the army.
He asks Paul to drive him to the assessment but understandably fails to get into the military. He lashes out at Paul on the way back but Paul is able to get through. In fact, he does a better job at being calm around Mark than he is around Joe. But Mark's storyline also tells us how failure affects the autistic brain and how to get through autistic meltdowns.
'The A Word' airs on Wednesdays at 11:00 pm ET/ 10c on Sundance TV.
