Felicity 1.4, Boggled: Oh, the Fridge Is a Metaphor, You Say?

February 1, 2020

Felicity 1.4, Boggled: Oh, the Fridge Is a Metaphor, You Say?

Pink Guy!

Summary: Felicity makes a tape for Sally, saying she’s never been more confused in her life. She and Noel were recently hanging out, playing Boggle. She’s told Sally before that he’s the most comforting part of her time in New York. She told him that he can come to her with anything; they had an understanding.

So, Boggle. Felicity reads off the words she’s found, and Noel daydreams about making out with her. Then he makes his move. Felicity decides she needs to tell Sally more of the story before she goes back to this point. She thought she and Ben were getting closer. This means having uninteresting conversations about credit cards in the mailroom. He tells her he’s going to try out for the track team. She remembers him being a track star in high school and winning regionals. Ben touches her shoulder as he leaves, so she’ll be riding that feeling the rest of the week.

Felicity tells Sally that she and Julie are at an impasse. She thinks things will eventually work out, though she doesn’t know how. They run into each other in the laundry room and talk about dryer sheets. Felicity is quite the conversationalist, isn’t she? Finally, she apologizes for being a bad friend. Julie admits that she likes Ben, and Felicity says they should go out, if that’s what Julie wants. Julie says that, instead of listening to Felicity, she’s going to start doing what she wants to do.

A guy named Zach discovers that his white clothes are no longer white, thanks to a red article of clothing. The ladies school him on separating his colors. Parents, please make sure your children know how to do laundry before they go off to live on their own. Julie tells Felicity she feels better, maybe because Zach’s misfortune has reminded her that things in her life could be worse.

Felicity’s chemistry lab is told to find partners, and Felicity and Elena are left with each other. Elena guesses that Felicity went to public school, which automatically makes her a worse student who might drag down her grade. Felicity assures her that she aced chemistry in high school. Elena doesn’t think it’s out of line for her to expect certain things out of her. Then she asks if Felicity’s sleeping with Noel. Felicity says no. Elena says he’s cute, even for a white guy. She didn’t see it at first, but now she does.

Back to Felicity’s tape. She tells Sally that everyone who wanted a fridge could sign up for a lottery to get a used one from the school. The day Elena signed up, she realized Noel was cute. But Felicity insists that there’s nothing going on between them, even if Elena thinks there might be. They’re just friends! Friends who play Boggle together and somehow get turned on by it! That’s all!

Noel and Felicity make out a little, but she decides they need to stop. Before they can talk about what just happened, Meghan comes in and sees them on the floor together. Noel scampers away. Meghan thinks it’s “premium” that Felicity’s having a “forbidden affair.” She came across as a boring rule-follower before, but now she’s gained some respect in Meghan’s book.

Felicity tells Sally that she doesn’t get confused easily. Well, maybe that’s not true. But she’s never felt this confused before. She cheers up a lot when someone delivers a fridge for her – she’s excited because she’s never had her own before. The deliveryman says it’s a symbol of independence since she gets to choose what gets cold. Thanks, Mr. Deliveryman! You should teach literature!

Elena comes by and sees that Felicity got a fridge. Elena didn’t get one, and Felicity’s is the last available. She opens it and gazes at the wonder of three square feet of possibility. She puts an apple inside. Exciting! Felicity tells Sally that she’s thought the Noel situation through, and she thinks her best option is to avoid him at all costs. That makes her sad, though, since he might be her best friend.

Julie and Zach run into each other in the cafeteria. He hasn’t replaced his pink clothes, and people have started to notice. They call him Pink Guy. He remarks that, thanks to Julie’s lesson about proper clothing care, he’ll never forget her. Noel tracks Felicity down at her work-study job, so there goes her plan to avoid him. She puts off having a conversation with him, pretending she’ll let him know when she has space in her schedule for him. “Just for the record, you’ve never been weirder,” he says. She knows.

Zach tells Julie about the movie he’s working on (he’s in the film school). He doesn’t want to show it to her just yet, since it’s so personal. After all, she’s already seen his underwear. Felicity goes by the track to see if she can catch a glimpse of Ben practicing for his tryouts. She does, and if she still likes him after seeing him in those shorts, nothing will change her mind about him. Elena goes to Felicity’s room, where Meghan’s trying to sleep. Is Meghan a vampire? Felicity says she’s never there at night, and now she’s sleeping during the day. Anyway, Meghan tells Elena that Felicity is probably in Noel’s room, having sex.

At their next chem lab, Elena asks Felicity if she’s enjoying her new fridge. Is it cold, the fridge she just happened to get? She thinks Felicity won the lottery because Noel rigged it for her. She says she knows about them. Felicity drops the beaker she’s holding. I hope there was nothing dangerous in it. Elena’s annoyed because if Felicity’s getting advantages like fridges, what else is she getting from the system? Felicity asks if Elena thinks she’s dating Noel to get the fridge. Elena says it’s just a perk of the relationship.

Felicity goes straight to Noel, pulling him out of the lounge where some students are watching an old horror movie. She tells him that people are saying they’re dating. Yeah, two people. Noel agrees that they need to talk, which is why he made dinner reservations for them for the next night. He won’t call it a date, just an opportunity for a discussion at a restaurant. Felicity decides she shouldn’t try to back out of this. She tells Sally it’s a “maybe date.”

Zach shows Julie his movie after all. It’s a black-and-white noir flick, and, uh, Zach shouldn’t hope to make a career out of acting. Julie says she loved it and doesn’t have any suggestions to make it better. She doesn’t think she’s qualified to give feedback, since she knows nothing about movies. Zach thinks she does, since she watches them. This opens Julie up to pick apart a couple of things. She realizes she’s hurt his feelings.

Meghan has taken advantage of the new room fridge to cool down a thong. Apparently that’s a…thing. She also ate Felicity’s apple. She thought they had an agreement to share stuff. Felicity notes that they’ve never even had a conversation before. The tub of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Meghan put in the fridge doesn’t replace the apple she ate. “It tastes so much like butter,” is Meghan’s defense.

Felicity gets to the heart of what the argument is really about: Meghan’s spreading false rumors about her and Noel. Meghan angrily says she’ll keep her mouth shut and her underwear out of the fridge. I don’t know, I think Felicity might be asking too much here.

Felicity finds Julie moping with her guitar. Julie brings up Zach, and Felicity guesses that she likes him. Julie says she hasn’t seen Ben for a while, just in case Felicity was wondering. She regrets criticizing Zach’s movie, though Felicity thinks she was just giving her opinion. She confides that Noel kissed her. Julie already knows – she heard from Meghan. But she’s glad Felicity told her.

Felicity mentions the “maybe date,” though she only likes Noel as a friend right now. She’ll need to let him down tonight and hope they can stay friends. Julie says she’s never had to give the “let’s just be friends” speech before. Usually she just dates the guy until he breaks up with her. She finds that an efficient manner of dealing with guys. Julie needs a backbone, y’all.

Julie runs into Ben in the mailroom, where he asks if she got his message. He wanted to invite her out with the other guys trying out for the track team. She doesn’t think they have any kind of future together, so why go through the awkwardness of dating briefly, breaking up, and having to deal with each other for the next four years? Ben asks if this has anything to do with Felicity. Julie tells him she thinks he’s special and wants to keep feeling that way about him.

On the “maybe date,” there is awkward silence. Felicity leaves the table and calls Julie to say that things are weird. She thinks Noel looks really cute tonight. Julie tells her to take a deep breath and remember that she can do whatever she wants. Noel is great, and Felicity should just focus on having fun. When Felicity goes back to the table, she tells Noel they should actually talk.

Noel goes first, saying that he’s wanted to kiss Felicity for a long time – since he met her, in fact. He can’t believe he actually did it…because he has a girlfriend. Record scratch! Noel says he’s in a confused state, and he didn’t plan the kiss. Felicity’s mad that he’s a manipulative fake, and “every long-distance girlfriend’s nightmare.” She declares him disgusting to the whole restaurant.

Noel tells Felicity to sit down, but that just makes her yell at him in a quieter voice. She feels horrible for his girlfriend, Hannah, who’s off in Chicago with no idea that her boyfriend is on a “maybe date” with someone else. Noel says he’s been a good friend and done everything he could to make Felicity happy – including getting her the fridge. Felicity feels “physically and emotionally revolted.” She ditches him.

Back at the dorm, Felicity drags her fridge down the hall to Elena and tells her it’s hers. Elena doesn’t want a “pity fridge,” but Felicity says she doesn’t use it, so it’ll just go back to the school for another lottery. Elena tells her she can use it whenever she wants. Felicity announces that Noel has a girlfriend, but it’s obviously not her.

Now for the third point in the love triangle. Felicity goes to Ben’s track tryouts, remembering when she watched him try out in high school. She just watched quietly instead of cheering him on. Now, 3,000 miles away, she’s back in the same situation. Noel goes by Felicity’s room, where Meghan tells him she went to the tryouts. Ben is leading the pack, and Felicity thinks he must love running. It must feel amazing to be good at something you love. Noel watches Felicity watching Ben. He gets overtaken by another runner whose friends stand up and cheer for him. Ben falls behind the others, and Felicity remains silent. He comes in last.

Zach goes to Julie’s room and apologizes for not taking her criticism better. He’s never shown the movie to anyone, so he was putting a lot on her feedback. She doesn’t think that makes up for his grumpiness. Zach wants to take Julie’s feedback to make some tweaks, and he’d like her to watch the newer version. She promises she will.

Felicity sits alone in the cafeteria. Girl, you have to make more friends. Noel sits down with her and tells her he’s been dating Hannah for almost two years. He shows her a picture. Last year, when Noel was a college freshman and Hannah was finishing high school in Boston, they saw each other on weekends and it felt like they weren’t living apart. But now Hannah’s in Chicago, and they agreed to see other people, if they want. Noel wants Felicity to know because he agrees that their “maybe date” isn’t fair to Hannah. He respects and loves her, and maybe kissed Felicity partly because he misses Hannah. Felicity just takes his hand.

She runs into Ben on the street and asks how the track team is. He lies that he decided he doesn’t have time for it right now. He wants to concentrate on his schoolwork instead. He clearly doesn’t want to talk, so she lets him go. Sally sends a tape back, telling Felicity that she and her fiancé got together at a garage and became friends first. Then he just kissed her out of the blue. As Julie watches Zach’s movie and Elena enjoys her full fridge, Sally says that you can never guess who your soulmate will be. He could be someone you’ve liked for years, or the friend you didn’t expect to fall in love with.

Thoughts: Zach is played by Devon Gummersall, AKA Brian Krakow from My So-Called Life.

The school’s washing machines are HUGE. I’m jealous.

I’m surprised Elena’s at this school. She seems much more suited to the Ivy League. Maybe that’s why she’s ticked all the time – this college is beneath her. (She also seems too old to be a freshman, but maybe that’s because Tangi Miller was 28 at the time.)

Ha! I watched this on ABC’s website, and immediately after the scene where Noel tells Felicity about Hannah, one of Jennifer Garner’s (who later plays Hannah) Capital One ads came on.

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