Felicity 3.5, Surprise: Zones of Disturbing Energy

December 19, 2020

Felicity 3.5, Surprise: Zones of Disturbing Energy

Nowadays, this would be called revenge porn and whoever sent it out would be in a lot of trouble

Summary: Ben and Noel are trying to get ribs from a Texas restaurant Felicity likes for a party the next night. Sean interrupts to talk about something that seems serious. Meanwhile, Felicity is seeing a doctor to make sure she didn’t catch anything from Randy. Sean tells the guys that he has some aching “down under” and is worried it’s serious. Ben asks him not to say the word “testicle.” Noel agrees that the word makes him uncomfortable. Sean tells them they hate their genitalia.

Felicity gets a morning-after pill and a lecture about protected sex. The doctor notices that her birthday is tomorrow. Let’s hope her present isn’t an STD. Ben and Noel go back to trying to get the ribs for Felicity’s surprise birthday party. While Noel takes his first call for his tech-support job, Sean asks Ben for a second opinion on his possible testicle trouble. Ben refuses, which is understandable, and tells him to see a doctor.

Sean interviews Felicity about her 20th birthday, which she always thought she would celebrate in a very grown-up way, with a limo and cocktails. Instead, she wakes up the morning of the big day with Ben kissing her all over, unaware that she’s not into it. She tells him she has to go to class. He gives her a present, then goes to get ready for work. While he’s gone, she calls Randy’s frat house to try to get in touch with him.

At the loft, it looks like Sean didn’t sleep all night. He tells Meghan he has a lot on his mind, like the docuventary. He tells her he has to go get a camera, but instead he goes to a doctor. The doctor prescribes him antibiotics, since he might just have an infection, but he also wants to give Sean an ultrasound in case it’s something more serious. Sean is in denial and says he’ll just take the antibiotics.

Felicity goes to see Pavone, who’s convinced Professor Morton to give Felicity a slot in an art exhibition. Felicity’s not as excited as she should be. She confides that she got drunk and woke up in a stranger’s bed. She has no idea what, if anything, happened. Pavone wonders if she was roofied, a possibility that Felicity hadn’t considered.

She doesn’t know how to tell Ben what happened. Pavone tells her not to say anything until there’s something to tell. Felicity thinks Ben deserves the truth. They need to have honesty in their relationship. Pavone says that kindness is more important, and in this case, Felicity being honest with Ben wouldn’t be kind. Felicity says that pretending everything is fine feels horrible. Pavone applauds her honesty that she just wants to tell Ben everything to make herself feel better.

Felicity and Ben meet up for lunch at Epstein Bar, and when a bunch of guys come in, Felicity recognizes one as Randy. He approaches her while Ben is away from the table and says he heard she was looking for him. Felicity isn’t able to learn anything before Ben comes back, and she pretends she and Randy are just classmates. Randy doesn’t look that bright (sorry, Randy), but he catches on that Felicity’s keeping whatever happened quiet because she has a boyfriend.

Noel goes to his first tech-support assignment, recovering a file from a computer that appears to have a virus. The computer’s owner, Jason, recognizes Noel from his Leon days, remembering his blond streaks. Noel easily fixes the computer, which was compromised by a virus from a suspicious email…an email from the frat Randy belongs to, featuring a picture of Randy and a topless Felicity from their game of strip ping pong.

Richard is hosting a town meeting/pizza party on Friday. Hey, he kept his campaign promise of Free Pizza Fridays! That’s refreshing for a politician. He meets Molly, then immediately slams her for driving Julie away. He asks Elena to fix them up. While Felicity tries to call Randy again from the dorm apartment, Ben bakes her a cake at the loft. Sean downplays his medical problem to Ben, who tells him that Meghan thinks Sean turned down sex that morning because of her. Sean says he’s not going to tell her about his medical issues; they’re too personal.

Noel shows Felicity the photo and confirms that she doesn’t remember what happened. Apparently the photo was sent to the whole school, so Ben may see it. Noel thinks he can delete it before Ben sees it, but Felicity is resigned to telling him everything. Noel reminds her that it’s her birthday, so that obviously shouldn’t happen right now. He spills that Ben has something big planned for her, so she shouldn’t ruin it. She can wait anyway, since he won’t see the picture until tomorrow. Felicity isn’t sure that she can wait, but Noel asks her to trust him.

Sean films as the group starts decorating for the party. Meghan asks Ben if Sean is cheating on her; he’s acting the same way she did when she got crabs from a performing artist while she was dating someone else. Ben promises that Sean has never been happier and definitely isn’t cheating. Ben ruined the cake, but he hopes the ribs will arrive in time and be a good enough treat. Also, Javier’s there now, and he’s good at fixing cooking disasters.

The ribs arrive, but the box they came in is pretty small. That’s because it actually contains a book. Javier takes over the food prep, asking for a list of all the ingredients available to him so he can whip something up in 30 minutes. Meanwhile, Ben goes to meet Felicity for dinner, pretending he forgot his wallet so they can go back to the loft. Richard and Molly bond over their love of Doctor Who and agreement that Tom Baker was the best Doctor. Sean asks Meghan to film a birthday message for Felicity, but she’d rather talk to him. Sean says no.

Ben and Felicity reach the building, so everyone hides, then jumps out and surprises her. She’s genuinely surprised, but also distracted because she was getting ready to tell Ben about Randy. She pretends everything’s awesome. As soon as Meghan and Sean sit down with their food, she asks him if he has an STD. He assures her that he doesn’t; isn’t he allowed to not be in the mood for sex sometimes?

Richard gets on someone’s computer to resolve a Doctor Who-related debate between him and Molly, and it quickly becomes obvious what’s about to happen. Noel spots them and tries to casually keep Richard from logging into his email. He should have tried harder. As Ben joins the group to announce that he’s about to make a toast, Richard opens THAT email, giving Ben an eyeful of his girlfriend, topless with another guy.

Felicity pulls him out of the room and tells him that she had a bunch of drinks at the frat party and doesn’t remember what happened. Ben has heard enough and walks out. Javier suggests that the rest of them eat dessert while Ben cools down. But Ben doesn’t cool down – he goes to the frat house looking for Randy. He’s not there (is he ever?), but another guy tells him that Felicity slept with Randy. During the party, she didn’t act like she was dating someone else.

Richard and Molly go for a walk, talking about the hot topic of the evening. Richard is mad that Felicity apparently cheated on Ben, but Molly says he’s too much of a Puritan. This seems to be a turn-on for her, as she tries to kiss him. Richard hesitates, saying that as student-body president, he can’t get involved in a sex scandal. Molly promises that they’ll be discreet. Richard notes that they barely know each other. She guesses his middle name, and he tells her his enemies are everywhere, they scampers off. That was really weird.

Back at the loft, Sean decides to come clean to Meghan, since secrets are obviously bad for a relationship. He tells her about his medical issue, which she thinks was something small to overreact about. She was reading tarot cards earlier that evening and drew one that indicates weak character. She doesn’t want Sean to ignore something that could be serious. She wants him to get the ultrasound. Sean refuses, so Meghan leaves.

Noel goes to Epstein Bar, where Ben is already drinking. Noel thinks they’re kind of friends now, so he wants to offer Ben some friendly advice: Don’t make the same mistakes with Felicity that Noel made. Both of the guys have gotten drunk and done dumb things, so Ben needs to forgive Felicity for doing the same thing. Noel adds that if Ben pushes Felicity away because of this, he’ll regret it.

Ben goes to the dorm apartment and tells Felicity he went to confront Randy. She apologizes for not telling him what happened. He wishes she’d at least told him she didn’t remember what happened instead of lying that she and Randy were just classmates. He can’t get past the idea that Felicity slept with someone else.

The next day, Felicity finally connects with Randy at the frat house. She asks him if he sent the photo out to be mean because she’d introduced him to her boyfriend. Randy promises that he wasn’t responsible for the picture. Felicity asks if they were safe, and he says they were safer than safe – they didn’t have sex. She was sick, so he just let her sleep. The next morning, Randy’s frat brothers assumed they had sex, and he just let them. He repeats that nothing happened.

Sean goes to the dorm apartment and asks Meghan why she’s bugging him so much about getting the ultrasound. She tells him that being in denial isn’t the same as handling his problems. Sean admits that he’s struggling to accept that this could be serious, and he’s made an appointment for the ultrasound. He asks her to come with him, and she agrees, after joking that she can’t go because she’s getting a new tattoo.

Sean interviews Noel about his new job and his new biggest fan, Jason. Noel says Jason’s room is a “zone of disturbing energy.” The first time he was there, Noel saw the topless photo. The second time, he saw something else strange. Jason has lit candles and is playing classical music, which is strange enough, like, this isn’t a date, dude. He invites Noel to a concert with him and admits to having a crush. Noel says he’s straight, and Jason tries to hide his disappointment. He reveals that there’s nothing wrong with the computer. As Noel leaves, he sees another topless photo, this one of Jason and Richard.

Sean’s ultrasound shows that he has some sort of growth on his testicle. The doctor would like to do a surgical procedure to learn more. If it’s malignant, it will need to be removed ASAP. Meghan can tell something’s wrong when she comes into the exam room, and she just sits next to Sean and holds his hand. Noel and Richard hang out at Epstein Bar, but Noel as a hard time acting normal. Richard says that he liked Molly at first, but she proved to be more aggressive voodoo-y than he’d expected. He calls Noel out on acting weird.

At Dean & DeLuca, Javier forces Felicity and Ben to work things out so their rare, special love won’t just “blow in the wind.” Felicity tells Ben that Randy said nothing happened, but Ben doesn’t think she can trust his word. Felicity’s tests all came back negative, so she doesn’t have a reason not to believe Randy. Ben says it doesn’t matter – Felicity woke up in someone else’s bed and lied to her. He’s done talking about it. Felicity goes home and finally opens Ben’s present, a nice set of paints. Maybe she can paint him an apology?

Thoughts: Ben’s present is wrapped in newspaper instead of wrapping paper, which seems like a very Ben thing to do. Or maybe just a college thing to do.

I want to see Javier compete in a Quickfire challenge on Top Chef.

After the Internet took off, I bet Richard spent hours on Doctor Who message boards. I bet he cosplayed as really obscure characters.

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