"Jimmy" is the 11th and final episode of the second season of Static Shock. It premiered on May 4, 2002. It is a "very special episode", focusing on children and guns, and also on bullying.
Contents
Plot
Virgil is talking to Dr. Franklin, a psychiatrist, telling her everything that happened up until a week ago. He had met and befriended a shrewd, timid boy named Jimmy Osgood, who preferred to type up journals and surf the Internet on his laptop rather than engage in leisure activities with other kids. However, just as soon as Jimmy starts making friends with him and others, like Richie and Frieda, he also starts being tirelessly tormented by Nick Connor and his best friends, Kevin and Ray.
Jimmy grew distressed over time. The final straw came in the preparations for a Halloween party at the Community Center. Jimmy had given invaluable help with special effects, but Nick, Ray, and Kevin pulled a rather violent prank on him by scaring him satanically and stuffing him into his locker, leaving the kid shattered enough to not show up for the next week. Virgil and his father, worried, paid a visit to Jimmy's home, where they found that the boy was gone. Virgil finds his "Battle Journal" and shows the two men. Mr. Osgood dismisses it until Robert tells him to take it seriously. Virgil tells the pair Jimmy knows where he can get a gun. Mr. Osgood runs to his room and discovers his gun gone and everyone realizes that Jimmy took it. Jimmy shows up at the Community Center and, bursting into tears of anger, points the gun at Nick, complaining that he had had it with all the bullying he was subjected to, causing Nick to realize he had pushed Jimmy too far; Nick then apologizes, looking remorseful, but Jimmy doesn't believe him. Fortunately, Richie was able to talk him out of shooting Nick and Jimmy lowers the gun. Just then, Ray and Kevin charged at him, causing Jimmy to inadvertently pull the trigger, the stray bullet hitting Richie in the leg. Ashamed and aghast by the near-fatal occurrence, Jimmy curled up in a corner, sobbing.
In the end, Jimmy undergoes psychological treatment and is sent to a juvenile detention center, which Virgil and Frieda feel he doesn't belong there, while Nick and his friends are suspended from school and forced to do community service as a well-deserved punishment for what they did to Jimmy. Later, as Virgil and Richie (with his leg in a plaster cast) try to shed some light over everything, they see another helpless student being bullied in the school corridors. Virgil promptly offers him a hand in hopes that no other youngsters end up resorting to gun use like Jimmy did.
Background information
Home video releases
Production inconsistencies
- Due to this being a children's show, Richie does not bleed when accidentally shot. Because of this, there is not even a bullet hole torn through his pants.
Trivia
- At the end of the episode, the fourth wall is broken: Static addresses to the watchers about the hazards of firearms falling into the hands of children and youngsters. Static would do it again (with help from Rubberband Man) in "Where the Rubber Meets the Road" when talking about dyslexia.
- As they are never identified by name in the episode, it's unclear which of Nick's cronies is Ray and which is Kevin.
- This is the second episode in which the story unfolds through flashbacks, the first being "Tantrum".
- Dwayne McDuffie and Alan Burnett won the 2003 Humanitas Prize in Children's Animation for this episode.
- This is the perennial morality episode, just like how "Frozen Out" was about homelessness, "Sons of the Fathers" was about racism, and "Where the Rubber Meets the Road" was about dyslexia.
Cast
Uncredited appearances
Quotes
Static: Now if you'll excuse me, I'm late for school. |
Virgil: That's when Nick Connor came in. Last year, he was voted “Best Personality”. Should have demanded a recount. |
Static: (breaking the fourth wall) After Richie was shot, I found out some things about guns you should know. In one year alone, 6,000 kids were expelled for bringing a handgun to school. As many as 4,000 kids are killed by guns each year. You can do something to help stop this. If someone tries to show you a gun, don't stick around. Get away from them. Tell an adult or someone you trust. Do your part to increase the peace out there. All right? |
