Sleep of Faith: La Rue D'Awakening

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Clone High episode
“Sleep of Faith: La Rue D'Awakening”
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 5
Guest star(s) John C. McGinley as Doug Prepcourse.
Writer(s) Murray Miller and Judah Miller
Director Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
Production no. 105
Original airdate 24 November 2002
Episode chronology
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"Film Fest: Tears of a Clone" "Homecoming: A Shot in D'Arc"

Sleep of Faith: La Rue D'Awakening (a.k.a. “Sleepy Driving: La Rue D’Awakening”[1]) is an episode of Clone High.

Contents

[edit] Plot

[edit] Synopsis

It’s PXJT season at Clone High. Abe and JFK are fighting for Cleo’s affections, and Abe begins not sleeping in order to help Cleo study. Joan’s concern for Abe causes her to uncover her own dark secret. Gandhi decides he doesn’t want to take the test, and wants to be a trucker instead. Scudworth is helping the Secret Board of Shadowy Figures with an evil plot surrounding the PXJTs – a plot that brings the return of Mr. Butlertron’s old rival.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Episode walkthrough

At the beginning of the school day, Scudworth announces that the PXJTs are coming up. He warns, “Fail the PXJTs and your life will be ruined forever!” However, the thing he seems most insistent upon is that everyone use a #2 pencil in writing the test.

Cleo is worried sick about the PXJTs. She has just broken up with JFK for real, and Abe sees his chance to get closer to her. She instantly capitalises on the situation, and makes him run random errands for her. JFK is also capitalising on the break-up; using the opportunity to get sympathy sex from multiple women at the same time.

At The Grassy Knoll, Gandhi tells Joan he doesn’t want to take the test, because it has no application in the real world. Abe comes in. He has been running errands for Cleo and hasn’t slept in two days. Joan seems concerned, as does a creepy trucker, who tells a story. One night, the trucker was out driving his rig late at night, when he saw a cop driving who was obviously too sleepy to drive. The trucker tried to guide him off the road, but ended up sending the cop’s car off a cliff, crippling him. Gandhi, however, seems fascinated by the trucker lifestyle. That night, he goes home and tells his parents he wants to be a trucker. They try to disown him.

Scudworth has gone to speak to the Secret Board of Shadowy Figures, who have been running the PXJTs for years, because the lead from the #2 pencils used to answer the questions fuels Scangrade, an evil test grading machine. After this year, Scangrade will finally have enough power to take over the world. Mr. Butlertron, however, is not happy. He went to school with Scangrade (at Amherst) and has never liked him.

Abe, who still hasn’t slept, is out on the road at night. He falls asleep at the wheel, but wakes up just in time to swerve out of the way of an oncoming truckload of pandas. He tells Cleo about this, and announces that he needs to sleep and can’t study with her anymore. JFK swoops in immediately, willing to help her study (and hoping to win her back). Abe quickly decides he doesn’t need to sleep, and continues helping her.

Gandhi is now on the road with the creepy trucker. Gandhi believes that trucking is all about sleeping with random women, but the trucker tells him that trucking is all about making choices – multiple choices. Gandhi isn’t so sure, but the trucker tells him a suspiciously PXJT-style question about geography that involves sleeping with random women, and it makes sense to Gandhi... because it’s real.

Joan confronts Cleo, telling her to let Abe sleep. Cleo says no, claiming Joan’s just jealous. “Normally, yes,” Joan replies, but in this case, she has a dark personal secret that is influencing her judgement, one she doesn’t yet feel comfortable revealing. The night before the PXJTs, Cleo convinces Abe to stay up reading her the PXJT prepbook as she sleeps.

Abe and JFK fighting over Cleo.
Enlarge
Abe and JFK fighting over Cleo.

The morning of the PXJTs, the creepy trucker drives up in front of Clone High to drop off “some precious cargo” – Gandhi’s future. Gandhi has realised, with a little help, that he is ready for the PXJTs. Abe, on the other hand, is worse than ever, and ends up sleeping through the PXJTs. He is horribly depressed about this, and JFK tries again to win Cleo back. They decide to settle who gets to date Cleo with a drag race at Dead Man’s Slick Mountain Cliff Road, that night.

Abe arrives home to prepare, but Gandhi and Joan are waiting. It’s an intervention about needing to sleep. Gandhi tells Abe a story. The night before seeing American Pie, Gandhi was so excited that he couldn’t sleep. Because of this, he fell asleep in the theatre, and didn’t see the scene where the guy has sex with a pie. Joan also has a story. She reveals that during the summer, she was at a sleep-away camp – a camp for people with sleeping problems. She was addicted to not sleeping. Her “judgement was so poor” from lack of sleep that she got a tattoo of a cute dolphin saying “Whaaaazzup?” Abe finally decides to go upstairs and sleep. Later on, Joan and Gandhi are watching American Pie. Joan goes to check on Abe, only to find he has snuck out to go to the drag race!

Meanwhile, Scangrade is marking the PXJTs, when he comes across one that’s written with a #3 pencil. It was intentionally done, by Mr. Butlertron. They decide to have a final battle. Mr. B throws chamomile tea and dust in Scangrade’s face, but Scangrade uses a wedge to tip Mr. B over on his back, and he can’t get up. He is about to kill Mr. B, when Mr. B asks for one final request – a multiple choice question. He asks, “Are you a)Handsome, b)Smart, c)Scrap metal, or d)All of the above?” Scangrade tries to reason it out, but believes he is a) and b) but not c), so he can’t be All of the above. This causes an error, and Scangrade explodes. Mr. B comments, “The answer is c, you fuckwad.”

Despite being tired, Abe is ready to race JFK. The first one to cross the finish line gets Cleo. The race starts, but Abe starts thinking about the stories he’s heard: from the creepy trucker, from Gandhi, and from Cleo; and he realises he might have a problem. He pulls over to the side of the road, and takes a nap. JFK speeds past him, but, just before crossing the finish line, his car flips over. Abe sleeps through the night, wakes up in the morning, and triumphantly crosses the finish line and wins Cleo’s heart. He explains why he won, saying, “Because I did the right thing. I pulled over, and I took a nap.”

Meanwhile, Gandhi meets up again with the creepy trucker, and tells him that he aced the PXJTs. As the trucker leaves, Gandhi asks him his name, which is revealed to be Doug Prepcourse, the man who designed the PXJT prepcourses. Gandhi is shocked, saying, “But Doug Prepcourse died forty years ago.” With a gasp, Gandhi realises the truth. There was no truck – no Doug Prepcourse. It was just Gandhi, all alone, speeding across the freeway at 50 miles/hr! As Gandhi watches, Doug’s truck drives away, and disappears into nothingness.

[edit] Featured cast

[edit] Featured clones

[edit] Deleted scenes

  • To open the episode, a long montage showing Abe’s morning routine in a very cheesy, 1980s teen movie way. The idea was everything was going really well, and then, later on in the episode, after Abe stopped sleeping, the montage would be repeated with everything going wrong. [1]
    • At one point, it was suggested The Pretenders’ “Don’t Get Me Wrong” was suggested to be used during the opening montage.[1]
  • Originally, the test the students were taking was referred to directly as the PSAT. After recording all of the dialogue, the writers received notice that they were not allowed to use the name. The writers suggested several alternate names, such as “Pre-SAT” and even “PXAT,” all of which were rejected.[1]
    • At an even earlier point, every single time anyone referred to the test, they referred to it by its full name: the “PSAT-NMSQT.”[1]
  • Scangrade was also originally referred to by his real name: Scantron.[1]
  • Along a similar vein, the creepy trucker was originally revealed to be “Stan Kaplan,” referring to the Kaplan test prep company, and again, the writers were forced to change it.[1]
  • A scene where Shadowy Figure claimed the ‘P’ in PXJT stood for ‘pencil,’ as in #2.[1]
  • A scene after the Secret Board explained their convoluted plan, where Scudworth went on a long rant about how sensible and obvious a plan it is.
    • The dialogue and some of the animation for this scene were completed. The leica reel for it can be seen here (click ‘scud_scantron’).
  • An extended scene with Gandhi at home, where his mom said, “Bubbela, you haven't touched your kugel. What's this, another hunger strike?”[1]
  • A scene where George Washington Carver claimed the ‘P’ in PXJT stood for ‘peanuts,’ and then gave the sleep-deprived Abe some of his invention: caffeinated peanuts. He then said, “Starbucks would love to get their hands on these babies, but George Washington Carver’s nuts are not for sale!”[1]
    • Joan then found Abe holding a bag of the caffeinated peanuts, and said, “Your nut sack’s not the answer this time, Abe. Not this time.”[1]
    • An audio file of Carver’s speech can be found here (click ‘GWCarver_nuts’).
  • After Scudworth calls himself a ‘pencil pusher,’ and says he should send the joke into Leno, Mr. B originally said, “Yeah, fucking hilarious. Kevin Eubanks will bust a nut.”
    • Kevin Eubanks is the over-excited leader of the Tonight Show Band.
    • An audio file of this exchange can be found here (click ‘MR_B_kevin_eubanks’).
      • This audio clip contains Christopher Miller’s unfiltered (and uncensored) recording of Mr. B’s voice.
  • A scene of Clone Harriet Tubman writing the PXJTs, and claiming they’re racially biased.
    • The dialogue and some of the animation for this scene were completed. The leica reel for it can be seen here (click ‘tubman’).
  • After JFK flipped his car, a scene where Nostradamus predicted that Abe would win, and Clone Walt Disney made fun of him, saying, “Gee, ya think so, Nostradamus? It’s really amazing, how you can ‘predict the future.’”[1]
    • In the end, Disney never ended up being a character in any episode of the show.[1]

[edit] References

[edit] Historical references

  • Directly before flipping his car, JFK says, “Nothing bad ever happens to the Kennedys!” It is often said that more bad things happen to the Kennedys than to most families (a belief known as the Kennedy curse).

[edit] Popular culture references

  • The technique of gaining people’s attention with a high-pitched squealing sound (as with the chalkboard opening up) is a reference to the movie Jaws.
  • The PXJT test is a reference to the PSAT/NMSQT, a pre-test for the SATs that is used to determine eligibility for scholarships. It is hardly a test where failure would cause one’s life to be “ruined forever.”
    • The importance placed on the test suggests something closer to the real SATs, which are used to determine eligibility for acceptance to American universities (such as the fictional Clone State).
  • "Tesla Rules" ia a double reference to Nikolai Tesla and to the hard rock band Tesla.
  • John C. McGinley, who provides the voice of Doug Prepcourse the creepy trucker, plays Dr. Cox on Scrubs, another show produced by Clone High producer Bill Lawrence. Most of the stars of Scrubs have appeared on Clone High.
    • Both Doug Prepcourse and Dr. Cox could be considered surly, isolated characters who serve as reluctant mentors to one of their shows’ characters.
  • Scangrade is a reference to the Scantron test grading system that is used to grade multiple-choice tests, such as the PSATs.
    • As in this episode, teachers using Scantrons often dwell excessively on the importance of using a #2 pencil, and no one really knows why.
  • Mr. Butlertron’s fight with Scangrade is reminiscent of the fights on BattleBots, including the use of weapons like a wedge and a circular saw.
  • Abe’s train of thought in the car is represented by quotes from throughout the episode being restated by disembodied heads that float by him. This technique is often used on The Simpsons.
  • The series of flashbacks at the end of the episode, showing that Doug Prepcourse was never really there, are a parody of a similar set of scenes at the end of Fight Club, with some contribution from The Sixth Sense thrown in there.

[edit] Trivia

  • Cleo and JFK broke up some time between the end of the last episode and the beginning of this episode. This contradicts the “Next time on a very special Clone High” segment from the last episode, which said they would break up during this episode.
    • If this is intentional, it's a similar use of the "On the next..." segment to that on Arrested Development, where the "On the next Arrested Development..." segments are used, not to preview the next episode, but to provide information and to tie up loose ends from the current episode.
    • The announcement that they’ve broken up is made by the Announcer, in the “Previously, on a very special Clone High” segment.
  • The announcer claims his nickname is “Pun Dog.” Pun Dog is the real-life nickname of Adam Pava, one of the script coordinators on the show.
  • It is confirmed that Gandhi’s foster parents are Jewish. This is not surprising, considering we saw a flashback of Gandhi’s bar mitzvah in Episode 3, A.D.D.: The Last 'D' is for Disorder.
  • Scangrade is voiced by one of the writers of this episode, Judah Miller.[1]
  • At the end of Act I, there is a blackout, and we can clearly hear the sounds of Abe smashing into the truck of pandas. But at the beginning of Act II, he swerves to avoid them.
  • JFK claims the ‘P’ in PXJT stands for ‘Penis,’ while Clone High’s marquee claims it stands for ‘Pageantry.’
    • In the original script, there were even more suggestions as to what the ‘P’ might stand for (see Deleted scenes).
  • This is episode contains the first (and only) reference to Clone State. Clone State suggests that the clones receive education past high school, but (for some reason) this is done off the premises of Clone High. Also, if the clones require higher education, how could there be a chance some clones won’t get into Clone State?
  • Joan reveals that she went to a ‘sleep-away camp’ during the summer. In Episode 1, Escape to Beer Mountain: A Rope of Sand, Joan makes a passing reference to the fact that she was at camp over the summer. This may have been foreshadowing, or it may simply be a coincidence.
  • Mr. Butlertron is bleeped four times during the episode. Also, four pandas giving the finger are blurred.
  • The song playing prior to the drag race is "Understanding in a Car Crash" by Thursday, seeming to foreshadow disaster.
  • During the drag race the scene cuts to Abe's odometer, which reads "414186.5" miles. The real Abe Lincoln was assassinated on 04-14-1865.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Pava, Adam. Episode Notes for ‘Sleepy Driving: La Rue D'Awakening’ (HTML). CloneHighUSA.com.

[edit] External links

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