Joan gets her most open-ended assignment yet: to pay attention and give help where it’s needed, resulting in her befriending a young boy with breathing difficulties. Meanwhile, Will must deal with a pair of cops who viciously beat a young man.

There’s just something about this show that leaves me in tears every week. Sometimes they’re happy tears, true, but more often they’re the result of some incredibly powerful and emotional storylines. This is by far the strongest, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that Joan of Arcadia isn’t about good versus evil; there are no villains in most of the episodes, just people. And people can be good and bad in equal measure, sometimes right and sometimes wrong.

Every last drop of emotion is pulled out of this story. The biggest part of that is Joan, who learns that my listening she can get the whole story rather than just part of it. As a result, she moves from person to person, helping people she didn’t realize needed it, including her father. The discovery that the boy she’s babysitting actually is dying is like a punch to the heart, and the actor playing the kid is simply fantastic. The fact that it leads her to discover why her friend Adam hates November, and the that she’s not been there for him when he needed her is perfect plotting and exactly how this show plays things out.

The Will plotline is hard-hitting as well, dealing with racism issues and two sides of the same story. Again, there are no villains here, just people making a snap judgement based on what they see and going too far. When Will finally meets the man beaten by his officers, it’s painfully apparent what’s occurred and sad to see that people really don’t pay attention or listen to others. This is borne out with Helen, who seeks advice from Father Ken and learns more about herself and her relationship with Will than she expected as they confront the death of Kevin’s future since his accident. When both break down in each other’s arms, it’s terribly sad.

The final hit comes when Joan meets God on a bus and asks why life has to be this way, something everyone has asked at one point or another. His answer, that feelings are there to be had and explored, is exceptionally simple and poignant and ends a superbly written episode that really makes you consider how you live your life and what you could do to be a better person. If only all TV was this affecting.

*****

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