It’s Party Time!
Episode 7 of A Teacher begins an unspecified amount of time in the future – presumably 10 months. Eric attends a party and lives it up with his new frat-party buddies.
It’s his first week of college and the boys all sit together smoking weed. Inevitably the conversation turns to Claire as they talk about how she’s in jail now. It’s typical guy chat and one that sees Eric play up to the crowd and pretend like everything is normal.
Not long after he hooks up with a girl but it’s clear that she’s only slept with him because of his past. Well, this doesn’t seem to bother Eric as he starts kissing her again after they make love.
Since school has started, Eric hasn’t been in touch with Logan. As he talks with his new friend Cody, Eric clearly blames himself for what happened and claims the prosecutor came down hard on Claire. Afterward, he begins looking up Claire online with mixed reaction from different publications, some even backing up Eric’s case that the prosecution went too hard on her. I wonder if this narrative would still be the case if the genders were reversed?
Eric hasn’t been to counselling but claims that he’s doing fine as he talks to his Mother. She mentions how the prosecutor has called and Claire is being released in a few days.
Finally we see the after-effects of Eric’s actions as he begins acting recklessly, falling off the top of a speeding car. Only, it doesn’t seem to phase him despite the visible bruises and cuts up his back and face. Anyway, not long after Eric heads up to the Beta House and is introduced in as a brother.
Of course, first up though is a night with a stripper called Karen who invites Eric to have a private dance. Her roleplay about being a teacher and student gets under his skin though and he bolts from the room, needing some air. Cody follows, prompting Eric to apologize for what happened and bolting off in a hurry.
On the way back to the dorm, Eric meets a boy called Mika who’s sat out in the hallway and encourages him to do mushrooms. As he sits staring up at the sky, Eric mentions how he “misses her so much.”
The Episode Review
After an unspecified amount of time, it seems like Eric’s past is finally catching up to him… but only because Claire is being released from prison soon and that brings conflicted feelings of longing. In a way, A Teacher has really been a missed opportunity and could have dived into Eric’s psyche and emotional trauma on the back of this incident a lot more.
Given the obvious time jump, there’s a lot that’s been missed out here. How were Eric’s grades affected with a brand new teacher? What about his love life? Has he had any bad dreams? Problems connecting with people? Given what we’ve seen I guess not.
There seems to have been a golden opportunity here to dive into the issue of abuse and the psychological, damning effects it can have but it’s been brushed aside by this time jump that does the show absolutely no favours.
The symbolic way Eric falls off the car and sports physical injuries does go some way to serve as the catalyst for his inner turmoil though. Unfortunately, that turmoil never quite spills over in a damning, devastating way to show how wrong all of this is. Still, there’s a few episodes left so hopefully this will change going forward.
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Episode Rating
(2.5)
Thanks for the review Greg. Been searching for a place to discuss this and finally stumbled here.
Just a couple of thoughts about episode 7.
Anyone else find it odd that Eric still hasn’t sought out professional counseling? Would have thought it would have been mandatory by at least school officials.
I get this episode was solely Eric focused but still no mention of Clare’s husband. I get the premise that it’s focus is teacher/student but I hate the lack of acknowledgment of her poor husband.
Anyone else disappointed/bothered by all of the over the top sex scenes? I think the points could have been made without them.
It looks like the whole pregnancy storyline was just filler unless Clare walks out of jail next week with child.
My biggest fear is that they will countinue to glorify this disturbing relationship in the ending have Clare and Eric drive off into the sunset together.
Thanks Julie, I’ve just edited the recap accordingly… I was doing some research earlier and assumed it was 3 years based on the length of a jail sentence for that – I genuinely didn’t know Texas had different rules regarding age of consent but you’re right, the student/teacher thing is still a big deal.
10 months probably does make more sense than 3 years but I think it’s more the editing than anything else that it doesn’t make this clear. It would have been nice to actually have a bit of expository text at the beginning to inform us of how long it’s been.
Thank you for the correction though, really appreciate it!
-Greg W
Just to clarify, at maximum the time jump has been around 10 months. When the show first started, it was established that it was Eric’s senior year and he was actively applying to get into UT. Second, the age of consent in Texas is 17, and he was 17 at the time they started their affair, and 18 when it ended, so she was likely prosecuted for taking advantage of a student in her position of power as well as the final “kidnapping“ that took place at the very end of episode six. This episode shows him in his first weeks of college when guys rush frats, so assuming that the relationship ended sometime around November the prior year, as she started tutoring him at the beginning of the year to retake the SATs which are around late Oct, and the affair lasted I believe 6 to 8 weeks, that would place this about 10 months later. She probably did a plea deal for nine months or so in county jail. So I think the point of this is actually showing the fallout of their relationship now that he’s in a new environment, yet he can’t get away from what happened as everyone, in nearly every scene, reminds him of it. I’m really curious to see if she’s re-introduced in the next episode, as she gets out of jail, and whether or not they contact each other. I’m sure she has probationary restrictions against contacting him as well.