Recap: Evan Makes A Fool Of Himself In ‘English Teacher’ Episode 3

The brilliance of English Teacher — and I’m ready, I think, even after three episodes, to say the show is brilliant — is how it handles potentially complex and difficult topics. Generally, there are only two ways that mainstream TV attempts to do this, and neither is desirable. It’s either with complete seriousness and an air of preachy hectoring, or it’s to avoid the topics altogether.

“Kayla Syndrome” — you’ll see why Episode 3 is titled that in a minute — comes up with a different approach. It makes fun of the topics enthusiastically without resorting to outright, vitriolic mockery. Instead, while seeing the funny side, it gently raises how and why these topics are important, or why certain new fads and behaviors might be outgrowths of old dilemmas and dynamics.

In other words, English Teacher looks to understand rather than explain. It has the distinct feel of a show that is figuring things out along with the audience, instead of talking down to them from a position of authority.

Asymptomatic Tourette’s

The topic of particular importance in “Kayla Syndrome” is the general idea of kids using a safe space for their gain, or perhaps more accurately trying to create a safe space when, realistically, none needs to exist.

The joke is that a student in Evan’s class named Kayla has “Asymptomatic Tourettes”, which can only be self-diagnosed. But, as her friend Chelsea explains, the entirely made-up and impossible-to-prove condition has to be treated with tremendous sensitivity and respect, and any discussions — even relevant ones — about anything related to illness shouldn’t be had in front of Kayla out of respect.

While this is the joke, the point is cleverer. Despite being completely puddled by the claim and cautious about his obligation to lend credence to it lest he be accused of something, Evan turns to Markie to address the real underlying issue, which is why a student would make up something like this in the first place.

Markie Doesn’t Get Social Trends, But He Understands Kids

Another joke is that Markie — the boorish, quintessentially male gym teacher with his fair share of “problematic” opinions — clearly understands the students and their dynamics better than someone like Evan, who despite being gay doesn’t have the temperament or the inclination to take “Kayla Syndrome”, as the new disease is renamed, remotely seriously. This is important since it highlights the lunacy of assuming that someone belonging to a marginalized group automatically confers morality and understanding to them. Evan spends the whole episode making an idiot of himself, while Markie gets to the bottom of the situation in ten minutes.

The bottom reveals another important point. Despite the abundance of new terms, practices, and anxieties among young people these days, they’re still fundamentally the same as they always were. Kayla made up her condition to draw attention away from Chelsea; Chelsea expressed so much “sympathy” for Kayla’s condition to make it about her; in the end, Kayla, who is voted Homecoming Queen, “selflessly” gives her crown to an embarrassed Chelsea to keep power concentrated in her own hands by publicly and charitably giving it away.

These are the typical kinds of high-school dynamics you’d seen anywhere, in entertainment from any era. English Teacher Episode 3 understands that differences between generations are ultimately facile. Fundamentally, none of us are that much different from what we used to be.

“ENGLISH TEACHER” — “Kayla Syndrome” — Season 1, Episode 3 (Airs Sept 9) — Pictured (L-R): Brian Jordan Alvarez as Evan Marquez, Jordan Firstman as Malcom. CR: Steve Swisher/FX

Evan Misunderstands Harry’s Intentions

To be fair to Evan, he has other things on his mind — namely, Harry’s enormous penis.

This is due to a chance encounter at Austin Sweat, where Evan and Harry were both working out. Harry happened to reveal himself in the locker room, Evan thinks he did it intentionally, and thus he spends the rest of the episode panicking about Harry making a move on him when, after the complaint debacle in the first two episodes, the one thing Evan can’t be doing is dating members of the faculty.

Unfortunately for Evan, he and Harry are asked to work together on organizing the Homecoming dance, which gives them much more time together than he’d like. And, true to form, Evan is utterly unable to behave normally around him, reframing his obvious attraction to Harry as an unwanted, dangerous attraction to him.

The sudden arrival of Malcolm in the bar where they’re “working” is the first real clue Evan gets that Harry isn’t that into him. He and Malcolm sleep together out of obligation more than anything else, but Malcolm isn’t afraid of offending him by telling him the truth. Harry isn’t interested.

Evan — who is a bit of a narcissist, which he admits to several other characters throughout this episode — doesn’t like this idea, so he continues to fixate on Harry’s attraction to him until it eventually comes spilling out when Harry tries to clear the air. Harry can barely whisper that he has a boyfriend before Evan hurries off in embarrassed disgrace.

But!

As it turns out, though, Evan was right all along. When Harry resumes their conversation after Homecoming, he explains to Evan that he and his boyfriend are in an open relationship and the two kiss.

This isn’t exactly a romantic moment, though, since Evan immediately gets cold feet and pushes Harry away. English Teacher Episode 3 concludes with Harry thinking he’s even more crazy than he did before.

At this point, it’s interesting to see the show absolve Evan of his paranoia and prove him correct when it was perhaps a more interesting plot point that he might not have been. But this relationship is clearly going to form the backbone of the remaining episodes, and based on what we’ve seen thus far, it’ll be interesting to see how it’s treated as we go.

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