Episode #102 "I Wanna Be Suspended"

  Sean is looking for Jimmy, and he's nowhere to be found. Claudia says she'll find him; she knows how he thinks. Walt stops by with a gift, a set of encyclopedias he found at work (the dump). Claudia cringes at their disgusting odor. Walt asks Sean where Jimmy is and why he isn't in school. Sean tells Walt that Jimmy isn't going to school this week. Last Sunday the family was at "A Taste of Staten Island." Sean and Claudia see a flyer advertising a farewell tour of The Ramones and are determined to go. Jimmy protests that he has homework. He has to make a model of the solar system for his science class. Sean tells him that a Ramones' concert is an important cultural event. The solar system will still be there tomorrow. Claudia isn't having any luck finding Jimmy either. Brother Eddie is hanging around eating Sean and Claudia's food. He claims that he doesn't keep any food at his house. He even goes so far as to write his choices on Sean and Claudia's grocery list. The morning after the concert Jimmy is furiously working on his half-built solar system. Sean and Claudia try to help, but succeed in ruining what little work Jimmy has done. He tells them he's going to get in trouble. Why did they make him go to that stupid concert? Sean says he'll write him a note. Later Sean meets with Sister Helen, Jimmy's principal, who tries to make him understand that a concert is not as important as homework. He argues with her, she doesn't like his tone, and Jimmy finds himself suspended. When he finds out, Walt screams that Sean and Claudia are not good parents. Claudia tries setting off a smoke alarm to lure Jimmy out of his hiding place, but it doesn't work. Claudia can't understand what's wrong with Jimmy. She asks Sean and Eddie if Jimmy had a good time with them the day before. The previous day, Sean had asked Eddie to take care of Jimmy. All Jimmy wants to do is go to school, but Sean reminds him he can't. Sean decides he can't leave Jimmy alone with Eddie, so he asks his boss for a day off. The two guys take Jimmy to visit the Statue of Liberty. Sean thinks it'll be a blast. They start climbing to the top, but Sean gets into an altercation with a guard who won't allow them to climb into the torch, because it's closed to the public. Sean found himself physically removed from a national monument. Claudia is just finding out that this happened when Jimmy walks in. Lily tells them that her brother tried to sneak back into school; they caught him in the library reading a book and threw him out. Sean grudgingly agrees to write another note to Sister Helen and admit that he's been a flaming idiot.