We have an interesting relationship forming between Starr and her new biology teacher, Schuyler Joplin. Now that Starr and Mr. Joplin have figured out that she is the young woman whose case pushed his mother to kill herself and he is indeed the son of her doctor, this story should be quite the trip. Starr is having a lot of trouble dealing with the loss of her baby and she finds in Mr. Joplin someone whom she can relate to because they have a shared connection.


There is so much for these two characters to learn in the coming months. Starr, of course, has no clue that her baby is alive and well and being passed off as Jessica’s baby and Mr. Joplin has no idea what his mother was involved in with Starr’s father. He believes that his mother was a very dedicated doctor and that she killed herself because she couldn’t live with the fact that she failed to realize there was something wrong with Starr’s baby. He also finds out from Starr that his mother said she had a lot on her mind and he believes that his past has a lot to do with that. He feels a lot of guilt because he knows what he put his mother through with his drug problems (and that she covered for him when he stole drugs from the hospital) and now that he has gotten himself cleaned up and wants to thank her for all that she did for him, he doesn’t get the chance because she committed suicide. Once Mr. J. finds out exactly what Todd’s role in this tragedy really was things are going to get really heated.

And by the way, is Mr. Joplin really clean? What is in that drawer in his desk that he keeps locked?

So now the folks in Llanview are going to be dealing with the drug culture at Llanview High School. Nora finds a joint in Matthew’s backpack and when she tells Bo about it, he freaks out. Being the police commissioner, Bo can’t believe that after the way Matthew was raised, he would even experiment with drugs. It’s kind of hard to see Matthew this way, at least for this fan, because he seemed to go overnight from a young boy to a high school student and we never saw it coming. Of course it makes perfect sense in Soapland that he would go from eleven years old to a fourteen-year old high school freshman overnight, so we shouldn’t be surprised.

Bo and Nora’s confrontation with Matthew was anything but easy and not very successful. Bo went at the situation like a bull in a china shop and I guess he reacted like most parents would. Considering that Bo is the commissioner and is a man who really only sees things in black and white (right or wrong), he is not having any of Matthew’s excuses and basically calls him a liar every time he opens his mouth. Matthew was no shrinking violet in that confrontation either. At first he used the two most ridiculous excuses in the book, those being that he never saw that joint before and that he was holding it for a friend. Those were very lame excuses, but Matthew finally admitted that the pot was his and then went on the offensive.

Matthew couldn’t believe that his parents had never tried drugs, even pot, but Bo could swear to him that he never did. Too bad Nora couldn’t do the same and at least she didn’t lie, but she did tell him that she was in college at the time. Matthew throws it in Bo’s face that he uses alcohol when things get tough for him and reminds Bo of how drunk he got when Asa died and how he disappeared last summer when he was needed at home. Bo’s only defense was that he is of age to drink and alcohol is legal. All true; but the first thing Bo did after his confrontation with Matthew was head to Rodi’s for a couple of beers.

Hmmm. I think Bo could have been more tactful in the way he handled things, because now he won’t even let Matthew ride the school bus and is driving him to school. Bo is almost guaranteeing a huge rebellion from Matthew.

I have to feel sorry for Matthew, especially when he explains how he feels. He tells his parents that he’s the shortest boy in school and that the only reason the other kids don’t kick his butt is because he’s friendly with Cole so they don’t mess with him. I could understand him when he said that the only reason he bought the joint was because it would keep the other kids from thinking he’d rat on them since his dad is the police commissioner and his mother is the District Attorney. That is a lot for a young person to deal with when they are faced with peer pressure. I figure Matthew will get more involved with drugs and it will be more than him just pretending to go along with the crowd.

Then we have Cole who just can’t deal with the road his mother is going down. He was so happy to have his mother back and now she doesn’t know who he is and doesn’t seem to care. It was terrible for Cole to find out that Marty was staying with a stranger at the hotel and it hurt him very badly when she told him that she couldn’t be with him now and couldn’t live at Nora’s with him. I wasn’t too happy to see Cole finally succumb and start taking drugs to deal with his problems because I would have liked it if he at least took a moment to think back to what drugs did to him a couple of years ago when he was taking steroids. Cole was furious to find out that someone at school had given Matthew pot, but it didn’t dawn on him that he was heading for destruction himself.

Leave it to Starr, who knows Cole better than anyone, to figure out right away that he is on something when he shows up in the classroom and goes off on Mr. Joplin and misinterprets what was going on between the teacher and Starr. Cole came right out and told Mr. Joplin that his mother murdered their baby and that even though she committed suicide, she got off easy. Starr knew right away that those weren’t things that Cole would say and she immediately confronted him and accused him of being high.