Our Father

Lawrence Hodges has one of the biggest imaginations in Odyssey, and in his daydreams he is always the hero. As the episode opens he is the world-famous slugger stepping to the plate in the last game of the World Series, bases loaded, two outs, down by three - a game he plans to dedicate to his dad, who has promised to fly in just to watch. Then the real world breaks in: the phone rings, and it is his father calling to say he is not coming after all. Lawrence says it's no big deal, but in his fantasy the mighty Hodges strikes out.

Lawrence's dad travels for work and is almost never home, and it hurts more than Lawrence lets on. Looking for someone to play catch with, he wanders over to the Barclay house, where Mr. Barclay is preparing a Sunday school lesson about God being our Heavenly Father. Lawrence, who has never gone to church, figures that if God is anything like his dad, He's never around. Before Mr. Barclay can answer, Jimmy bursts in with news that the father-son baseball clinic has been scheduled - a clinic Lawrence cannot attend, because a father-son event needs a father who shows up.

Alone again, Lawrence retreats into a new fantasy: as a mad scientist with his faithful assistant, he stitches together "Dadenstein," a homemade father who will always be there for him and go to father-son baseball clinics. But Rusty Gordon of the Bones of Wrath gang overhears him and moves in with an offer. Rusty's dad is always working too, he says, and he knows exactly how Lawrence feels. Why settle for a dad when you can have the Bones of Wrath - a family that will never let you down?

Under the gang's influence Lawrence turns surly and rude at home, mouthing off to his mother until she sits him down and demands the attitude stop. Mr. Barclay stops by that morning, having pieced together what set Lawrence off, and offers to bring him along to the clinic with Jimmy - but when they go to tell him, Lawrence has slipped out of the house to run with Rusty. Jimmy tracks him down and delivers the invitation himself, and for a moment Lawrence is thrilled. Then Rusty forces a choice: the Barclays can give him a weekend, but the Bones can give him a family. Lawrence sends Jimmy away.

To prove his devotion, Lawrence takes on an "initiation mission" from Rusty: a make-believe bombing run against enemy munitions factories disguised as flowerpots. He smashes every one before discovering whose front lawn he is standing on - the Barclays'. Rusty has set him up to vandalize the home of the very people who care about him. Lawrence's mother is horrified and orders him to work off the cost of every broken pot, but Mr. Barclay asks to speak with Lawrence alone, and instead of yelling he tells him something surprising: his own father wasn't around much when he was a boy, so he knows how tough it is. Lawrence's dad works so hard, he says, because he wants the best for his son - and whenever Lawrence needs someone, the Barclays' door is open. The clinic invitation still stands, too, though so does the bill for the flowerpots.

In Lawrence's final daydream he is back at the plate in the World Series, bases loaded, count full - and this time he sends the ball over the wall, dedicating his phenomenal game to his good friend George Barclay.