Poor Loser

An unexplained lull has left Whit’s End nearly empty, so Eugene brings in a chess set and looks for an opponent. Connie dislikes chess, and Jason is out of town, but Bernard happily volunteers. Eugene doubts that Bernard can offer much competition, especially after hearing that Bernard’s proudest achievement is winning a tiny family tournament against his brother and 104-year-old aunt. Bernard jokes about dice, calls the pieces by the wrong names, and seems to know very little about chess. Nevertheless, while Eugene is lecturing everyone about people who cannot accept defeat, Bernard quietly checkmates him.

Meanwhile, Heather’s volleyball team loses another match. She is the only returning starter from the previous year’s district championship team, and she is furious that her inexperienced teammates cannot match her ability. In the locker room, she blames them for the loss and insists that poor sets are keeping her from making successful spikes. Her teammates finally tell her that they are tired of her complaints and bossiness. Julie acknowledges that Heather has a point about their weak play, but she also tells her that the team cannot stand being treated this way.

Heather tells Whit that the team has not won all season and simply lacks talent. Whit encourages her to adjust her expectations, help the other players develop, and learn from both victories and defeats. Heather has no patience for more losses. She decides that harder practice is the answer and heads to Julie’s house to work on her serve.

Eugene proves no better at accepting defeat. After Bernard wins their first game, Eugene insists that distraction and confusion have ruined his concentration. He appears at Bernard’s door at 7:30 the next morning demanding a rematch, then follows him to the Briarwood Nursing Home during lunch. Bernard chatters about stale bread and checkmates him again in fifteen minutes. Eugene immediately demands another game and confiscates Bernard’s sandwich so that neither eating nor conversation can interfere.

Heather keeps Julie practicing outside for two hours, even though it is late and Julie is exhausted before the next day’s important game. Julie warns that Heather cares far too much about winning and is so obsessed that she has stopped noticing how she hurts people. Heather argues that victory will make everyone friends. Julie replies that real friends remain together even when they lose and goes inside to sleep.

After six straight losses to Bernard, Eugene takes a personal day, disconnects his telephone, and studies recordings of their games. Whit and Connie find him exhausted, unshaven, and surrounded by notes and videotapes. He cannot understand how Bernard’s apparently random moves keep defeating his carefully planned strategies. His sleeplessness has left him so confused that even ordinary facts and grammar seem strange. Whit and Connie finally carry him to bed.

During the volleyball team’s next game, Heather tries to cover nearly every ball herself. She collides with her teammates, ignores their calls, and insists that only she can give them a chance to win. When the coach benches her for forgetting that volleyball is a team sport, Heather angrily quits. Whit later finds her outside the gym and points out that she has played as though no one else belongs on the court. Losing is not the goal, but it is not the end of the world either, and her teammates cannot grow unless she lets them play and make their own mistakes. He also reminds her that quitting can never make her a winner.

Cheers erupt from the gym: with Heather on the bench, the team has won its first match. Julie assures her that she is still their best player and that the extra practice she demanded helped them improve. Yet the team needs Heather to admit that she needs them too. Heather apologizes to Julie and prepares to apologize to everyone else before joining their celebration at Whit’s End.

There, Eugene faces Bernard once more, armed with a notebook full of observations about his opponent’s habits. Eugene seems close to victory when the celebrating volleyball players accidentally scatter the chess pieces. He cannot reconstruct the board and begins to panic, but Bernard concedes that Eugene had him cornered and won fairly. Connie assumes Bernard has deliberately thrown the game to save Eugene from further misery. Bernard leaves that question unanswered, pointing out that he would hardly surrender a chance to gloat. Eugene finally goes to sleep, while Heather honors the teammate who made the winning spike by buying her an extra scoop of ice cream.