7th Heaven

When Alex, a new boy who goes to Ruthie's school, wants to do a report on Martin Luther King Jr., the teacher says he can't because Martin Luther King Jr. Day had already passed. Martin makes a remark and the teacher decides that Alex can do his report and everyone in the class has to do a report on a great African-American. Martin finds his car vandalized with racist words written there. Lucy has a car wash as a fundraiser for the church.



This was a great episode! Racism is so mean and hateful. I'm glad that they addressed it once again. It was great seeing Eileen Brennan again! I also liked Julia Duffy's appearance as I know her from Drake and Josh. This episode gets a 10 out of 10!

At first, I was not even going to bother to write a review for this particular episode. I didn't feel as if I had enough to write about to fill out a review the way I usually do. Plus, when the entire one hour episode is mainly about one thing, it makes it harder. But hey, why not?. I was pretty happy that 7th was back with a new episode, but here lately, the show doesn't return from a hiatus with episodes that fans have been waiting for. I don't think anyone was really excited for this episode. I was one of them. Not because of the storyline, but because 7th, for the most part, doesn't do these kinds of episodes well. Season one's "The Color Of God" was really good, but this one can't hold a candle to it. Well, after seeing the episode, it wasn't too far off from how I thought the episode would be. I will admit that it was a tad bit better. It kept my attention all the way thru, and I really wasn't expecting that to happen. More often than not this season, I find my mind wandering during the episodes. This has never happened before. I guess that is a sign for the show to wrap it up. But I didn't with this one. I guess that says the episode was better than others this season. God knows that if this episode was filled with the bantering and boring storyline with Rose and Simon, I would be wandering. But I thought this episode was handled and written better than I had anticipated(maybe that's because Brenda Hampton didn't write it. :)). And it was nice to see Eileen Brennan again as Mrs. Bink. I hope we see her again. She was in the very first episode, so it makes sense for her to appear in the very final episode. But onto the episode. How was it really?. Read on...



A new student at school starts a ruckus in class(that includes Ruthie)when he wants to do a report, on great americans, on Martin Luther King. The teacher, Ms. Porter, informs him that Martin Luther King day was last week, and he would have to pick someone else to do his report on. Alex doesn't understand why it matters. King is a great american every day. Martin steps in to try to help and before he knows it, he is the victim of a hate crime. Because of what Martin did, Ms. Porter says that the entire class will re-do their reports on a famous african american. Word gets out to some of Martin's teammates, who are none too happy about this new situation. When Martin goes to his car, there is a racial remark written on his back window. But the episode never lets us see what is written there. But I will get to that later. Martin takes the car to show Eric and later Kevin. This is a hate crime, and no one is going to stand for it. Det. Michaels gets involved, and the entire thing really comes to blows. Martin is steadfast in his determination to stand up to the crime. He refuses to wash his car. He says that whoever did this is going to wash it off. This leads to more drama in the school parking lot, with the vice principal threatening to tow Martin's car away if he doesn't move it himself. 7th Heaven has never been the kind of show to handle such touchy, controversial subjects very well. They do okay when they touch on the subject in a more stand off kind of way, but when they jump in head first, it doesn't turn out so well. Especially if the whole hour is devoted to it. "Vote" and "Healing Old Wounds" immediatley spring to mind. But I will say that this episode was a lot better than the both of those. The writing was stronger, and while it dipped into maudlin drama here and there, it would have something better come along shortly. Tyler Hoechlin has never really had much to do on the show as Martin. He has gotten his big storyline this season, and he is getting to show off more. Make no mistake that Hoechlin isn't exactly "Emmy worthy", but he is pretty good here. Good for 7th anyways. This is probably his best episode to date since joining the show. But Martin has been so unlikeable this year. Maybe that is why I didn't particularly feel much empathy for him in this episode. Everything with Sandy and his attitude towards her has soured the character. Hopefully that storyline will have a satisfying ending. But this one had some good parts. The end scene with Alex speaking to the congregation was good. It put more sense into the story and the character's motivation. Sam Jones III did well in that scene too. I miss him as Pete on "Smallville"!. I also liked how we never see or hear what was actually written on Martin's car. When we do at the end, Martin and Alex are washing it off(as part of Lucy's idea for a church fundraiser)and we get a quick view and a good idea of what it said. I thought that was nicely handled. I also thought that it was bad scheduling for this episode to air a week late, but it turns out that it fits in with what went on in the storyline. Maybe we don't give the writers enough credit!. There were other, smaller things going on. Ruthie was fluttering around the episode and she has to re-do her report because she recycled an old one on Eleanor Roosevelt. Turns out most every student recycled theirs as well. Some people think this episode was really about that, but I disagree. I think it was just a side storyline to pad out the episode a bit. Also, we get a small look at Simon, Rose, and Sandy. That's great in case of Rose and Sandy, but not of Simon. Is this all they have to give David Gallagher?. That part was so unnecessary, I don't need to dwell on it any further. And finally, the twins try to understand what is going on. Annie(who barely appears herself)tries to explain the drama going on with Martin. The twins, who will never be scholars, ask if Martin was black. These kids will be seven on Valentine's Day(and let's hope they don't do a V - Day episode this season), and they actually ask that. Either this was supposed to be taken as a joke, or Sam and David are mentally retarded. Something is wrong there. In the end, "Got MLK" didn't stray too far from my earlier thoughts on how it would be, but there were things I thought were better than expected and some nice touches. Hoechlin had a nice shining moment here, and it was great to see Mrs. Bink again!. It was also nice to see Julia Duffy as Ms. Porter. She was Stephanie on "Newhart" for years. I would love to see Meredith Baxter return however. Lucy and Kevin had small roles, Simon and Annie were barely there, and the twins were too stupid. I just wish we knew who the culprit was!. The episode wasn't a total loss. It could of been better, but I am not surprised in the least that it wasn't.

They tried to keep the viewer in suspense by not showing what was written on Martin's car. Unfortunately, for all the hype it was given, the graffiti was very unoriginal. On the other hand, I liked how Martin wasn't afraid to keep it on. Racism is still a big issue, and I'm glad that 7th Heaven addresses the issue in many seasons. However, they always seem to address racism against African-Americans, but there are so many other groups that also are discriminated against.

The ending was very beneficial. Different students said various summaries of the lives of significant African-Americans. It was interesting because most of them I had never heard before.

This is a very important episode. It shows how much racism is still left in this world. I think that Alex had every right to choose Dr. King for his \"Great American\" paper. To me, by not letting a student do a person for a certain assignment because of where it\'s placed within the year, is a way to block that person\'s consitutional right. And the ones who stand for that, ae just as sad and rude as the ones who did the actually offense. But when Alex explained the reason for why he did that paper, it gave the whole episode a new meaning.

Like OMG he kept saying "but im not black" as if he himself was racist too. Like ruthie said,"who knows what people we all know are secretly racist?" He said the person who vandalized his car a coward and that whoever wrote on the car should clean up thier mess, but he is a coward for not taking responsibility for his situation with Sandy. He should clean up HIS "mess." (by mess i dont mean the car i means the sandy thing again))

I loved it. It was interesting how Alex was so inspiring to other people during the last couple of minutes of the show. I think that we could all learn a lot from him. It also shows the MLK's dream still hasn't been acomplished in the United States and how we should try to keep his dream alive every day.

I've read reviews/forecasts/predictions about this episode not being very good. "You can't judge a book by it's cover." And this is indeed such an episode and has everything to do with this episode.

Despite what reasons the show may have had to air this episode, I'll voice my opinions.

An overall review, The episode was very historical. It gave background on several key people in American History. It also represents what racial segregation can do and what racism can involve.

This episode made me tear up. To see what hatred can do to people. Haven't we learned enough, from the Holocaust, from the days of segregation, from the days of prejudice, from all that. These episodes remind me of those from the early seasons of 7th Heaven, when we had Reverand Hamilton and all the ones we've been through there. Racism and Prejudice are very sensitive topics and I'm glad 7th Heaven did an episode like this.

7th Heaven is a great show. It shows values and teaches. Through the kids, we see things that we ourselves may have missed in our education. About Sojourner Truth, Benjamin Banacker, Louis Latimer, Ida B. Wells, Thurgood Marshall, Frederick Douglass, Phyllis Wheatley, and George Washington Carver. Despite only being a few minutes at the end of the episode, we still learn something about people who made a difference.

I am saddened to learn 7th Heaven will be ending this season, but this episode certainly strikes up a 10/10 in my episode review.

This episode gave a break from the drama of the teenage father. there are still racist people in this world and this episode shows that you need to stand up for what you believe in. You also do learn of many other great African Americans. I knew a lot of them such as Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Madame CJ Walker, Martin Luther King Jr., Thurgood Marshall, and many more. But i learned of more people who aren\'t as famous but still did the right amount of work. I do think it is important for not only African Americans, but also for Asian-American, Hispanics, and all other races. I was also excited for the preview for next weeks episode when Sandy\'s son is born and Martin does go to see his child. I also enjoyed the lines at Simon\'s when Martin explained he did nothing on t.v., Sandy replied with something like \"Just like Martin, not taking credit for his actions\" and when Simon referred to the t.v. saying it was unbelievable Rose responded with \"Just cause I\'m white\" and with their friend who said, \"Great, now I\'m black and a psychic\". I did enjoy this episode and am waiting for next weeks episode for it will be a joyous event.

This episode was way better than all of you expected it to be. I happened to think that this episode looked good, and it was good. I don't think that the plot was completely clear, and I think they danced around the subject of racism a little too much, but it was a good episode. I loved the part with Sam and David and the colors, but I don't think that it was realistic at all. Most parents would just tell their kids that they are white or black or Asian, and not tiptoe around the subject. I think all of you that were extremely biased about this episode because of the spoilers probably had your minds changed.

I HATE very special episodes. Especially when done this way. We've been waiting for a new episode...what's happening with Simon/Rose, etc? But no, we get this instead.... politically correct? yes. interesting? no.

(There aren't that many new episodes left, and they shouldn't be wasted on anything except the main storylines.)

I thought the premise of this episode was almost there- but not quite. It actually wasn't as bad as the commercials made it out to be. The racism idea makes sense to address, but it was a tiny bit exaggerated in my opinion...



The episode had some relatively good stuff in it, and it gave me quite a few laughs. The refusing to show us the car (until the end and the beginning of words were washed off) that said "nigger lover" (oh my GOD, that language is too horrendous to say on tv- I never say it, I actaully never use swear words, but I still found it funny). Another funny quip was the idea of EVERYONE writing all of their reports on the same person. Who gets all that many assigned reports on the same (or a simillar enough) topic? Isn't that a bit unrealistic? And I think George Washington Carver and his 200 uses for the peanut is a much more worthwhile report for school than explaining how George Washington is a great American, but the joke was a bit stupid. The teacher telling Alex (I think Sam Jones III had a good thing going for him on Smallville, why'd he leave?) that Martin Luther King Jr. was discussed last week was quite funny as well...

The entire thing was actually not that bad. Like no one knowing who Sojourner Truth was (I'd heard the name before, but I have to admit I didn't know who she was). One of the most unrealistic parts was the teacher's great idea(s) about changing the assignment and her understanding that Ruthie (however, from the looks of it, it shouldn't have ONLY been Ruthie) re-used an old report (which is not a good thing); but in the beginning she refused Alex's report on MLK?! I'll give her some credit- perhaps she really thought he was just trying to get out of doing more work and researching someone else, as this seems to be an all too common occurence in Kennedy High School.

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Other stuff that happened in this episode:

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Twins: Idiots and not actors, as always. The entire color thing I was barely able to stand. They were born in season 3- it's season 10. They're seven years old, and in first grade. Haven't they ever heard of people being black and white before? Don't they realize that asking their parents is stupid if they really are curious and want answers- didn't Simon get suspended for hitting someone who called Nigel a nigger when he was in 5th or 6th grade? And didn't they actually say the word? Couldn't the twins ask Ruthie, who was sitting next to them in church, rather than the non-family member Mrs. Bink? But I enjoyed Mrs. Bink; she's a great detail in every episode she's in. She's not dead yet, and she's great. I'm glad she was back in this episode.

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Simon: Perfect amount of Sandy and Rose- Rose is still herself, but only had two or three lines. Just what I want. Sandy's little remark about good ol' Martin always not wanting to take credit for what he's done was great, and so was the comment from the mysterious Afican-American friend (did you notice how many more black people were thrown in for this episode only, just for effect?). Didn't she say that he looked like an okay guy? I like Martin (most of the time), and I think she's right.

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Kevin is just an idiot. I'd rather Meredith have been in the episode, and he was left out. All those girls (and I'm a girl myself, mind you) who say they watch 7th Heaven sometimes because of the hot guy Kevin- you're idiots. All of you. What did he do? Say "hi" to the hate crime detective and show that he hasn't forgotten his police work since he still is on a first-name basis with the guy (and how many people's names would he really know, anyway)? And say that Savannah (another not needed cute face) was being watched by the dogs (reminding you they got 2 dogs for Christmas), as a stupid joke?

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Annie wasn't in it at all. Was the only time we saw her in church? I feel awful that a woman with at least some talent is getting a lot less screen time than the twins. She's an adult stuck with working on 7th Heaven, an awful tv show that I still watch and kinda like, and the twins are 8-year-olds that have no acting ability and are lucky to be allowed to stay on the show since birth. Oh well.

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I think next week's episode, where Sandy will give birth, looks promising. And this one wasn't bad.