At My Whit’s End: Doubting Unto Others

(Photo: Kids enjoy a day at Whit’s End, knowing it may be their very last if they displease Actual Demon John Avery Whittaker. By Bruce Day, Focus on the Family. Image courtesy of The Odyssey Scoop.)

For a show with three proto-pilots and an entire pilot season, Odyssey USA’s been struggling. They should have worked out all the kinks by this point, right? Well, yes and no. The three proto-pilots were more geared toward adults and Family Portraits utilized the shotgun method of trying every audience possible and seeing what stuck. They chose to focus the show on kids and that’s where things have gone wrong. Family Portraits had some solid kid POV focused stories but their primary writer, Susan McBride, is no longer with the show. Without her the writers left on staff have been floundering.

The last three episodes we looked at were painfully didactic, the desire to get across their skewed morals a bigger concern than telling a well paced story. Even listening to them with their intended use as Evangelical propaganda in mind they still came up short. All the show has going for it now is great design and an amazing cast but that isn’t enough. Odyssey USA needs to get its act together.

Episode 9: Doing Unto Others

Flummoxed at how to follow “The Golden Rule,” sixth grader Johnny Bickle takes advice from Officer Harley and Connie to try and find the “right way” to do unto others.

Whit leads an after school bible study but none answer his questions. Save for Johnny, who always knows the answers, the rest don’t dare to raise their hands. They know if they get the question wrong, God’s ordained Whit to use his Big Bang Crash to obliterate every child in Odyssey. Not in the mood for mass child destruction, today, Whit allows Johnny to answer. Johnny recites “The Golden Rule.” Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Testing his fate, Johnny dares to question, “the Bible says do unto others as you would have them do unto you. But it doesn't say how. What kind of things should we do for other people?” 

Whit should break this child in half for his insolence but, fearing he’ll miss his daily appointment to crush Connie’s will to live, simply answers it isn’t hard to figure out. There are plenty of opportunities out there to help people, you just have to try. Unsatisfied with that answer, Johnny continues to ponder the question. So much so he misses fellow classmate, Linda, THIRSTING for him to take her to the Sunday School class party. The boy’s so concerned with HOW to follow the Golden Rule while Linda just wants him to shut up and marry her already so they can have 3.5 kids and a loveless marriage. After all, the Golden Rule is simple. You just be nice to people. Johnny can’t believe it’s that simple, there’s got to be more to it. He reasons that maybe it’s, “doing all the things for other people you wish THEY would do for you?”

Linda seizes her chance and replies-

Linda: “You mean, like if what I wanted you to do unto me was to come to the party with me, what I should do unto you is be willing to go to the party with you instead, right?”

Johnny: “Huh?”

Linda: “That's so sweet. All this time you were gonna have your mom drive, and you just didn't know how to tell me. Well, you can pick me up at seven. I gotta go now! Wait till I tell Jenny. Bye!”

Johnny: “Uh, Linda? What did I? I mean, how did I? I don’t think I can… Oh boy…”¹

Whoa there, Linda, I know you’re down bad for Johnny but only MEN are allowed to warp scripture like that. How else can they take advantage of women in “Godly” ways? NO SCRIPTURE WARPING FOR SINFUL FEMALES! 

Johnny’s no closer to understanding the Golden Rule and asks Officer Harley for help.

Johnny: “So you know about the Golden Rule?”

Officer Harley: “Of course, whoever has the gold makes the rules. -laughs-”

Johnny: “Ugh…”

Officer Harley: “Nah, I’m just kiddin’.”

Johnny: “Would you please explain it to me?”

Officer Harley: “Well, you see, that was a joke. Sort of like a pun, you know? Gold. Rules. Golden Rule.”

Johnny: “No, I mean, explain the Golden Rule to me.”

Officer Harley: “Oh, well, what's the big deal? You just be nice to people.”

Johnny: “That's what Linda said. But is being nice really all there is to it? And are you supposed to be nice to everybody? Or just the people who are nice to you? And are you supposed to be nice to them first, so they'll be nice to you later? Or are you supposed to wait until they're nice to you and then be nice back to them?”

Officer Harley: “Well, that all depends.”

Johnny: “On what?”

Officer Harley: “On what in the world you're talking about, Johnny?”²

The only insight Johnny manages to get out of Harley is that whatever Johnny likes, other people will like to. Ah, the exact logic I used as a kid when I gifted someone a copy of Star Trek: Starfleet Command II: Empires at War. I liked it, so of course they’d like it as well! (They never played it and I sunk dozens of hours into their copy. What a great gift!)

It’s full-on kid logic so no wonder it makes sense to Johnny. Finally! Odyssey USA captures the way a child might actually think instead of solely playing towards the wants of Evangelical parents. Johnny’s struggling with not understanding the Bible and, let me tell you, that is a common problem even for kids who consider themselves “believers.” From the moment you enter the Church you get Bibles tossed at you and told to live your life by it. The fact there’s such controversy over what the Bible actually says or how it’s supposed to be interpreted demonstrates the book isn’t as straight forward as many churches make it seem.

The way Johnny struggles with understanding how to implement the Golden Rule, the exact way you’re supposed to go about it, is exactly how I thought about the Bible as a kid. Not just nodding my head along but actively asking questions. “What does this mean? How do you do that? Was the Earth literally created in seven days?” The answers I’d get would rarely satisfy me and would largely consist of “read your Bible more” or, as Johnny hears throughout the episode, “it’s simple.” But to Johnny it isn’t simple and his quest to understand it is the thrust of the whole story, the implication being he can’t be a good believer if he doesn’t know how to do it. 

Later that day Johnny finds Linda at Whit’s End and, attempting to implement the Golden Rule, gifts her a calculator. By Johnny’s logic, he’s terrible at spelling and wants Linda’s help. Since she’s terrible at math, he gets her a calculator with a promise to help her. That’s following the Golden Rule correctly… Right? Linda storms off, furious at the perceived insult to her intelligence. Johnny’s crushed.Why is something so “simple” so complicated? What is he missing?

Meanwhile Connie, staving off Whit leeching her life force for a few moments, shares her experience watching It’s a Wonderful Life on TV. Whit, longing for a better time when media wasn’t diverse, wishes he could have seen it but he doesn’t own a television. Ah, I should have expected nothing less from the Dobson-sona himself!

Whit goes off to work as Johnny shares his dilemma with Connie. Godless heathen she is, Connie tries to help Johnny by giving her own interpretation of the Golden Rule: Help people in any way you can and not expect anything in return. That’s what Whit seems to do and it works for him, right? (Girl, no, that man is not an example. GET AWAY!)

This makes more sense to Johnny and he settles on doing something nice for Whit. Connie offers an idea, get Whit a television! She even knows where to get one at a good price! Should these two understand that Whit, the owner of a business, could afford a TV if he really wanted one? That buying a TV, especially when you’re a kid, is WAYYY too much money to spend on a gift? Sure, but they’re kids. They’re caught up in trying to do something nice. It’s sweet. I bought my teachers gifts back in high school. (The best one was a bootleg set of Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot.)

When Johnny presents Whit with the television he doesn’t get the response he expected. Whit sees the thing and can only muster a deflated, “Oh. A television…” The way Hal Smith plays that line perfectly sets up why Whit can’t accept the TV. A reason that has nothing to do with beating children or strangling their souls! One that actually provides some, le gasp, intriguing characterization?!

Whit: “Well, I have a little problem. See, I'm kind of what's known as a TV junkie. Once I get started watching, it's really hard for me to stop, and then I don't get anything done. So about the time I opened up this place, I got rid of all my TV's. It's not that I can't afford them, it's just that I don't want them around. I'm sorry, kids.”³

Whoa. An episode of Odyssey I relisten to as an adult and I discover a detail I’d never noticed before that DOESN’T make me want to gaze into an eternal abyss?! Whit was such a “TV Junkie” he owned multiple TVs. It’s a small detail, easy to miss, but it’s what elevates this above yet another Focus on the Family screed against television. Whit struggles with the same sort of issues that keep us scrolling TikTok or other platforms for five hours at a time. I was going to call it a “self control” issue but that implies TV and social media aren’t specifically designed to keep you glued to them. It’s not a personal failing if you get addicted to a media delivery system, that’s what they’re meant to do. If Whit got TikTok in his hands he’d have no chance but that’s not a moral failing, nor is struggling with TV addiction. You can imagine Whit had a TV in every room. He couldn’t go a moment without having one on, needing them to drown out his thoughts.

I wonder if his struggle with addiction was exacerbated by his wife’s death? That could plunge anyone into numbing activities. He needed the TV on at all times just so he wouldn’t have to think about the bad things… But he could never really escape them. Thus he’d have to watch more and more, desperate to drive it out. A vicious cycle that isn’t easy to break. I can imagine Tom Riley and Harley helping him understand that watching TV for weeks, if not years, on end won’t help him with the loss of Jenny.

Am I giving this part of the episode too much credit? Possibly, but it isn’t as much as I’ve needed to before. Progress! It’s the first time since “A Member of the Family” that we get to see the more flawed side of Whit. To see that even though he’s a godly man, he still makes mistakes and is willing to admit to them. Through Hal Smith’s performance you can hear little traces of temptation that Whit has to resist.

Whit, with flaws like this on full display, shows us a character whose wisdom comes from real lived experience. Not from the giddy desire of Dobson-sempai to shatter the wills of all who oppose him. I have no doubt Whit views God as playing some role in dealing with his addiction but it isn’t at the forefront. In this moment Whit’s finally more than a freakish mouth piece. He’s an actual character. Explaining all this to Johnny isn’t a beatdown to get this child in line, it’s a genuine heart to heart.

Even still, no matter how hard Johnny’s tried to follow the Golden Rule nothing’s worked out. Why bother?! Whit urges him to not give up on “doing unto others” but admits the Bible can get confusing.

Whit: “A lot of times the Bible tells us what to do, but doesn't tell us exactly how we're supposed to do it. But you see, that's where trusting the Lord comes in. All God wants us to do is love him and obey his commandments. If we'll only do that, he's promised to bless our efforts. Now, that may not happen in ways we can see or understand, but well, that doesn't really matter. The important thing is for us to continue to trust him and do what he says.”⁴

Ah, I praise Odyssey one moment then get slapped in the face with its confounding duality seconds after. Classic. 

I hate that whole “trust Him and do what He says” because the whole point is that Johnny does trust in God but DOES NOT KNOW WHAT GOD/THE BIBLE IS SAYING WITH THE GOLDEN RULE. It does matter if these things happen in ways we can understand because without understanding how are we supposed to know what others or even ourselves want? 

On the flip side I appreciate Whit acknowledging the Bible isn’t straight forward or easy to understand. It isn’t “simple” and all the obstacles Johnny’s encountered prove that. It may seem insignificant as this point is raised only to be swept under the rug with, effectively, “trust in God, bro” but any acknowledgement of the Bible’s shortcomings? That would be an oasis of hope if you were raised in the Evangelical world. It allows for some doubt. Some room for an Evangelical child to voice problems with their holy text. To those on the outside this little distinction is barely worth remarking on. But if you live in a world of draconian rules set down by Dobson-sama? A small license to ask tough questions means something. 

Thankfully it all works out for Johnny when Harley offers to buy the TV and Linda apologizes for getting angry at him earlier. She recognizes he meant well and accepts his offer to help her with math. She even offers to help him with spelling, mostly because the card he gave her with the calculator spelled “Linda” with two n’s. LAUGHTER. FREEZE FRAME.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
HAIM SABAN
SHUKI LEVY

The episode ends with Chris, the narrator, slightly undercutting the message of the episode when she plainly states that the right way to follow the Golden Rule is, “just doing unto others and then having faith that God will bless what you do.”

…

Which is just another way of saying “be nice to people.” Hey, it was that simple! Johnny, you got robbed, bro!

Putting that little wrinkle aside, damn, this one was alright. Not perfect, the resolution should have been that Johnny learns to directly ask how he can help someone instead of just assuming but whoa, whoa, whoa, we can’t have the youths getting TOO curious about other people. I’m also not a fan that Johnny’s questions about how to exactly follow the Golden Rule got swept under the rug. I’d also like a more thought out answer, man! Still, “Doing Unto Others” is easily the best episode since Family Portraits. An actual kid POV story that doesn’t talk down to its audience. A well told story that ramps up the conflict with solid pacing. A lesson that’s, more or less, backed up by the plot that came before it. Biblical doctrine that doesn’t totally make me want to stage a whole tournament arc just so I can make Whit answer for his crimes. (I’ll see you at the Dark Tournament, asshole!)

Odyssey USA can do something worthwhile! It still has potential. Unlike what “Promises, Promises” tried to teach us, the show isn’t all evil. Perhaps, deep down, there’s some good still to be found in Odyssey. 

Goodness… And Death.

Wait, what?!

Next Time: Someone dies!

Note: If you want to know more about how social media was intentionally designed to alter our brains, I highly recommend reading The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World by Max Fisher. An excellent overview of how we got to where we are with social media and why it makes us feel the way it does.

Sources:

Doing Unto Others: Written by Phil Lollar, Directed by Phil Lollar and Steve Harris, Production Engineer Bob Luttrell, Focus on the Family, 1988.

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