Dismissed

---

"Will you, I pray,

demand that demi-devil. Why he hath

thus ensnared my soul and body?"

To which, Iago responds,

"Demand me nothing.

What you know, you know.

From this time forth I

will never speak a word."

Now, Iago may be keeping his

trap shut at the end of the play.

But do we, as the audience,

know what his motive is?

Why did Iago ruin Othello?

Anyone?

Think back to the beginning of the play.

A certain character named "Cassio."

A certain position.

Remember?

Mr. Butler?

Yes, Becca.

Does Othello really

think Iago is the devil?

Well, that's a good question.

Can anyone from Mr. Coleman's Latin class

tell us what demi means?

Demi?

Anyone?

You have that pawn. You're gonna

expose your queen and choose rook.

Good timing. But, uh, start developing

those pieces from the back, okay?

And something strikes me

about the way it's written.

Checkmate.

So, what I did

was I took a couple of those sentences

and I plugged them into Google.

She took them from a Wikipedia

page on chemical reactions.

She plagiarized the whole

thing like, word for word,

just copy-paste.

I mean, it makes you wonder

like, "What's the point?"

Hey, these kids don't even want

teachers when they have Google.

Yeah. Uh, come on, though.

I mean, sure, yeah, they can get

all the facts from the Internet

but Google can't teach a lesson.

Not the important ones.

Oh, baby.

- Hey, Papa's home.

- Uh-oh.

Papa's home.

Papa, he's so sad you're home,

- but I'm so happy.

- Hey.

- Hi, how are you? Good.

- Hey, how are you? Good.

- Can I get you some food?

- Oh, yeah.

Let me take over. Hi.

Hi, buddy. It's okay.

Oh, my God. He's... he's bigger.

I swear, since this morning.

He's grown an inch.

He's gonna be in your class soon.

- Here.

- Oh, thanks.

Yeah.

- I started without you, I'm sorry.

- Oh, that's okay.

- Oh, hi.

- Hey, buddy.

I'm gonna eat dinner.

So, we got the bill today for the hospital.

Oh, for his bronchitis?

- Yeah.

- How much?

Too much.

What is this?

Um, Mom said she'll pay for it.

Nope. No, we're not taking any

more money from your parents.

And I was thinking,

maybe this would be a good

time for me to go back to work.

Actually,

you don't have to do

that because it turns out,

Jane Fremont knows somebody at Demme U.

She's gonna put in a good word for me,

so, I got a real shot at

getting this professorship.

- Really?

- Yeah.

I'm gonna start working on

this application tonight.

I'm gonna get this.

It's tenure track, right?

Daddy's gonna be a professor.

Right?

That's where the big bucks are.

- Morning, Mr. Butler.

- Oh.

Oh.

Oh, I apologize for startling you.

My name is Lucas Ward.

I'm a new transfer student.

Oh, yeah, sure, uh...

Principal Fremont mentioned

something about that.

Uh, welcome to the class.

Thank you, sir. I'm excited to be here.

Quite the, uh, early bird, are you, Lucas?

Well, only one way to

catch the worm, right, sir?

You can call me, uh, Mr. Butler.

I'm no drill sergeant.

Of course, Mr. Butler.

What is this?

It's every assignment I've

missed so far, this semester.

Please let me know if anything's missing,

but I believe it should

all be accounted for.

I tracked down a fellow

student to get the syllabus.

This is, uh...

Wha...

You really didn't have to do this, though.

Oh, I don't like to fall behind.

Plus it was my pleasure, really.

I found you essay prompts

to be utterly stirring.

You... you did?

Yeah.

Like the doubloon in Moby Dick.

I never knew that it

could have so many meanings

until you encouraged me to

dig deeper into the subtext.

Yeah, well, uh, Melville

loved his metaphors.

Speaking of metaphors...

I read that the origin of the apple

as a gift for teachers dates back

to the Agricultural Revolution.

A fresh apple represents the

hope for a fruitful new year.

Oh...

thank you, Lucas. This is really nice.

I'm not gonna test the

freshness of this one, though.

Oh.

I'd like everyone's attention, please.

We have a new student joining us.

Uh, Lucas, you wanna tell us

a little bit about yourself?

Thanks, Mr. Butler.

Hi, class.

Uh, my name is Lucas Ward.

And, English happens to

be my favorite subject.

Um, I look forward to

getting to know all of you

through some engaging literary discussion.

I just recently moved

here from San Francisco.

- And I'm rather...

- Loser.

Hey, Chris.

Well,

I guess that's my cue.

All right, well, thank you, Lucas.

So...

Don't worry about Chris.

I'm Becca, by the way.

- We talked on the phone.

- That's right.

Thank... thank you again for the syllabus.

Yep. Sure thing.

Let's get into it. What can we tell, uh,

about Raskolnikov from

these first few pages?

What are we... what are we, uh...

Anybody?

Anyone? Yeah, uh, Lucas.

Well,

in the introduction to the third edition,

we learn that Dostoyevsky was

inspired by the true account

of Pierre Francois Lacenaire,

a French poet turned murderer.

As such, Raskolnikov, much like Lacenaire,

feels himself above his fellow men

and above the law in his brilliance,

ultimately testing those boundaries

through criminal violence.

Wow!

Very good, Lucas. Yeah, see?

That's ex... very good, Lucas.

Yes. Okay, this is fun, right? All right.

- Everybody hear that?

- Hey.

Wanna have lunch with me?

Yeah. I'd like that very much.

Raskolnikov considers

himself above the law...

Are we permitted to be up here?

I just can't stand the cafeteria.

All the little cliques.

Bet you had a lot of friends

at your old school though, huh?

I find that my time is better

investing in one true friendship

that a hundred vapid ones.

Smart move packing your own.

Where'd you find food

like that in Morristown?

I prepared it myself.

You're kinda weird, huh?

Oh, no. I mean that as a compliment.

Weird is good.

Everyone in this town is so small-minded,

it's nice to have someone...

Weird.

Right.

Thank you, Becca.

Okay, so we'll start with the pawns.

Pawns can only go forward

and only one space at a time.

Unless they're in this first

position, then they can go two.

Uh, and then, the only other move they

can do is if there is a piece here,

you can capture it and go diagonal. Right?

- Now, you got your rooks...

- Mr. Butler.

Oh, Lucas.

Um, hey, Chester, could you take over?

I didn't know you ran the chess club.

Uh, guilty. Do you play?

So tell me a little bit

about yourself, Lucas.

What do your parents do?

My father is a criminal defense attorney

and a very diligent worker.

We recently moved here

for his job opportunity.

And my mother,

she passed away a long time ago.

Oh, geez.

I'm sorry.

Uh, that must've been

hard on you and your dad.

We manage all right.

Oh, that's a good move.

So was it your dad who taught

you how to play chess then?

No.

Father doesn't have much time off of work,

I taught myself.

Well, I hear you're quite

the scholar in every subject.

Have you given any thought to

which one to focus on at college?

Well, I know I wanna go to Harvard.

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