‘Grand Army’ recap: Episode 3, ‘Relationship Goals’

In Grand Army Episode 3, a night of partying takes a dark turn for Joey while Dom finally gets her first date with John Ellis. 

Grand Army Episode 3 opens with a basketball game at Grand Army High School. During the rendition of the National Anthem, Dom and a few of her fellow teammates take a knee to protest police brutality. Joey does the same from the dance team and encourages Grace to do it alongside her. Despite trying to be a good ally, Dom isn’t all that impressed with Joey’s show of support.

Warning: This episode contains a disturbing scene of sexual assault.

Dom later visits the mall with her friends to try on shoes and to create a casual run-in with John when he gets off his latest shift at Target. With her friend’s motivation, Dom “accidentally” runs into John. After some initial awkwardness, John asks Dom if she wants to hang out with him. Of course she does! Their relationship might just be the high point of the series, thus far. They’re just so cute.

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John and Dom get dinner together and start getting to know one another. Dom reveals why she’s been saddled with taking care of so many kids. Her older sister got pregnant when she was young and never finished high school.

It looks like Dom has stepped up to the plate. They get to talking about the situation between Jay and Owen.

There are some disturbing parallels between the harsh punishment doled out to Owen and Jay versus the horrific school-to-prison pipeline that ruins the lives of so many kids.

Like Dom, John is very outspoken about social justice. At the same time, she wants people to act like respectful, considerate adults. Still, it is weird to see Dom acting so cold toward Jay and Owen, and I wonder if it’s just bad writing.

Grand Army Episode 3 recap: Rachel reaches a breaking point with Leila.

Rachel and Leila’s friendship is tested in Grand Army Episode 3. Leila is invited to attend a bat mitzvah for Rachel’s sister Hannah and can’t seem to focus on anything other than George. He hasn’t tried to talk to her since they hooked up, and ever since Leila has been frantically stalking his social media looking for clues.

She even sent him a photo, and while we don’t see it, the implication is that it’s a sexy pic of some kind. Rachel warns Leila that she shouldn’t have sent it and should stop obsessing over a guy like George, anyway. Leila should take her friend’s advice, but she doesn’t. She spends the entire day asking Rachel whether she should send another message or wondering how she can be more like Joey, who George constantly interacts with on social media.

Rachel finally reaches her breaking point with Leila and snaps at her, reducing Leila to tears. A kindly rabbi who delivered a sermon for Hannah offers Leila some comfort and invites her to dance. Leila and Rachel reconcile and all is well, for now.

Grand Army Episode 3 recap: A night of partying takes a dark turn for Joey.

As much as Joey wants to pursue something with Tim, her best friend isn’t okay with it. Anna doesn’t like the idea of Joey and Tim — who both have a bad track record for screwing people over — getting together and messing each other up. She doesn’t want to end up stuck in the middle of her best friend and her brother.

Well, teenagers aren’t exactly the best at communicating. Instead of telling Tim that, Joey starts acting out with George and Luke. She acts extra flirtatious toward them both, enough that it gets under Tim’s skin. At first, it just seems like some mild tension between the two that they might eventually be able to work out.

But Tim starts to make some seriously cutting remarks toward Joey. He all but calls her a s–t. And unfortunately for Joey, if she ever thought Luke and George were good guys and genuine friends, she had it wrong. They clearly think along the same lines as Tim but are more inclined to use her rather than look out for her feelings.

The gang goes to the movies together and they sneak in vodka and weed, getting increasingly drunk throughout the evening. It culminates in a horrific taxi cab that sees all three boys and Joey crammed into the backseat. Joey tries to prove that she can do anything she wants, just like a guy can. Tim can mess around with girls, so why can’t she do what she wants with whoever? It gets ugly back there as Joey deliberately starts kissing George and Luke to piss Tim off.

He tries to ignore the scene by smoking and ignoring them. What initially seems like some messy, but mostly harmless, teenage debauchery and angst takes a sinister turn when Luke and George suddenly get extremely forceful with Joey.

Despite her desperate pleas for them to stop, wait, and let her go, the boys rape her in the backseat of the cab. Joey pleads with Tim for help, but he pretends not to notice what’s going on next to him. By the time they reach their destination, Joey is left traumatized.

What’s so chilling about this scene is how common it is and how many people will say that Joey was at fault, despite audibly asking both boys to stop and visibly being uncomfortable with what they were doing to her. Was she kissing both of them? Yes. Does that give them the right to assault her? Absolutely not.

The fact Tim didn’t say anything or even try to see if Joey was okay while his friends assaulted her is one of the most horrific parts of the whole thing. It doesn’t matter that he was pissed at her, if he was a good person he would have tried to stop it from happening. It’s similar to what Justin Foley did to Jessica on 13 Reasons Why.

At the party, Joey quickly locks herself in the bathroom and sobs. Then she desperately tries to clean herself up, although she does keep her ripped underwear, in case she decides to press charges, I’m assuming. Anna starts knocking on the door to check on her, but Joey doesn’t let her in. Then she gets a text from Tim asking if she’s okay. It’s too little, too late for that Tim.

Odds & Ends from Grand Army Episode 3

• Sonia and Jay appear to have something going on between them. Dom isn’t happy to see Jay come by the shoe store while they’re shopping, at Sonia’s request. She blows Jay off when he tries to see where her head is it in regards to his upcoming hearing.
• Sid breaks up with Flo and finishes his personal statement essay. In it, he comes out as gay and then takes a stab at Grindr.

All nine episodes of Grand Army Season 1 are now streaming on Netflix.