Homecoming
We begin episode 3 of A Teacher with another dream sequence, this time from Eric’s perspective as he imagines Claire and him hooking up at school. Instead of being alone however, they’re in a classroom full of students. Meanwhile, Matt and Claire receive some less-than-romantic news when Claire learns she may not be able to have kids. Or at least not without a lot of “prodding and poking” by doctors. Matt pressures her with this too, later on telling Claire he really wants to start a family with her and guilt-tripping the girl into signing up for this. In the midst of all this drama back home, Claire shows up at school and immediately confronts Eric, telling him what he did was wrong and that he needs to stop. If he continues on, her life will come crashing down. After some convincing, she eventually agrees to continue tutoring him. With Homecoming on the horizon, our trio of guys deliberate over who to take to the dance. Eric decides to take Alison but tellingly when he asks her, Claire happens to be listening from afar. That afternoon things immediately become awkward when Cody arrives and asks about Eric’s new friend he paraded around campus beforehand. It turns out Logan is Cody’s brother and Logan immediately perks up, interested in the details of this new revelation. Thankfully Eric manages to navigate this minefield, writing it off as a girl he met at the diner he’s currently dating called Stephanie. However, it’s obvious that things are going to blow up sooner rather than later – especially when Eric fails to show up to the diner for his tutoring gig. Eric and Claire’s will they/won’t they romance isn’t the only questionable element to this show. As we soon see, Logan is pumped about Homecoming and specifically the after-party where they’ve all got hotel rooms. “Age is just a number, man,” Logan reinforces when it’s clear he’s thinking about taking Josh’s sister there. That same sister, if you may remember, who’s 14. That evening at the Homecoming dance, Claire confronts Eric about the tutoring. She’s not happy that he didn’t show but Eric can’t help but reveals the truth – he can’t control himself around her and has even dreamt of them together too. As they both head back to the dance, Claire watches him constantly and finds herself unable to take her eyes off him. That eerie and ominous musical score continues here, crescendoing into a series of rising chords as Claire and Eric eventually take off together and make love in Claire’s car.
The Episode Review
So it’s finally happened. The pair have now taken the drastic step to cement their illicit affair and one can’t help but feel the upcoming episodes will make or break this show going forward. If, for example, this is made out to be some wild romantic gesture complete with faint music and an uplifting tone (like the trailer suggests at times) then it will ultimately undermine the message at the start and end about grooming and abuse. However, if A Teacher leans into the danger and hard hitting implications of this affair then it may well pass the test and become a sobering look at the damaging effects this could have on both teacher and student. For now, A Teacher teeters on a fine line between these two extremes and whether this show can tightrope its way across the shark-infested waters below remains to be seen.
