My So-Called Life (TV Series)

Why Jordan Can't Read (1994)

Claire Danes: Angela Chase

Photos 

Quotes 

• Angela : Love is when you look into someone's eyes, and suddenly, you go all the way inside, to their soul... and you both know, instantly. I always imagined I would fall in love, nursing a blind soldier. Who was wounded in battle. Or maybe while rescuing someone in the middle of a blizzard, seconds before the avalanche hits. I thought, at least, by the age of fifteen, I would have a love life. But, I don't even have a "like" life.

• Angela : Huge events take place on this earth every day. Earthquakes, hurricanes, even glaciers move. So why couldn't he just look at me?

• Angela : I was just thinking, could you maybe have Dyslexia?

  Jordan : What the backwards thing?

  Angela : Lots of people have it. My father's brother has it. It makes reading incredibly difficult cause your mind like ...

  Jordan : Let's not talk about this.

  Angela : - Reverses things. I'm sorry. It's actually not... I mean A lot of really intelligent people are dyslexic. Just because a person can't read doesn't ...

  Jordan : Hey! I can read, OK. Just not ...

  Angela : No, I know.

  Jordan : Just not that good.

  Jordan : You know those guys... up in the mountains.

  Angela : what guys?

  Jordan : Who make snow, like as their job.

  Angela : Yeah.

  Jordan : I would really like to do that.

  Angela : Part time or...

  [Jordan kisses her] 

  Jordan : Sorry.

  Angela : What?

  Jordan : I interrupted you.

  Angela : Yeah.

• [Jordan hands Angela the love letter she wrote about him] 

  Angela : But when I wrote this... I wrote this about someone else, um, I... this guy, I had a boyfriend last summer and, um... I, I wrote everything... I wanted to remember him... and I used your name because I, I wanted... I didn't want other people to know it was about him because... he... he died... he's dead.

• Angela : If only there were a button somewhere that I could push to force me to stop talking.

• Angela : This life has been a test. If it had been an actual life, you would have received instructions on where to go and what to do.

• Jordan : Oh, I almost forgot. Here.

  [hands letter to Angela] 

  Jordan : I found it at the museum. You wrote it, right?

  Angela : Yeah. But when I wrote this, I wrote it about someone else. This guy. I had a boyfriend last summer, and I wrote everything... I wanted to remember him. I used your name because I didn't want other people to know it was about him. Because he died. He's dead.

  Jordan : Look, I didn't read it. Okay? So you don't have to, like, tell that stuff.

  Angela : You expect me to believe that?

  Jordan : I don't care what you believe.

  Angela : Well, you find a five-page letter in a museum and it starts "dear Jordan," and you expect me to believe you didn't read it?

  Jordan : Nevermind. Look, I read parts of it. Okay?

  Angela : What? You must really think I'm stupid.

  Jordan : It just didn't hold my interest, okay?

  Angela : Oh really? Why is that? I'm curious!

  [stops Jordan] 

  Angela : I'd really like to know what it was that made it so incredibly boring. Just tell me! Was it too emotional? Too personal? Too many big words?

  Jordan : [yells]  Shut up! Geez.

  Angela : You couldn't read it. That's it, isn't it?

  Jordan : I never told anyone before.

• Angela : I'm finally over him.