Ladies, gentlemen, and fellow devotees of anything and everything from the 1990s. This is the moment you have all been waiting for if you were travel back to 2001 and tune into your televisions right now. The final scene where Antony returns home after he ran away for a rather short period of time only for Jay to find him in the pool house. Just like what happened to the family, Amanda (Adrienne Bailon), Jay (Jonathan McDaniel aka Lil J’), and Chase (Tahj Mowry) find themselves in a wild goose chase, with Amanda on the wheel, looking for Antony even to the point when Jay calls Carla (Charlotte Church), asking her if Antony is with her. Even Michael (Idris Elba) makes attempts to call the police regarding Antony’s disappearance. The news that Antony is still missing is enough to put Uncle Greg (Mark Dacascos), Aunt Jo (Candace Kita), Howard (David Yost), Kristen (Amy Jo Johnson), Tyler (Walter Emanuel Jones), Rose (Thuy Trang), and Justin (Austin St. John) in a huge state of worry. Jay even gets blamed by Uncle Greg and Aunt Jo for allowing this to happen to Antony with Chase making Uncle Greg and Aunt Jo listen to Amanda’s and Jay’s statements on the both of them being too strict. At least Amanda and Jay try to wring the tape recorder out from Chase.
As stated before, Jay finally finds Antony in the pool house. Antony even states that, although he did run away, the Los Angeles streets were far too crazy a 9-year-old boy like him. Just like his dad and mom, he even blames Jay”telling on his parents and cousins about it”. Uncle Jay, Aunt Jo, Howard, Kristen, Tyler, Rose, and Justin would not have found out about the party if it were not for Jay. Jay even states to Antony that senior high school boys are akin to predators who take advantage of innocent little children if they are not cautious, especially when their targets are 126-pound pre-tween boys. Antony would retort by stating that he weighs 124 pounds and is not as innocent as he looks, although he admits that he is. Jay then leads Antony to the family living room to finally face his parents and his cousins/legal guardians. Uncle Jay, Aunt Jo, Howard, Kristen, Tyler, Rose, Justin, Jay, and Antony wear the same attire as they did in the previous scene. Amanda is in a black silk dress shirt, black dress pants, and black high-heeled shoes while Chase is in a light blue polo shirt, a grey wool vest, dark grey pants, white and black golf shoes.
(The Perez Family Living Room. AMANDA is seated on an armchair in the left. HOWARD, KRISTEN, JUSTIN, ROSE, and TYLER are seated on the sofa in the centre. CHASE is seated on another armchair in the right. GREGORY and JOSEPHINE are pacing around. They are all nervously anticipating ANTONY’S return. JAY enters the living room with ANTONY looking down with remorse, unsure if he is going to face his family.)
JAY: Hey, everybody, look what I found.
(GREGORY, JOSEPHINE, HOWARD, KRISTEN, JUSTIN, ROSE, TYLER, AMANDA, and CHASE glance at JAY and ANTONY. Knowing what is going to occur between GREGORY, JOSEPHINE, HOWARD, KRISTEN, TYLER, ROSE, JUSTIN, and ANTONY, AMANDA and CHASE depart from the living room in a huff.)
KRISTEN (at ANTONY): Are you all right?
ANTONY (hesitantly): Yeah, I…I’m all right.
(GREGORY is sighing with relief while still angry at ANTONY. JOSEPHINE comforts him.)
JAY: Now, we got a volatile situation here. A cannonball if you will. A mishandling of this situation could have repercussions that will reverberate forever.
GREGORY: Justin, call your brother and tell him that he’s about to lose a close relative.
JOSEPHINE: Indeed. Kristen you do the same and call your sister to tell her the same thing.
JAY: Imma call them myself.
(JAY departs from the living room, as ANTONY steps forward. He looks down in fear of what is going to occur. GREGORY and JOSEPHINE approach ANTONY.)
GREGORY: Look. We can ground you forever. We could put bars on your windows. We could put locks on your doors.
JOSEPHINE: Furthermore, we can deprive you of your allowance and bar you from any activity you would have participated in.
ANTONY: Mom, dad–
GREGORY, JOSEPHINE (in unison): Don’t “mom, dad” us!
GREGORY: Do you have any idea what you put this family through?! Running around with God knows what with God knows who!
ANTONY: If I had asked you, you wouldn’t have let me go.
JOSEPHINE: Exactly! You are nine years old! You have no business at a party with junior and senior high school boys!
ANTONY: All my friends were there!
GREGORY, JOSEPHINE (in unison): Your friends don’t live here!
(GREGORY and JOSEPHINE compose and calm themselves down.)
GREGORY: We can’t do this.
JOSEPHINE (at HOWARD, KRISTEN, JUSTIN, ROSE, and TYLER still sitting on the couch): You five talk to your cousin. We’re done.
(GREGORY and JOSEPHINE depart from the living room to the direction of the dining hall. ANTONY paces forward to HOWARD, KRISTEN, JUSTIN, ROSE, and TYLER on the couch.)
ANTONY: You all hate me.
(HOWARD turns towards ANTONY.)
HOWARD: Antony, if that were true, we wouldn’t care when you did something foolish like this.
(GREGORY re-enters the living room stamping and raging while HOWARD, KRISTEN, JUSTIN, ROSE, and TYLER look demurely.) GREGORY: What you have to understand is that we know what’s best for you! It may not seem like it now, but one day you’ll understand that! End of discussion!
(GREGORY exits the living room and heads to the stairs. ANTONY peers if his father is returning and moves one step forward towards his cousins/legal guardians on the couch.)
ANTONY: Guys, don’t you understand?
TYLER: Yes, we understand.
ROSE: We understand you lied and you ran away.
(JOSEPHINE re-enters the living room also stamping and raging.)
JOSEPHINE: And another thing! As long as you live in this house, you will follow our rules! (Beat) That’s it!
(JOSEPHINE also exits the living room and heads to the stairs. ANTONY looks to see if his mother has finally gone upstairs.)
ANTONY (moving forward towards HOWARD, KRISTEN, JUSTIN, ROSE, and TYLER): You guys–
(HOWARD, KRISTEN, JUSTIN, ROSE, and TYLER motion for ANTONY to stop by raising their hand at him. The door slams.)
KRISTEN: Antony, we understand what you’re feeling.
JUSTIN: But you have to consider the seriousness of what you did.
(ANTONY looks down in remorse.)
ROSE: You really hurt us this evening.
(Beat)
ANTONY: All I want for you guys is to trust me.
(Beat)
HOWARD: Trust is a very fragile thing.
TYLER: And you’re gonna have to start earning it all back.
(Beat)
ANTONY: I messed up really bad.
JUSTIN: We’ll talk about it tomorrow.
(ANTONY is about to go upstairs while HOWARD, KRISTEN, JUSTIN, ROSE, and TYLER still sit on the couch.)
HOWARD, KRISTEN, JUSTIN, ROSE, and TYLER (in unison): Antony.
(Just as ANTONY is about to go upstairs, HOWARD, KRISTEN, JUSTIN, ROSE, and TYLER stand up and go towards ANTONY. ANTONY turns towards HOWARD, KRISTEN, JUSTIN, ROSE, and TYLER.)
ANTONY (sobbing): You guys, I’m sorry.
(As ANTONY is saying this, KRISTEN, ROSE, TYLER, HOWARD, and JUSTIN all envelop him in their embrace. All six of them are choked with tears, as HOWARD, KRISTEN, TYLER, ROSE, and JUSTIN comfort the sobbing ANTONY. Despite the misdeeds ANTONY committed, HOWARD, KRISTEN, TYLER, ROSE, and JUSTIN know they cannot stay angry at their cousin/ward forever knowing that he is safe, sound, and back home.)
After this tearful reunion between Antony and his cousins/legal guardians, Jay and Carla are at least reunited in the pool house. Antony, on the other hand, is grounded for lying.
I hope you all enjoyed this final scene based on “It’s a Wonderful Lie” from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Take care, everybody.
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