Joan of Arcadia (TV Series)

The Uncertainty Principle (2003)

Kathryn Joosten: Old Lady God

Quotes 

• Joan : [Joan is in the hallway of her school. God appears as an older woman selling cupcakes for the soccer team]  You're getting really good at showing up when nobody needs you.

  Old Lady God : Well, now, that's your opinion.

  Joan : So what do you want me to fail at this time?

  Old Lady God : Now what makes you think you failed? You did exactly what I asked you to do: you observed.

  Joan : Hmm! And what good did that do anybody? Ramsey's going to jail, Adam hates me even more...

  Old Lady God : Observation is a more powerful force than you could possibly reckon. The invisible, the overlooked, and the unobserved are those that are most in danger of reaching the end of the spectrum. They lose the last of their light. From there, anything can happen.

  Joan : Okay. Fine, I observed Ramsey, his life is still ruined.

  Old Lady God : His life wasn't the only one at stake.

  Joan : What do you mean?

  Old Lady God : [Starts pointing out different students in the hallway]  There's Laura Eason, ninth grader. She plays the flute. She would have been one of the first to go...

  [gunshot sound] 

  Old Lady God : coming out of Orchestra at the wrong time. And Andrew Bayer: he would have tried to save his friend Lawrence DiStasi and lost his life.

  [two gunshots] 

  Old Lady God : And Gavin Price.

  [gunshot] 

  Old Lady God : And three other students in the cafeteria. And Mr. Harvey. And Ms. Schmidt in the library. And finally, Steve Ramsey himself. And for each of these faces Joan, there are twelve more whose lives would have come to an end today - lives altered forever by you. By the simple effect of being present, by entering the light, by joining the dance.

  [Joan wipes away a tear]