Dumb Question...

[BillyK]

In "JJ's Fiancee" Part 2 -- what happens to JJ's Fiancee? Does she leave JJ to find more dope...or does she jump out the window??

[vashti1999]

She jumped out the window so she could leave JJ and find more dope.

[TVFactFan]

Originally posted by vashti1999
She jumped out the window so she could leave JJ and find more dope.

She left by going out the window, she didn't jump because they were on the 1st Floor-lol

[knl9674]

i wondered this same question in another post. where exactly was she going with no money? they weren't even in chicago anymore, they were in indiana! i assumed that she was going to try and get back home to her purse b/c while she was flipping out she kept saying that she couldn't wait that long to get married, their parents are probably worried, she's got to get back, etc.

the only way she was going to score some drugs was to get out on the stroll and try and get some money. otherwise, i think she tried to get back to chi-town.

[W.J. Griffin]

I was always under the impression that J.J.'s fiance committed suicide by jumping out of the window, mainly going by the impression that the kids had checked into a multi-story fleabag-type hotel...J.J.'s stunned reaction as he walked out of the bathroom and sat on the bed would support this scenario. (besides, if she was, indeed, goimg out to score more drugs, she would have bolted through the front door, at least). And again, the equally stunned gasps of the audience would also support the suicide theory.

The whole point of these two episodes is to drive home the hideous tragic consequences of substance abuse, and for said abuser in such a morality play to just "run out to score more dope" at the show's climax would be totally anti-climatic and diminishing to the episode's dramatic impact. The fiance's fate was final and abrupt, and it seriously drove its point home in such a way that many viewers, twenty-eight years after the fact, are STILL talking about it.

[TVFactFan]

Originally posted by W.J. Griffin
I was always under the impression that J.J.'s fiance committed suicide by jumping out of the window, mainly going by the impression that the kids had checked into a multi-story fleabag-type hotel...J.J.'s stunned reaction as he walked out of the bathroom and sat on the bed would support this scenario. (besides, if she was, indeed, goimg out to score more drugs, she would have bolted through the front door, at least). And again, the equally stunned gasps of the audience would also support the suicide theory.

The whole point of these two episodes is to drive home the hideous tragic consequences of substance abuse, and for said abuser in such a morality play to just "run out to score more dope" at the show's climax would be totally anti-climatic and diminishing to the episode's dramatic impact. The fiance's fate was final and abrupt, and it seriously drove its point home in such a way that many viewers, twenty-eight years after the fact, are STILL talking about it.

I always thought that the motel room was on the first floor.

[W.J. Griffin]

Not all motels are of the single-story variety...the Holiday Inn chain, for example, have multiple-story units for their guest.

But my assertation that JJ and his fiance (what WAS the name of Debbie Allen character, anyway?) were staying in a hotel as opposed to a motel is due to the simple fact that NEITHER KID HAD A CAR!! If you'll recall, they took a BUS to Indiana. (the term "motel" is a contraction of the words "motor hotel", built along the emerging superhighways of postwar America...before that time, hotels in rural areas were referred to as "tourist camps")

Another point of evidence to support my ''hotel" hypothesis is when the clerk ushers the two kids to their room, you can see an exterior hallway outside their door...if, indeed, this had been a motel, we would have seen , or at least caught a glimpse of, the parking lot. (then again, they could have stayed at a Holiday Inn or a Best Western, motor establishments that did have internal access to their rooms, but those outfits, even back in the seventies, were expensive, especially to a couple of high school kids from the projects of Chicago!)

So JJ and his prom date/fiance stayed at what looked to me like a very seedy establishment based in a multi-story dwelling, one whose proprietor probably didn't ask a whole lot of questions, who charged very little for a room and whose windows faced an alley, and, presumably, a very steep drop to the street, so that if anyone tried to go out said window, they would, at the very least, sustain a very serious injury. Ms. Allen's character was in an extremely agitated state and was obviously NOT thinking clearly, her mind and body possibly going thru a violent withdrawal. So, doing the only logical thing her addled mind could concieve of, she flung herself from the tiny bathroom window.

And fell to her death.

Some of the external details in this scene were probably left vague intentionally, but its total impact was the same: Drugs Kill.

[TVFactFan]

Originally posted by W.J. Griffin
Not all motels are of the single-story variety...the Holiday Inn chain, for example, have multiple-story units for their guest.

But my assertation that JJ and his fiance (what WAS the name of Debbie Allen character, anyway?) were staying in a hotel as opposed to a motel is due to the simple fact that NEITHER KID HAD A CAR!! If you'll recall, they took a BUS to Indiana. (the term "motel" is a contraction of the words "motor hotel", built along the emerging superhighways of postwar America...before that time, hotels in rural areas were referred to as "tourist camps")

Another point of evidence to support my ''hotel" hypothesis is when the clerk ushers the two kids to their room, you can see an exterior hallway outside their door...if, indeed, this had been a motel, we would have seen , or at least caught a glimpse of, the parking lot. (then again, they could have stayed at a Holiday Inn or a Best Western, but those outfits, even back in the seventies, were expensive, especially to a couple of high school kids from the projects of Chicago!)

So JJ and his prom date/fiance stayed at what looked to me like a very seedy establishment based in a multi-story dwelling, one whose proprietor probably didn't ask a whole lot of questions, who charged very little for a room and whose windows faced an alley, and, presumably, a very steep drop to the street, so that if anyone tried to go out said window, they would sustain a very serious injury at the very least. Ms. Allen's character was in an extremely agitated state and was obviously NOT thinking clearly, her mind and body possibly going thru a violent withdrawal. So she flung herself from the tiny bathroom window. And fell to her death.

Some of the external details in this scene were probably left vague, but its total impact was the same: drugs kill.

That a good point. I think i will go watch that episode again later today. When i first saw this episode as a teenager, i always thought part 2 of J.J's Fiancee was incomplete.

[PracTz]

I always thought that she sold her favors for drug money and became a street person. Suicide never occured to me because why wouldn't JJ or someone have MENTIONED it later on? Your posts give good credence to the suicide theory, though!

[W.J. Griffin]

Originally posted by PracTz
I always thought that she sold her favors for drug money and became a street person. Suicide never occured to me because why wouldn't JJ or someone have MENTIONED it later on? Your posts give good credence to the suicide theory, though!

Because it was too painful. (this also puts JJ's clowning in a different perspective, don't you think? If you had to live thru constant hardships like poverty, gang violence and drug abuse, you'd either scream, go crazy, or kill yourself. Or, if. like JJ, you had a strong family base behind you, you'd learn to survive, maybe make the situation more bearable, by cracking wise. It would explain a lot.)

[knl9674]

while good points indeed, i do not buy the suicide theory. if she would've committed suicide, i would think that JJ's reaction would have been a lot different. he had the image of someone that just got ditched.
and did you see the size of that window? this is a major point that has not been considered. it is not the size that you are able to FLING yourself out of but more so, to crawl out. you can also clearly see when they walk into the room a banister. leading me to believe that they are in a multi-floored seedy motel with outside entrances. diana could easily crawl out the window and escape to get back to chitown. leaving out the front door would've required to answer questions and she really didn't want to hurt JJ, but she had a bigger problem. It was easier to just run away and deal with her own issues. ALSO, both JJ and the motel owner referred to going "downstairs"....leading me to believe again, that they were UPSTAIRS in a series of rooms.

suicide...no.
ditching JJ to score drugs either on the streets of IN or back in chicago...yes.

ALSO: people keep mentioning their not having a car but possibly getting there by bus. Hitch hiking was VERY popular in the 70s. The episode when James thinks he has hypertension, they kids get there by hitchhiking and it's looked on like a common thing. It wasn't until people started disappearing and whatnot, that the practice was frowned upon. SO she could've hitchhiked back at home. For this time, it would not have been unheard of.

JMO

[TVFactFan]

Originally posted by knl9674
while good points indeed, i do not buy the suicide theory. if she would've committed suicide, i would think that JJ's reaction would have been a lot different. he had the image of someone that just got ditched.
and did you see the size of that window? this is a major point that has not been considered. it is not the size that you are able to FLING yourself out of but more so, to crawl out. you can also clearly see when they walk into the room a banister. leading me to believe that they are in a multi-floored seedy motel with outside entrances. diana could easily crawl out the window and escape to get back to chitown. leaving out the front door would've required to answer questions and she really didn't want to hurt JJ, but she had a bigger problem. It was easier to just run away and deal with her own issues. ALSO, both JJ and the motel owner referred to going "downstairs"....leading me to believe again, that they were UPSTAIRS in a series of rooms.

suicide...no.
ditching JJ to score drugs either on the streets of IN or back in chicago...yes.

ALSO: people keep mentioning their not having a car but possibly getting there by bus. Hitch hiking was VERY popular in the 70s. The episode when James thinks he has hypertension, they kids get there by hitchhiking and it's looked on like a common thing. It wasn't until people started disappearing and whatnot, that the practice was frowned upon. SO she could've hitchhiked back at home. For this time, it would not have been unheard of.

JMO

Hitch Hiking popular in the 70's?

[W.J. Griffin]

Originally posted by knl9674
while good points indeed, i do not buy the suicide theory. if she would've committed suicide, i would think that JJ's reaction would have been a lot different. he had the image of someone that just got ditched.
and did you see the size of that window? this is a major point that has not been considered. it is not the size that you are able to FLING yourself out of but more so, to crawl out. you can also clearly see when they walk into the room a banister. leading me to believe that they are in a multi-floored seedy motel with outside entrances. diana could easily crawl out the window and escape to get back to chitown. leaving out the front door would've required to answer questions and she really didn't want to hurt JJ, but she had a bigger problem. It was easier to just run away and deal with her own issues. ALSO, both JJ and the motel owner referred to going "downstairs"....leading me to believe again, that they were UPSTAIRS in a series of rooms.

suicide...no.
ditching JJ to score drugs either on the streets of IN or back in chicago...yes.

ALSO: people keep mentioning their not having a car but possibly getting there by bus. Hitch hiking was VERY popular in the 70s. The episode when James thinks he has hypertension, they kids get there by hitchhiking and it's looked on like a common thing. It wasn't until people started disappearing and whatnot, that the practice was frowned upon. SO she could've hitchhiked back at home. For this time, it would not have been unheard of.

JMO

You raise some good points yourself, knl9674, but, if I may:

*JJ's stunned reaction, alone, could be taken as ambiguous in and of itself, but with James' voice frantically calling over the reciever, the impression that I percieved was one of an extreme tragedy having just occured;

*Okay, maybe "flung" isn't what Diana did (thanx for the name!), but even squeezing out of a small window of an upper floor of a multi-story buliding, even if they were only two stories up, would have resulted in the aforementioned serious injury, even death;

*The "bus" scenario seems more logical to me than their hitchiking, if only for the simple fact that JJ and Diana, dressed in their prom outfits, would have piqued more curiosity than they wanted...remember, this thing (the elopement) was being done on the downlow...the last thing these two star-crossed lovers needed was some civic-minded driver droppin' a dime on them (and while we're on the subject of hitch-hiking, even though lots of adventurous travelers have depended on the kindness of strangers, the practice itself has ALWAYS been frowned upon by the authorities...and while, yes, JJ thumbing a ride would not be out of character, presumably, he'd want to take his lady to their nuptuals in style, hence the bus theory {where they got the money for an interstate bus excursion, on the other hand, remains an unanswered query...perhaps JJ "found" their busfare the old-fashioned way...anything goes when it's affairs of the heart...}).

You know, considering the fact that drug abuse and possible suicide were not (until the advent of Norman Lear's various series, anyway) the usual fare for what is essentially a family situation comedy, perhaps the writers...or, more accurately, CBS...left the ending as ambiguous as possible, to avoid any outright complaints, while still delivering its strong message, so that any two people watching could come to their own conclusions about what REALLY went down in that hotel/motel room in Indiana.