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Johnny Get Your Gun
Season 3, Episode 7
Johnny get your gun
Air date November 9, 1998
Written by Brenda Hampton
Directed by Kevin Inch
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"Johnny Get Your Gun" is the seventh episode of the 3rd season of 7th Heaven. On its original airing, this episode scored 9.13 million viewers.

Synopsis[]

Deena's ex-boyfriend Johnny threatens Simon with a gun and Eric finds himself in a life-or-death situation to protect his son and ends up shot. Ruthie wants a violent video game called "Baboom" which Annie and Eric find inappropriate for her to have. After watching "Gone With the Wind," Lucy sees slapping as a romantic gesture and wants to use it on her boyfriend. Meanwhile, Matt introduces Mary to his girlfriend Shana and her brother, who goes out with Mary on a date, but she has no idea that he has a BIG problem--- he is violent.

Plot[]

Ruthie is playing joyfully pretending shooting people for fun in the living room and Annie gets concerned that she is playing like she is shooting. Annie asks her how she found out about this shooting and Ruthie explains that she saw a game that her classmate has about war and land mines. Annie explains that this does happen and it's not funny in real life, but Ruthie doesn't understand and asks for one. Annie explains that she doesn't like those kinds of video games and tells her no. In the kitchen, Lucy is talking on the phone with Jordan when Annie walks in and she asks him to take her to see Gone With the Wind. Annie offers to take her instead then Lucy gets off the phone and tells Annie that she wants to go see the movie with him because it is more romantic. Matt and Mary walk in and Mary is apologizing to Matt for hitting him with the basketball while Matt tries to get some ice. Mary explains that he wasn't paying attention because he was thinking about Shana. Annie is confused about who Shana is and then Eric walks in, and not wanting to hear more stories, she walks out covering her ears. Simon walks in and asks him about the boxing tournament, but Simon gets a phone call and then asks Eric to leave. Deena is crying on the phone about her old boyfriend, Johnny, who broke up with his girlfriend. Deena explains that Johnny is going to come after Simon, but Simon wants more clarification on what she means by "coming after him." Before Deena can clarify, Ruthie pops out of nowhere and yells "baboom!" smiling, which startles Simon.

Simon arrives at school and runs into Johnny talking to Deena. Simon walks up and stands next to Deena and introduces himself to Johnny. Johnny tells Simon that Deena is his girlfriend, subtly threatens Simon, and then walks away. At the high school, Lucy is walking down the hallway complaining about not seeing Gone With the Wind, but Jordan is not budging and offers to rent the movie and watch it. At the elementary school, Ruthie is in the principal's office with Annie for breaking Ricky's video game and she can't explain why she did what she did. Ruthie tries to come up with the excuse that she was trying to just get a turn playing it. But Ruthie still gets sent home for the rest of the day for punishment. Matt walks around with Shana at the college campus and they talk about Matt's black eye. Shana says that he'll need a better story for his black eye than his little sister giving him one and then comes up with a snarky response about maybe he can make tell no story, no information, no details. Shana, knowing full well what Matt meant, tells him that she can't tell him anything about her life and will talk to him when she thinks he can handle it. Eric, Mary, and Lucy are waiting in the car at Simon's school for him to show up, but Eric gets out because he is tired of waiting. Simon and Deena come out of the girls' bathroom hoping that Johnny has left, but they run into Johnny. Johnny casually ignores Simon's presence, telling Deena he was looking for her. Johnny just says he wants to talk to Deena and offers to walk her home but Simon gets in the way and tells him to back off. Johnny threatens to shoot Simon with a .38 Special if he doesn't stay out of his and Deena's life. Johnny tells Simon to watch his back and tells Deena he'll call her. After Johnny walks off, a couple of students who were overhearing explain that if Simon tells anything, it will just make Johnny more upset so they shouldn't do it. Eric shows up and Simon asks if they can bring Deena home. Eric gets a bit suspicious.

Eric is in his office when a phone rings only to hang up immediately after picking it up. Simon walks by and Eric asks him about the calls. Simon tells him he might know who it was and eventually tells him that Johnny threatened him. Eric gets a worried look on his face. Matt and Mary are at the store where Shana works and meet up with Shana and George, her brother. George says he likes a girl who can stand up for herself, even if it means giving her older brother a black eye. Mary insists it was an accident, but George isn't so sure and gently "agrees" with her. George asks Mary out on a date and they go to get the paper that she came into the store to buy. When they leave, George holds Shana's arm and roughly asks her for Mary's phone number. Shana pleads with him to not call her since he is violent and has a problem but eventually Shana gives in and tells him Mary's number.

Eric and Annie discuss the threat in the kitchen and offers to keep Deena for the night and Eric explains that Deena's parents are concerned. Ruthie interrupts them by her pretending to play a game and Eric and Annie tell her that they don't like the game or the message that it is portraying. Eric explains that the reason why they don't like those kinds of games is that if you see someone die a bunch of times, it gets more normal and casual as time goes on. Ruthie still doesn't get it and still asks for the game. Mary and Lucy are in their room and Mary talks about Shana's brother, George, and Lucy tells Mary that Jordan is coming over to watch the movie. Mary sees Simon walk by their room and tells him hello, but he doesn't answer. When the phone rings, Mary answers it, but Eric has already picked up the phone and is talking to Mr. Blackstone, Simon's assistant principal. Eric asks Mr. Blackstone to do something about the threat, but Mr. Blackstone tells him that there is a procedure that must specifically be followed for these situations. Mr. Blackstone agrees to Simon and Deena staying home from school. Eric leaves the house and tells Annie that he doesn't want to get Sergeant Michaels involved. Annie calls for Sergeant Michaels, but he isn't in. Mary walks into the kitchen and George calls and asks Mary out on a date and tells her to not tell Matt. Matt walks in and asks about the phone call and tells Mary that he thinks that George is dangerous not fully knowing who Mary was on the phone with, but Mary doesn't believe him.

Eric shows up at Johnny's house and speaks to Johnny's father and Johnny walks up on their conversation. Eric explains that Johnny threatened to shoot Simon, but Johnny denies the conversation and pretends like he knows nothing. Johnny's father kicks him out of the house in disbelief. Eric asks if Johnny's father owns a gun and when he sees that he is hesitating to answer, Eric realizes that he does in fact have a gun, which Eric makes a worried face. In the living room, Lucy and Jordan finish their movie. Jordan wakes up from sleeping and apologies to Lucy about sleeping during the movie since he has already seen it once. Lucy doesn't care though and asks if she can slap him as Scarlett did, but he doesn't want her to do that because it has nothing to do with romance. Jordan starts to leave, and Lucy asks if he would kiss her, but he responds angrily that he's afraid of getting slapped. Ruthie asks Simon to help her get the video game, but Simon refuses to help her and tells her that he has more important problems. Eric returns home and tells Annie that the father is in denial and Johnny lied. Sergeant Michaels comes by and tells Eric and Annie that Johnny has a record and the family owns a registered gun. Sergeant Michaels tells them that the gun is a .38 special, the same gun that Johnny previously threatened Simon with.

The next morning, Simon and Deena show up at the house and Annie tells her that she is happy to have her over. Simon thinks that Eric will fix everything like he always does. Simon and Deena walk away with Annie having a worried face over her. At Mr. Blackstone's office in school, Eric, Johnny's father, and Sergeant Michaels are all sitting down to discuss how troubled Johnny is, but Johnny's father refuses to admit that Johnny is bad and keeps making nonsense excuses for him. Johnny's father gets upset and Mr. Blackstone explains that in Johnny's locker there are inappropriate items regarding violence in the locker such as pictures of people torturing animals, gun ads, CDs of a sexual nature, and comic books along the same theme. Mr. Blackstone questions if his room looks the same as his locker does but Johnny's father says that it doesn't matter if it does because he is a teenage boy and acts as if being a teenage boy and growing up excuses any of this. Eric interrupts and starts yelling that Johnny's father doesn't know how dangerous Johnny can be. Eric and Johnny's father yell at each other and Johnny's father threatens to talk to the school board and take Johnny out of the school, telling how the public school system has failed Johnny and his family. Johnny's father walks out of the office with Johnny waiting out of the room, Johnny and Eric look at each other ominously. As they walk away, Eric wonders if the situation can resolve itself this easily, but Sergeant Michaels warns everyone to continue to be cautious. Sergeant Michaels warns Eric to watch himself as he can't be there for him since he has to be a witness in court that afternoon.

Mary walks up to Lucy in school and asks her if she can cover for her because she is going on a date with George. She also asks Lucy to lie to Annie and Matt about where she is going. Lucy refuses, so Mary tries reasoning with her by saying that one day, Lucy will need help from her, but Lucy says that maybe one day she will need help from Mary, but not on that particular day. Mary watches from behind as Jordan walks up to Lucy and tells her that she can slap him, but Lucy explains that it has to happen during an argument and that Jordan needs to kiss Lucy when she doesn't want to be kissed which motivates Lucy to slap him. They begin arguing and then Jordan tries to kiss Lucy and she slaps him. This prompts a teacher who was watching to come over to see what was going on, but Mary covers for her, which gives Lucy the need to owe Mary and cover for her. When Shana meets Matt at college, Matt sees the bruises that he left on her arm and asks Shana about him. Shana explains that George just gets a little rough, not telling Matt the full story. She eventually tells him that George is dangerous. Matt says that he wants to talk about this on that night but has to be right now, and then Shana tells Matt about her horrible life to save him from the effort. Shana runs off upset and mad. Ruthie gets picked up by Matt and he overhears the sounds of a video game. He confiscates the video game. Simon and Deena are sitting at the house and are nervous about Johnny possibly showing up. They get nervous about small things such as Happy crying at the door. Annie comes in and tells them that they are too jumpy and that maybe they're also making Happy jumpy. Annie tries to cheer them up by telling a joke about Johnny being too busy getting fitted for a blue blazer and a tie.

Matt picks up Lucy and asks where Mary is. Lucy explains that she went over to someone's house to study. Matt with a knowing look and a serious voice asks her where Mary really is. As Lucy starts to get frantic about why Matt is being so serious and angry, he cuts her off again and demands to know where they are now. This time, Lucy finally tells him the truth; admitting that she isn't for sure but remembering hearing Mary mention something earlier about going down to the pool hall. In the kitchen, Annie is trying to reach Eric, but she isn't getting an answer. Annie tries to hide her worried look from Simon and Deena, who is doing homework, asking them if they wanted any ice cream. Annie pages him and Eric is shown just walking into his office to return to call. But then, Johnny shows up from hiding in his office and points the gun at Eric. Johnny shoots Eric in the shoulder and then runs out of the church.

Annie is home with the kids when Matt arrives, but she has to leave to check on Eric. She asks Matt to watch the kids and he refuses, saying that if there's trouble he won't let his pregnant mother go down there alone. Annie replies that she doesn't want him going either. The phone rings for Matt and Matt hangs up saying that Johnny has been arrested for possession of a weapon. He tells Annie that Eric will be home in a couple of hours with Sergeant Michaels. Annie doesn't believe his story and thinks he's up to something, but he insists it's true and explains that the only thing he's up to is picking Mary up from her date with an immature guy. Annie questions his story, not believing the guy could be so immature as to need Matt to pick her up from a date. Annie relents, saying it's ok but only because she thinks Matt isn't telling her the whole story. Mary and George are at the pool hall. Mary beats him at pinball, and George grabs her wrist from behind, saying her arms need a rest. He gets too rough, and Mary tries to tell him that he's hurting her—but George doesn't care. So Mary turns on him, twists his arm, and tells him he has a problem and needs help. Then Matt shows up and tells George the same thing: that he needs help. Matt offers to have George come by his house in a few weeks so Eric can help him out; meanwhile, Mary apologizes for not telling Matt sooner about what was going on with George—but Matt brushes it off sayings they have bigger problems now. Mary questions Matt on what he means by this, and why George has to wait a few weeks to see Eric instead of now.

While Eric is at the hospital getting his wound looked at by doctors, Annie walks into the room and hugs him. She tells him she talked to Sergeant Michaels which is how she found out about Eric getting shot. Lucy, Simon, and Ruthie sit in the waiting room and talk about the incident. Ruthie feels sorry for talking about violence earlier saying "baboom" out of nowhere. Simon thinks that it is his fault because he should have never said anything about Johnny which led to this event. Lucy explains that Johnny was going to do something really bad even if Simon hadn't mentioned it. They all agree with Ruthie that they shouldn't be discussing violence anymore from now on. Matt and Mary join them at the hospital soon after, then Eric comes out of treatment telling everyone he will be ok before. At the courthouse, the judge sentences Johnny to 25 years in a juvenile detention facility, taking into account his past criminal history along with recent actions. Johnny starts crying begging his parents to take him home as the police drag him away. When passing by Eric, Johnny's parents apologize profusely while also asking for forgiveness. Eric tells Sergeant Michaels that he has to help George, who has the same problems as Johnny.

Notes[]

  • Maureen Flannigan makes her first appearance in this episode as Matt's girlfriend, Shana Sullivan, and would be added to the show's opening credits for the fourth season.

Trivia[]

  • The Camden's telephone number is 555–0119. Back in Faith, Hope and the Bottom Line, Ruthie reveals their phone number was 555–0157.
  • In the same year this episode aired, David Gallagher and Jake Richardson co-starred together in the direct-to-video movie called "Richie Rich's Christmas Wish." Ironically, Gallagher also plays the protagonist and Richardson as the antagonist.
  • This episode marks the highest rated program in WB history, only to be broken three months later, by "The Tribes that Bind", and "In Praise of a Woman."
  • This is the last episode for Keith Mackechnie as Dr. Peterson. Steve Stapenhorst will take over the role in the fourth season.

Goofs & Errors[]

  • Matt gets a black eye in this episode when Mary accidentally whacks him with a basketball. The "stage makeup" required for this changes at a lot of random moments throughout the episode. In particular, look closely in the scene where Matt picks Ruthie up from school, catches her with the video game, and makes her give it to him. His eye looks pretty bad at that time. Then, in a scene shortly after that, when Lucy gets in the car, Matt's eye looks barely bruised at all.

Opening Credits[]

Featured in the opening credits are:


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