Atlanta. The boys are about to sing the national anthem before a Hawks game. We see the boys singing (Trevor's holding an invisible microphone) the song as a practice, but Erik's bent over. He's not singing -- he's trying not to throw up, I guess. It might be a physical reaction to the sound of O-Town singing the national anthem, because when they add the word "brave" three times to the end of the song the room starts spinning just a bit for me, as well. Erik stands up and everyone asks whether he's okay. He says he is, and starts walking off. It looks like he might have been crying. The boys all look at Silent Cleve. Cleve looks back. Man, that Silent Cleve is creepy.

We watch Erik put cold water on his face as we hear him say, "My biological father? It just takes a lot out of me." One sentence. I just want one sentence where there's a subject-verb agreement and there might even be a word in the nominative case and the word "like" is only used if there's going to be a simile in the sentence. Is that too much to ask? Really? Erik concludes, "Sometimes you just can't help thinking about what else is going on especially when something like this..." Yeah, I guess it's way too much to ask. The boys are still warming up, trying to be chummy with Erik, but he's incredibly pouty.

The boys try practicing again before showtime. Jacob starts bitching Erik out for changing the beat. Erik says that he's not changing the beat. Ashley and Erik start bickering, and Dan tries to stop it. Dan tells us that it's not easy to go onstage when you know that one person is freaking out in his head. He says that everyone can see it, and that it affects the entire group. The bitching continues, and it seems like, at the end, Dan says he'll sing Erik's part; they all walk off, leaving pouty Erik to pout around thinking about how his new pout really matches his great black turtleneck and pouty deep spiked hair they've given him.

The boys ruin the national anthem for the Hawks, Georgia, the integrity of basketball, America, and the world. I love that there's nobody taking pictures in the audience; they're eerily silent and nobody claps when O-Town hits the high parts. Erik's making wild gestures with his hands to make the boys stop singing at a certain part, but they keep doing what they rehearsed, not catering to Erik's lung capacity. Good for them. Someone's screechy in the group, and clearly Erik didn't let Dan just sing his part like he was supposed to. I don't know why Erik's wearing giant conductor arms to sing this song, but everyone else doesn't bother looking at him. The game quietly starts without a single person thanking O-Town for proving Roseanne Barr had her good points. By the way, this game must be on a Tuesday or something because there's nobody there. Actually, it might not even be a Hawks game. I bet they're just using the stadium.