Out of The Closet

Out of The Closet is the eleventh episode of the Fifth Season of Static Shock that aired on May 14, 2005 on Kid's WB.

Plot
At his house, Richie is seen talking to himself in front of a mirror, telling himself that everythings going to be okay and that none of his friends, well his real friends wouldn't think of him any differently if they found out the truth, he took a deep breath and opened up a photo book of his various adventures with his best friend, Virgil and hoped that the relevation doesn't ruin, their friendship, but prom is coming up in a couple of days and he couldn't bear coming with a girl he knew he could never be attratched to.

At school, everyone's talking about who they are going to take that night as their date and what outfits everyones going to wear, and when Virgil asks him what tuxedo he should wear, he just shruged and said "meh", then Virgil replied with "oh come on!", Richie then tells Virgil that theres been something that he needed to tell him for a really long time, just then, the fire alarm went off and everyone was forced to evacuate, and later when Virgil asked what he was about to tell him, he just said it was no big deal, and headed off, the next day, Virgil asked some more questions related to the prom, he once again seemed disinterested until when Virgil asked him about who he's going to take with him, he suddenly blurted out the truth, "I never liked women, I only like men!", what he said, shocked Virgil and apologized for all the times he assumed that he was into women, he forgave him and Virgil asked if he's going to ask out a boy to prom and he pointed to a member of the football team, Cameron, whom he had a crush on for a really long time but and Virgil encouraged him to ask him out, and surprisingly enough, he said yes and thats when he decided to break the news to his family, while his mom was glad that he had opened up, his dad was not so pleased with him not being attracted to woman, saying "he was lucky he was allowed to have a black friend, but this has gone too far!"

But unlike last time his dad acted like that in regards to his son, he didn't runaway, instead he just went up to his room and told Virgil everything that had happened, with him saying that he is allowed to stay at his house overnight as he had told his dad about his friend's sexuality and was very accepting so he went over to Virgil's house. Meanwhile at Richie's house, his parents were arguing with Maggie saying that he thought he had changed, with Sean replying with it's one to be associated with black people, but it's another to not be able to bring us grandchildren, and then he slapped her, the next day Richie went back to his house and found an unfamiliar girl sitting with them while they're eating breakfast and Sean introduced her as Stacy, his date for prom, then he said that he told him, he's not into women, then he told him that he doesn't approve the decision and that he needs to bring a girl to prom. The next day at school, he told Virgil about the situation and also came out to Jimmy as gay, he was also very supportive, and when Richie described the girl, she sounded very familiar and then he showed them some pictures of Sean dating a girl with a very similar descrption and same name, after school, Jimmy went with Richie to his house and showed Maggie and Sean what they had found.

Sean initially denied the evidence but then later told them he was guilty and that he had paid his mistress to be Richie's date at prom, this made Maggie so furious both at him cheating on her whom looked like twenty-three at most and forcing Richie to also date him and then she filed for a divorce and kicked him out. At prom, Richie was seen holding Cameron's hand while wearing matching tuxedos, during that time Jimmy was seen putting up some decorations when Virgil asked him about Frieda in which he said that in the maze at Fright Fest, before shooting Richie, he had heard a conversation between Nick and Frieda, in which Frieda said that he's not interested in him, with Virgil saying "Ouch!, that unfortunate" and they began to laugh.

Continuity

 * This was Sean Foley's first speaking role since Season 1.

Home media releases

 * Static Shock: The Complete Fifth Season (DVD)

Trivia

 * This is the perennial morality episode, just like how "Frozen Out" was about homelessness, "Sons of the Fathers" was about racism, "Jimmy" was about gun violence, "Where the Rubber Meets the Road" was about dyslexia, and "Hate Comments" was about cyberbullying.
 * This episode featured the first coming out moment in Western Animation.
 * This was the first episode of Static Shock to get banned in different countries.

Cast

 * Phil LaMarr as Virgil 'Static' Hawkins
 * Jason Marsden as Richie 'Gear' Foley
 * Richard Horvitz as Jimmy Osgood
 * Kevin Michael Richardson as Robert Hawkins
 * Dan Lauria as Sean Foley
 * Jean Smart as Maggie Foley
 * TBA as Cameron

Quotes
"Virgil...I'm not into women, I'm into men."

- Richie coming out to Virgil.

Tropes
See Out of The Closet/Tropes