While Uncle Charlie is taken in for growing marijuana, Cheese is sent to a group home for boys. Jackie, who witnessed the arrests, informs Willie Jack and Bear of what happened. She and Willie Jack shake hands, finally able to put aside their differences. Willie Jack, Bear, Elora, and Jackie all band together to try and bust Cheese out of the group home, but he refuses to go with them. He asks them to find another (legal) way. Cheese doesn’t really understand why he’s been treated like a criminal, but he tries to make the best of his situation. He meets and befriends Tino, a young father who’s been with the group home for nearly two years, and Julio, who helps Cheese out by slipping him a cell phone to call his grandma with. Of course, Cheese doesn’t have a grandma, but he does have Irene, whom he met at IHS. Irene has been like a grandmother to him, although he hasn’t been to see her in quite some time. He gives her a call, telling others he doesn’t want his grandma to worry about him. But when they talk, he doesn’t tell her about being arrested. He promises to come see her soon, and she says she’ll do anything for him. “Sending you all my love,” she says. Later, Cheese talks about Daniel to Julio and Tino. After Daniel died, Cheese read about why he might have wanted to kill himself. Life can be hard for people, he realized. So, he thinks that if he treats people with kindness, they might want to do the same. “You’re a good man, Cheese,” Julio tells him. Officer Big eventually comes to get Cheese. He says he’s taking him to his new placement. He ends up taking him to Irene’s, where all Cheese’s friends greet him wearing “Free Cheese” shirts. Big assures Cheese he’s going to be with Irene for quite a while.
The Episode Review
A fan favourite character (and for good reason) Cheese more than deserves his own character arc, and “Stay Gold Cheesy Boy” delivers. A stint in a group home offers Cheese a dose of harsh reality–not that he needed one. With much of his family gone and with Daniel’s death, Cheese has known a lot of suffering. Up until this point in the show, we’ve known Cheese as the positive, empathetic member of the Rez Dogs, but his character has not been explored as deeply as the others. This episode fleshes out his character well, revealing just how deeply Daniel’s death has impacted Cheese’s outlook on the world. If I’m moderately upset about anything, it’s that I would have liked Cheese’s story to be more intertwined with the other Rez Dogs. The show often presents him as a separate entity from the rest of his gang. Regardless, he’s an excellent, complex character I can’t wait to keep following.
