Figures that when I'm talking about an under-used character in Luke, I forget to mention another: Grace Polk. She's tough and punky (as close to the genuine article as possible on a mainstream, family-oriented show like Joan of Arcadia is) and is full of the agitator's spirit that makes me love her. Even though she is fairly consistent in not caring what others think about her, sometimes she does, and this vulnerability deepens her character in a way that avoids making her a caricature.

And as much as I profess my hatred of shipping and its issues of vicarious projection, there is great potential in her being the foil to superbrain Luke.