90210 – Recap & Review – Clark Raving Mad

photo: cw

90210
Clark Raving Mad

Original Air Date: Mar 30, 2010

Meg – TwoCents Reviewer
meg@thetwocentscorp.com

Zounds of kudos to Farrah for filling in for me in everyone’s favorite zip for the past few eps! We have a lot going on tonight, as Naomi manufactures a sex scandal, Ade and Gia “go there”, Dixon resolves his mama drama, and Jasper finally goes off the deep end.

Naomi and Her Big Fat Mouth

Naomi is kicked off the Blaze by the suspiciously British new faculty advisor, Mr. Cannon. She sincerely pleads her case with him, telling him she’ll do anything to change his mind. He takes a hop, skip, and a jump in the dual directions of “wrong” and “vastly inappropriate” and demands to know if she is offering to sleep with him.

Still desperate to be reinstated, Naomi pleads with her friends for support. They are sort of lukewarm on the issue until Naomi tells them that Mr. Cannon told her she had to sleep with him in order to get back on the Blaze. Oh Naomi…. Her gal pals are duly horrified and pledge to help her.

Later, Naomi is thrilled to learn she’s been reinstated due to Navid having intervened with Mr. Cannon. Unfortunately, Naomi forgot to retract her sexual harassment accusation. Later, Silver and Ade make Naomi tell Liam (who remains hilariously shirtless this entire scene) her lie about Mr. Cannon. Liam is incensed and tells Naomi she needs to stand up for herself. Oh this is not going to end well…

Navid and Lila

Navid and Lila are in new couple bliss, roaming the halls arm in arm and having debates about Marshal McLuhan. Navid thinks it’s hot that Lila even knows who McLuhan is. Of course, they end up kissing right in front of Ade. To Lila’s credit, she does seem to want to make things right with Adrianna and tries to talk with her at their band rehearsal. Ade brushes it off and says she’s fine (Riiiiiiiiiight).

Dixon and his Mama

Dixon hangs out with his birth mom, Dana, at the same restaurant where he picked up Sasha—which sort of fits, since Sasha was a) old enough to be his mom; and b) wanted to be his fake baby mama.

They are having a great time watching basketball and enjoying each other’s company until Dana drops the bomb that she’s leaving soon to return to work. Dixon seems less than jazzed. Dana claims that she has responsibilities and Dix politely refrains from pointing out she didn’t really seem to care that much about honoring her responsibilities when she abandoned him at birth…

Later, Dix stands her up and gives her the cold shoulder. Since Dana isn’t an idiot she sees through his bravado and calls him on being afraid of losing her again. They have a sweet scene where they talk out some of their lingering problems and promise to stay in each other’s lives. Awww… Sidenote: I really like the actress playing Dana (despite the bizarre asymmetrical haircut) – she rocks this episode.

Debbie and Boundaries

Dana just happens to see Debbie getting some chai and a bite to eat with Kai, her cute yoga instructor. They are very cute and flirty, leaning waaaaaay too close to talk to each other. Kai kisses Debbie, who definitely lets it happen for a moment before jumping back and yelping that she’s married. Later, Dana with impressive sensitivity and complete disregard for the fact that Debbie is holding a giant knife, approaches her in the kitchen and confesses she saw her with Kai. When Dana says that she has noticed tension between Debbie and Harry and starts saying that she used to temp for a divorce lawyer, Debbie clams up and says it’s a “family matter.” Dana calmly replies that family troubles can hurt the kids most and “I gave birth to one of your kids.” Snap.

Silver and Teddy

Silver is horrified by her crazy jealous behavior last week. She apologizes to Teddy for being a “paranoid freak” and begs for another chance. Teddy agrees, saying that he wants to be with someone who can trust him. Inevitably 3.2 seconds later, some whelp of a girl runs up to them, shrieking “Teddy! OMG, it’s been ages!” Arguably to his credit, Teddy introduces her to Silver and immediately says that he and “Tara” used to date. Tara invites both of them to a Tarantino film-fest. Silver declines because she has to get back to school, but Teddy says he is game. Whatever small props he earned from me earlier are lost as he is a complete jerk in this scene and very obviously just trying to see how far he can push Silver’s boundaries. He does not improve things by telling her the next day that he and Tara blew off the event and got drunk on the beach together.

Silver confronts him and asks the same question that I have (no, it isn’t “why do you look like you’ve got at least a decade on me?”) – why did he make such an effort to get her to be with him only to start playing games once he had her? Teddy says that his father had four wives and cheated on all of them and that he’s worried that he’ll cheat on Silver. Oh come ON. Really? Is teenage boy logic trying to tell me infidelity is genetic? Despite my skepticism, they reconcile and seem to be over their issues for the moment.

Liam and his Step-Bad

Liam confronts his drunken lout of a Step-Dad (or, as he’s proven himself, Step-Bad) for cheating on his mom. After sucker punching Step-Bad, Liam tells his mother that he saw him “making out with a bimbo at a hotel” (aww, be fair, Liam – you didn’t exactly stop to administer an SAT to the girl – did you? She could be a perfectly intelligent motel-dwelling call girl). When his mom yells for Step-Bad to go away, Liam looks vindicated. And hot (hey – Matt Lanter? Call me…).

Liam talks to his mother, offering to get a job to support them. He tells her he would do anything for her and just as it looks like things are about to get awkwardly Freudian, the scene shifts gears. Liam’s mother tells him that she’s staying with her cheating creep of a husband and that they’ll “work through it.”

He jets to Naomi’s and asks to crash there. She tells him he can stay as long as he wants. It’s very sweet and—woah, am I actually liking these two as a couple?

Adrianna and Gia

In a much-hyped development, Ade and Gia get together and it’s less salacious than the promo monkeys would have you believe. Props to 90210 for at least making an effort to approach teenage sexual self discovery in a non-sensational way.

Adrianna has been avoiding Gia since she confessed her crush last week. Not mature, but fairly realistic for high school. Gia confronts her in the parking lot and impresses me by being completely honest and telling Ade that she wants to salvage their friendship. They agree to forget Gia’s previous revelation. This lasts until that evening when a combination of Clark Gable and popcorn bowl hand-grazing make Adrianna start to think about Gia in a new light.

Ade talks to her friends about her feelings and they are slightly surprised, but nevertheless totally supportive. Ade realizes she sees Gia as “more than a friend” and it’s pretty cute and so nice to see Adrianna smile again. Gia goes to support Ade and her band as they sing, I kid you not, about not shaving their legs. Way to default to stereotypes, show.

Later, Ade and Gia talk about their feelings and start things out with a kiss. I’m conflicted because I really want to like this story, but I just think they have zero chemistry. Rumer Willis is fine as Gia and does a good job with some of the more PSA-sounding lines, but I’m not sure it’s enough to make me really buy the relationship.

Annie and Jasper

Annie is avoiding Jasper like the creepy twitchy little stalker plague he is. She seems to have turned her sights on Liam, calling him twice in the episode to “check up on him.” At night, Jasper calls Annie to tell her that if he can’t be with her, “there’s no point in living!” And then, if I’m not mistaken, he jumps off a ledge.

What did you think of the episode? Is this the end of Jasper? What do you think will happen with Naomi’s accusations against Mr. Cannon? What are your thoughts on the Ade-Gia pairing? Leave some comments and let me know your two cents!

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine