90210 – Recap & Review – Senior Year, Baby

photo: cw

90210
Senior Year, Baby

Original Air Date: Sep 13, 2010

Meg – Senior Reviewer
meg@thetwocentscorp.com

It’s Senior Year at West Bev! The theme of this episode (and we know it’s the theme because Annie says it out loud eleventeen times) is aftershocks, as each character grapples with the aftermath of various metaphorical (and actual) earthquakes.

Annie’s Back
Within 3 seconds, the show dispenses with last year’s Big Secret. Annie exposits that she came clean about her hit and run, spent all summer on house arrest, and will be on probation until she’s 25. Well, okay then… It feels a bit clumsy, but I’m okay with it, since I prefer happy Annie to the dark cloud of angst Annie we had last season.

Ryan Matthews (to whom I’ve admittedly warmed, thanks to my interview with his portrayer, Ryan Eggold) pops up for a few seconds to play cheerleader and encourage Annie to apply for some unspecified, yet prestigious internship. Ryan is Annie’s senior advisor. Considering this guy’s BFF last year was Jose Cuervo, is that really a good idea? Other than a sad phone call to Jen’s voicemail, that’s all we see of Ryan this ep.

The budding romance between Liam and Annie hinted at in the season finale apparently came to a full stop over the summer. We learn that Annie ignored all of Liam’s calls because she felt “overwhelmed.” Liam’s angry, but powerless against the puppy eyes o’ persuasion, so when Annie and her suspended license ask for a ride to the interview, he acquiesces.

The interview, in summary:

Interviewer: Tell me about your summer.
Annie: Oh, the usual…

(Earthquake! Aftershock!)

Annie: That was an aftershock! Life has aftershocks! Wow! Okay, just kidding. I was on house arrest for killing a guy. And I need money.
Interviewer: I like your moxie, when can you start?

Thankfully the show redeems itself a little by showing the interviewer telling a mystery person that she “found the perfect girl—she’s beautiful, responsible, and might be desperate enough to do it.” Hmmm… anyone have any theories?

Annie celebrates by making out with Liam (can’t really blame her –have you seen Matt Lanter?). The liplocking is cut short, however, when Annie claims that she has to come up with some arbitrary excuse for them not to be together to maintain dramatic tension throughout the season. Well, actually, she says “I can’t betray Naomi!” I disagree. Look, I’m all for Girl Code and respecting the sisterhood and whatnot, but if you really think you and a guy have something worth pursuing, you owe it to each other to give it a shot.

Silver and Teddy
The tennis star and alternagirl are still together. In other news, Silver’s new hair is a crime against follicles and Teddy still looks 30. He suffers a bookshelf to the leg during the earthquake. He ignores his doctor’s advice and plays a tennis match a couple hours later. While Teddy wins his match, he ends up tearing his ACL. Realizing that his tennis career is likely kaput, Teddy enrolls in the “Ryan Matthews School of Dealing” and gets cozy with a flask. While on crutches. This does not bode well.

When Silver tries to comfort him, Teddy tells her that she doesn’t understand his pain because she’s never really been awesome at anything.

Ivy and Dixon (and Oscar?)
Ivy shows up to school with her surprise childhood friend Oscar. And of course, he’s living with Ivy for the next year. Dix is just thrilled and tells Ivy he doesn’t like “the way he looks at you!” Oh c’mon, just pee on her already.

It seems Dixon’s suspicions aren’t without cause, as Ivy later has a lame sex dream about Oscar (Although, to be honest, I’m more irritated by the incorrect use of the word “euphemism” in the dream than the allegedly sexy content).

Dixon apologizes to Ivy for being jealous and tells her he loves her. She says, “Awesome, I was just having kinky, grammatically misguided dreams about a shirtless Brit!” Except, no. She says she loves him too. Sigh. When Oscar later tries in earnest to seduce her, Ivy manages to resist his complete lack of charm. So Oscar backs off and goes make out with her mother instead. Ew.

Navid and Adrianna (and Javier, RIP)
Ade is back from her whirlwind tour with Javier! When she rejects his advances in the limo, he unceremoniously says, “that’s cool – I’m dumping you from the tour. You have no talent! My songs are awesome! Lose ten pounds! Have fun in high school!” And then he gets hit by a bus. No, really.

Shaken by the accident, Adrianna still has the presence of mind to scoop up Javier’s notebook of yet-to-be released songs. She then is completely tactless and calls Laurel to say, “So… I know we’re in mourning and whatever, but… can we talk about me?” Ade claims to have written new songs (liar!) that she’s sure will impress Laurel. Later, Adrianna sings some of Javier’s music to Navid. He tells her he was lukewarm on her original material, but that this “is the best thing you’ve ever written.” Ouch. And, ha.

Naomi
In the season finale, Naomi was sexually assaulted by Mr. Cannon. Understandably, she’s doing pretty poorly. Naomi has isolated herself from all of her friends and pretended to be vacationing in France, despite actually spending the summer penniless in some flea bag motel, paying her way with birkenbags and designer castoffs for the motel owner’s wife.

Naomi freaks out when the earthquake causes her to have flashbacks to her rape. Mr. Cannon shows up and reveals that he’s staying another year at West Bev and he’s just so very, very gross. Naomi reports her rape to a female officer who is pretty straight up with her about her chances in court without a rape kit and considering her false accusation of sexual harassment. Naomi is ashamed and terrified that people will know what happened to her.

So she copes by jumping on the drunken bandwagon. To prove to some pathetic anonymous guy that she’s still hot, Naomi ends up dancing in her underwear for a group of horntoads. Teddy busts in the room and kicks all the guys out. Go Teddy! Naomi pounces on him and suggests they have sex. I thought a “thank you” would have sufficed, but what do I know about modern gratitude. Of course, this is the exact moment that Silver happens to open the door and see half-naked Naomi with her arms around Teddy. Oops. We close out the episode with Naomi in her underwear, in tears and alone. Aww…

What did you think of the episode? How do you think Annalynne McCord is handling the more serious material? Do you have high hopes for this season? What do you want to happen? Leave some comments and let me know your two cents!