aka, "Becky wants sex, Maya wants Zig, Clare can't handle children"
Episode 17, Season 14
Original Air Date: 7/23/2015
Main Storyline Character: Becky Baker, Maya Matlin, Clare Edwards
Previously on Degrassi:
-Tristan had an affair with a teacher, Mr. Yates...Tristan, more like TRYSTan. Get it? Maya thought it was gross because dude, teachers with students? Talk about pervs. She told Mr. Simpson and got Mr. Yates fired.
-Tristan later started dating Miles, who previously dated Maya at one point. Maya became overly concerned for Miles because he started smoking pot and she is a worrywart. She was such a pest that Miles drudged up some old feelings for her and broke up with Tristan. Tristan was all "WHY WON'T YOU LET ME HAVE ANYTHING NICE!?"
Wow. Much like Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, this episode is very hormonal. It's like the writers remembered that these kids are teenagers and they had to catch up on all of the sex. Let's take a look, shall we?
I want to give the Degrassi writers a lot of credit here, because when this show rebooted in the early 2000s, the storylines were sometimes a bit forced. All of the good girls (Manny, Emma, Darcy) went through these absurd bouts of wanting sex or drugs, which was all to clearly drum up drama. I understand that it's a TV show, but girls suddenly changing morals and beliefs just isn't reality. The further we progress through these seasons, the more developed the characters become, and the more sincere they become. The writers no longer say "this is the nerd, she will always be a nerd...but maybe one episode she will take off her glasses and become sexy!" Instead, they now have a group of characters that more or less stay true to their core, or at least have a slow and steady progression to their "new self."
A perfect example of this is Becky Baker, Good Christian Girl. This is a character who is written with care, and it's obvious because as a viewer, you just have to love her. When she was first introduced in the beginning of season 12, we just know she loves God and the Bible. She is at first brought on to show a contrasting side to the progressive Degrassi students' views on sexuality, since she obviously has different views of homosexuality and has never even heard of transexuality. But she dates a transexual, despite him being transexual, because she likes him for who he is. She becomes best friends with a bisexual, because she realizes that just because a girl likes girls, doesn't mean she likes ALL girls. Becky is learning. She was raised in a very different household from everyone else, so she just doesn't know. She is one of my favorite characters, next to Jenna, because she is positive and peppy, but firm and strong when it comes to her beliefs.
Which brings me to her storyline in this episode. Becky is dating Jonah, a Christian kid who doesn't look like the usual Christian kid. Jonah wears eyeliner and chunky chain necklaces, one of which is a cross. He loves black clothes (true bad boy) and denim vests and looks like a punk kid from the 90s. But he loves God, and he loves singing about God, and Becky likes that about him. Becky will never lose her faith, even if it sometimes falters, like when her brother most definitely raped Zoe, and got away with it.
Becky likes Jonah. She LIKE likes him, to the point that their singer-songwriter segments are shot by a swirling camera. She kisses Jonah, but he kind of brushes it off, since "The bell is gonna ring in a couple of minutes." Hmm...Becky is suspicious.
Becky talks to Imogen about how she and Jonah have been dating for three weeks. "Shouldn't he want to kiss me?" "He doesn't?" "Not like Drew used to. He never wanted to stop kissing me." That's because Drew is a slut. Just ask one of his 293847 ex girlfriends. Imogen hints that Jonah may be riding the gay train, and the best way to find out is to just ask him.
Later in biology class, Becky and Jonah are talking about pairing sheep for some project, and Becky oh-so-casually asks him if two rams would make a cute couple. Jonah states the obvious: "They can't have offspring." Becky broadens the topic. "What do you think of two guys together?" "I think that's kind of beautiful. Two ripped hunks, rubbing their oily muscles against each other..." he whispers it in Becky's ear and it's hard to tell if she's turned on by the visual or off by Jonah's possible gay-ness. He then laughs and states he isn't gay. Becky admits she wants to know why he didn't want to kiss that morning. Jonah points out that no, the black X's on his hands don't mean that he's been to two kick-ass concerts this week, but that it means he's straight-edge, which means he abstains from drinking, drugs and sex. Becky's all "WHOA, I'm not talking about sex." But Jonah's seen way too many health videos and he knows that kissing leads to more stuff. Oh, and he admits he's had sex, and is vague enough to infer that maybe it was with lots of girls. Sounds like Becky is drawn to the slutty ones. Jonah reassures her, though. "I want to kiss you. So badly. All the time." Whew, Jonah, can we open a window in here? It's getting steamy.
Becky disrupts Imogen's play rehearsal to share that no, Jonah isn't riding the gay train. Imogen dismisses Winston and Frankie from the room, even though Frankie wants in on this convo because it's the closest she'll get to kissing now that Winston is out of her life. Imogen doesn't understand what's wrong, since Becky wants to abstain until marriage, so this sounds like a perfect partnership. However, Becky admits "When we kiss, I get these impulses. Like, I wanna do more, I wanna grab him and I wanna put my hands under his shirt and..." she trails off to the sound of Imogen's giggles. Becky is shocked at herself for having hormones like a real teenager. Becky believes she's a pervert, because she's unaware of the double standard when it comes to sex. "What would God say!?" "GO GET SOME, GIRL!" Imogen, I love you.
Imogen points out that Becky and Jonah can abstain from sex, but do more than kiss. "What did you and Jack do?" Becky wants a play-by-play but Imogen doesn't divulge. C'mon, we all want to know! Imogen shares that oh hey, there's a thing called the internet and you can research.
Imogen later discovers Becky shutting her laptop, and I can do no more justice than what was presented in exact dialogue of this scene...
Becky: "You told me to look up sex things on the internet. I saw some things."
Imogen: "Oh boy."
Becky: "You and Jack didn't...*whispers*"
Imogen: "No!"
Becky: "What about *whispers*"
Imogen: "Becky! What sites did you go on?! "
Becky: "ALL OF THEM! With people doing things in every imaginable...*bell rings*"
I really hope Becky didn't use the school's wifi.
Becky is grossed out and decides yeah, it'll be easy to abstain. She goes to class with Jonah for their bio presentation and tells him that it'll be no problem keeping above the waist in their relationship. They go up to present and oops, Becky forgot to load the website on her laptop! She'll just walk over to her computer that's hooked up to the projector and click her browser history and DAMN GIRL you forgot to use a private browser window in your last session! And you looked up a TON of sites, some of which include, but aren't limited to: 101 sex positions, illustrated Kama Sutra, "What counts as sex?," Christian sex rules, "Did I just have sex?," and presumably more than just the lyrics to Salt N Pepa's "Let's talk about sex."
Becky fumbles around on her computer hitting buttons and the teacher comes over, slams it shut and sends her to the principal. Mrs. Baker picks her up from school and angrily asks if she's "doing any of that filth." No, of course not. Becky isn't having consensual sex with her boyfriend, with whom she's in a healthy relationship. No, not like your son, who had sex with unconscious Zoe, then filmed it, and you were totally cool with that. "You're too young!" her mom laments. Becky admits she's just a normal teenager, and everyone else feels that way, even if she's the "good Christian girl" version of a teenager. God doesn't want her to act promiscuous, but he also gave her these feelings, so it can be confusing. "A conversation like this might have kept your brother out of the trouble he's in now." Uh, the trouble with the law, and not in your household? Because yes, it most definitely starts at home. Becky wants to know if stuff in between kissing and having full-blown sex will make her go to hell. Mrs. Baker tells her to talk to God about it. "God" probably told your son it was cool to be an asshole pervert, so I'd watch that advice.
Jonah and Becky are in a recording studio and Becky smartly tells the producer to shut off the mics before talking to Jonah about sex. However, she could've just waited until after the session, but the swirling camera work is back, and maybe it is only in this recording studio, so she has to let out her feelings right now. Becky doesn't think "just kissing" is enough to express her true desires for Jonah. Jonah is concerned about jeopardizing his abstinence, but Becky assures him that she too wants to be abstinent, so it won't get too far. Jonah wants to know, then, how far she wants things to go. Becky decides that the producer could be reading their lips, so it's best to avoid the rest of this conversation until later. I personally think they should do hand gestures and make it super weird for the producer guy. They cut off their conversation and Jonah smiles and gives Becky a big, passionate kiss.
Last we left off with Maya, she realized she liked Zig. Now she's talking to Grace about it in gym class when Coach Armstrong declares that it's salsa week in gym and they're combining the boys' and girls' classes to DANCE! Maya is paired with Tristan, her nemesis, since she likes to ruin all of his fun. Tristan, was it really all that fun, having a relationship with a creepy perverted teacher? Or with Miles, who is numb to everything in the world?
Tristan and Maya cannot dance because Maya is too controlling and Tristan is getting hurt too easily. It's like a metaphor for their relationship! I get your deep themes, Degrassi writers. Dancing will never work between these two! Tristan storms out of the gym.
Maya is back at home, complaining to Zig how she cannot dance and how Tristan sucks at life, and how both are going to get her a bad grade in gym. Zig apparently has salsa music on cue, because he pulls out a remote and hits one button and BAM it's salsa time. He took this unit last year and he loves black shirts, so of course he's going to be a sexy salsa dancer! It's like a Canadian version of Dirty Dancing. Maya instantly gets the hang of things, and admits she "learned more in 30 seconds than she did in an entire class with Tristan!" Zig declares it's because Maya trusts him. Zig also says that she needs to be honest about her feelings...he's talking about Tristan, of course, but Maya reads a little more into that, especially when she's flung into a couch and immediately forgets about her injury because she's lovingly looking at Zig's ass.
Back at school, Maya decides to let Tristan share his feelings, or at least talk for once without her interruptions. Tristan, let it rip! "I hate how you think you know what's best for me. You don't. This year, you've taken away everything good I've had in my life." Tristan, why'd you have to ruin your chance at a monologue with terrible arguments? Teacher BFs suck and Miles sucks! He continues, "You get to have this perfect little life and all these guys in love with you and what do I get? Nothing. And the worst part is, when you betrayed me, I lost my best friend." Well, Maya, what do you have to say for yourself? He's totally right. They both admit they had no one to talk to, and they both admit that they missed having each other around. They hug and the annoying friendship between Tristan and Maya is back on, so we as viewers now have to deal with that.
Maya is back at home, dancing about, excited that she has one more friend in her life now. Zig catches her and she thanks him for the advice. He sincerely tells her that he can't fix her other problem...her TWO LEFT FEET! Oh Zig, you're so funny. Maya teasingly chases Zig around the kitchen, until they pause, lock eyes, then jump right into a big kiss. They are getting passionate when Mrs. Matlin comes home to ruin the fun. Mrs. Matlin didn't see anything, but Zig and Maya are wearing some guilty facial expressions.
Clare is reading up on baby books and how boys are statistically more likely to end up in the ER. Duh, Clare! Let's look at the fact that women are traditionally told to do less dangerous things than men are told to do, so of course they are getting hurt more! Alli says that's totally true, since Dallas is a male and also an idiot. Jenna says Connor doesn't ever get hurt. "Why would I jeopardize my health? I just calculate the risk and act accordingly." Jenna loves it when Connor talks nerdy. Dallas, a teen dad, tells Clare that she can't predict how a kid will turn out because everyone is different. He also conveniently tells her he needs a sitter for his little toddler son, so Clare and Eli can play parents for the night. Clare is both honored and confident. "We're ready to do this for the rest of our lives! A couple of hours should be no problem."
Clare is having trouble talking to Rocky (Dallas' son), who is jumping on the couch, throwing pillows and just NOT putting his pants back on. What a terror! Clare is about to reach for the morphine when Eli walks in the door. Eli is here to save the day! He brings a water gun to give to Rocky, who loves it. While Rocky holds the water gun, Clare and Eli debate about it, since Clare thinks it is immoral to give a gun to a child, especially another person's child, and Eli's like "chill, it's a water gun." All of this and they are sitting RIGHT next to Rocky. This kid has to be three years old by now...I think he can hear and understand your whole conversation. Eli asks for the gun back but not without blaming Clare for the change of heart. Rocky doesn't like take-backs and shoots about a gallon of water in Clare's face.
Clare and Eli are later assembling a crib, which Clare is afraid of messing up, but Eli thinks they can just try their best to put it together. It's a metaphor for their views on raising a child! Gosh, Degrassi writers, twice in one episode! They decide that they have to set rules about things when it comes to raising their kid, and keep an open line of communication. Seems like a good parenting plan. This is like, the most together any couple has been on this show, almost to the point that it is cool for them to be raising a child together, in my opinion. I mean, I don't want to encourage teen sex, but if you are stable like a functional married couple, then it may work for you!
Clare and Eli go to the doctor for a checkup. The doctor is holding a device up to Clare's stomach as the couple goes through some odd list on Eli's phone, which may be a Buzzfeed article about most polarizing topics for child rearing, including Play-Doh, which they both agree is ok for the baby, and pirate costumes, which Clare says promotes criminality but is ok for Halloween. The doctor abruptly busts up their conversation with some devastating news...there are more tests to be done and he checked the batteries on his device, but...he isn't hearing a heartbeat.
Lesson Learned: It's ok to be a teenager and have hormones, but not if that results in actual babies. Unless you are Eli and Clare.
No comments:
Post a Comment