| Rating: | ★★★★★ |
| Category: | Other |
Got to watch the final episode of 90210's freshman season and I must say, I was stoked, speechless, and amazed. This is the kind of show that viewers of the series as well as of the whole 90210 franchise wanted to see from the new spin-off. Thanks to new showrunner, Rebecca Sinclar (credits include Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gilmore Girls), she was able to turn the show around and cleaned up the mess made by previous EP's, Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah, who took over from Rob Thomas (the series creator of 90210 and of Veronica Mars) who left because of creative differences with the other producers.
Note, skip the synopsis if you just want to read the review.
Synopsis: Picking up from the prom night episode, "Zero Tolerance", "One Party Could Ruin Your Summer" brings us to a D.L. after-prom party initiated by Naomi at her house in the Hills. Some of her West Beverly High peers bore some hatred on good girl Annie (they thought it was her who told her principal dad about one of the students' own after-prom party on the previous episode).
"Unconventional sex guy" Ethan became open about his feeling towards quirky bi-polar Silver despite being god friends with her beau, "Dixie" Dixon. bad booy Liam got turned off after he thought Naomi blabbed what he shared with her when Naomi's evil sister Jen (he didn't knew she was HER sis!) talked about it and as revenge, they had SEX (Eww, as if Jen being Ethan's "first" was not gross enough!).
Annie during the party found the one who first thought it was her who tattled about the party, drunk and vomitting. She asked Annie if she could drive her home (which she did). Meanwhile, Adrianna went into labor and had to undergo a C-Section. Navid accopanied her to the hospital, later followed by Naomi, Kelly (Silver's sister), Principal Harry and his wife Debbie, and surprisingly Brenda (Shanne Doherty) who appeared to Ad in two instances! Brenda wanted a child f her own that's why she went to China, so she could adopt a baby from that country. Harry and Debbie somewhat got high after eating some brownies they didn't know were laden with marijuana.
Naomi went home to check on the party, and when she found out that Liam had sex with a girl she was furious. She found Annie's *something* which was at Jen's possession earlier. She thought Annie had sex with him so she went downstairs to confront her. Liam found out he was used by Jen. Annie can't seem to comprehend but she was pretty much got the brunt of Naomi's misplaced anger, and so were the rest of West Bev, calling her a "Kansan Skank". Poor Annie also got doused with a drink.
Feeling angry, bitter, and betrayed, Good Girl blew her top like a volcano and cursed Naomi and the rest of the student body. She stormed out, but not without anyone knowing she called the police and finally "tattled" about the party as revenge.
Ending? Naomi's house was stormed by the police, Ethan kissed Silver, Silver was left with a decision, Dixon is now at odds with both Dixon and Ethan, Ad finally gave her baby up to the couple she called for her adoption, Navid was beside her the whole time, Liam was "kidnapped" by man-abductors, and Annie was droving off the road the next morning with a bottle of vodka she stole from the party. A car was following her with a sudden emphasis with the car's plate number. The end of season one.
Review: First of is my good critique.
Jen is the most b!tchy since she arrived two episode ago. Like a banana, every episode we got to see who she really is one by one with no definite reason of her true intentions. I wonder how this would drastically affect the rest of the characters come second season. Meanwhile, I'm amazed with Annie's sudden change of character from being a perky goody-two shoes to being a perky volcano. This is probably Shenae Grime's best highlight with her character since the show began. The change that occured to Annie would certainly impress a lot of people who've long been complained for being "perky perfect". Silver's character evolution really impressed me this season and I'm glad her old pre-bipolar self is back. I now wonder how the inevitably short-live love traingle would progress knowing Dustin Milligan (Ethan) is leaving in Season 2 (he'll be guest starring by then probably to finish up his storyline). The recurring series subplot, the adventure of the Wilson parents, never failed me to laugh my butt off seeing how this supercouple somehow gives viewers a brief escape from the main plot of the episode. I'm curious though how they would react with Annie's stint at the unmonitored party next season.
And yes, Kelly and Brenda are also back together on the season finale, although not together onscreen. The dream sequence also got me fooled when they showed a room of a dying Jim Walsh, Brenda's dad from the original BH90210 which turned out to be untrue (At least to give old viewers a break after learning of Kelly and Silver's mom returning to her alcoholism, and Donna and David being legally separated.). And yeah, I was amazed with the kind of closure given to Brenda who seems to be very happy adopting a child despite the drama she experienced for the past few episodes. Wishful thinking she could return to the zip once again for a couple more episodes. And finally, I'm just sick of brotha Dixon being a spoiled brat to his beau. In a good way, I got to feel my pity to Silver and anger towards Dixie. They don't call me a dedicated fanboy for nothin'!
Best highlight of the episode was the conluding scenes showing all the characters of season one. Outrating the rest of those scene is the closing shot of Annie driving off on the road. It's something people would have wanted but never expected that it would turned out like it. A thought-provoking and speechless cliffhanger ending indeed!
Bad critique? Ethan has got have the most ridiculous character development for season one. Not only have we failed to see more of his personal life in past episode, we never got to see who Ethan really as an individual. Writers made him more of a play thing between frienemies Annie and Naomi. Worst of all, he was given the impression of being a sexually-hungry guy after it was revealed he have long cheated on Naomi way way before (and I'm calling this child abuse, Jen!). And because Dustin Milligan is no longer going to be a series regular next season, I'm hoping that ever he still get to have his storyline end properly this fall, he get to end it well. Milligan's a loss to the show, since he is of all the members of the cast, the most charismatic actor who breathed life into Ethan.
Another letdown is the lack of a Kelly-Brenda scene on the finale. I just can't imagine that they've already seen each other off-screen unless it was mentioned onscreen. However, the participation of BH90210 alums in the spin-off is expected to become more minimal since Rebecca Sinclar already stated the need to focus 90210 more on its own core characters and not rely too much on past ones.
Somehow, 90210's future seems to be set on the right direction. Let's hope that 90210 by then become a stand-out and eclipse the success of its mother show!
90210's quotable quotes:
Annie: Screw you, Naomi! Screw all of you!
Liam: Give me my shirt.
Jen: I forgot how cute teenage boys can be when they're upset.
Debbie: The problem is, we can't drive anywhere because we're stoned.
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