S07.E02: Get By

[KWalkerInc]

Cassius and KJ struggle to find their way as they navigate their first day at Beverly High; Jordan steps in when Yasi antagonizes Khalil.

(Also, Olivia is around, but they only summarize part of the press release for the blurb and cut off the part about her.)

[Lonesome Rhodes]

This one gave me mental whiplash.

This version of Jordan is just not believable.  He became a major stud QB.  Now, he questions every last thing about his place in football.  Sure, he has a difficult boss.  But, that boss cannot take away his very real accomplishments and acumen.

Layla just demonstrated perfectly the wisdom of not advertising a pregnancy until some weeks have passed.  What does Liv do?  Jumps the gun and leaves that monumental 411 in a voice message?!  Huh?  Liv also utterly blew up Elle's anonymity.  Hard to find a bigger sin in AA recovery.  

The self-introduction Cassius and KJ chose at their first day at practice was darn near perfect.  Everything they said was dead on in a football culture.  Of course, the show has them disavow all of it.  Ay yi yi.

Kahlil is the sweetest guy Amina knows.  Riiiight.  The lad was rebuked and challenged at the beach by his Crip brothers.  Any chance he would not have doubled or tripled down on being hard and tough?  No.  Instead, we get a contrite guy who makes a sincere apology to an interloping authority figure from Beverly? 

Coop's panic was the best part of the ep.  It was organic and it was not overplayed.  The big question for me is if the Prof will become a lover for her.  I'd bet a lot on "yes."

Is Elle gonna be the device to bring back Layla the impresaria?  

Not sure why the weasel Principal was given such a spotlight tonight.  A good hint, though, is how he dissed the football team again.  If there were Boosters there, and IRL there would have been a significant number, he would never have pulled such a stunt at a Baker dedication.  Unpossible.

Yasi was a fun element this week.  He made some rather fine points, too. 

I like Tori.  Soon enough, she'll be subsumed by relationship angst.  But, for now, she's pretty savvy and confident - despite (or maybe due to?) athletics basically being taken from her.

Where was the head coach during the practices?  THAT guy would never, ever, evahhhhh, miss official practices.  Back-to-back absences?  

What song was Coop spitting out when she was dealing with her panic attack?

 

[KWalkerInc]

I don't know what they're doing with Jordan.  It's not like he came in acting overly confident because of his playing success or tried to overshadow the head coach or anything.  They might be just really trying to hammer home that coaching and dealing with teens is hard.  I think NOC has talked about Jordan being more mature than in the past, so maybe that means he has no confidence all of a sudden.  I can't remember if this coach is the one who hired him, which would make even less sense if that's the case, since he hates him.  I think the coach not being at practice was another of those "He's not a regular and isn't on this week, so it's not in our budget, who cares if it makes sense?" things.

Olivia revealing Elle's identity was very stupid.  Even if Elle said it was fine (which would be weird, but maybe she's heard of Layla and sees her as a way back to the industry), I don't think that would do much for Olivia's reputation as a sponsor.  It was a very clumsy way to introduce the character, but at least she shared important info about the pregnancy test.  I hope Olivia just told Spencer that she had a positive test but that she would have to see a doctor to be sure.  Of course, because she isn't a regular there isn't likely to be a follow-up where she isn't pregnant, so she's probably safe in jumping the gun.  I wonder if they'll do another time jump so that she could have a baby this season (maybe right in the middle of whenever Beverly and South Crenshaw inevitably play each other).

I wonder how they will justify Khalil being able to play at some point when he essentially flunked the previous year.  It seems like he would be ineligible for at least a semester, but I'm sure the show will invent some loophole or have any rules about eligibility not be set in stone.  They didn't say what position he plays.  Having him be a quarterback would intensify the rivalries with Yasi and KJ, but they should probably have at least one player with a speaking role who is at another position (besides that one receiver on Beverly).

I hope they won't focus too much on the pseudo love triangle, because Khalil only thinks of Amina as a friend/sister and Amina isn't into KJ, so this can only go nowhere.  Tori does seem pretty cool, and sympathetic.  It always frightens me when the cheerleaders get thrown in the air.  I went to a basketball game a few years ago where the girl was "sort of" caught, but still hit the ground and got bruised.  It was nice of Tori to get that gift for KJ, as hats are not cheap nowadays!  I had read in an article after the premiere that Beverly cares more about cheerleading than football, which I'm not sure I totally buy even if one is awesome and the other really bad.  I had forgotten about the sleazy Beverly principal until this episode.  A lot of principals around here seem to constantly be on the move, but this guy hangs on at Beverly forever.

I can't remember if they've explained why Preach is now renting Grace's house (other than continuing to use the set), but I assume that they had an apartment before and this is nicer/bigger.

I'm really crossing my fingers that the professor won't date Coop, but that's probably what will happen.  I'm surprised they haven't had her and Patience break up yet.  It would be perfectly reasonable, but still annoy me because everyone else seemingly got happily ever after.  I couldn't tell what song Coop was using to calm herself, and Googling it produced very random and not-helpful results.  Maybe it was one of her own songs.

[paulvdb]

Based on my googling Miss Mary Mack is a kids song / nursery rhyme which is probably why the professor called it an interesting song choice. And I hope she is not going to be Coop's love interest because I don't think I've ever liked a teacher / student relationship in tv shows or movies. I'd like her to just be Coop's teacher.

[mojoween]

These kids all wearing drab-ass clothes with no logos or graphics is unbelievable.

Please tell me Liv did not tell Spencer he was going to be a dad over the phone.  Nice to see her though; while Spencer playing for New York is true, can he please get traded to LA on the show so Spencer and Olivia can be back in the vortex?

KJ sucks.  Khalil is cool.  Coach KJ’s Dour Dad is annoying.  Tori seems cool.  Amina is cute calling everyone in the orbit Aunt and Uncle when they have no blood relationship to her.

Coop’s Torts teacher is STUNNING but agree that hopefully she stays a teacher only.  Only good things for Coop, show!  I don’t know why I have to keep saying this.