S07.E12: Judgment Day

[Primetimer]

Getting called before a CU tribunal over his plagiarism charges lets Brandon play F. Lee Brayley.

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[Primetimer]

...that Brandon didn't draw back a stump after putting his finger in the Chancellor's face. Many more hateful Brandon moments after the jump!

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[calamityjean]

Did they edit out the scene where Brandon rolls a giant hand-truck that holds all those enormous books through the student union?

[StatMom]

Oh, barf. Mark was bummed that he and Kelly weren't "making love."

[TeeVee329]

Retcon Cop - Steve didn't fail all of his quizzes in Sociology 101.  In the season four episode/first episode we saw this class and Professor Randall, Steve did a "super cram" (tee hee) at the KEG house and got a B on that quiz.  He even got a B+ on the midterm!

Edited August 7, 2017 by TeeVee329

[pieinmyeye]

Did they edit out the scene where Brandon rolls a giant hand-truck that holds all those enormous books through the student union?

BWAHAHAHAHA!!

[MCMLXXVII]

I have a theory on Donna's hair. This was around when TLC was popular, and with David being into hip-hop, I'm wondering if they're trying out African-American inspired styles on her to make her look like a "cool" musician's girlfriend and it just looking off? 

http://skoolgirlonline.co.uk/13-lisa-lopes-left-eyes-flyest-90s-hairstyles/

[kfree9]

Forget the hair--is Claire wearing a sequined cardigan?!

Quote

Did they edit out the scene where Brandon rolls a giant hand-truck that holds all those enormous books through the student union?

Seriously! Or they missed a chance for the traditional "carrying a lot of books in my arms and get accidentally bumped into they go spilling onto the floor," meet cute. 

[ZeroDiscipline]

But Steve really did plagiarize that paper! Why is he not in more trouble? And Val, I love you always, but really love your take on Donna being the fun police, and how David doesn't need her permission. Val = Dave forever, I hate that this show didn't let them be together.

[Nanna]

1 minute ago, ZeroDiscipline said:

But Steve really did plagiarize that paper! Why is he not in more trouble? And Val, I love you always, but really love your take on Donna being the fun police, and how David doesn't need her permission. Val = Dave forever, I hate that this show didn't let them be together.

I just came here to say that - why is Steve not expelled? He admits that he stole the paper and submitted it as his own, so ... Does he even have to write another paper? (I get that no one is supposed to care about Steve in this plotline, but it is still weird not to end it by "Steve has to take the class again and do some work", but whatever).

I actually want to side with Brandon for once, I get why he doesn't want to admit to cheating when he didn't (wouldn't be good for his presidential campaign when someone digs up that he avoided being kicked out for cheating by admitting to cheating, Bran the Man knows his way around campaigns now), but the problem is that he brays so much about everything that it is unacceptable even the few times when he is justified in his braying.

I must admit that I love Steve's "no one can humiliate Steve Sanders more than Steve Sanders". Spoken like a true expert in fuck ups. In real life, however, I feel like something like this would have cost him a) Brandon's friendship, b) his place to live, and c) his girlfriend, becausd Clare wouldn't be caught dead with a stupid cheater. 

[ZeroDiscipline]

Quote

Clare wouldn't be caught dead with a stupid cheater. 

Hell no! And her dad is the chancellor! I guess they all knew the show was almost over anyway, and maybe Kathleen Robertson hadn't given her notice yet because since she is leaving anyway, this would have been a perfect out on her relationship with Steve, who I love, but is a dumbass and Clare should not date.

[WhosThatGirl]

The music was way too intense this episode. I know probably half of it may be because of rights but still.. soundtrack editors working way too hard.

God, this episode was a bore. I assume that's about 99% of what is left of this show. Given a few sprinkles of laughs. This episode didn't even have that!

[SoupThrower]

Yeaah don't see how Steve isn't more trouble. Dude should be at the best failed the course and have to take a course on academic honesty. But whatever show. Even if Brandon didn't go about it right, he is justified to be pissed but still think he would have stayed friends with Steve.  Claire I agree would have dumped him. 

 

David and Donna are a bore together like Mark and Kelly.  Love that Donna stormed off and has her parents tell David that she's in the car like a child. 

 

Val and David are fun together. Their chemistry is better. 

[TeeVee329]

3 hours ago, ZeroDiscipline said:

But Steve really did plagiarize that paper! Why is he not in more trouble?

Seriously!  I get that, by pleading guilty, Steve's punishment would be up to the chancellor and he was inclined to not expel him at the very least, but was there no punishment whatsoever?

In other news, it continues to be bizarre to me how much of A Thing they're trying to make Mark in these episodes given I had 100% forgotten about him until now.  What a waste of time. 

Edited August 8, 2017 by TeeVee329

[helent]

8 hours ago, TeeVee329 said:

Seriously!  I get that, by pleading guilty, Steve's punishment would be up to the chancellor and he was inclined to not expel him at the very least, but was there no punishment whatsoever?

Especially since the Chancellor should probably recuse himself from a case involving his daughter's boyfriend.

[benteen]

F. Lee Brayley...heheh.

Brandon was actually in the right here but he's such an obnoxious prick that you can't sympathize with him.  It's amazing the writers didn't realize how ridiculous it was for Steve not be punished in any way for what he did but then again, look at these writers...

[BBHN]

Then again...when was Steve ever really punished for the things he did?

[sinnerforhire]

The only way Steve could have legitimately escaped punishment is if Randall didn't actually have a copy of the paper in question and the whole proceeding was based on his word that the papers were the same. If that's the case, then the evidence of Randall lying by falsifying the grade record would have cast enough doubt on the initial accusation to effectively nullify it.

Of course, this raises the question of whether Brandon could been compelled to provide his copy of the paper during the proceedings, but I'm sure the writers didn't put any thought into that, so I won't waste my time.

[Earmuffs Mom]

14 hours ago, TeeVee329 said:

Seriously!  I get that, by pleading guilty, Steve's punishment would be up to the chancellor and he was inclined to not expel him at the very least, but was there no punishment whatsoever?

In other news, it continues to be bizarre to me how much of A Thing they're trying to make Mark in these episodes given I had 100% forgotten about him until now.  What a waste of time. 

Speaking of Mark being such a bore, can we also talk about how marginalized Tracey is in the storylines also?  I remember Brandon confessing to Tracey about his affair with Lucinda to explain some of the hearing drama and Tracey is still his cheerleader.  Brandon shows zero interest in her or supporting her.  She's just nothing but a placeholder for Brandon until Kelly dumps Mark and they can get back together.  The later retcon of him having her photo in his drawer and being so attracted to her in Hawaii makes zero sense given how tepid and one-sided their relationship was.

[Sarah D. Bunting]

We've seen her invite him in for sex and him turn her down, what, three times now? At least twice. The actor is really trying but between her pale-copy-of-Susan-ness and the ongoing "Kelly and Brandon still wuv each other" undercurrents, it's like, just give up. 

[MerBearStare]

Mark has been in more episodes than I remember. I thought he was gone after like 5 episodes. The actor is cute, but Mark is just sooooooo boooooooring in a season that is sooooooo boooooooring. 

The only entertaining part of the episode was Brandon angrily saying "Corey." Maybe it's because I remember the Coreys from the 80's and the Simpsons' "Here are some words that rhyme with Corey," but it's such a ridiculous name (sorry to any actual Coreys, but blame Haim/Feldman/Masterson) and saying it angrily makes it even more ridiculous. 

[StatMom]

1 hour ago, MerBearStare said:

The only entertaining part of the episode was Brandon angrily saying "Corey." Maybe it's because I remember the Coreys from the 80's and the Simpsons' "Here are some words that rhyme with Corey," but it's such a ridiculous name (sorry to any actual Coreys, but blame Haim/Feldman/Masterson) and saying it angrily makes it even more ridiculous. 

Same here with the Simpsons reference!  "...Corey. Story. Allegory. ..."

[MCMLXXVII]

1 hour ago, StatMom said:

Same here with the Simpsons reference!  "...Corey. Story. Allegory. ..."

Hunh. Was there some famous Corey to spark this popularity? We had at least four (all Black guys) throughout grade school and high school out of a graduating class of 110 people maybe? I was class of '95, so most all were born in '77. 

[CherylShine]

Retcon Cop - Steve didn't fail all of his quizzes in Sociology 101.  In the season four episode/first episode we saw this class and Professor Randall, Steve did a "super cram" (tee hee) at the KEG house and got a B on that quiz.  He even got a B+ on the midterm!

Exactly! And Brandon didn't transfer in late. He and Steve were in So-she-ology together from day one.
Stupid show.

[penguinnj]

Yay- I guess Tracey's dad was Charles Ingalls :)

[CurlyATX]

On ‎8‎/‎8‎/‎2017 at 9:19 AM, Earmuffs Mom said:

Speaking of Mark being such a bore, can we also talk about how marginalized Tracey is in the storylines also?  I remember Brandon confessing to Tracey about his affair with Lucinda to explain some of the hearing drama and Tracey is still his cheerleader.  Brandon shows zero interest in her or supporting her.  She's just nothing but a placeholder for Brandon until Kelly dumps Mark and they can get back together.  The later retcon of him having her photo in his drawer and being so attracted to her in Hawaii makes zero sense given how tepid and one-sided their relationship was.

I barely remember Tracey, but I think it was something like Kelly found Brandon's box of mementos and she was pissed that he had so much stuff by her.  I can buy that Tracey was the type of girl who would be sending cards "just because" and adding lots of stuff to Brandon's collection.

I feel so bad for Tracey- she just can't read a room.  Finally Brandon bones her and takes her to Hong Kong (spoiler) and I think he even admits to Jim that he's not into her.  I still can't remember WHY he would take a girl to HK if he wasn't seeing a future with her.  He should have just taken Steve so they could hang. 

I do like that when Tracey and Kelly break up, she refuses his offer to be "friends" stating that he's basically a jerk. 

[WhosThatGirl]

I have a spoiler question- which I hope is okay, this show is over decades old but..

Is Tracey the one who finds the engagement ring Brandon gave to Kelly and wrongly assumes he's planning to ask her? And then Brandon has to explain it to her or is that another girl?

[MCMLXXVII]

Yup, it's her. I always wondered why he held onto it considering he mentions making payments. 

[Earmuffs Mom]

1 hour ago, WhosThatGirl said:

Is Tracey the one who finds the engagement ring Brandon gave to Kelly and wrongly assumes he's planning to ask her? And then Brandon has to explain it to her or is that another girl?

Yes...that episode is AWFUL because they have Priestley play a German jeweler too when he takes the ring back and exchanges it for a bracelet for Tracey.  It's so tacky to give Tracey second-hand jewelry.  What's worse, is that Tracey is just giddy he bought her a trinket! Get a clue girl - if he still has an old engagement ring for a woman he still interacts with, he's just not that into you.

[WhosThatGirl]

Yeah.. really who he keeps an engagement ring they were planning to give to an ex? I remember wondering this when it happened on OTH which I saw long before I saw it happen in BH but again.. I'm of a Siffwrent generation with this show although that was kind of a different story. The ring was an heirloom and Lucas did propose to his ex girlfriend with it years before and I think was always planning to propose to his current girlfriend but it was still odd to me that he was using the same ring. 

[Jax7917]

On 8/7/2017 at 2:35 PM, kfree9 said:

Forget the hair--is Claire wearing a sequined cardigan?!

Seriously! Or they missed a chance for the traditional "carrying a lot of books in my arms and get accidentally bumped into they go spilling onto the floor," meet cute. 

Haha happens in every show . I think they did that with Dylan and Toni 

[MCMLXXVII]

4 hours ago, Earmuffs Mom said:

Yes...that episode is AWFUL because they have Priestley play a German jeweler too when he takes the ring back and exchanges it for a bracelet for Tracey.  It's so tacky to give Tracey second-hand jewelry.  What's worse, is that Tracey is just giddy he bought her a trinket! Get a clue girl - if he still has an old engagement ring for a woman he still interacts with, he's just not that into you.

Wait, I thought he later re-proposed to Kelly with the same ring? 

[benteen]

I'd forgotten they had Priestly play the old German jeweler.  What the hell was up with that?

[Earmuffs Mom]

12 hours ago, MCMLXXVII said:

Wait, I thought he later re-proposed to Kelly with the same ring? 

Kelly buys the ring back and when they get back together, she tells him it was their ring and she didn't want anyone else to have it.  Maybe that's how he proposes with it?

[Jax7917]

And from the episode they got back together , she went to her old bitchy Kelly know it all ways . I think Brandon regretted that reunion pretty soon after 

[CurlyATX]

ok, I finally listened to this and I'm still confused AF.  So- Steve failed all of Randall's quizzes but Randall doctored past quizzes (that he happens to keep?) in order to show a pattern of cheating? Didn't Steve still plagiarize the essay for independent study?  Is he punished in any way? Wasn't there something that Brandon did where he was basically blackmailing Randall to let Steve off the hook because of the preferential treatment D'Shawn was getting?

How are a bunch of shitty quizzes that Steve brings in evidence?  Couldn't they have been doctored too? What was Steve's final grade in that freshman class?  Why do I care about this at all?

[CurlyATX]

Did Brandon check those books out from the library? How would he know how to use them? Were there some cases where a student left a paper out in the open and his idiot roommate copied the entire thing and handed it in, and the author of the paper claimed "innocent spouse" privilege (like those people who try to avoid being thrown in jail for not paying taxes)?

[Klaw]

On 8/10/2017 at 2:28 PM, benteen said:

I'd forgotten they had Priestly play the old German jeweler.  What the hell was up with that?

I remember that! And I remember it being cringeworthy and terrible at the time, I can only imagine how bad it will be now, since I speak some German and I'm living in Germany. Most of the time actors totally fuck up the German accent (overdoing all the "Zees" for the and the "Vees" for We, etc)  and from what I remember Priestly's portrayal was no different. Usually Germans who speak English well have a noticeable accent, sure, but it is not that heavy and often, you can't really tell that it's a German accent unless you know where they're from. Mr. KLaw is German and folks in the States used to mistake his accent for British all the time. 

On 8/9/2017 at 7:43 PM, CurlyATX said:

I feel so bad for Tracey- she just can't read a room.  Finally Brandon bones her and takes her to Hong Kong (spoiler) and I think he even admits to Jim that he's not into her.  I still can't remember WHY he would take a girl to HK if he wasn't seeing a future with her.  He should have just taken Steve so they could hang. 

Wierdly, I always thought that the Tracy storyline was one of the few times 90210 got it right, "it" being the realistic depiction of a relationship (see also, David outgrowing his friendship with Dead Scott in Season 2) because I feel like most young women, hell young  people, have experienced something similar. Most of us have that great unrequited love (like Marty from Gilmore Girls) or have had an actual relationship with someone who wasn't that into us. Now, we're all older and wiser and it's Brandon we're talking about so Tracy seems especially pathetic but I get why she acted the way she did.  And Brandon was simply being an  immature douche -  and in a rare example of continuity (remember how he 'broke up' with Emily Valentine?), he was trying to not be the jerk but ended up being more of an asshole to her because he wasn't honest about his (lack of) feelings for her. Again, and I hate to defend Brandon because, well it's Brandon, but the whole situation rings true. Doesn't mean it isn't boring af, tho.

As for COREY... can we just go back to the fact that there's no way a dweeb like COREY would bag a fox like Lucinda, who, let's face it, seemed to prefer boning teenagers to middle-aged men who talk to bears in their spare time and call themselves ''sports pigs". I just want to mention that again because it's one of my forever pet peeves of this show - constantly putting smokin' hot women with these total dorks (see Val and Kenny). It's annoying and just shows that the writers/producers were all middle-aged men. 

Regarding Clare. Not only would she have dumped him with a quickness, I think she also would have been personally OUTRAGED by his behaviour. She's a brainiac who makes the Dean's list and is the Chancellor's daughter so someone doing what Steve did would be so morally repugnant to her. I mean, she screamed at David over potentially tanking her grade in that Real World episode, so I don't see why she wasn't furious with Steve. Sure, it didn't affect her personally, but we've seen her be quite judgy and I would think that upholding academic integrity would mean something to her.

[Klaw]

On 8/7/2017 at 4:08 PM, calamityjean said:

Did they edit out the scene where Brandon rolls a giant hand-truck that holds all those enormous books through the student union?

IKR? Having gone to Law School, I can tell you that my friends and classmates weren't rolling around campus carrying big ass law books. Our books for class were heavy enough but for real studying (like Brandon seems to be doing) we went to oh, you know, the LAW Library. Jesus, show, get a clue. I get that they are cheap and all but how hard would it have been to create a library set? didn't they have one from the Toni Marchette era? Or dress up the one from that crappy Texas episode but do NOT have him perfomatively "studying" in the Student Union, SHOW!

[CurlyATX]

You're right... this does fit into Brandon's MO of not wanting to hurt a girl and therefore not being honest.  I'm sure Tracey felt like she was helping him to "discover" his feelings for her vs the fact that he just wasn't that into her.  

As for the hottie with the older dude, I wonder if Lucinda was enamored with Corey when he was a professor and she was just a TA.  He took advantage of that and they hooked up/married.  Maybe he helped fund some of her early research.  Then, she woke up, divorced his ass after she realized that she could get grants for her research instead.  Perhaps we enjoyed the reverse powerplay of being the professor and going after a dorky student.  Though an 18-year-old Brandon doesn't seem like he'd be a great guy in bed.  

[mwcherry]

LOL- one vote for Fleezer.

[Tara Ariano]

On 8/10/2017 at 2:28 AM, benteen said:

I'd forgotten they had Priestly play the old German jeweler.  What the hell was up with that?

OH MY GOD SO DID I AND NOW I'M FURIOUS

[Nanna]

I'm not sure if I ever really watched this stretch of episodes (I certainly don't remember much of it) - and I've definitely never seen Brandon play the jeweler (well, maybe I blocked it out) and I'm SO HAPPY that I'll get to hear our hosts have rage strokes over it. Your pain is my gain. 

[CurlyATX]

2 hours ago, Tara Ariano said:

OH MY GOD SO DID I AND NOW I'M FURIOUS

I'm really excited to hear your takes on this "acting".  I am almost tempted to find this on Hulu and watch it in prep.  I think there was some geriatric "shaking" plus the accent if I remember correctly.  And I guess these hillsters just have $15K lying around to buy back rings or pay for rings no one wears. 

[BBHN]

Long ass video, so skip ahead to 02:25 to see JP as the old German jeweler...

[StatMom]

4 hours ago, BBHN said:

Long ass video, so skip ahead to 02:25 to see JP as the old German jeweler...

That. Is SO weird. Was Priestley jonesing to do an accent? Play an oldster? Bizarre. Maybe he thought it would snag him an Emmy nomination or something. Something to look forward to.

[benteen]

It's a shame that scene in the jewelry store didn't end for Brandon like it did for that jeweler in Marathon Man.

[Klaw]

On 8/16/2017 at 0:25 AM, BBHN said:

see JP as the old German jeweler...

I knew it! Terrible overdoing it wit Ze bad German Accent (see rant, above). /eyeroll. Man, that was so so cringeworthy bad. The Germans have a word for that... Fremdschämen. I so feel it for JP there...

[Sam215]

To th video at the 3:52 mark I am shocked that they showed kelly walking up like that.  She is very obviously pregnant.  

[ivygirl]

On 8/13/2017 at 7:19 AM, Klaw said:

IKR? Having gone to Law School, I can tell you that my friends and classmates weren't rolling around campus carrying big ass law books. Our books for class were heavy enough but for real studying (like Brandon seems to be doing) we went to oh, you know, the LAW Library. Jesus, show, get a clue. I get that they are cheap and all but how hard would it have been to create a library set? didn't they have one from the Toni Marchette era? Or dress up the one from that crappy Texas episode but do NOT have him perfomatively "studying" in the Student Union, SHOW!

I read this post as I'm watching a rerun on Pop ("Speechless"). And just now, a scene of Toni and Dylan in the library! There were large reference books, so it could have passed.

Edited October 6, 2017 by ivygirl