S13.E32: Enjoy the Silence

[formerlyfreedom]

Zig hides out at Maya's house. Meanwhile, Clare has questions for Drew; and Winston and Frankie don't want Miles to uncover their romance.

 

 

[luckyroll3]

Ugh, Clare.  She was certainly back in rare form tonight.  Nice of her to absolve all responsibility for her role in sleeping with Drew (she did initiate it - great to get an actual confirmation) and for why Drew broke it off. 

 

The gang story was wrapped up fairly quickly; par for the course on Degrassi.  Young Money (love that name) and Grace being the voices of reason was great. 

 

And poor Chewie.

[MegaJ]

A-Plot. Finally, an adult gets involved in this situation. But what breaks my suspension of disbelief is the fact that CPS isn't knocking on the Novaks' door. I don't know how the law works, but I'm pretty sure that you cannot just kick your underage child out of your home without child endangerment charges, it's not like Zig is 23 and still at home. Why wasn't Maya's mother talking to them about Zig coming home and making plans to ease him back in? Oi.

But overall, this was okay. I like Grace/Maya, I like that the romance was dialed back, I liked the Panorama scenes, and I like how they included Tiny with getting help quitting the gang. He seemed like he was going to be a villain, but that scene at Zig's home just spelled out that he's just as trapped as Zig is.

B-Plot. Clare kinda sucked this plot. Aw, you're mad how Drew dumped you? You mean like how you dumped Eli in a text message, and then used Drew as the rebound? Good for Drew for getting out of Clare's drama and finally good on Clare for realizing that she has to stay single.

C-Plot. Silly fun plot, with a roadblock to Chankie/Frewy. Nice seeing Damon again and also Tristan having a scene with another guy.

[omgsowicked]

- Glad that adults/police got involved in Zig's plot before it got too messy, though I'm not sure that I like that the rich and uninvolved Mr. Hollingsworth had to swoop in and save poor, homeless Zig. I'm happy to see a different angle on a gang life story, showing cooperation with police and becoming an informant. I hope we finally get some insight into Zig's life on the streets, his involvement in the gang, etc. And I like that Tiny's in, too, I just hope he'll stick with the program. For now, he seems OK, and he was quite sweet with Mrs. Matlin. I hope he doesn't fade to the background, I like him.

 

I agree, @MegaJ, I don't know why Mrs. Matlin was the one to bring up his parents instead of the police suggesting it themselves. Really, they'll set up a reunion? How about an investigation? I know I want to know why the heck he was kicked out. Plus, Zig was so worried about being placed in a group home but apparently that's not an issue, he can just stay at the Matlins? I don't get it.

 

- Clare has always been a pain but girl needs to chill the hell out. The lie detector/ax throwing/revenge stuff is overkill. She's right to be upset; she broke up with her longtime boyfriend and had sex with a guy she was expecting to start a relationship with... but she's being so vindictive about it, like he's been acting pleased with himself. He didn't call things off because he banged her and that's all he wanted, he wanted more than to be a rebound. He made it clear that he wanted to talk with her about it all... hell, he wanted to talk with her before they had sex but she wanted to get right into it. Sorry but she's acting like an asshole here, not him.

 

As for the resolution, I would have preferred to see Alli come to the realization that she needed to be OK with herself on her own, as she's the one with major self-esteem issues re: boys, but whatever. Also, I hope that with Clare getting a new group of friends, Clare and Alli will go ahead and call it a day. Their bathroom chat felt forced (and a missed opportunity to reference the Boiling Point days, having Alli say, "You slept with him? Well, you got farther than I did."), and they barely share screen time or seem to hang out much. Not every friendship ends in fiery flames, so I think it would be nice to see a friendship naturally but consciously dissolve.

 

- I find it very difficult to take Miles seriously when he's angry, but I guess I appreciate how it adds to the silly innocence of the whole thing. It felt like old school Degrassi. However, Winston's in 10th grade and Frankie's in 9th, right? That's really not that bad... plus, Miles knows Winston, so he should feel much more comfortable with a 10th grader he's familiar with vs. an 9th grader he doesn't know, no? Anyway, it was nice to throw Tristan and Zig's friend (forgot his name) into the mix... Tristan because he usually seems to be around if it benefits or is about him, and the other guy because I like when they expand the circles of interactions. Degrassi's a big school, why not mix it up a bit, eh?

[aradia22]

What the heck was Maya wearing to school? A red semi-leopard print minidress with a low V-neck and a cutout in the back? It's both "inappropriate" and inappropriate for school. She looks like a backup dancer or a bebe ad. Who the heck is running the costume department for Degrassi?

 

Oh, and his eyes did not look bloodshot.

 

Again, with the hilarious age stuff. I love how Degrassi inflates and ignores age differences as it suits them. Frankie's in high school. It's a big weird to warn her about "high school guys." A "grade 10 or 11 creep" would only be a year or two older than her. Calm the eff down.

 

Why is Clare being awful to Drew? Clare does not need "revenge." God, revisionist history, much? She did not get "dumped." At least, not the way she's portraying it.

 

But awww, puppies and bacon. All would be forgiven if they actually filmed that scene.

 

Drew, Grace, and Tristan could be good characters if they would stop sidelining them and then misusing them when they do highlight them. Kill Clew. It's a terrible couple. There's a way to make that trope work and it's not with these specific characters. Tristan just keeps rehashing the same plots of pining for some guy or sort of pursuing his acting ambitions but only when there's time for it in the episode. What happened to the weird teacher with his club in the woods? For the most part, these three characters are the writers' favorite exposition machines and sounding boards.

 

Zig is an idiot. He's hiding out and he just goes to answer the door without even peeking through the curtain?

 

Did I miss the episode that explains why they can suddenly put on events almost constantly and why they seem to have unlimited resources when they were having budget issues just a little while ago? The silent dance party seemed kind of cute. The other rooms were lame/copies of other concepts. It was weird that everyone was ready with an "art installation" when most of these characters have no connection to art.

 

Maya's "What do you know?" to Alli was amazing. I think that was the writers talking to us there. 

 

Ugh. I don't mind if Zig and Maya are just friends and not in a relationship but this is opening the door for more awful Maya and YoungMoney stuff which I am not on board for.