Wednesday, January 23, 2013

90210


90210
Episode 10: Misery Loves Company
By: Carlos Uribe

90210 is a show about wealthy kids who do business and go to college in the zip. Or something.

Spoilers Ahoy!

I think this episode was meant to be the mid-season finale because that cliff-hanger was insane. I mean this in the most positive light possible. This is how the episode ended: Annie is shot, Vanessa is arrested, Dixon is having a good time without Adrianna after telling her he didn’t want to feel anything for her, Silver faking Teddy’s signature, and Naomi leaving her mom’s place unsure if Max is the right man for her. That was an explosive ending that would certainly have had me at the edge of me seat through the winter break. It’s a good thing I only have to wait until next week to see how it all (probably predictably) resolves itself. I do have to admit that when I started watching the episode, I had kind of forgotten that 90210 has managed to become a show that was barely entertaining.  The episode started out decently enough but it managed to get better as it went along before heading towards an ending that shows how much fun this show is when it goes off the rails. The only time I remember the cliff-hanger being so dramatic was the second season finale when the lives of the characters crumbled around them. Overall, Misery Loves Company is an episode that is a reminder that the show has managed to become competent with an ending that is truly magnificent.


So how did Annie get shot and Vanessa arrested? They spend the entire episode trying to rescue Liam. They find out that Ashley was fired from the force for being mentally unstable and they manage to figure out that she’s keeping Liam under the Offshore. Their plan to rescue him is to use Vanessa to lure Ashley into the bar while Annie goes in and gets Liam out. The plot somewhat suffers from the long break as it has to rebuild the tension that had led to the cliff-hanger of Liam being kidnapped but the episode managed to accomplish this. It also helps that Liam never really lost his agency. He’s always trying to get out his situation, to the point of trying to emotionally manipulate Ashley. Their plan to rescue Liam works but sadly Ashley tries to shoot Liam. Annie gets in the way and takes a bullet for her best friend. Vanessa is arrested by the police along with Ashley as Liam can do nothing but look helplessly as Annie bleeds. Will she make it out alive? Let’s face it, she’ll probably live but I’m hoping the show throws something to the viewers from left-field. It doesn’t have to be her death but something that just makes her life more complicated. Vanessa will probably go to jail for a bit. It was nice of her to redeem herself this week but I’m hoping when she does come back that she’ll cause problems again. This show is at its best when it has an insane character messing the lives of the characters up.

Dixon can be cold. He’s using the contract he has with Adrianna to extract sweet justice. That’s the problem right here: he’s still angry with her. This pushes Megan away because she can tell he still has feelings for her. A talk with Teddy later and Dixon realizes that he can’t move on as long as he holds a grudge against her. He tells Adrianna that he’s going to stop punishing her because he doesn’t want to be angry at her anymore. He wants him to feel nothing towards her. In one scene, Adrianna realizes that there’s something far worse than an ex continually punishing you for cheating on them and that’s the ex to cast you out of his heart. In not punishing anymore, he is ironically giving out the worst punishment. That bit where Adrianna looks at Dixon and he’s having the time of her life without her is simply fantastic because it’s wonderfully acted. It makes sense that their relationship was doomed but seeing the fallout has been very entertaining.  Dixon was never a good boyfriend to begin with but he makes an even worse ex.

Silver’s baby drama continues when Teddy tells her he only wants to talk to her when lawyers are present in order to preserve their friendship. Teddy is usually so much smarter than this but I don’t think paying lawyers is going to preserve their relationship. Silver decides to bring Teddy’s family into this when she asks the uncle to speak to him. This completely backfires when the Uncle reminds the two that he doesn’t approve of Teddy’s lifestyle and he plans to freeze or destroy Silver’s eggs. It should be impossible for him to do this because they’re not his eggs. Just because they’re considered property does mean just anyone can destroy them. This basically ruins Teddy’s friendship with Silver which causes her to forge his signature and rush the pregnancy. It’s a pity that she doesn’t actually listen to Dixon when he tells her that she isn’t ready. His opinion on the matter is surprising to Silver but it makes perfect sense that an adopted character would like for the parent to actually have a job.  Silver might have the financial money (despite not being rich) to have an apartment without being employed, but is she really ready to actually take on a kid after all the medical costs have been taken care off? Dixon is being practical but Silver isn’t. She really wants this baby or she’s just off her meds again. Whatever the case, the baby plot just became more interesting as it threatens to destroy Silver’s entire life. First her love triangle and now her friendship with Teddy and maybe Dixon-what is going to do next?

Finally, we have Naomi. When she loses her wedding ring on top of her current problems with Max and Naomi is freaking out about the status of her marriage. This causes her to turn to…her mother! I believe this is the first time we meet her because I didn’t recognize her. Naomi’s mom does point out that Naomi is trying to fight for the marriage but she has to be sure that Max is the right man for her. She finishes by giving Naomi a ring that belonged to her grandmother, who was happily married for sixty years. I hope that Naomi and Max are able to have a happy marriage but it’s nice to see that Naomi might now have some internal conflict about her love for him.

Misery Loves Company is an episode where just about every major character is in some kind of crisis. The one exception being Dixon but he’s going to find out his sister got shot soon.  So he’s about to be in worry mode. It works brilliantly as a mid-season finale but I’m happy it didn’t air until now because I want to see how it’s resolved as soon as possible.

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