90210

90210

Episode 17: Dude, Where's My Husband

By: Carlos Uribe

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

Spoilers Ahoy!

It's time for a 90210 Hangover episode! It all begins when Naomi decides that she wants to recapture her fun days from before she was married. She wants to fit the image of the “young, carefree, and single” that a client of hers described her as. Since she's now divorced, she doesn't feel like she can fit that image anymore. So she tries to correct that by having a girl's night out. The episode takes a little long setting up the whole situation but she eventually wakes up with no recollections from the night before. All she has are hints that she might have gotten married to someone. Since the only thing worse than being a divorcee is being a divorcee twice, she goes on a quest to find out who she married and annul it. This involves having to go on a quest to where she had gone through the night and have to question people on where she could have possibly gone. Through this journey, we also discover what happened to the other female characters. Adrianna allowed a gay stripper to frost her hair, Silver slept with Mark, and Annie got trapped in her bathroom for eighteen hours. The first and last ones are for comic relief but there was also something inherently satisfying in seeing snug Annie be trapped in a bathroom for eighteen hours. The second-Silver sleeping with Mark-managed to deflext expectations when Silver actually admitted to the deed to Adrianna. They had a whole pack that they wouldn't sleep with him so this secret could have led to a lot of annoying drama. Adrianna only pretends to be cool with this so it looks like a man is going to come between them again.

The actual journey is only somewhat entertaining. The first step is a strip club where Naomi freaks out that she might have married a stripper. She's relieved to hear that's not true but the mystery remains open. She does learn that she bonded with some of the Real Housewives who have also divorced. They freaked out when they learned that Annie used to date their favorite movie star, Liam. So they head to her house only he wasn't there. They watched a movie that bothered Naomi. When they learn that Annie was stuck in the bathroom, they come to her rescue. She carries the last piece of evidence that she seemed to have married her brother. This is only a misleading cliff-hanger to end the scene as she actually married herself. It wasn't a move out of self-pity but to signal a new beginning for her life. She only learns this through her brother, who has to repeat the same speech he gave her the night before. He reveals that he's divorced. It's a nice way to really help bond them. The only major problem I have with the journey is that they ran into two housewives. I get that it's likely to happen since this is Beverly Hills but it just feels like a huge excuse to have them appear on the show. It's not like they really contributed anything. I'm not a big fan of stunt casting since it just seems like an obvious ratings grab that never really works.

The males were not involved in the Hangover plot. Navid and Liam were both trying to deal with the leader of the Cronus society. They're too late to stop them from pointing the finger towards Liam but they decide to find a way to connect him to the cheating. They decide that Liam should go undercover into Cronus and see if he can find the proof he needs. It would be an intriguing concept except Navid remains too dull for this to be interesting. It's also eerily reminiscent of the time Navid actually went undercover to catch his uncle. The only difference is that going undercover was Liam's current love interest's idea. In other news, Dixon is now falling in love with Michaela because of course he is. This is only after the surrogate ruined a date with another girl with her morning sickness. It's really not that interesting of a plot and Dixon and Michael don't have the sexual chemistry needed to really make their plot work.

This was a pretty good episode of 90210 because the Hangover concept was strong enough to hold on it's own. It had it's weaknesses in it's employment of stunt casting and it was a bit predictable at points but it was still entertaining to see their night unravel. The other plots didn't work as well. Liam going undercover at the Cronus society was a neat idea but it felt repetitive and Navid's presence ruined it. Dixon's interest in Michaela is okay but it lacks the sexual chemistry to properly drive the plot. It was a barely entertaining episode.