90210
Episode 20: You Can't
Win Em All
By: Carlos Uribe
90210
is a show about wealthy kids who do business and go to college in the
zip. Or something.
Spoilers
Ahoy!
Things
are getting more complicated with Silver. She's lost her best friend,
Adrianna, by sleeping with Mark and she's slowly pushing people away
as she continually demands people confirm to her desires. Her wish
for a healthy baby is certainly understandable but her draconian
control over every aspect of her surrogate's life is increasing the
tension between the two of them. It doesn't help that Michaela
doesn't believe that Dixon actually believed in her and she's hurt
when she catches Adrianna sleeping with Navid. Suddenly Michaela has
found herself without any friends so she decides to leave. Where has
she gone? We don't know as all she left behind is a note in a very
ambiguous cliff-hanger. Is she keeping the baby? Is she just leaving
their lives until it's delivery date? Is she going on tour without
Dixon and in opposition to Silver? I'm not entirely sure what's at
stake here. This did leave the writers with a lot of room to go in
the next episode but I was left more confused than excited to see
where this goes. The drama built around it works well as Silver's
ego-centrism puts her at odds with just about everybody who talks to
her this week. Michaela is pushed away, Adrianna rebels against her,
and Dixon's studio is at odds with her baby drama. There's multiple
layers that are at work here and the writers manage to make them come
together with a surprising amount of skill. The baby drama is a
little bit old but I do find myself still liking the conflicts it's
generating between the characters. Whatever the case, the show does
need to move on especially as we're quickly approaching the end of
the series.
A
tell-all book might have allowed Annie to own her past but Mark is
paying the consequences. Patrick has planted drugs in Mark's bag and
it's not going to be a simple matter of making it go away. Mark might
be innocent but he's on parole after not contesting a charge of
trafficking narcotics. This basically means that it's likely for him
to go to jail since that's basically what he was arrested for. The
writers quickly have Mark point out that he was actually innocent. He
took the fall for some of his former co-workers and there's sealed
testimony that proves his innocence. Testimony that the defense hopes
to use in an appeal case to have all charges dropped. There are a few
things that don't make complete sense. He might have been on parole
for an old crime but he did get arrested for trafficking drugs a
second time. This would mean that while he can beat his old charge,
he would still have to deal with his new one. Another problem is
where the judge notes that it doesn't matter if there's an appeal but
then changes when Jordan insists they'll win the appeal. That's like
contradictory legal logic right there. I don't think it matters even
if he didn't do the crime since he was still convicted for it and
violated the terms of parole. The writers also felt the need to make
the stakes higher for Mark than just going to jail. He's a father of
twins and he's going to be missing their birthday because he's in
jail. I love the sudden development that he's a dad simply because it
was so random. They can't find out that he's in jail because if so
then his ex-wife can take them to Vermont. They do find out which now
serves as a way for the writers to get him out of the show. I'm not
sure if this is meant to be instantly or if he'll actually leave in
the finale. It was a solid plot but it had a lot of plot holes and
sudden developments to completely work. It did do some good
relationship work.
Annie
has to live with the consequences of her actions. Mark has to miss
his kid's birthdays but Liam is also angry for her for using him. She
tries her best to make it better for him by getting him meetings with
surfers so that they can be the face of his new company. Her attempt
for a second chance doesn't happen until Liam paves his own way to
hell with good intentions. He's dragged along to help Naomi with the
birthday party for Mark's kids. Liam struggles with lying to the kids
to present them with a fun birthday party or being honest with them
and giving them what they want, their father. It's a moral question
that skews him towards the latter because he was always lied to when
he was a kid. He knows how it feels. He takes the kids to jail so
they could spend their birthday with their dad. Only this effort
backfires when he learns that there's a reason they were being kept
in the dark. The ex-wife will take the kids to Vermont and Mark has
to follow them to try and be a better father. Naomi will be losing
her brother to a far-away location. In trying to do good, Liam
accidentally messed up the lives for others. When that girl he was
dating a few episodes comes back to apologize for dating him for the
inheritance money, he decides he's going to start over his life over
in Australia. He does find it in his heart to forgive Annie first.
Overall, it's a big decision. Will the series end with Liam going to
Australia? Will he read the end of Annie's book and realize she loves
him? So many questions that might or might not be answered by the
time the series draws to an end.
You
Can't Win Em All is a good episode of 90210. The Silver baby drama
skillfully encompasses a lot of elements even as it's overstayed it's
welcome. Marks' prison drama was largely handled a lot better but
some logic holes and sudden plot developments hurt it from completely
working. The true strength in the episode is the multiple layers that
were working in each plot to create a cohesive and entertaining
whole. Only two episodes left in the series...and it looks like
they're setting up for a pretty dramatic ending.
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