90210

90210

Episode 21: Scandal Royale

By: Carlos Uribe

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

Spoilers Ahoy!

The baby drama is largely over. The last episode had ended in a kind-of ambiguous cliff-hanger ending where Michaela was gone and she had left a note behind. We pick up a few days later and she's still missing. There is some drama relating to the different agendas of the characters. Silver wants to find her because of her baby and Dixon wants her to go on tour. It's basically the same conflict they've been having for a while and it's gotten very old. The only good thing is that Dixon brought Teddy into the search by calling him against Silver's wishes. They do find Michaela and the writers throw a twist that I'm not sure how I feel about it. Michaela has suffered a miscarriage. It's a surprise largely because it came out of nowhere. I didn't even think health complications with the baby was in play because Michaela has had no health problems ever since she got pregnant. It's a twist that works in the show's favor while at the same time working against it. It's good that the baby drama is over since the plot has started to drag the show down. The drama did create some good conflicts between the characters but it lasted way too long for it to really remain interesting. The series finale will probably deal more with the emotional fallout of having lost the baby but at least it will allow Silver to move on. She might have to get the surgery but at least she won't have the burden of motherhood upon her. It's a twist that also hurts because it basically meant that the whole baby drama was for nothing. We watched it destroy her relationships, consume her life, and create so many conflicts...only to have it all be for nothing? It's a subtle slap in the face of the viewers. I'm sure the writers didn't mean it that way but it is disappointing to go all this way only to find out there is no gold at the end of the rainbow, only heartbreak. The scene at the end between Teddy and Silver was very much one of the best this show has done and it's easy to sympathize with her. As for Michaela? She leaves the show pretty quickly as she decides to return to Washington D.C. to be with her family.

It sucked to be Silver but Adrianna didn't have a good week either. She's happy to be back together with Navid until she finds out that Michaela is missing. When she finds out that Dixon is worried about having a no-show at the concert, Adrianna offers to perform. All of the characters decide that she must be back to being the backstabbing, manipulative girl she was in high school. From their perspective, it makes sense. She did sleep with Navid when she knew Michaela had a crush on him. She submitted the demo against Silver's permission and now she wants to perform it after Michaela has been scared away. Even Navid thinks that she would stoop this low. This baffles Adrianna. How dare they think she's capable of doing things she's already done? I mean, Dixon even brings up that this seems somewhat similar to the whole Javier situation. She can't really afford to be self-righteous about the whole situation even if she's completely innocent in this case. She didn't mean for Michaela to find out she was sleeping with Navid and she only submitted the song because she wrote it. She asked to perform it as a favor to Dixon. It isn't until Michaela reveals that Adrianna couldn't possibly steal the song that Dixon's perspective changes. All of the characters realize that Adrianna was just trying to be a good friend and she's allowed to perform. This turns out to be a grave error because the set collapses on top of her. The cliff-hanger of the week is that her life is in danger. So to recap Adrianna's week: her friends thought she was trying to steal songs again and then the set falls down on her. This is not a good week for Adrianna.

The number of characters who want to permanently leave Beverly Hills has increased by one. Liam had announced his intention in the previous episode as he wanted Annie to buy the bar. He believes that the only thing keeping him in Los Angeles is the bar so if he gets rid of it then he can start a new life in Oz. I hope the city he's thinking of is Sydney because he's currently dating a girl named Sydney. He believes that his relationship with Sydney will work because it's easy. That is until he finds out that he needs to get a signature from the previous owner of the Offshore for him to be able to sell it to Annie. The owner basically tells Liam that the best things in life are the ones that are hard, not easy. Liam realizes that the owner is right so he pretends that he never met the owner so he has a reason to stick around the city a little bit longer. He's basically realizing he's still in love with Annie. This is partially because of the previous Offshore owner but also because of the ring he had found when he planned to propose to Annie. As for Annie? She realizes that she can't stick around in the city anymore. She has to find a way to move on from Liam because she doesn't think he's interested in her. At the concert, she announces her intention to stay in Paris forever. Oh, yeah, she's going to Paris because her book has become an international bestseller, or at the very least a hit in France. I could actually buy that Annie's book would sell well in France since it's basically a porn version of her life. I wonder if the series will end with the two of them starting their new lives over or whether they'll get reunited. I guess it depends on how much closure this finale is meant to provide us.

As for Naomi? Her plot with Jordan basically ends this week as he breaks up with her as part of a deal with his mom to save her brother. He also accepted a position as her Chief of Staff and left the company he was running. Naomi is devastated when she finds out that the price for her brother's freedom was Jordan's life. This doesn't stop her from trying to prove to Jordan's mother that she's worthy of her son's affections when Jordan's sister needs help taking care of a scandalous situation. A prince partied a little too hard the night before and the media will probably pay attention. An international scandal would be created and the reputation of Jordan's mother would be damaged. Naomi pretty soon takes over but she quickly runs into an obstacle when the Prince collapses from a drug overdose. Jordan's mother comes in pretty mad but Naomi is able to save the day when she pretends to be the mysterious stranger that the Prince was partying with. She even makes Jordan's sister sound like a hero. She earns the respect of Jordan's mother but she doesn't expect to be allowed to date Jordan because she's now the drug whore of Beverly Hills. She does get Jordan his old life and job back as she proclaims that she pays off her own favors. It's a nice plot but one that comes at a big cost to her as the media really bugs her.

Scandal Royale is the penultimate episode to the series. The question becomes what kind of finale is it setting up. Are we going to get one with multiple cliff-hangers? One that sets up a sixth season with a lot of different directions for the characters to go on? Or do we get one that actually acts as an ending and provides closure? I have no idea but based on what happened this episode I'm going to go with the second option.

Other Notes:

The set's collapse starts out very weakly executed but the sequence manages to save itself by the end.