Jordin Althaus/CW
(Season 1, Episode 8)
Man, there’s nothing like a homecoming episode to make you feel old, and there’s nothing like a homecoming set at West Beverly High to make you feel poor. It’s been a few weeks since the last episode, and this one wasn’t exactly worth the wait. Nothing happened. At least, nothing that we haven’t already seen before.
They’re really trying to make this whole Ethan/Annie “will they or won’t they” thing happen. Every episode, it’s something new with these two: He breaks up with Naomi! He gets back together with Naomi! He asks Annie to homecoming! He tells Annie he can’t take her to homecoming! He and Annie almost kiss! He and Annie actually kiss! Enough. Between his (what appears to be) hair plugs and the scrunchy faces she insists on making, I’m absolutely driven to distraction and cannot focus on anything that may or may not be going on between them.
Naomi had no problem focusing on them though, and got pretty jealous when they were awkwardly slow-dancing to a fast song. I really get the feeling that the writers have no idea what to do with Naomi. In the pilot, they portrayed her as a mean girl who only befriended poor little Annie so she could copy her paper. Ever since then, they’ve been trying to humanize her by giving her all of these problems with her family and with Adrianna, but they’ve gone so far over to the other side that they’ve made her schizophrenic. That’s why when she told Annie that she couldn’t be friends with her if she dated Ethan, I couldn’t tell if she was being horribly manipulative or just honest.
In other relationship news, Dixon and Silver are still going strong, but they’re still new enough that he’s trying not to rock the boat so she’ll still like him. Yes, he should have been honest with her and said that he wanted to go to homecoming, but who hasn’t pretended to like some band or hate a movie or whatever just to have more in common with someone you’ve just started a relationship with? I do find it interesting, however, that even without an adult in her life, Silver is still keeping up with her dental hygiene. Way to set an example.
The only actual new development is that apparently Navid is in love with Adrianna. It kind of seems like this coupling was born out of the writers realizing they have two characters who happen to be unattached, so they should put them together. But lest we think it’s just a convenient device, they’ve been given a back story! And speaking of feeling old, they talk about how, back in middle school, they used to make their own versions of movies. Those movies that they did back in middle school? Lord of the Rings and The Princess Diaries. Oy.
So it turns out I was half right in my last recap. Kelly may not be back yet, but Kim’s cover was blown and she and Ryan did get together. How come it was cute when it was Michael Vartan and Drew Barrymore in Never Been Kissed, but this kind of creeped me out?
Clacked by Kona Gallagher 
on Oct 28, 2008 @ 23:30 EST5EDT
kona, you’re hott!
anyway, the ep:
silver is funny all drugged up & her & michael, wait no, dixon, are a great couple. also, i like where kim & ryan’s storyline is going. trying to hide a maybe relationship between a teacher & what other people think is a student. this’ll be fun.
other than that, nothing else interests me.
Although I agree that watching this relationship (?) develop should be amusing, cause we know the real situation, I can’t help looking at it from the “reality” point of view. How can Ryan & Kim think this is a good idea? It’s not like she’ll be undercover forever, you’re adults, keep it in your pants for a few weeks. But then I remember again that I kinda hate Ryan so the prospect of watching him screw up, get caught and then get dumped…is awesome.
Plus if I keep looking at this show from the “reality” perspective…I’ll just ruin all my good, dirty fun.
Silver remains my favorite character, but I do have to say that Naomi’s stock is steadily increasing in my book. I’m kind of loving the trainwreck and how ever so slowly she’s becoming a likeable person.