How Bizarre – Episode Review

Everyone has been saying the title of this episode is fitting, and it’s so true. It WAS bizarre. I also thought it was really funny. Drew had some truly priceless expressions/quotes and Becky and Imogen had their moments too.

So first, Drew. I loved this plot! At first I just thought Drew was in a million parts of the show all over the place, because he was having the follow-up conversation with Clare and was upset about the whole Clare gossiping with Alli and Jenna thing (which, by the way, I’m not saying it’s right, but they’re girls – it’s going to happen) and then he had that “You’re quite the lady.. not old, just beautiful. If you could not tell your husband I said that, that’d be swell” moment with Mrs. Hollingsworth. I was like, “Whaaat! Is Drew about to hook up with Mrs. H!? *Nice use of the word swell. Drew, are you trying to prove you’re not a bad boy anymore by talking like the boys out of the Boxcar series books? Because if so, it’s working.” And I didn’t see the connection between that and Clare/Alli/Jenna. But it all came together in such an amusing way, as you can see by looking at all their faces when the text from Mrs. H comes through. LOL.

I knew all along Drew wouldn’t hook up with Mrs. H. though. I thought right from the beginning that he was just trying to comfort her and was being friendly/cracking a joke, and that she was totally weird about it. It just provided for some really great amusement. Like when Drew dodged Mrs. H in the pool house like she was trying to give him the bubonic plague. And how he told her that she’s “totally hot for a mom” when turning her down, because all I could think was, “Frankie’s mom has got it going on.” Also, it was pretty funny to see Connor’s reaction to this whole thing. I love his honesty. “Jenna and Alli are upset that you had sex with Clare and then failed to follow throughout on a relationship with her.” And then when Drew says “Thanks Connor, I got that” Connor just looks completely satisfied with himself, like, “You are welcome, Drew.” But the best part was when, immediately after that, Drew looks at the phone and says “Who would send me boobs?” and Connor goes to look at the pic and then Jenna has to “ermmhmm” at him.

On a more serious note, though, I wonder if the Alli/Jenna/Clare will ever forgive Drew for this or come to understand that he really did NOT solicit the texting. If Clare is still mad about Drew not wanting to be her rebound, I doubt she’ll just be able to brush this off, but maybe eventually she’ll gain some trust in Drew and be able to accept it. It’s also really unfortunate the way Frankie saw her mom hugging Drew and jumped to the worst possible conclusion. All she really heard was “You’re not pathetic. You’re awesome.” And “It’s okay Drew, it’s not your job to make me feel better. I’m sorry I put you in this position.” So I don’t completely see why Frankie believed the worst possible scenario, but I mean, the situation WAS completely inappropriate so I guess she might just have sharp instincts. Also, it makes some sense, given what Frankie’s family has gone through with her parents and what sorts of activities typically go on in the pool house.

Poor Drew though. He did NOT introduce that topic to Mr. H. in the best way. At first I was like, wow, Mr. H. is being really forgiving. Which, by the way, seemed to align with how Mr. H. has acted every other time someone screws up. Like when Miles freakin’ had sex with a girl in the pool and stood there naked in front of all Hr. H’s colleagues, or when Drew let Miles trash the entire mansion and hold a drunken party where a girl ended up getting molested, or when Miles freaked out on his dad about the affair on national television…. yeah just some minor things… to which Mr. H. responded by basically saying “no biggie” and giving a fist-pound. So, I thought Mr. H seemed a little to unconcerned about the whole thing, but it wasn’t out of character. I also thought he would probably have a follow-up conversation with Mrs. H. but just didn’t want to talk about it with both Drew and his wife at the same time.

But I am SO SAD that he just straight up fired Drew. And without even giving any notice. He should have at least told Drew he was upset with him and would have to let him go. It really is discouraging, because the one time Drew comes clean and tries to do the right thing, he is fired. Well, I guess life’s tough, and the reality is that people who do the right thing often get the short end of the stick, but doing the right thing is a reward in and of itself. I hope that Drew learns a little bit of tact though and maybe even gets his job back.  

Well, if worrying about whether or not Clare will ever forgive Drew was enough to get me down (which honestly it was not, because Drew was just so damn funny), Becky definitely helped bring my spirits even higher. I like how Becky is having fun playing “Realm of Doom” and how her face lights up when she plays. I mean, yeah, she shouldn’t have stayed up all night, and things did turn hot quickly with Sir Excellence, but oh man. I will never forget this conversation:

Imogen: “Are you dating a sim?”

Becky: “He’s a knight. Well a mage knight, technically, ‘cause he’s a knight but he does magic.”

Imogen: What is happening right now?

I know there’s a really good chance of there being a follow-up episode to this one, where Becky meets up with Sir Excellence and he is a 60 year old man who tries to abduct her, and then she swears off video games forever or vows to be a lot smarter in how she interacts with people online. And that episode will probably make me sad. More-so because the plotline will be predictable and overdone than because of anything else. But this episode, this made me happy. It was so lighthearted and yet meaningful. And honestly, being addicted to a game or getting to involved in an online reality is probably a much more common problem than being abducted from some on the Internet. I’m not saying abductions aren’t a big problem or that they can’t happen, but a lot more people can probably relate to what Becky went through here, and can still learn from however she will stop this game from taking over her life. I love that we just got to see an episode about someone staying up too late and making a few stupid decisions online, and that was that. For now anyway.

So, let me say this: Is the woman who played Zig’s employer actually Juliette Binoche who played Sandra Brody (the hero’s mom) in the new Godzilla movie? I was not at all captivated by Zig’s plot this week (recap: Zig is mad that he has to watch someone chop onions) but I KNOW I have seen that woman somewhere. Maybe she’s been on other episodes of Degrassi, maybe as a teacher or something? It was driving me crazy, to the point where I re-watched the “also with” (extras) part of the credits at the end of the episode and looked all those people up. Well, she wasn’t in there, I just happened to remember about Godzilla, but in the process I saw Spencer MacPherson on there who apparently plays Frankie’s twin and has the same surname as Anya MacPherson. I did not even SEE him in this episode nor was I aware that he exists, so he must have a pretty small role. But it’s fun that he’s there and maybe we’ll see more of him. The extras in this episode were interesting indeed.

Anyway, you know a plotline is pretty bad when THIS is what you think about. Probably the most dramatic thing that happened with Zig is when Grace told him, “If you want respect you have to go in there and demand it.” I disagreed. The fact that Zig was so upset about having to be trained like what, his first day on the job, and that Grace thinks the way to move up the ladder is by demanding a promotion the first day before getting any training whatsoever, just shows that these kids have no clue about the job world. Which is why it’s good the rubber room teacher lady is following through with them about real-world work experience. But oh man, this week we got to watch Zig watch someone chop onions. He did not even chop the onions himself. He watched someone chop them. Coming soon: Zig watches paint dry; Zig watches someone watch paint dry; Zig combs parts his hair a little more to one side than usual!!! *eye roll* I mean, c’mon. The episode was called “How Bizarre.” Could we have not, I don’t know, had Zig audition to be a male ballerina, or discover that Elvis is his long-long second grandfather twice removed? At least Drew and Becky kept it real. Props, Drew and Becky, props.