Smells Like Teen Spirit – Episode Review (Drecky-Zoe)

 Is it bad that Clare went through major teen pregnancy drama while Miles revealed he has a boyfriend… and all I’m thinking about is how Becky Baker is a b*&@)*? 

Ugh, I just hate how shallow she was in this episode and refuse to believe that Becky would treat Zoe like that, telling Zoe she can’t be on power cheer. I mean, c’mon. She has such a deep-seeded moral obligation to do what’s right by other people. I’m not saying she’s perfect – she’s the type of person who would maybe rob a bank in order to donate all the money to a homeless person, but she wouldn’t do something IMMORAL for a SELFISH reason. And she especially wouldn’t make some snarky and cutting remark to Zoe, implying it’s Zoe’s fault for being assaulted, after freaking disowning herself from her family just to stand up for the poor girl. How does that make sense?

Also, I hated Drecky in this episode. Although I was never particularly shipping Drecky, I didn’t mind them as a couple because I thought it was super funny when Becky said “Are you tempted?” when they were dying of ammonia poisoning. It’s hard to explain why I liked that so much. It’s not just because it was funny (although it was – oooh, girl, kill it!). LOL. Seeing Becky take on the role of a temptress, it was just unforeseen and interesting in terms of her character development. What I liked about the whole start of Drecky was that it was unexpected. I mean, yeah, Becky and Hunter would have made a lot more sense, but come to think of it their relationship might have been totally predictable for that very reason. Hunter complaining about his prick older brother, Becky complaining about her prick older brother, WOW marathon, more family drama, WOW marathon. (btw: Bakersworth pwns. I’ll still be over the moon if it happens). Becky with Drew, though, that leaves some doors open.

Anyway, keep in mind that this criticism of Drecky is coming from one of the few people in the fandom who didn’t immediately brand them as lame and who was actually a little excited to see where they would go. In my opinion, Becky-as-a-temptress isn’t totally out of line with who she is as a person, like the whole Becky-as-a-mean-cheerleader thing. Would Becky abandon her moral code of conduct in order to improve her own quality of life? No. Would she loosen it up because she’s suddenly fallen in love? Maybe.

If two people like that are going to be together, though, they’re going to have to butt heads a little bit in order to keep it realistic and interesting. Otherwise, if you pretend everything is hunky-dory between them, what you’re basically doing is denying the intricacies of each character and making them into these bland people in this cliché and unrealistic relationship. I mean, Drew telling Becky to ban Zoe from the team? That is totally in line with Drew’s character. Drew doesn’t always think about others before himself and hasn’t always treated Zoe like a gem. But this would have been a great opportunity for Becky to school Drew on some human empathy, or to at least pause for half a second before smiling and throwing herself into Drew’s arms, demonstrating that his advice is causing her to have some sort of internal conflict.

What’s almost worse than Becky’s role in Drecky, though, is Drew’s. For Becky, you can argue that she just wants a handsome distraction from her messed up family life, and she’s desperate to forget the effects of the trial. (I think that’s a weak excuse for her to suddenly become a selfish beeotch, but it’s still an excuse). But Drew? Drew could have at least raised his eyebrows when Becky told Tristan that power “cheer” is girls only. Because of her upbringing, Becky might have a tendency to view gender roles as black and white (even after dating Adam), and she might say something like that to Tristan without realizing that it comes across as cruel. But Drew would definitely pick up on it. What’s Drew’s excuse for biting his tongue? Is he so ecstatic to be in a new relationship that’s he’s all fog-minded? Does he think every word from Becky’s mouth is the sweetest sound he’s ever heard? He’s not 12. He’s had a girlfriend before. Actually several. You’d think after what just happened with Clare, and with Zoe for that matter, he wouldn’t just jump into another relationship wearing rose-colored glasses. At first he might have been rebounding from his relationship with Bianca (a relationship that proves Drew is more than a player and is capable of having a deep and meaningful connection with a person), but his rebounding days are over. He has no excuse.

So I’m upset that Degrassi is going the cliché route with this. Maybe it’s genius. Maybe the whole point is that Drew and Becky are actually in denial, caught up in the newness of their relationship, acting like the model class-president-and-preppy-blond-turned-cheer-captain power couple. Maybe it’s a plot device so that there can be this dramatic change when the baby-mamma-drama is introduced and they’re forced to come to terms with reality. Still a hard-to-swallow plot device, methinks, but okay. What will make me scoff is if Becky just dumps Drew because it got complicated, and they’re never seen together again. Then the whole thing would have been so pointless. The previews for next week are making me think that’s what’s about to happen, but who knows, maybe we’ll still get something good of the relationship. Maybe if Becky has to comes to terms with Drew having a baby, it will at least jolt her out of this fantasy world she’s living in. Who knows. It was only the first episode of the season and there’s still a lot to be explored in the whole situation.

PS – I have to mention Zoe as part of this review because she had so much to do with the Drecky plot, but I have a lot less to say about it. Zoe’s actions were spot-on and almost loveable lol. I’m of the opinion that she didn’t mean to injure Becky. She only meant to faze and embarrass Becky and get Becky to let her on the team. So I don’t think this is an instance of Zoe reverting back into her senselessly evil Hollywood-brat-stock-character self. She had a legitimate reason to be mad at Becky. I feel like she’s someone we can sympathize with and understand now, but she’s still the same Zoe who loves attention and popularity and power. She’s got pizzazz.