90210: Oh, my god! How low can you go, Navid? (My thoughts on episode 5x06 “The Con”)

Just when I thought last week’s episode was the best episode yet of season five, they followed it up with this episode, which I loved even more. All of the storylines in this episode were very entertaining and managed to keep my complete attention the entire time I was watching the episode unlike the final season of Gossip Girl, which is barely able to keep my attention these days. Watching Gossip Girl has become a chore for me this season, and whenever a new episode airs I’m in no hurry to watch it, whereas I’m always really excited to watch 90210, especially this season.

My favorite storyline in this episode was definitely Liam’s. Liam and Lindsay were secretly dating each other, but Liam wanted them to go public with their relationship, and he also wanted her to go to Phenomi-com with him. However, Lindsay was afraid of what would happen if the university found out that she was dating a former student, so they decided to keep their relationship a secret. Honestly, I don’t know how Liam could possibly think that he could ever have a real relationship with Lindsay, especially if Lindsay wants to keep their relationship a secret out of fear of losing either one of her jobs.

Liam went to Phenomi-com in order to promote the upcoming release of Corporate Invaders 2 with Silver in tow where he had to deal with crazy fan girls who either want to marry him or have his baby. That’s just…weird. When he wasn’t dealing with crazy girls with crushes on him he had to deal with nerdy guys who were nitpicking about how they could ever do a sequel to Corporate Invaders when Liam’s character apparently died in the first movie. Silver rescued Liam from the crazy, obsessed nerds by pretending to be a crazy fan of his who wanted him to autograph one of her breasts. Silver commented that Phenomi-com reminded her of what Navid’s bedroom looked like in high school and that she hates the way he’s been acting lately, which prompted Liam to put in a good word for Navid, telling Silver that she should give Navid another chance.

I know that none of the characters on this show are even remotely close to being saints, but even with Liam’s troubled past as a rebel, I still think that he’s the best person out of at least all of the guys on the show, because he’s been hurt by so many people that he thought he could trust. He pretty much always tries to the right thing, and when he screws up he usually feels very remorseful for his behavior. He’s probably the one character that I can sympathize with the most on the show when it comes to all of the characters’ problems that they’ve had to deal with throughout the show’s run. When it comes to the other characters on the show, there have been more times when I haven’t felt sorry for them when they’ve done something bad than Liam has been in a situation where I didn’t feel sorry for him. In terms of how he treats people, I think he comes across as a very good friend and all around good guy, but that’s just my personal assessment of Liam.

Liam was soon surprised to see that Lindsay had come to Phenomi-com in a disguise so she could spend some time out in public like Liam wanted. As they were spending time together, Lindsay admitted that she lied when she said that she only went to see Corporate Invaders because her boyfriend made her go with him. It turns out that she went to see the movie by herself on opening day, not only that she’s apparently a huge fan of comic books. Liam was surprised later on in the episode when Lindsay interrupted an interview that he was doing with his female co-star where they were being asked if they were dating in real life in order to tell the interviewer that she was dating Liam. Liam was happy about the prospect of them being able to be open about their relationship, but Liam’s newfound happiness was quickly ruined thanks to Navid.

Navid’s behavior in this episode continued to annoy the hell out of me and is something that I would expect from the writers of Gossip Girl given the fact that the characters on that show all seem to want to ruin their exes romantic relationships whenever they see that their ex is happy with someone else, especially when their ex is dating one of their friends. Although, the dating pool on teen dramas has always been rather incestuous, so I can see why that might create problems between all of the characters on 90210, or shows like 90210. Navid was convinced that Liam was lying to Silver and that he was trying to seduce her when in reality they were nothing more than friends. He was also completely unaware of the fact that Liam was actually encouraging Silver to give him another chance. Navid’s jealousy hit an all-time low when he gave the tape of Liam having sex with Lindsay to the guys at Phenomi-com who were in charge of setting up the preview of Corporate Invaders 2 in order to get back at him. Although, Navid later realized how horrible what he had done was when Silver told Navid that she missed the way he acted in high school, so he tried to stop the video of Liam and Lindsay having sex from being played, but unfortunately he was too late. I can’t say I blame her for liking the way Navid was in high school better than the way he acts now, because Navid was actually my favorite guy on the show when 90210 first started. Things sure have changed when it comes to how I feel about the show now compared to how I felt about it back when 90210 had first started.

Not only was the video of Liam and Lindsay having sex played at Phenomi-com, it was also posted on the Internet like the preview of Corporate Invaders 2 was supposed to be. Lindsay was horrified by the whole thing and quickly left Phenomi-com. Liam told Silver that he had secretly been dating Lindsay, and they quickly realized that Navid had been the one who gave the people working at Phenomi-com the video of him having sex with Lindsay. Silver confronted Navid, and he admitted what he had done and why he had done it. However, he was shocked when Silver explained Liam and Lindsay’s situation to him and that Liam had actually been encouraging her to give him another chance. I thought it was both rather harsh and yet, well deserved when Silver equated Navid’s actions to his father working in the porn industry. Ouch! That must have stung, and yet I don’t feel one bit sorry for Navid. After all, not only did he ruin Liam’s chance at having a relationship with Lindsay, he also ruined Lindsay career as a college professor and possibly cost Lindsay her job at her law firm. Way to go, Navid!

As I mentioned in my review for last week’s episode (90210: Season 1 Liam is back, and he’s banging his professor! ), I loved the writing for Liam in that episode because it reminded me of what he was like in season one. When it comes to this episode, Liam wasn’t as sarcastic and playful as he was in season one and in last week’s episode, but I feel like the writers kind of continued writing Liam that way in this episode when it came Liam’s reactions to all of his crazy fans. Liam’s reaction to Lindsay dumping him after the video of them having sex was released felt reminiscent of the scene from the season one finale when Naomi realized that Liam had taken the time to find out what her favorite flower was. I’m okay with Liam not being nearly as sarcastic and playful as he was in last week’s episode though, because I think that would have felt really out of place in this episode.

As ridiculous as I’ve found the whole thing with Liam having an acting career and Liam being in movies, I feel like his reactions to his fans has always been very true to the way his character was prior to the whole thing with Liam being an actor started last season. After all, Liam was horrified by the idea of having to walk around without a shirt on when he was working in a clothing store back in season three in episode 3x06 "How Much Is That Liam in the Window". Although, I have to wonder why Liam would be so uncomfortable walking around without a shirt on, because it’s not like he’s a horribly unattractive guy. I happen to think that Matt Lanter is an extremely attractive man, and my thinking is “If you’ve got it, flaunt it!” When comes to Liam, my guess is that he just doesn’t like to be put in situations where he’s the center of attention.

That being said, I felt really bad for Liam in this episode, and I don’t blame him for not wanting to have anything to do with Navid. I also don’t understand why Navid thinks offering to let Liam kick his ass and post a video of it on the Internet would fix things. That wouldn’t make up for what Navid did at all, and it wouldn’t get Lindsay her job at CU back either.

Once again I feel like the writers did a really good job of tying pretty much every storyline in the episode together through the use of the Phenomi-com convention. (It was basically a rip-off the annual Comic-con convention. I’m guessing they made up a name for the convention due to trademark/copyright issues.) Liam was there to promote the upcoming release of the sequel to Corporate Invaders, which leads me to ask, when did the filming for Corporate Invaders 2 take place? After all, the option for a sequel to the first movie was only picked up in the season four finale, so unless we’re supposed to believe that the screenwriters already had a script done for a sequel or were at least in the process of writing a script for a sequel by the time Corporate Invaders came out, that doesn’t make any sense to me.

I guess that I shouldn’t surprised by the timeline for Liam’s storyline with the Corporate Invaders movies, because everything seems to happen at warp speed on this show: two characters developing feelings for each other, actual relationships, which is typically followed by them breaking up in the next episode or two, as well as storylines in general on this show. Honestly, I’m surprised that Naomi and Max are still married at this point since this is the sixth episode of the season. Considering the fact that they got married in the season five premiere, I was half expecting Naomi and Max to have already gotten divorced by episode three or four given the show’s track record with how relationships are portrayed.

Naomi’s storyline with helping Max and Alec deal with the fact that their company’s computer server was hacked was very interesting, especially considering the fact that the writers connected it to Annie’s storyline with Colin and Riley. Max and Alec decided that they could show a demo of their new game at Phenomi-com before the person who hacked into their server (Colin) could claim the idea as their own. Naomi organized a “hack-a-thon” so Max, Alec, several other guys who work for their company and Colin could get the demo done in time. They managed to finish the demo on time, but as soon as everybody left they showed Colin coming back and stealing a disc with the data for their new game on it.

Once they were at Phenomi-com, Max, Alec, Naomi and Annie were soon horrified to discover that Colin was presenting their idea to everyone as if it was his own. Due to the fact that Colin had already presented their idea, they had nothing to present since it would look like Max’s company had stolen the idea from Colin if they went ahead and gave their presentation. With nothing else planned for his presentation, Max was forced to go up there anyway and wing it. As someone who hates speaking in front of a large group of people, I have to say that I felt really bad for Max. It’s one thing to be prepared ahead of time for a presentation and get nervous because you’re uncomfortable speaking in front of a large crowd; it’s a whole other thing to have to totally wing it in a situation like that. It was really uncomfortable to watch Max give his speech.

As Max was giving the presentation from hell, Alec told Naomi that he blamed her for Colin stealing their idea, which soon escalated into an all out brawl between the two of them in front of everybody who was there to watch Max’s presentation. Once the fight had been broken up, Naomi gave Max an ultimatum: He could either stay married to her and end his friendship with Alec, or he could continue to be friends and business partners with Alec, but she would leave him if he chose to remain friends with Alec.

In the end, Max chose Naomi and decided to ask Alec to resign from the company since Naomi had been making an effort to be friends with Alec, while he (Alec) on the other hand had continued to cause problems between him and Naomi. While I’m glad that Max chose Naomi since I love them as a couple, I’m pretty sure that he’ll live to regret choosing Naomi over Alec down the road. Even if Alec isn’t in the picture anymore, I still think that Naomi and Max’s marriage is doomed to fail. As much as I love Naomi as a character, I frankly think that Max’s friendship would have a better chance of lasting for years to come than Naomi and Max’s marriage has a chance of lasting longer than the rest of this season.

One thing that doesn’t make sense to me is why didn’t Max and Alec have Colin sign a confidentiality agreement when they agreed to let him help them finish the demo? That seems like something any business would do if they were concerned about being the first to come up with a new product. If they had Colin sign a confidentiality agreement, then he would have instantly been in trouble for violating it as soon as he presented the idea as his own. It really bugs me the writers of 90210 overlook things like that all for the sake of plot convenience. Although, Alec did say something about their lawyers thinking that they could file an infringement lawsuit against Colin.

My second favorite storyline was definitely Annie’s. Riley admitted to Annie that he likes her, but she turned him down saying that she was with Colin and that he was a nice guy. Annie continued to constantly talk about how she thought that Colin was a good guy throughout the episode as if she was like a doll that talks when you pull a string, but at the same time can only say about three different phrases. Once she had discovered that Colin had stolen Max and Alec’s idea for their new game, he quickly showed what a jackass he truly was by saying that he had pretty much only been dating her so he could find out what Max and Alec were planning for their next project.

As Annie and Silver were lamenting over how Annie had turned Riley down because she thought Colin was a good guy and what Navid had done to Liam, Annie was surprised to discover that Riley had come to tell her that Dixon was in the hospital because he had a spinal infection. Riley admitted to Annie that he’s liked her longer than he had originally said. Annie was touched by Riley’s words and admitted that she liked him too, which was followed by the two of them kissing. Just when I thought I couldn’t like Riley any more than I already did he punched Colin in the stomach as payback for what a jerk he turned out to be. As excited as I am about Annie and Riley becoming a couple, I still really want Annie to get back together with Liam at some point. I also really hope that Liam and Annie end up together when the show ends, but I digress.

The whole Dixon and Adrianna storyline was also somewhat interesting, but at the same time it was my least favorite storyline in this episode, mainly because I can’t really sympathize with Adrianna for feeling guilty about cheating on Dixon. I find it especially difficult to feel sorry for Adrianna considering the fact that she slept with Taylor several times throughout the episode despite the fact that Taylor told her that she needed to end things with Dixon if they were going to be together. However, she was hesitant to end things with Dixon after he’s been injured in the car accident he was in.

I know that Dixon has been difficult for her to deal with, but that doesn’t justify her cheating on him, especially considering everything that Dixon’s going through. When Adrianna went to break up with Dixon, she found him lying on the floor in pain, so she called for an ambulance. Once they were at the hospital, Dixon told her that he hadn’t been taking his pain medication because he was afraid that he would become addicted to pills again. They also found out that Dixon had a spinal infection, which is apparently common for people with his kind of injury. I hate that it was pretty much only after Adrianna found out that he hadn’t been taking his pain medication and that he had been acting the way he was because he had been in pain that she felt truly guilty about cheating on Dixon and wanted to stay with him after all. In the end, I’m just not nearly as interested in seeing where this storyline goes compared to how interested in the other storylines I am, but I do like it a little bit.

All in all, this really was a great episode, and I have to say that I’m thrilled that Liam and Silver have shunned Navid because I’ve hated him so far this season, and his behavior in this episode was truly despicable. Hopefully the writers won’t have Liam forgive Navid in the next episode or two. It would be nice to see the writers have Liam be mad at Navid for a while. Personally I would like to see Liam stay mad at Navid for an extended period of time like Silver did last season with Adrianna for switching her bipolar disorder medication with placebos. Unfortunately, I won’t be surprised if Liam and Navid go back to being friends in the next episode or two given the show’s history of warp speed storytelling.

While I found Annie’s insistence that Colin was a good guy rather annoying, I loved her scenes with Riley in this episode, because I think that Shenae Grimes and Riley Smith have great chemistry together, and I’m really looking forward to seeing where things go with Annie and Riley. If there’s one thing that I think the writers have done a surprisingly good job of, it’s with Annie and Riley becoming a couple and the way they built up to them getting together throughout the span of several episodes instead of having them instantly get together after just an episode or two of development. I thought the writers did a good job with that for them anyway. Hopefully Annie and Riley will stay together for more than just a few episodes, because I really do enjoy watching the two of them interact with each other.

That being said, I give this episode a rating of an A+.