As I’ve mentioned before, whenever I’m watching 90210 I
constantly find myself thinking about why I like 90210 more than Gossip Girl,
and whenever I’m watching Gossip Girl I also find myself thinking about that as
well. Perhaps it’s unfair of me to compare the two shows to each other since
they each have their own premise, style and feel, but given the fact that they
are both teen dramas, I just can’t seem to stop myself from comparing the two
shows to each other. I know that 90210 is an extremely flawed show, but I still
love it more than I like Gossip Girl, especially when I think about Gossip
Girl’s final season. Gossip Girl’s final season has been so boring that I’ve
barely been paying attention whenever I’m watching it now, 90210 on the other
hand has always had my complete attention as I’ve watched it this season. If
you want to read more about my thoughts on the two shows, then I recommend that
you check out these posts: (Why
on earth did I give Gossip Girl higher viewing priority over 90210? )
and (90210:
Even with its schizophrenic writing, I still love it a lot more than I love
Gossip Girl )
When I think about Gossip Girl’s 100th episode, I
can’t help but think about what a huge disappointment it was. In my opinion, a
show’s 100th episode should feature appearances by popular
characters that haven’t been on the show in a while if cast members have left
the show since it began, it should pay tribute to the show’s history, and I
think that writers should always try to do something special for the show’s 100th
episode. Gossip Girl’s 100th episode pretty much revolved almost
completely around Blair’s wedding to Louis, whom most fans of the show didn’t
care about and in some cases didn’t like at all. When it comes to 90210’s 100th
episode, I think they did a pretty good job of making it a very special episode
as a whole.
There are a lot of things about the episode that I loved,
there were some things that I have lukewarm feelings about, and there are a few
things about the episode that I didn’t necessarily dislike about the episode, I
simply found them rather random. One of the things that I liked the most about
this episode is that it featured the return of Trevor Donovan/Teddy. I know
that I’ve said this before, but I’m still mad that the producers reduced Trevor
Donovan down to being a recurring guest-star again after season three, but kept
Gillian Zinser on the show as a series regular for season four, but I digress.
Silver and Teddy had a lot of great moments together in this
episode. They shot tennis balls off the roof of a building like they had done
in season two and later in season three after Teddy found out that Ian had
tricked him into coming out to all of his friends. Teddy told Silver that Shane
(His boyfriend that he had staged a wedding in Las Vegas with last season) had
broken up with him out of the blue. However, Shane later showed up at Silver’s
place and told him that Teddy had broken up with him, not the other way around.
Silver got the two of them together so they could talk, which initially made
Teddy mad and he told her that he broke up with Shane because he got scared
after what happened with Ian and that not everyone is fearless like she is. I
don’t know why, but the idea of Silver being fearless was a big part of
Silver’s storyline in this episode. First Vesta (One of the burlesque dancers
at the club that Silver had been performing at) told her that she was fearless,
and then Teddy told her that. Silver insisted that she isn’t fearless; she’s
simply good at hiding it.
Naomi apparently had hired Vesta and several other dancers
to perform at the West Beverly Hills High alumni party they were having at the
Playboy Mansion, and Silver decided to dance with them and reveal to everyone
that she had secretly been burlesque dancing in the hopes of inspiring Teddy to
get back together with Shane. Her plan worked, and Teddy and Shane decided to
get back together. It turns out that Teddy hadn’t told Shane that he had agreed
to donate some sperm to Silver so she could have a baby. I have to say that
kind of surprised me, because that’s something that I would think Teddy should
tell the guy he’s dating.
Given the fact that the writers have never done a very good
job of acknowledging storylines from the past or characters who used to be on
the show, the writers did a surprisingly good job of including references to
moments from previous episodes in this episode, which meant a lot to me as a
viewer, especially since this was 90210’s 100th episode. I have to
say that a part of me wishes that they had brought Dustin Milligan back for the
episode. I know that he was only in the first season, but it still would have
been nice. Considering the fact that they brought Abbie Cobb back when she
wasn’t exactly a major recurring guest-star, I would think they should have at
least considered bringing Dustin back. I’m glad that they will be bringing Adam
Gregory back for an episode to reprise the role of Ty Collins later this
season. For those who might not remember, Annie dated Ty for several episodes
at the beginning of the series and he’s also the father of Adrianna’s daughter,
Maisy that she gave up for adoption at the end of season one. It would have
been nice if Adam had appeared in this episode since it was the 100th
episode, but at least they are bringing him back for an episode, which is
great, if you ask me.
It was also great to have Zachary Ray Sherman finally make
another appearance on the show so fans could finally get some closure on what
happened to Jasper after Liam beat him up at the end of the season two finale. The
writers finally giving the whole Jasper/Annie/Liam season two storyline a
little bit of closure was definitely another one of my favorite things about
the 100th episode. Apparently Jasper started writing as a way to
deal with his problems and turn his life around after he lit Liam’s boat on
fire, and he’s now in film school. The first time Jasper talked to Annie, his
comments made Annie think that he was the one who had been sending Liam the
anonymous letters and making the strange phone calls that he’s been getting
about Vanessa, but it turned out that the reason that he wanted to talk to both
Annie and Liam is because his father had apparently agreed to finance his film
if he could get a bankable actor to star in the film, and Jasper wanted to ask
Liam if he would be willing to read his script and consider starring in his
movie. Liam agreed to read Jasper’s script, which makes me wonder if we’ll be
seeing him again later this season. I’m not going to hold my breath though
since I haven’t read any spoilers that would indicate that Zachary Ray Sherman
will be returning for more episodes this season. Speaking of Liam’s acting
career, Liam mentioned that all of his teachers who had never really liked him
in high school since hadn’t been the best student were suddenly sucking up to
him now that he’s become a successful actor. It was nice to see the writers
acknowledge the fact that Liam hadn’t been a very good student in high school.
A few things that I thought were random about this episode
is the fact that the “previously on 90210” segment featured a clip from Annie’s
escort storyline with Patrick last season. Although, the producers doing that
made sense by the end of episode after they tied it to the other thing that I
had previously thought was extremely random about the show’s 100th
episode before it aired, which would be the fact that the producers brought
Abbie Cobb back to reprise the role of Emily, Annie and Dixon’s cousin, who
appeared in several season three episodes. Given the fact that Emily wasn’t a
significant character from the show, it didn’t make sense to me at first that
they were going to bring her back for the 100th episode, but Emily
told Annie that she had almost gotten a part in a play on Broadway, was doing a
press tour for her acting career and that she also had a blog with a large
viewership, which led Annie to create a blog of her own at the end of the
episode. At the end of the episode, they showed Annie writing a post about her
relationship with Patrick during her time working as an escort last season,
although Annie was referring to Patrick as “Patterson” in her post. Assuming
that the writers actually go somewhere with the idea of Annie blogging about
her life, it will be interesting to see where that storyline goes. I have say
that it was great to see the writers once again Annie’s aspirations to be an
actress since they haven’t really done anything with that since season three.
One fun little bit of trivia that I’ve always found
interesting about Abbie Cobb is the fact that she’s originally from Papillion,
Nebraska. I’ve lived in Lincoln, Nebraska my whole life, so I’ve always thought
it was cool whenever I see an actor or a writer who has ties to Nebraska find
success in Hollywood. She apparently almost didn’t get the part of Emily since
the producers originally thought she looked too much like Jennie Garth, so they
had her dye her hair after she got the part. I have to say that I agree, Abbie
Cobb does look a lot like Jennie Garth. I also think that Abbie Cobb has done a
great job on the TV show Surburgatory, which she has a recurring guest-star
role on, but I digress.
I have to say that I’m really surprised by how much my
feelings regarding Annie as a character have changed throughout the show’s run.
Personally, I didn’t really like how perky and cheerful Annie acted in season
one, because it made her feel like too much of a Mary Sue type character to me,
but I never hated her as much as some viewers did back then. I started to like
her a little more after Annie took a dark turn as a character and wasn’t
focused on so much in season two, but for some reason it was season three where
I really started to love Annie as a character. I like how she’s one of the more
relatable characters on the show even though the writers are suddenly acting
like she got a huge sum of money from Marla’s family this season, because at
least she’s not constantly throwing money around as freely as Naomi does and
constantly trying to become a part of exclusive clubs, which is another thing
that Naomi is constantly doing. I was originally under the impression that she
had started a foundation in Marla’s name with most of the money last season.
One thing that I found rather disappointing about this
episode is the fact that Liam decided to forgive Navid for leaking the video of
him having sex with Lindsay at the end of the episode. Liam spent the whole
episode giving Navid the cold shoulder whenever Navid tried to talk to him and
reminisce about the past, but Liam decided to forgive him after Teddy told him
that his friends were the one thing about high school that he (Teddy) wouldn’t
want to leave behind. Liam also hired Navid to manage the bar since he’s
apparently moving into a house now. I really wish the writers had drawn out the
fight between Liam and Navid for several more episodes, but given the fact that
the writers have never done a very good job of drawing things out for the most
part I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that Liam forgave Navid so quickly. I
have admit that while it constantly bugs me how fast storylines usually move on
the show, sometimes it can be a good thing when there are storylines that I
don’t really care for. Unlike Gossip Girl, they don’t drag bad or boring
storylines out forever.
This episode featured quite a few moments between Liam and
Annie, which was definitely one of the biggest highlights of the episode for me
personally since I’m a huge Lannie shipper. I really like that Liam confided in
Annie about Vanessa’s apparent death in the season five premiere, the anonymous
note he received and the phone calls he’s been getting. However, they revealed
at the end of the episode that Vanessa is very much still alive. I wasn’t one
bit surprised that Vanessa ended up being alive after all. As soon as her body
disappeared in the water after she fell, I knew that it was only a matter of
time before she showed up alive.
The thing that bugged me the most about the reveal is that
Vanessa didn’t have any injuries from falling off the balcony and into the
water like she did. Although, since this is 90210, I’m not surprised that the
writers would act like Vanessa could not only survive the fall she took, but
also come away from the situation with no injuries whatsoever. The fact that
Annie was the one who Liam confided in about what happened to Vanessa felt very
reminiscent of the season two finale when Annie confided in Liam about the
hit-and-run that happened in the season one finale. As I mentioned earlier, Liam
decided to rent a house in this episode, and he asked Annie if she could sign
the lease to the house so no one would know where he lives. That was what led
to Liam telling her about Vanessa. I know that I’ve said this before, but I
just can’t say this enough, I really want Liam and Annie to get back together.
If there’s one thing that I’ve consistently found myself
having mixed feelings about this season, it’s definitely Naomi’s storylines. A
lot of Naomi’s storylines so far this season as well as last season have had a
major “been there done that” feel to them. Naomi was determined to become a
member of the West Beverly Hills High School Alumni Association, and when she
saw somebody was going to be having a tree dedication ceremony, she arranged to
have the dedication ceremony canceled so she could have a ceremony to unveil
plans for a fashion science building named after her in the hopes that it would
impress the alumni association. However, the ceremony was quickly ruined after
Naomi discovers that someone spray painted the word “Bitch” across her picture
on the billboard for her building.
At first Naomi believed that one of the other women who was
also trying to gain membership to the West Beverly Hills High School Alumni
Association had vandalized her sign, but later on in the episode a woman named
Reese confronted her and told her that she was the one who had vandalized her
sign. It turns out that Reese had been extremely overweight in high school,
which apparently had led to her classmates calling her “Obese Reese”. Naomi had
apparently once taken Reese’s clothes when she was in the locker room and Reese
had been forced to walk to the principal’s office completely naked. It also
turns out that Reese was the one who had donated the tree and had been planning
to show everyone how much weight she had lost since she’d graduated from high
school at the tree dedication ceremony, which had been cancelled by Naomi.
In an effort to make amends to Reese, Naomi got up in front
of all her classmates and apologized to everyone she’d ever been mean to in
high school while she was completely naked. Despite Naomi’s gesture to make up
for what she’d done to Reese and her other classmates, they said it still
wasn’t enough for them, so Naomi told everyone that they could throw the horderves
that were being served at her. I know that I’m frequently calling out the
writers for not acknowledging storylines from previous seasons, so I feel like
I should point out that Annie mentioned something that had happened in season
two that I had forgotten at first while they were throwing horderves at Naomi.
Annie mentioned the fact that Naomi had texted pictures of Annie naked to all
of their classmates in episode 2x02 “To Sext or Not to Sext”, and I feel like
the writers deserve credit for acknowledging something that I had forgotten.
I know that I’m constantly saying that I love 90210 more
than Gossip Girl, but a lot of Naomi’s storylines last season and most of her
storylines so far this season have come across as a mediocre rehash of Blair’s
storylines on Gossip Girl. Although, as mediocre as Naomi’s storylines have
been lately, at least her storylines with Max have been somewhat enjoyable and
not extremely disturbing like Chuck and Blair’s sick and twisted relationship
is on Gossip Girl.
Speaking of Max, he had some drama going on at work
involving a merger between his company and another company that his new CEO,
Bryce, had put together going on in the episode. At the end of the episode, Max
told Naomi that Bryce had engineered the merger so he would lose his majority
stockholder status and therefore be fired from his own company. Unfortunately,
that all took place off-screen.
I’ve always hated that the writers of 90210 have a tendency
to have major plot developments occur off-screen. That wasn’t the only plot
development that took place off-screen in this episode though. Liam continued
to be on edge about the whole situation with Vanessa and the anonymous person
who has been harassing him in this episode. He told his body guard that his paranoia
had only gotten worse ever since he’d been harassed by that paparazzi guy in
the previous episode. However, she told him that she had him investigated and
it turns out that he had a bench warrant against him, so she had him thrown in
jail. It really bugged me that they handled that with just a couple lines of
dialogue. When the writers have major plot developments take place off-screen,
I feel like they are just being lazy by doing that rather than have those
things take place on-screen
Dixon has been rather unlikable this season in my personal
opinion, and despite the fact that I previously hadn’t really had any sympathy
for Adrianna feeling guilty for cheating on Dixon, I found myself actually
feeling sorry for Adrianna and absolutely hating Dixon at the end of the episode.
Adrianna signed the papers to officially be a part of Dixon’s new record label
at the beginning of the episode, and they also mentioned trying to decide on a
name for Dixon’s record label. Toward the end of the episode, Dixon came across
a video of Adrianna having sex with Taylor. After Dixon confronted Adrianna
about her cheating on him, Adrianna was initially led to believe that he
wouldn’t want to work with her now. However, at the end of the episode he told
that he was still expecting her to work with him because he “owns” her and that
he had decided to call his new record label Unfaithful Records. I don’t know if
the writers want 90210’s viewers to like Dixon acting like a villain like he
has been this season, but I don’t like it at all. I just think it’s flat-out
creepy and disturbing.
All in all, while this episode wasn’t perfect in my opinion,
it still did a great job of honoring the show considering the fact that this
was 90210’s 100th episode. I definitely liked it a trillion times
more than Gossip Girl’s 100th episode. It was great to see the
writers acknowledge so many storylines from previous seasons, especially
considering the fact that the writers don’t usually do a very good job of that like
I mentioned earlier. Naomi’s storyline may have been rather mediocre, but other
than that it was still a great episode.
That being said, I give this episode a rating of an A-.
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