Let me start off by saying
that I apologize for taking so long to get this review written and posted. I
had to work quite a bit this week, and I also had a lot of other projects that
I was working on throughout the week. I’m going to try my absolute best to get
my reviews for the remaining episodes of the series written and posted before
the episode following it airs; that being said, here are my thoughts on this
episode.
After thoroughly enjoying
the previous episode, I have to say that I found this episode rather dull, and
I frequently found my attention wandering as I was watching it. To be fair
though, this episode wasn’t even close to being as boring as the first nine
episodes of Gossip Girl’s final season were, and I still stand by my opinion
that 90210’s final season is better than Gossip Girl’s final season was. Don’t
get me wrong, I’m not saying that everything about this episode was boring,
because it definitely had some good things about it, and admittedly this
episode has grown on me after having watched it several more times.
For starters, I would say
that I found Annie’s storyline to be the most interesting storyline in this
episode. The episode picked up right where the previous episode ended, which
would be Patrick showing up at Annie and Liam’s house in order to confront her
about her book. Patrick was furious with Annie for writing a book that was inspired
by their relationship, and he was worried that people, namely his wife, would
figure out that he was the inspiration for the character Patterson. Apparently,
his wife’s book club was reading Undressed, and he told Annie that his wife
would divorce him and take a lot of his money if she found out about his relationship
with Annie. Before Patrick left Annie and Liam’s place, he threatened to hurt
her family if she went on Entertainment Tonight for an interview with Nancy
O’Dell in order to publically reveal that she is Author X, but Annie simply
shrugged off his threats.
I have to say that I thought
Patrick’s reaction to this whole situation was beyond dumb. After all, Annie
didn’t use his real name in the book, and his wife never even met Annie, so how
would she know that most of the book was inspired by Annie’s life? He never
even told Annie that he was married. Besides, it’s not like he’s the only
person on earth named Patrick. I just don’t understand how the writers expect
viewers to believe that his wife would automatically realize that Patrick was the
inspiration for the character Paterson in Undressed. Although, this is 90210
where 98% of the writing for the show is absolutely ridiculous and contrived,
so I suppose she could figure things out by reading Annie’s book.
Annie finally came clean to
Dixon about the fact that she is Author X and that she paid for his rehab by
briefly working as an escort. Dixon was initially furious with Annie, but he
forgave her for working as an escort to pay for his rehab treatment and not
telling him about it by the end of the episode. Annie also ended up going on
Entertainment Tonight for an interview with Nancy O’Dell and revealed that she
was Author X like she said was going to.
It’s hard for me to say what
my second favorite storyline in this episode was, but if I had to pick one, I
would say that my second favorite storyline in this episode was the Liam and
Navid storyline where they were trying to convince a young teenage girl named
Cassie McCoy who’s an up and coming surfer to be the face of their new surf
board company. In an attempt to try and get the girl agree to be the face of
their new company; they agreed to get the singer Olly Murs to perform for her
at a party.
Naturally since this is
90210, Liam and Navid were able to do that since Adrianna conveniently knew Olly
Murs’ drummer. Don’t you just love how conveniently things like that work out
on this show?
That being said, if I’m
being serious and straightforward about this, I suppose that it kind of makes
sense that Adrianna would have connections that she was able to use in order to
get Olly Murs to perform for Liam and Navid since she had a singing career in
the past. Liam and Navid were able to get Olly Murs to perform at Liam’s bar
like Cassie wanted. However, it turned out that the reason Cassie wanted Olly
Murs to perform for her was so she could try and make her ex-boyfriend realize
that he missed her since one of Olly Murs’ songs was “their” song. Her plan
didn’t work though since her ex was making out with his new girlfriend while
the song was playing. In order to try and help Cassie with her plan to make her
ex-boyfriend jealous, Liam kissed her in front of everybody at the party.
Cassie agreed to let Liam
and Navid be her sponsor, but Liam and Navid bonded over the fact that the
whole thing ended up being about making her ex-boyfriend jealous and how
ridiculous life in high school was. I have to say that I really liked Liam and
Navid’s reaction to the whole situation. Liam and Navid’s scenes together have
always been really fun to watch, in my opinion, but that was especially the
case with this episode. In the end, Cassie told them that her mom wouldn’t let
them be her sponsor since Liam was the inspiration for the character Leo in
Undressed and her mom didn’t want her to be associated with Annie’s “hooker
book” as she called it in any way. Personally, that doesn’t make a lot off
sense to me since Cassie has never even met Annie, but then again this is 90210
where most things about the show don’t make any sense.
Speaking of Adrianna, I
definitely enjoyed her storyline with Michaela in this episode where she helped
Michaela write a song, after Michaela was asked to write a new song, but she
only had a few days to get it done. Silver was initially reluctant to let
Michaela do this because she doesn’t want her to go on tour while she’s still
pregnant, but she let her do it when Dixon told her that the chances of
Michaela’s song getting picked were slim.
I have to say that
Michaela’s confession to Adrianna that she has a crush on Navid was extremely
random. Unless I’m forgetting something, I don’t remember Michaela interacting
with Navid even one time. Adrianna and Michaela ended up writing and recording
the song on time, and Silver loved it, which prompted her to change her mind
about Michaela submitting a song since she was convinced that the song would be
a hit and lead to Michaela going on tour. Michaela reluctantly agreed to
respect Silver’s wishes and not submit the song. However, Adrianna ended up
submitting the song anyway at the end of the episode now that she no longer
considers Silver a friend.
I have to say that it has
been quite the rollercoaster ride when it comes to my thoughts on Adrianna
throughout the show’s run. I really liked Adrianna in the first three seasons
of the show, especially when it came to her relationship with Navid, but the
writers completely trashed my fondness for the character and the Adrianna/Navid
pairing after she switched out Silver’s bipolar medication with placebos as an
act of revenge for hooking up with Navid in season three. I have to admit that
I was pretty mad that the producers decided to keep Jessica Lowndes as series
regular for season four after they had ruined the character Adrianna in my
eyes, and yet they made Trevor Donovan a guest star again, but surprisingly the
writers actually managed to make me like Adrianna again in season four. Don’t
get me wrong, I don’t love the character like I used to, but I do think that
the writers have redeemed Adrianna a little bit in my eyes.
That being said, it
definitely looks like the writers are once again having Adrianna take a
villainous turn against Silver based on how the episode ended. Although, this
time I think Adrianna’s anger towards Silver is much more justified than it was
before. Yes, Adrianna was being a major bitch to most of the characters and a total
diva in season three, so it was very easy for me to understand why Adrianna’s
behavior was driving Navid away and into Silver’s arms. I just think that
Adrianna went too far when she switched Silver’s medication with placebos,
putting Silver’s life in danger. What makes me feel more sympathetic towards
Adrianna this time around is that she wasn’t acting like a total bitch and she
had made a pact with Silver that they wouldn’t date guys that the other one was
interested in, and Silver was the one who broke their pact by knowingly
sleeping with yet another guy that Adrianna liked (Mark).
I have to say that in
retrospect Silver comes across as being a total slut when I think about the
series as a whole. Silver has either dated one of her friends’ exes (Teddy and
Navid), slept with one of her friends’ exes (Liam), or simply had a brief
flirtation with one of her friends’ exes (Ethan) while she was supposed to be
dating Dixon. This means that Silver has literally been with every guy on the
show, not to mention the guest-star love interests that she has had. I have to
say that I thought it was a pretty shitty thing for Silver do when she dated
Greg, the adoptive father of Adrianna’s daughter Maisy, last season knowing
that it would most likely only end up hurting Adrianna, but not caring about
how it would make her feel.
When I look back at Silver’s
dating history now, I can’t help but think that Silver has been a pretty lousy
friend to basically all of her friends. Now that Adrianna is saying that she no
longer considers Silver to be one of her friends, a part of me wonders why
Annie and Naomi even want to be friends with Silver at this point. Although, in
Silver’s defense teen dramas in general tend to be rather incestuous when comes
to who the characters date, so I’m not all that surprised by Silver’s dating
history. Even though Silver does seem rather slutty in retrospect, I still
don’t find her even remotely as unbearable to watch compared to how I felt
about Serena on Gossip Girl. I say this because a decent amount of my hatred
for the character Serena stemmed from the fact that I think Blake Lively is a
terrible actress. As for the character, Serena constantly just came across as
being extremely indecisive when it came to deciding what guy she wanted to be
with; she also seemed rather overrated when it came to how many men were
interested in her throughout the show’s run and constantly whined about how she
had changed, but nobody seemed to act like she had changed for the better.
Plus, she was pretty self-centered in general. Personally, I never thought that
she actually did change for the better, at least not in the long-term sense,
but I digress.
My least favorite storyline
in this episode is definitely Naomi’s storyline where she was trying to impress
Jordan’s mother Cheryl who is a successful judge. I’m sorry; but that storyline
was just beyond dumb on so many levels, but then again this is 90210 where the
writing is beyond idiotic about 97% of the time. I mean, what happened to Naomi
saying in the previous episode that she didn’t want to jump into another
relationship so soon after her divorce from Max had been finalized? She’s
already obsessed with Jordan, who if you ask me is boring beyond words. I would
seriously prefer to just sit and stare at rocks for an hour instead of watching
Naomi’s storylines with Jordan. I really hate that the writers are shoving the
character Jordan down the viewers’ throats by immediately introducing members
of his family after what feels like just two seconds after introducing Jordan. The
writers definitely didn’t need to introduce Jordan as well as members of his
family at this point considering the fact that the series is going to be ending
very soon. Groans.
Anyway, Naomi decided to
have Annie, Silver and Mark all go with her to New York City so she could try
to win Cheryl over, and a large part of her plan was to basically turn Mark
into her own personal puppet. Mark even pointed out to Naomi that she was
treating him as if he were her own personal puppet, but she pretty much ignored
his protests. Naomi had a bunch of people give him a makeover, and she even
made up a backstory for Mark to tell Cheryl since she didn’t think that Cheryl
would like that he runs a food truck. Another part of her plan involved an
auction that was being held where people were auctioning off some of their
family heirlooms. Mark initially walked out on Naomi, saying that he didn’t
want to go along with Naomi’s plans, and I can’t say that I blame him. Naomi’s
plan to give Mark a makeover as well her behavior regarding Jordan and his
family were utterly ridiculous. However, Mark ended up surprising Naomi when he
showed up at the auction and put an evening of cooking lessons with him where he
would teach the winner an old family recipe up for auction under Naomi’s name.
Mark donating his services as a chef ended up being a bit hit at the auction,
but things with Cheryl still went south after that.
Cheryl had apparently used
her political connections to get a hold of Naomi’s police records and
confronted Naomi about her past. I have to say that I had forgotten just how
many times that Naomi has been arrested throughout the show’s run. Naomi sure
has had quite a few run-ins with the law over the years. Cheryl was
particularly scrutinizing about Naomi’s relationship with Max and how they got
married, only to get divorced five months later. Naomi was very upset about
this, but Jordan ended up overhearing their conversation, prompting him to lash
out at his mother for constantly meddling in his life. Naomi and Jordan seemed
to work things out by the end of the episode, but I honestly couldn’t care
less.
Once again, I couldn’t help
but think of Naomi as a second rate Blair Waldorf as I was watching this
episode and saw how she was desperately trying to impress Jordan’s mother. I’m
going to be absolutely pissed off if Naomi ends up with Jordan at the end of
the series, and sadly it looks like that’s where things are headed. While I
loved the Naomi/Max pairing, if I’m being realistic I’m not all that surprised
that things didn’t work out between them, because at the end of the day they
just didn’t seem very compatible from the get-go.
Going back to Silver and her
storyline in this episode, I’ve found her constant obsessing over having a baby
and being rather controlling when it comes to Michaela extremely annoying. Mark
tried to convince Silver to loosen up a little bit and say “Yes” more often,
which she decided to do, but by the end of the episode she decided that it was
a mistake for her to be more spontaneous. Honestly, the whole thing with Silver
deciding that it was a mistake to allow herself to be more spontaneous didn’t
make any sense to me, but like I said earlier this is 90210 where most of the
things that happen on this show don’t make very much sense given the
schizophrenic nature of the writing for the show.
One thing that I liked about
this episode is that it revisited the romantic relationship between Adrianna
and Navid, which I find kind of exciting since they were initially my favorite
couple on the show before Matt Lanter joined the show towards the end of season
one and the writers started hinting at a romance between Liam and Annie. That
being said, I do kind of have mixed feelings about them getting back together at
this point given the way Adrianna treated Navid during her diva phase in season
three, which drove him into Silver’s arms, prompting her to switch out Silver’s
bipolar medication for placebos. I’m sorry, but that was just beyond terrible
on so many levels. Yes, I know that Navid was technically the one who was
unfaithful, but Adrianna’s actions put Silver’s life in danger, which really
tarnished my thoughts on Adrianna and Navid’s relationship from that point on.
Given how things ended
between Liam and Annie in the previous episode, it really bugged me that they
barely had any follow up in this episode regarding their argument. I say this
because based on the spoilers that I’ve read for the series finale, it sounds
like Liam and Annie are going to end up together, and yet in this episode, they
don’t seem anywhere close to getting back together. Although, given how quickly
they’ve gotten together in the past and then always seemed to promptly break
up, I can definitely see them getting back together at the last minute. The
fact that the writers unfortunately have never really had very much, if any,
buildup to couples getting together or storylines in general on the show is
actually the main thing that’s giving me hope right now that Liam and Annie
will end up together.
The episode ended up on an
interesting note where everybody was getting together for a dinner in order to
celebrate the success of Annie’s book. The dinner was ruined almost immediately
when some police officers showed up to arrest Mark, because the airport had
apparently found drugs in his bags, which the writers had established earlier in
the episode had been lost by the people working at the airport. Mark insisted
that he was innocent and that he didn’t know what they were talking about as
the police were arresting him and taking him away. I think it’s pretty safe to
say that Patrick is the one who had the drugs planted in Mark’s bags as a way
of following through on the threats that he had made earlier in the episode
that he would hurt Annie’s family if she publicly revealed that she is Author
X.
That being said, none of
this makes any sense since the writers hadn’t even mentioned the fact that
Annie and Naomi share a half brother since 90210’s first season until this
season, so how would Patrick know about Mark? I’m just going to chalk this up
to being one of the numerous things that doesn’t make any sense on this show.
After all, I’m really starting to think that the writers aren’t even trying to
have the writing for 90210 make sense these days.
All things considered, this
episode definitely wasn’t nearly as interesting as most of the previous episodes
from this season have been. Although, like I said at the beginning of this
review this episode has grown on me, especially throughout the process of
writing this post. Yeah, I know that I often mock the show and complain about
certain aspects of the show, but I really do love 90210, and I’m already
missing the show despite the fact that there are still several more episodes
left of the series. I definitely can’t say the same thing about Gossip Girl, so
it’s obvious that the writers and the cast of the show are least doing some
things right.
That being said, I give this
episode a rating of a B.
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