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90210 Recap: Episode 4 —The Bubble
Airdate: September 16, 2008
In “The Bubble” episode of The CW’s new show 90210, the biggest scene is probably Kelly (Jennie Garth) and Brenda (Shannen Doherty) arguing over Kelly not being romantically over the father of her 4-year-old son Sammy, which it turns out is Dylan (played by Luke Perry in the Beverly Hills, 90210 series). More about this later.
But before all that takes place, the show starts with Harry (Rob Estes) informing his daughter Annie (Shenae Grimes) that her drama teacher had a family emergency and won’t be able to continue her duties. Unfortunately for Annie, Grandma Tabitha (Jessica Walters) eagerly volunteers for the job, because after all, she does have experience as a TV star from years gone by. Tabitha is ecstatic.
The Wilsons (Harry and Debbie —— played by Lori Loughlin) are having trouble selling their old house in Kansas, which concerns Dixon (Tristan Wilds) who worries about the family’s financial woes.
Kelly and Brenda meet for coffee. Brenda wants the scoop on her relationship with English teacher Ryan (Ryan Eggold). Kelly admits she likes him, but feels strange that she’s 10 years older than him. If she wouldn’t have mentioned it, I doubt anyone would have even thought about it. The cougar! The father of Kelly’s 4-year-old son Sammy is mentioned but not named as is a brief mention of Donna (Tori Spelling) and high school graduation.
Ryan invites Kelly out Sunday, but she’s not sure she can find a babysitter.
With her father’s affair fresh on her mind, Naomi (AnnaLynne McCord) tries to talk to Ethan (Dustin Milligan), needing him as a friend more than anything.
In the school parking lot, Dixon accidently hits a fellow student’s side-view mirror, and offers to find a way to pay for it himself, not wanting to use insurance or tell his parents.
Annie and Ethan meet up in the hallway. Annie tells Ethan that nothing is going on with her and Ty, so she plans a date with Ethan at the Peach Pit on Thursday night. Annie is super excited.
Of course, here comes Ty ready to ruin her happy plans also wanting to ask her out on Thursday. When she turns him down for her “other plans,” she has to spell it out for him that she has plans for a “one-on-one” thing.
Naomi approaches Silver (Jessica Stroup) begging her to not put anything on her Vlog about her father’s affair begging for forgiveness for how she treated Silver in the past. Silver doesn’t want any part of her apology.
Tabitha terrorizes the musical students by over critiquing their every move and calling out Annie to the point of embarrassment.
Annie begs her father Harry (the high school principal) to find another director, and after his mother approaches him with a laundry list of things the school needs to do for the drama department, Harry is ready to find replacement help but doesn’t know where to look.
Good thing for Harry that Kelly is in personal contact with Brenda, who has done work on the London theater scene and offers her assistance. Unfortunately, Tabitha seems irritated that Brenda is helping her, but eventually realizes that Brenda is more qualified for the job than she is and backs down.
Meanwhile, Dixon interviews for a job with Nat at the Peach Pit and is offered a trial run. He comes home successfully with a job as a waiter, but forgets to tell his parents. Dixon tells Harry he needs money for dates and to upgrade to a better car in the future.
Annie and Silver are surprised to find Dixon working at the Peach Pit when they sit down to order. Silver can’t believe Annie said no to Ty and doesn’t think she sees the big picture with Ethan and Naomi. Silver explains that Ethan and Naomi are in a bubble that no one can pop, and though it may seem like they are over as a couple, they’re not.
Naomi takes a Christmas picture with her family minus her sister, because the family plans to Photoshop her in. This upsets Naomi as she feels like her family is falling apart. Her dad actually has the nerve to make a crappy comment about her mother’s looks which upsets Naomi even more. While her dad is in the shower, she grabs his cell phone and dials a recent number, hearing the voice of Gail, the woman he is having the affair with.
Dixon and Silver are hanging out quite a bit and can seem to relate to each other. Dixon says he loves his family but it is hard sometimes being black in a white family. Silver says she too feels like an outcast especially at school. Their connection is strong and eventually Silver asks Dixon if he is ever going to ask her out. Dixon does playfully.
After his classmate informs him the repairs on the car is $500, Dixon feels he has to work even more, which is putting his homework behind.
After school Naomi stops by Ethan’s house to talk but Ethan is dealing with his own problem. His autistic grown brother is obsessing because a cleaning person moved all of the living room furniture. Ethan wants to get his brother to focus on something else before his mother gets home, so he tries to brush Naomi off, but instead she offers to help calm his brother down by offering to watch a movie, distracting his attention. Ethan is impressed by the generosity that Naomi shows which definitely wins her brownie points in his eyes. But this causes him not to be able to make his date with Annie at the Peach Pit, which he has to cancel by text message. (A new generation, a new way to cancel a date!)
Right before she finds out that Ethan is canceling, Ty catches Annie sitting alone at the Peach Pit and she embarrassedly has to tell him again that she’s waiting on a date. Ty is pissed but acts gentlemanly.
Dixon, working at the Peach Pit, tells her she needs to forget about her summer crush on Ethan and go after Ty, who seems nice.
Ryan helps Brenda with a musical arrangement on his guitar for the musical, so Ryan uses the opportunity to try to get information about of Brenda about Kelly’s romantic past. Brenda says she doesn’t feel comfortable talking about it and that he needs to ask her directly, admitting that Kelly had a lot of history with Sammy’s dad but not offering details.
Naomi convinces Ethan to go with her to confront her dad’s mistress Gail (who looks like a Botox queen). Walking into a salon, the woman immediately recognizes Naomi and tries to talk to her. Naomi tells her to leave her family and her parents’ marriage alone, but Gail says it’s complicated. She just moved to town. And she loves her father. Naomi is surprised to see a package to Gail with an address that matches her family’s beach home. This means her father is not only having an affair, but putting up his mistress on family property.
Annie thanks her grandmother for helping with the musical, and Tabitha gracefully covers her steps for backing out as the director while complimenting Annie on her talent.
Naomi tells her mother that her father’s mistress is living in the family’s beach house. Her mother seems devastated, realizing the seriousness of the affair.
Dixon heads into English class tired from his job, telling Silver he studied for the biology exam, only to learn that the test of the day is English. Mr. Matthews (Ryan) doesn’t look happy. Dixon had is days mixed up!
Ethan tries to explain to Annie why he skipped out on their date but Annie doesn’t give him the chance to explain. Ty watches from a distance upset to see them together again. Annie catches his eye and tries to make up with Ty, but he doesn’t want to have anything to do with her. He tells her he has plans with someone else.
Kelly tells Ryan she can’t find a babysitter so they can go out for the weekend, so Ryan asks if Sammy’s father is around. This brings up a conversation that Kelly isn’t interested in talking about, and when she learns that he asked Brenda about the father, she gets mad and heads off to find Brenda.
Finding her outside, Kelly and Brenda share heated words over what she might have said to Ryan about her past. Brenda tells Kelly she’s still in love with Dylan, the father of her son, which is why she can’t open up with Ryan. So yes, we know the father’s identity now!
Harry confronts Dixon about his bad English test grade, telling his son that his grades need to come first, wanting to know why he felt like he had to have a job. Dixon confesses that he thinks the family needs money and needs to pay back a classmate for damages to his car. The totally awesome Harry agrees to front his son the money for the repairs if he promises not to get any more bad grades.
Naomi reminisces over Ethan by watching videos of their time together. She’s hanging on by a thread needing something to go her way.
When Silver sees Dixon and the classmate make it right over the car damage, Silver is surprised the guy is no longer mad. Dixon tells her guys don’t hold grudges, even if they fight. This encourages Silver to tell Naomi that she won’t post anything about her father’s affair. Naomi doesn’t do a very good job of acting grateful to Silver, but it’s not really on purpose. I suspect Silver will be changing her mind in the near future.
Annie tries to bribe Ty with snickerdoodle cookies which at first he turns down. When she surprises him with a kiss, he tells her if she wasn’t so adorable, he wouldn’t give her the chance she’s begging for.
Naomi brings a silly animal hat to Ethan from their zoo visit to remind him of their good times. Ethan agrees to see if their relationship is worth starting over by taking it day by day, kissing her.
In the preview for the Tuesday, Sept. 23 episode, it looks like Ty isn’t so nice after all. He’s pressuring Annie and doesn’t seem to be able to take “no” for an answer.
Question of the week:
Will Dylan come back to 90210? And will it be Luke Perry playing the role?
New episodes of 90210 air on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. CST on The CW.
Photo credits: The CW ©2008 The CW Network. All Rights Reserved.