Overview

After last week’s drama, we watch as everyone licks their wounds in their own special way.

Review (with Spoilers)

As Jenna continues to mature as a person, and everyone catches up with Tamara, it seems Sadie is no longer the villain of the show. The ever-boastful Eva seems to be gearing up to replace Sadie, and Jenna as well as she goes for Matty’s heart, and by the end of the season, I expect her to be gone. Until then, her backstabbing, blackmailing, and lying self seems to have Matty wrapped around her finger.

Episode 8 – Prison Breaks

Topic 1: Hetero-Flexible – Tamara

With Tamara needing to get over Jake, she decides to follow in Jenna’s footsteps and try to find a college guy. Unfortunately for her though, all the Luke types are taken and the one guy she approaches burps on her. Then, to make things worse, she cannot find one sanitary looking bathroom in the place so she ends up in Luke’s room with Shane, Luke’s lesbian friend. Who, I should add, we meet giving Luke a back massage and despite how annoying Jenna was hours earlier, being that Tamara is a ride or die friend, she is ready to drag Shane and mess her up.

However, upon getting to know her Shane, talk with her, and do her nails, she finds herself put in an awkward situation. Shane reads Tamara vibe and tries to go in for a kiss, which Tamara backs away from. But, seeing as how Shane gets her in a way that Jake, and Ricky to a point, never did, she decides to go with it. Leading to us finding out that she definitely had herself the Big O, multiple times, with Shane. But, Tamara isn’t claiming herself amongst the Les-B-Honest club yet. She just sees herself as Hetero-Flexible.

Topic 2: Are You Straight? – Jake & Matty

Meanwhile, down in the county jail, we watch as Matty and Jake get admitted with the odd question of whether they are straight or gay being asked as they go in. Well, at least Jake is asked this. Anyway, during their time inside Matty is the main focus and Jake remains a throwaway character as the only thing he talks about is going to the bathroom. But Matty’s time in jail is well spent upon talking with Jordan, a man who originally comes off as some type of gangbanger, but this is a trick. We learn that in fact he is a lawyer dealing with being caught with a white collar crime.

Now, as for what Jordan says which matters, it is putting Matty’s life in perspective. Yes, it is quite a big deal to find out you were adopted, but look who you were adopted by. They give you an Escalade, give you an opportunity, support you, even if in an aggressive way, and yet you whining on a prison cot. This all makes Matty realize how foolish he maybe. For while this is a major secret, considering all they provided for him, maybe he is overreacting?

Well, unless it comes to Eva. Upon getting out, thanks to Sadie’s legal advice, they find Eva waiting for them. In this moment, Jake is understandably pissed but Matty wants to give Eva a chance. She talks about how one more time of getting in trouble could mean her dad cutting her off, hence why she didn’t join them. Which, for Matty, seems fine. But rather than leave it at that she goes on how she went to Jenna’s for advice and how Jenna told her to go ask Matty’s drug addicted brother, which she didn’t say. Jenna did tell Eva to call Matty’s brother, but not all that extra stuff. So even though Eva is supposedly chicks before dicks, it seems if the dick is a high valued target she’ll make an exception.

Topic 3: Insecurity – Jenna

But don’t worry about Jenna because she seems to be in the process of wiping her hands clean of Matty’s drama, which would include Eva. If just because she realizes she strongly needs to focus on her current relationship with Luke. For after the situation of finding Shane on top of Luke, Jenna starts to get insecure when Luke wants to more focus on his studies than her. However, unlike many of her past relationships, rather than a fight happening and all that, they talk things out. Luke is on scholarship so his studies are very important if he wants to stay in school, and when it comes to Jenna he wants to have as much time with her as possible, but he also has to put in the work for school as well. Something which Jenna understands.

Leaving us with the only thing to look forward to in future episodes being Sadie taking out Eva. For between the blackmail, ruining her relationship with Austin, and now getting Matty put in jail, hell will have no fury like Sadie with a clearly defined reason to hate your guts. I must admit though, I am also interested to see if Shane sticks around and Tamara maybe dates her.

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Episode 9 – My Personal Statement

Overview

As Jenna preps for a major life change, Eva tries to present the final bit of drama which could rock her world.

Review (with Spoilers)

At this point, I am really hoping by the mid-season finale Eva is gone. I know people hate Sadie because she is a triggering type of bully, but GOD at least she has redeemable qualities and has moments when she can be likable. Eva, on the other hand, has quickly become someone I hope Sadie, or even Aly, accidentally hits with a motor vehicle. Which perhaps is a testament to the writers and the actress for creating a villain who makes Sadie seem like her cruelest insult is calling someone a poopy head.

Topic 1: High School Reunion – Valerie and Lacey

As we know, Val and Lacey both have a serious issue of trying to relive their high school years to sort of re-write history. For this episode though, Val gets to go to her reunion with a Lacey makeover, and even impresses this cute guy she liked. Thing is, the name Val-gina, which came about because she was a rumored hermaphrodite, still haunts her. But, after dealing with the boy of her dreams, who fails to live up to expectations, she finds herself sort of glad how she turned out and happy how comfortable she is with herself. A potential Jenna in the making.

Topic 2: Old Bonds Never Break – Lissa & Jake/ Jenna and Tamara

With Jake always being someone I mock because I think he is useless, it seems the writers’ latest attempt at making him relevant maybe putting him back with Lissa. Which I am definitely for. You see, Jake and Lissa help Sadie, alongside this person named Sergio, with catering Val’s high school reunion. During this time Lissa reminds us that she is no longer that full on dimwit lackey she was when we first met her, but in fact she has grown a little bit. Jake has too, though arguably for the worse, but with them sharing a moment, which was rather cute, I so badly wanted them to rekindle their old relationship officially.

As for Jenna and Tamara, as we saw in the college visit episode, there is the likely potential of them splitting up. Something which is currently an unspoken issue as they realize going their separate ways is imminent. But, all these years of friendship aren’t going to be thrown away, just tested. For as Jenna moves on from Matty, there is a moment when Tamara feels like she may be moved on from as well as Luke crashes the night T&J are sending off their college essays. Thankfully though, Jenna holds on tightly to her friendship with Tamara and they survive one of their first tests. Though hopefully this all isn’t to prep us for Tamara possibly being written out the show, or reduced.

Topic 3: Ticking Time Bomb – Eva

I hate Eva. She continuously, out of jealousy mind you, is sabotaging Matty and Jenna’s friendship. All the while rubbing it in Jenna’s face she is with Matty, as if Jenna didn’t set the two up 2 to 3 episodes ago. And while it was cute at first, her little snide remarks, at this point her actions against Jenna now are at the point where she would sabotage Matty just to win his trust. Sounds odd right? Well, as you may remember, when Jenna and Matty were on better terms she helped him with his college statement, and being that it is time to send them in, he asks Jenna to e-mail it to him. So, she does and then Eva deletes it to make Jenna look bad. And rather than Jenna show on her phone she sent it to just nip the situation in the bud, she tells Matty to just go in her room and send the essay from her computer. Which upsets Eva so not only does she try to sleep with Matty on Jenna’s bed, which he denies her the pleasure of, but then this girl leaves her panties on Jenna’s bed just to create the illusion something happened. I mean, did she know Jenna in elementary or middle school and is now trying to get back at her? For this is beyond ridiculous! In fact, I’m starting to think she moves around so much because she is like Lorna, from Orange is the New Black, or Anna from Mindscape.

Either way, the panty thing Jenna knows Matty isn’t capable of, so she reads this little girl real quick about it. Sadly though, I doubt this is the end of Eva trying to compete with a player who already checked out the game. But, to me, what makes this really dumb is Sadie looks like a more credible threat since she is close to Matty, and yet Eva focuses on Jenna who has gotten a new boyfriend, barely interacts with Matty unless they happen to be in the same area, and pretty much has shown, on her own, she is wiping her hands clean of his business. So at this point I’m ready for this character to go for she is really adding nothing but shallow soap opera drama at this point. For while you must applaud the writers and actress for making such a hate able character, let’s be real, the character itself is shallow as hell, though previews hint this maybe fixed.

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Episode 10/11 – Snow Job

Overview

Eva’s past gets revealed, so does it mean she is on her way out?

Review (with Spoilers)

I’m not going to lie, I sort of left this episode with mixed feelings about Eva. For while I still hate her and hope she doesn’t even have a reoccurring role in season 5, this doesn’t mean I don’t feel sorry for her. But, at the same time, with her being a high class liar, and manipulator, who knows if I may have gotten tricked?

Topic 1: One Last Thrill – Tamara, Jake, and Lissa

With Tamara still looking, almost desperately, for intimacy like the Tamara we met many seasons ago, it sadly seems the Shane hookup may just have been a one night stand she won’t revisit. But, alas, with the cast on a ski-trip there is hope in T’s heart and loins. Sadly though, she ends up striking out, but at the very least she and Jake seem to have finally made up.

Though it did seem, however, that with Jake and Lissa getting close, Tamara was just going to go on and on about them and become annoying as Jenna was in the “After Hours” episode. But with Jake with Tamara for the night, due to everyone switching up key cards randomly, not only do they bond, but then the question becomes: who ended up with Lissa? Well, it is her brother Tyler with his annoying, and possibly overdone, accent. Which, I must ask, is that the dude’s real accent or is this all part of a joke? Because, seriously, would it hurt if he toned it down? I mean, thankfully, he has been in only 2-4 episodes, and had small parts in all of them, but with what happened this episode, I think he may become reoccurring, god forbid.

For, you see, it seems little Lissa may have a thing for her brother, and Tyler lets it be known he certainly has a thing for her. And while assumingly they just made out, it seems whatever Lissa did with Tyler left a smile on his face and her with the jitters. Though I’m not 100% sure how this may tie in with her and Jake possibly rekindling things, if Tyler even ends up more than just some random character which pops in here or there.

Topic 2: The Truth Comes Out (Part 1) – Sadie & Sergio

Thanks to Eva, Sadie gets kicked off the Ski trip and seemingly that was the last straw. So with the help of Sergio (Niko Pepaj), who arguably is one of the few new people I genuinely like on the show, she decides to look into Eva’s BS. Which with Sergio’s dad being a cop, isn’t all that hard. In fact they discover not only is Eva a serious deviant in terms of committing credit card fraud, but that she lives out of district in San Pedro. It doesn’t end there though. Sadie gets let into Amber’s room, Amber is Eva’s real name, and there is serious stalker/ serial killer posters and information on her walls. The type of stuff which would make you paranoid when someone seems to like you but is slightly off putting.

But since Amber has held up this ruse so long, the last thing she plans to do is let Sadie ruin perhaps the last few grand days of it. So, not only does she hide Matty’s phone when Sadie calls, but seemingly drains it of its battery. Her phone though isn’t dead, and when Sadie makes it up to the mountain, and has Jenna come with her to get Eva, they not only call Eva to check if her phone is on, but also they use Sergio’s dad to track Amber’s GPS. And let me tell you, during this adventure you not only see Sergio seriously flirting with Sadie, but seemingly really investing in her. He even mentions being worried about her when Sadie goes to confront Amber in the most sweet and sincere way. So Sadie may end up quickly rebounding from Austin.

Topic 3: The Truth Comes Out (Part 2) – Sadie, Jenna, Matty & Eva

Alright, the big reveal is here and… Matty seems to still not care. For despite Amber being a total liar, among other things, he listens her explanations triumph over all she has did. She stabbed a kid in the face, well she was getting bullied and did what she had to since it was three girls against her; she lied about where she lived and put up this massive front! Well, she just wanted to belong and go to a good school after being home-schooled since elementary school; And she pretty much explains almost everything in a way which sort of makes you feel sorry for her. Like her sabotaging Sadie and Jenna deals pretty much with her parents abandoning her as a kid and her just trying to keep what maybe the only good thing in her life, besides her hoarder grandma. Though, for whatever reason, there isn’t a real deep explanation of those creepy ass pictures where Jenna and Sadie have Xs over their eyes like she plans to murder them.

The big kicker though comes with her revealing she is pregnant. And before you think she is lying, she takes the test twice. So, at this point, outside of her getting pregnant by someone who isn’t Matty, this woman maybe here to stay. But maybe that isn’t a bad thing? Sadie has chilled out since the first season and became likeable. Maybe Amber could too? I mean it is unlikely, but I could be wrong.

Things To Note

There is one semester left of senior year according to Tamara