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Overview
Despite all Jenna has been going through, her future seems to have gotten a bit brighter with the prospect of college.
Episode 5 – Overnight
Review (with Spoilers)
In many ways, I sort of wished the season opened up with this episode. If just because this confidant Jenna matches the one we saw at the end of last season and honestly is so likeable. Though while this form of Jenna seems on the right path, as a fan, there is a growing worry that with Jenna doing so well during her visit at the school, and during her interview, this could mean that she may outgrow Tamara. Which, admittedly, isn’t something which is impossible, but if Awkward somehow becomes one of the few shows which transition their characters from high school to college, Tamara has to come! Even if in a reduced role.
Topic 1: Someone to Talk To – Matty & Sadie
As Jenna and Tamara are looking toward the future, Matty, Jake, Sadie, and a self-invited Eva, decide to drink at Matty’s house. While there, Sadie goes after Eva repeatedly as the two bump heads. And seemingly I am not the only one thinking Eva is just a little too boastful with her million and one stories. Sadie smells BS, but with the guys too in love with Eva’s openness and attractiveness, only Sadie seems able to question her.
Which seemingly may bite her in the ass, for after Sadie cock blocks Eva, Sadie and Matty have some alone time in his bedroom. Now, before you go off to thinking they do anything XXX, all they do really is talk and remind us how genuinely sweet their friendship is, and how it perhaps rivals even the friendship between Jenna and Tamara since it doesn’t seem over the top. I mean, truly, Sadie and Matty seem like such genuine friends that it is really sad they don’t get to exhibit this friendship often. But, with them being so close, and Sadie too nice to him and mean to everyone else, Matty shows the issue most guys have when a girl is nice to him. He feels this kindness may mean something more, so he brings Sadie close and kisses her. But, they realize that friendship is the better route for them.
Especially since Sadie seems to be the only one Matty can really talk to right now. For, as we have seen, Matty’s relationships with most people aren’t that good. With Jenna, their relationship is so complicated that the safest thing for him is to keep it sexual because she hurt him bad. With Jake, their relationship is not only complicated by Jenna, but by Jake’s inability to really be serious and not seem like a tool. And while Eva claims to have been talking with Matty before, I would argue she was probably just drinking with him and maybe hooking up. Nothing more.
However, with Sadie, being that he has this really comfortable, non-sexual, relationship with her which has last forever, opening up to her, while drunk mind you, comes with ease. And as he talks about being adopted, it gives you the sense that the actors involved could be capable of so much more than what their characters are given. But, unfortunately they are usually just accessories to Jenna’s life. One being a love interest and the other the villain.
Though Eva seems willing to move onto Sadie’s territory for with Sadie cock blocking her, and Sadie and Matty falling asleep cuddling, she catches them and takes a picture. Making you wonder what may come of this? Especially since Sadie still is dating Austin.
Topic 2: A Missed Life – Lacey
A small bit of the episode deals with Lacey trying to get a taste of the college experience. Which, while not being a large part of the story, does give the actress who plays Lacey some decent scenes. Some of which may make you wonder if Awkward does go to college, will Lacey be joining Jenna?
Topic 3: Divergent – Tamara and Jenna
Leaving us with our two stars. As Jenna and Tamara do their college tour, we see them soon split between Tamara going to a sorority party, and Jenna joining a new love interest, Luke, at this fundraiser for literacy. With this, you see the first signs of a rift between the two. For Jenna is seemingly ready to hunker down, mature, and show the part of her Colin brought out that was positive. Meanwhile, Tamara seems like all college may do is get her into a lot of drama. Which could be interesting to watch, granted, but with Jenna seemingly having enough drama to last her for quite some time, it does make watching them go to different events make it seem like this could be foreshadowing where their friendship maybe going.
And while I said that this would have been the perfect way to have start the season, with Jenna visiting colleges, when I really think about it, the writers got it right. With how well Jenna did impressing Luke, the admissions representative, and really finding a place for herself at this school, this visit not only helps give her the ability to move on from Matty, but realize she can find validation outside of him. And while she is getting a new boyfriend, which I’m sort of iffy on, I must admit I am not fully dreading Luke being on the show. I do hope though that Jenna can keep seeming like the Jenna from last season’s finale, for there was something about that girl which was inspiring. And while she may actually lose some friends in the process of consistently being that girl, a butterfly does have to shed its cocoon to fly, even if the cocoon is a safe and comforting environment.
Episode 6 – Crowning Moments
Overview
With Luke and Jenna going strong for three weeks comes the first test of their relationship.
Review (with Spoilers)
The 2nd, or 3rd, or maybe even 4th, attempt at Jenna 2.0 is upon us! Hopefully with the last editions just being Betas and this being the final product. But, unfortunately, as with past versions, it seems everything about the 2.0 Jenna is all due to a guy and maintained by her having a relationship. Which is unfortunate. But, it does allow you to see how despite how mature she seemed last episode, there is still a bit of old Jenna in there, and while she may side-eye Tamara’s catfishing, when at her worse she has been far worse than the state Tamara is in.
Topic 1: Lissa vs. Sadie
With Sadie ceding being cheer captain, for now, she has to find other ways to get her frustrations out against Lissa. But not by intentionally making sure she breaks a bone, because that has already been done on accident. For this episode, Sadie tries to get out her frustrations by competiting with Lissa through the high school’s male beauty pageant. In which Lissa will coach her brother Tyler, with his annoying accent, to beat resident weird kid Kyle, who Sadie has to use to get victory.
To make a very thrown together story short, Lissa wins.
Topic 2: Catfish – Tamara & Jake
After them being broken up for at least a month now, Jake has seemingly moved on and Tamara is still holding onto threads. Which makes this Autumn San Diego thing so sad since her desperation to have some type of connection with Jake reminds us of that girl we met in the first season. Though this situation doesn’t do Jake any favors for all this situation does is make him look stupid since even upon hearing Tamara’s fake, and horrible, Australian accent, he doesn’t catch on. But, Tamara does have a plan. With Jake booty text her last week, she has a glimmer of hope and is thinking that she can nip Autumn in the bud and maybe get her Jake back. But whether this is for love or her trying to avoid Lacey-type regrets over what could have been, well that isn’t fully clear.
But, being that her multitasking skills fail her, she ends up exposing herself and this leads to Jake reminding her they are broken up. Thus leading to us seeing Tamara continue to fail one episode after another. However, being that this is Tamara, you can expect her to keep it going. Even when anyone else *cough* Jenna *cough* would likely just wallow in misery.
Topic 3: The Matty Situation – Jenna & Luke, Featuring Matty
With Jenna getting a taste of dating a college guy comes a renewed sense of superiority and sophistication, something she desperately tries to hold onto. But, with embarrassing parents, Ally, and everyone at school, she has a lot of things to stuff into her closet. But, with Luke being invited by Jenna’s parents to come to Mr. PHHS, a production in which she is stage manager, and her dad won 17/18 years ago, Luke seems thrilled with the idea of seeing how his girlfriend lives when they aren’t together.
And naturally it couldn’t be worse timing. At the door he catches Kevin and Lacey getting frisky, and then comes the big moment: the Mr. PHHS pageant’s talent portion. Jake sings a song about Autumn, Kyle pains himself without a shirt, and with huge WWE style muscles, and Matty does standup. His first two jokes are fine, but as he sees his mom squirming in the audience, upset at him for not keeping the McKibben name at the standard she wants, he goes off.
Now, it should be noted, he already had a stressful week because there was a college scout at one of his soccer games, but then his mom just laying it into him post-game, and then at the pageant, made him want to put everything out there. He puts it out there he knows he is adopted, and then brings Jenna into the mix talking about how when she got birth control pills his mom called her a whore, and he talks about living with Jenna and the awkwardness of that. Meanwhile, Luke is in the audience and seemingly leaves because the drama is too much.
But, being that Jenna still has to help with Mr. PHHS, she gets Matty off the stage and after his apology, things seemingly are cool. Though thankfully not just between her and Matty. Luke’s disappearance in actuality was to get Jenna’s favorite drink and some flowers. Then, after reassuring her he wasn’t scared away, he even compliments her on being a stage manager in high school, something even his accomplished self didn’t do. But, as the two kiss and have a moment, we see Matty off to the side almost like he was waiting for Jenna to maybe talk or something. For while he knows of Jenna dating Luke, it is now in his face and with her kissing Luke, moving on to a possible good guy, unlike Colin, maybe it lets him know that they truly are done and when High School is over it might be bye-bye Jenna.
Episode 7 – After Hours
Overview
With Jenna in a new, and happy, relationship, she thinks she has moved on. But with seeing Matty and Eva together, it seems she may have overestimated herself.
Review (with Spoilers)
Is it just me or is Jenna a bit pretentious? I ask because it seems every time Jenna gets that taste of what it may be like to be a mature adult, which in this case is having a college boyfriend, it leads to her acting as if she has always been the epitome of mature and put together. Which, as we have seen, is far from the truth. For as capable as she is of being this ideal, it never really lasts. But she isn’t the only one who seems to like to put on airs and graces. For as Eva gets to have a prominent role in the show, Sadie starts picking apart her various moments of gloating, even as Eva threatens her with the picture she took.
Topic 1: Own Your Crazy – Tamara
With a long-planned concert coming up in which Matty and Jenna were supposed to go with Jake and Tamara, issues ensue as the concert date is nigh. But while Matty and Jenna have chosen to ignore their issues, mostly, rather than face them head on, Tamara and Jake get into a full on public fight. Something which draws Val’s attention and leads to many awkward moments in which people bring up all the issues in Matty and Jenna’s past, reminding us all that Jenna has had quite a journey to where she is now. Don’t tell her that though, for with Val, and Jenna to a point, trying to make Jenna and Matty seem like the ideal exes, Jenna seemingly is ready to be the example Tamara needs.
In fact, as Jenna has an almost Sadie like moment in which she feels bad because Matty doesn’t have anyone, and won’t even have Jake since he gives up his ticket, Tamara talks about having Eva come with them. Something which she didn’t seem to really want, but to maybe shut Jenna up she brought it up. This backfires though, leading to one hell of a night for Tamara.
Topic 2: The Storyteller – Eva, Sadie, and Tamara
Now, for reasons I don’t fully understand, Sadie decides that she’ll join Jenna, Matty, Eva, and bring along her boyfriend, and cramp into Tamara’s mid-size vehicle to go to the aforementioned concert. Which I found odd since between Eva, Tamara and Jenna, I can only assume that asking Aly for a ride was just completely out of the question. Still, with Sadie’s company comes her usual attitude which, rather than being directed as Jenna or Tamara, is squared solely on Eva, who certainly doesn’t appreciate Sadie’s attention.
In fact, she threatens Sadie with that picture she took, and Sadie shrugs this off. She even, just to keep Eva from having something over her, tells Austin what happened in full. Thing is though, with that information divulged, Austin shows that while he may be a bit simple, he isn’t stupid. For between the broken trust, likely knowing the history between Matty and Sadie, as well as statistics, he calls it quits. Thus making Eva a possible sole focus for Sadie’s malice. Leading to the question of what will Sadie say, and discover, as she tries to ruin Eva’s life? Will we find out Eva is an utter liar, maybe she just embellishes, or, ironically, she has been telling the truth? Either way, this could be good.
I should note though, Sadie isn’t the only one whose night is ruined by Eva. Tamara, thanks mostly to Eva, ends up with her car towed. Thus forcing her to call Jake, who solely shows up for Matty he says. And, naturally, with Jake appearing it leads to a bit more bickering and then Tamara needing to address Jenna because she needed a quick reality check.
Topic 3: Trying To Grow Up Too Quickly – Jenna, Matty & Jake
You see, all night, after Jenna setup Eva and Matty, she goes from trying to push them together to making little remarks which show her growing jealousy. Something which first just annoys Tamara, but then as she gets her car back she feels the need to address the situation. For, in my mind, as Tamara slowly and surely matures, Jenna rushes the process to try to almost compete. Hence why, often, she ends up tripping and ending up having to take a few steps back because she still has yet to really define herself without some boy being the foundation.
But, rather than her get this grand backlash leading her to remember who she really is, much less where she came from, her lesson comes slowly and finishes near the end of the episode. She realizes, as cordial as her and Matty maybe, even after all they went through, that there still are lingering feelings. The type of feelings where while they can be some semblance of friends, they aren’t at the place yet where they can really see each other happy with other people. Something Jenna realizes as she sees Matty and Eva together.
Though all is not bad for Jenna for while she is still having growing pains, Luke seems ready, and willing, to help her through them. Unfortunately for Matty though, all he has around him is people who indulge him and, in a surprising move, his indulgence gets him in trouble with the law. But, oddly enough the would-be adventurous bad ass named Eva somehow slips away before the cops arrest Matty and Jake for drinking in public with Fake IDs.
Things To Note
In the process of getting to the place where they get the Fake IDs, Eva is giving her usual story about what a grand life she has had and Sadie notes a issue in her timeline. Then, to further show Eva maybe lying or embellishing, when they end up at the Fake ID shop, when she talks to the shop owner in a casual, “remember me?” type way, the shop owner looks at her like “Should I know you?”
TV Shows We’re Covering This Season
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