90210 has been without the overt bitchiness expected of it for most of the season. Until tonight. The entire episode was a vengeance ploy by Naomi to get back at Annie, who has been secretly hooking up with her ex-boyfriend Ethan. A pretty typical prime time soap opera story line, except that Naomi goes to ridiculous lengths to exact the revenge she desires. She's kind of a loon. Story-wise, this is what, I think, fans have been waiting for. Unfortunately, the execution wasn't quite there.
90210 hasn't yet shown the consistency of a quality show. The potential is there,
90210 just has to harness it.
The story, once again, revolves around a party. Annie is turning 16 years old, so she's having a Sweet Sixteen party. Naomi knows that Ethan and Annie are hooking up, but Ethan and Annie don't know that she knows. To get back at her, Naomi decides to secretly fly in Annie's ex, Jason, from Kansas. Chaos ensues. Meanwhile, Ryan Matthews begins his leave of absence, as all the students think that he has hooked up with a student. They still do not know that she is a Narc. Kelly Taylor returns home and is shocked to learn about Ryan.
There were a lot of bad scenes on
90210 tonight. The first dinner scene was uncomfortable to watch. Every karaoke scene was bad. It's rare that anyone pulls off a good karaoke scene (
Lost in Translation...anything else?), and it's horrible when everyone sings along. The lame background dancing doesn't help either. The Naomi-Annie yell fest at the end was also pretty lame. Naomi is a tough character to figure out. I didn't think she was capable of such evil, but tonight she really turned up her inner bitch. It wasn't just spur of the moment anger, but actual pre-meditated evil. I thought the writers were gravitating towards a more likable Naomi, but tonight sealed the deal on her bitch persona.
Annie is a bit of a floozy. She did let Jason kiss her, then didn't really protest. Sure, she was honest, but then she acted like Ethan was out of line for being upset about it. Ethan came off as kind of a wimp for apologizing. He deserved to be upset. I also didn't understand Annie's devastation with Jason for hooking up with Naomi. Why is that upsetting? It's mostly just pathetic on Naomi's part, the kind of thing Ethan and Annie could laugh about – also, it immediately takes any guilt they had regarding not telling Naomi away.
As for the Matthews story line, that was all taken care of quickly. The abrupt end to the story line makes me believe that the writers weren't huge fans of where that story line was going and they want Matthews back to the school as soon as possible (though, I wonder what his whole vacation thing was about – is he lying to Kelly?).
Not a terrible episode, and that twist ending really made up for a lot. I wonder if they'll pick the next episode up at the Sweet Sixteen party. They have to, right? It wouldn't make sense otherwise. The illegitimate son angle is a great way to keep Naomi and Annie linked, even if they really don't want to be.
May the next episode be better than tonight's.
How would you rate tonight's episode?
-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of The CW)