“Girls Gone Viral”
Just as Jenna decides to do the right thing and delete the article for Matty, the folks at Idea Bin throw the e-book deal her way. She wavers on her decision, and Luke is there to push her further into the realm of complete selfishness. Ironically, he says, “Matty is selfish if he wants you to take it down.” Luke, please do not encourage Jenna to be a dick, she does that enough on her own, thanks. Jenna realizes that her editor removed the paragraph where she criticized herself, making it a more balanced piece. Luke gets pissy over Jenna’s concern for Matty’s feelings.
Jenna tries to explain the situation to Matty, who remains angry and uninterested. When Jenna confronts Aaron Samuels about the botched editing job, he balks. “The audience for your little apologist paragraph is one–your ex,” he explains, going on to warn her not to go to Lizzie about it.
When Lacey confronts her daughter about the article, Jenna immediately tries to defend her selfish actions. “So good writers sell out their friends to get e-books?” Lacey asks. She then compares the article to the anonymous letter she wrote to Jenna at the start of the series, but points out one important difference–the letter was private.
Jenna requests that the article be taken down, thinking that she’ll be fired as a result. Lizzie lets her stay on, though she gives the e-book to Ophelia. She brings the original article to Matty and shouts the missing paragraph through the door at him where he won’t see her. Luke is mad that she’s still worried about Matty’s feelings, but ultimately comes back and tells her that he likes the fact that she cares about how her actions affect others. Eye-roll , but okay.
Tamara and Patrick have an intense texting relationship, which makes Sadie slightly uneasy about Sergio’s lack of responses. She refers to the girls at his food truck as “girls in whore shorts,” another casual slut shaming comment that annoys me. I wish this show would address that sort of thing and show character growth in Sadie, rather than use it for misplaced humor. Sergio is annoyed and asks when they started dating. Sadie thinks it was obviously when they started sleeping together again.
Sergio confronts Sadie about wanting emotional intimacy, not just sex. He points out that every time something real happens, she tries to solve it with sex. He can’t deal with it anymore because he loves her. She struggles to say it back to him, but he says it’s okay–he knows she loves him. Their relationship is one of the better developed aspects on the show, as Sergio constantly calls Sadie out for poor behavior. If only this extended to slut shaming…
Upon meeting Jake, Jenna’s Idea Bin coworker, Ophelia decides to use him as her next muse. He shows off for her a bit, but that doesn’t stop her from happily calling him “the ultimate townie” after they sleep together. Looks like Jake might be re-evaluating his life plans.
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This episode was decent in terms of development for Sadie and Jake, but we’ve once again circled back to the same Matty-Jenna nonsense that’s been slowly sucking the life out of this business for seasons. How many times can you try to convince us that Jenna isn’t the worst? Le sigh. Awkward…get it together before the end, would you?
Episode Rating: 6/10.
“Misadventures in Babysitting”
A surprise trip to the Mermaid Inn for the parents leaves them without a babysitter. Turns out, they’d rather hire just about anyone to watch their kid besides Jenna. Can’t say I blame them. They eventually cave and give Jenna directions, the most important of which is Morgan’s bedtime. If she’s not asleep by 7:30, the dreaded second wind will kick in and she’ll never go to sleep.
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Jenna’s eye is off the prize when Matty arrives to do a German project with Lacey, shocker. Despite their current tumult, Matty stays to help her. They get into an argument and Matty almost leaves, but hearing Jenna’s fairy tale spurs him to stay. He tucks in the sleeping sisters and ends up crashing at their house. When the parents return home, they apologize for underestimating their daughter. Jenna ends up being ashamed not that she needed Matty’s help, but that she wanted it.
Patrick wants Tamara to meet all of his female friends, who are basically like sisters to him. Tamara is worried because, “Girls can be a little judge-y and critical.” Oh right, men don’t criticize women at all. Is this show over yet? The anti-feminism is getting to me. Sadie provides backup for Tamara in this situation, advising her to stop caring so much.
Sadie had assumed that Sergio wouldn’t have a good time with the rich kids, but Sergio gets along with all of them well since they know him from his food truck. Tamara has a fine time, though the girls don’t understand working for a living. I think we’re looking at some foreshadowing for Tamara’s impending financial crisis. As in, she owes the girls $1500 for a facial. Yikes.
Lissa’s mom Leslie is dating Carl, the head of the largest hygienic paper products company. Lissa attends dinner with the happyish couple, along with Carl’s boring son. When Lissa isn’t thrilled with the couple’s announced engagement, Leslie pulls her aside to tell her that if she’s going to grow up to be a Palos Hills mom, she’s going to need a Carl. With Jake’s help, Lissa gets out of seeing Carl’s son and declares that she doesn’t want to be a Palos Hills mom. Jake admits to sleeping with Ophelia and that she called him a townie, causing Lissa to get protective.
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The Jenna/Matty relationship has, once again, sprung back into place. Unfortunately, the storyline of the episode wasn’t enough to carry us through rehashing the same stuff. Lissa’s storyline was also rather dull, but at least it resulted in a bit of character development.
Episode Rating: 4/10.
“Living in Sin”
“It was a sweet Saturday morning with my adorable boyfriend. I should have been loving it, but I had to admit that ever since Matty and I had babysat my little sister Morgan, I’d been a little distracted.” Jenna’s voiceover tells us that water is wet. At first she worries that she wants a baby, but realizes it’s Matty she wants. So of course she blurts out that she wants to move in with Luke, who readily agrees.
The Hamilton’s are ecstatic–the house was getting way too crowded. Matty walks in on the champagne toast and is happy for Jenna, which shockingly doesn’t bother her. The couple plays house in a smugly happy move-in montage. Seriously, the amount of times they call each other “babe” during this episode is revolting. Now that they’re living together, Jenna wants to take their relationship public, but Luke still doesn’t.
Everything is peachy keen until Luke explains that he’s going to an industry party with Lizzie that night. The sparkly sheen has worn off of the apartment and Jenna allows jealousy to take over. She gets mad at Luke because she thinks he was on a date, while Luke gets mad at Jenna for not trusting him. She explains that their secrets bring up bad Matty memories, which is the opposite of what Luke wants. They exchange I love yous. Jenna decides to take them public with an article called, “How My Secret Boyfriend Helped Me Let Go of My Past.” Both Luke and Lizzie are not happy. Jenna once again hasn’t learned anything at all.
Tamara is dodging calls from the credit card companies and hiding it from Sadie. However, she can’t hide it from her mother, who demands that she find a way to start paying back the $12,000 in debt. If she doesn’t, she won’t be going back to NYU in the fall. Tamara comes clean to Sadie, who gives her a “that sucks.” Tamara gets mad and blames Sadie, which is absolutely ridiculous. Tamara asks for a loan, which Sadie declines. Tamara proceeds to call her a “rude ass whore” and storms out. Wooooow. I’m not happy with Awkward’s concept of friendship; Sadie is right in this instance and doesn’t owe Tamara anything, let alone thousands of dollars. Tamara does take Sadie’s advice to get a job to heart; however her allusion to a hotel room and what she’s wearing might be pointing toward something less than savory.
Jake is moping about Ophelia’s article; she addresses his happiness, but infers that happiness is a result of being too dumb to know better. Lissa storms down to Idea Bin to kick Ophelia’s ass, but Ophelia gets her to spill about her and Jake’s multiple breakups instead. She gives Lissa a copy of The Feminine Mystique and affirms that she can be her own Palos Hills husband. Ophelia’s lessons in feminism make Lissa lean in and demand more classes, more signage and actual pay for the atonercize classes she teaches at the club.
Matty and Sully are studying for Matty’s German presentation. Sully suggests that they do reward shots, which leads to Matty sleeping through his and Lacey’s final presentation. When he goes to the Hamiltons’ to apologize, Lacey warns him about Sully’s influence on his life, comparing her to Ally. Matty breaks up with her in the chillest breakup, possibly ever.
This was a pretty interesting episode overall, if I pretend like I didn’t hear any of the “babes” exchanged between Luke and Jenna. I’m glad we’re finally getting to the crux of Tamara’s storyline, though I’m hoping it isn’t heading toward a prostitution situation. Incorporating feminism into Lissa’s storyline is awesome, though I wish feminism wasn’t just a plot device for the show.
Episode Rating: 7/10.
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