Recap and opinions from the seventh episode of the show’s second season.

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Where We Left Off

Last week we got a look into the lives and goings on of all our beloved teens following Rue’s night of cat and mouse.

We saw Rue battle with the overwhelming and overpowering forces of withdrawal. Zendaya gave us another Emmy-worthy turn as she grimaced her way through the pain and made a phone call to Ali for forgiveness.

Following the big reveal, Cassie continued to fall apart in front of our eyes as she attempted to justify her actions to her mother and Lexi. Sidney Sweeney continued to perfect her craft as the increasingly hatable and pathetic Cassie this season. Her attempt to slit her wrists with a wine opener was both comedic and extremely concerning, a line Sweeney has been crossing with ease all season. Ultimately we see our little blonde pack a suitcase and scamper off to live with Nate.

Speaking of Nate, he had another dysfunctional familial interaction last week. He and his mother day-drank together while she basked in the after glow of Cal’s departure. This lead to conversations about Maddy, Cassie, Nate’s relationship with Cal, and Nate’s anger. After this we see Nate carry out a plan to retrieve the disk of his father and Jules that is in Maddy’s possession to ultimately clear his own name. Once he is finished terrifying and traumatizing Maddy – something that brings me right back to the evil and calculating Nate we grew to despise in season one – he presents the disk to Jules. The initial tension between them melts into the admission that they both meant what they said via their text relationship.

Lexi and Fez finally gifted us with some heart-warming and wholesome content after much build up.

Kat broke up with Ethan in a grippingly awkward scene that only continues to breed my disappointment for her storyline this season.

And Maddy, poor Maddy, was held at gun-point by her ex-boyfriend who is now sleeping with her best friend. In the end she is left curled up and crying in a way we have never seen her before.

If you want more details and more opinions, check out last week’s recap of Episode 6 here!

Season 2, Episode 7 Deep Dive

We have finally arrived at the moment we have all been waiting for: Lexi’s play. They have been sometimes subtly and other times not so subtly, building up to this point all season. For the most part, the entire episode revolved around her production. The only straying moments were flashbacks and a peek into why Fezco did not show up at the play.

I say “a peek” because we were woefully kept in the dark about the climax of that storyline.

The episode unfolded masterfully providing us with the play as if we were in the audience, looks at the goings on backstage, reactions live from the faces of the crowd, and flashbacks to the moments the scenes were referencing. In terms of story-telling it was one of the more effective episodes of the season thus far. It allowed us both enjoy the highly entertaining play and drive the plot at the same time.

The play itself chronicled moments in Lexi’s life and the lives of many of our favorite main characters. It is fun to watch and fun to imagine something so dramatic and scathing happening in your high school’s auditorium. Yet, it is also painfully unrealistic.

While I had a wonderful time viewing the episode, I felt myself dumbfounded at the actual concept of what we were watching.

Here we have a student putting on a play that is very transparently about her fellow classmates. There is no way that this would ever be approved to be put on at any school once the faculty were enlightened to the content of the show. Instead, Lexi seemingly gets to put on the show independently, without any staff supervision.

In addition to the idea that the show was even green lit to be put on in the first place, I found a number of other questions and concerns piling up in my head as I watched:

• In her school’s population, Lexi manages to find people willing to be in the play who very eerily resemble her friends. It feels a bit too convenient.
• What in God’s green earth was the budget for this? I cackled as I read comments on twitter about the idea that the school definitely doesn’t have the funding for any additional programs after all they dumped into this play.
• How did none of these actors manage to spread rumors or whisperings around the school about the play that was clearly about their classmates?
• It’s an incredible switch for Lexi to go from someone who is a self-proclaimed “observer” to telling very personal details about her life on stage in front of her peers. I guess we just have to believe it is a realistic next step for this character to take.

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Underneath all the complaints and skepticism of said play and the logistics of it’s plausibility, I was impressed with one specific detail. Throughout the show, the people whose lives were being exploited on stage were shown reacting throughout the crowd. It was a delightful way to show their individual responses in real time and give an entertaining representation of how we as the viewers were responding to the episode. Yet, there was a stark difference between these reactions.

Of everyone who was both being portrayed on the stage and in the audience watching, the three who were most heavily featured where Rue, Mrs. Howard, and Cassie.

For the most part, the portrayal of Rue was raw and tender. She was shown for what she was: a drug addict who suffered from an incomprehensible and damaging loss who was very loved by her best friend. Her reactions of laughter and sorrow and joy were cathartic to see unfold.

As for the remaining Howard women, you saw their faults on full display. Cassie is portrayed as naive, very reliant on her looks, and unaware of the fact that her sister has agency. Suze is seen as a loud, alcoholic, mess of a woman. Both had positive moments – Cassie’s loyalty and friendship was emphasized through her relationship with Maddy – but overall they were heavily scrutinized.

What we saw from the two of them in the audience, however, was extremely different. Suze, was cackling and cheering and telling anyone who would listen that she was who Ethan was supposed to be as he walked around stage in drag. Here was a woman who knew who she was despite it all and could swallow the pill that was presented to her.

Cassie, on the other hand, did not handle this portrayal as well. She winced and cried and excused herself from the theater to have an I, Tonya moment with herself in the bathroom. Clearly what we have here is a woman less secure in her behavior and actions. A woman who, it seems, is willing to take out her anger and disappointment in herself on the person who made her look it in the face.

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Throughout the play we got glimpses into the events leading up to that evening from Fez’s perspective. As we see during cuts of the scenes in the theater, Fez did not show up at the performance. The question is why and the answer is not clearly presented to us.

To say that everything between Fez and Lexi this season has been wholesome is the understatement of the century. The two of them interacting provides a soft, light-hearted, and well-deserved storyline for two of the shows most beloved characters. The scenes showing them talking on the phone in the week’s and day’s leading up to opening night reminds us of something we seldom remember while watching this show: these characters are in high school having crushes and being awkward and growing up.

So when you see Fez getting ready and asking Faye if a certain someone will think he looks handsome? You knees buckle with the overwhelming sweetness of it all.

Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, he doesn’t make it to the show and the reasoning doesn’t seem to be very light-hearted or sweet in the least.

During the first episode of the season when we got a look into the background of our friend Fezco and his little brother slash partner in crime Ashtray, we witnessed the boys commit a crime. Or rather, we witnessed Ashtray do something more criminal than dealing drugs.

In one of the more disturbing moments this season, Ashtray attacks and kills two drug dealers with a hammer. It’s grotesque and violent and shocking in an extremely effective way, but when you see it you aren’t aware of just how impactful it will be. Turns out killing someone – or some people – has consequences. Who knew?!

Back in present time, Faye’s very annoying boyfriend, Custer, appears to be complying with the police in an effort to rat on Ashtray and Fez for the killing of this dealer. Even though she is clearly very softened to Fez during her time spent with him, Faye has not so much as warned either of them of Custer’s plan. Instead she stands there, having a moral battle in her mind, not saying a word. While you are practically screaming at the screen for her to open those big, fat lips and say something – anything to protect Fez – she is silent.

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At the end of the episode we are ultimately slapped with a “to be continued…” title card we get one last delicious cliffhanger.

But before we get into the moments leading up to this untimely ending, let’s acknowledge the elephant in the room: Ethan was the absolute star of this episode. After a season where he racked up a total of maybe 5 minutes of screen time, we got a whole heck of a lot of him on stage. He played any and all of the characters that Lexi needed him to – most notably Suze Howard and our very own Nate Jacobs.

In his moments on stage, he brought so much energy and entertainment. After barely even being in the show, he manages to shine brighter than everyone else. It was a delightful and unexpected gem in an action-packed episode.

Okay, now back to that cliffhanger.

In the last moments that we see of the play – for this week anyway – we get a crowd-pleasing and homoerotic dance to the tune of “Holding Out for a Hero.” It is show-stopping, shocking, hysterical, and over the top all at the same time. And it was too much for poor little Nate Jacobs to bare.

Seeing a skinny little theater kid up there on stage, supposedly playing him, dance around and mime sexual acts with a slew of shirtless men was the punch to the ego that pushed him over the edge. Just the simple implication that was was anything but straight made him so insecure and flustered that he got out of his seat and stormed out of the theater.

Predictably, but still disappointingly, Cassie got right up and chased after him. Just moments earlier we had seen a very uncomfortable flashback where Cassie essentially resigned her agency to Nate telling him that he can decide what she eats, wears, and does. As she writhed on him she took all the power in their dynamic and served it to him on a silver platter.

So when Nate tells her before leaving that they are done, all because her sister embarrassed him in a play, something snaps. We are left with Sidney Sweeney staring through the back door of the theater, breath fogging up the glass, ready to strike.

What will happen to Fez? What will Cassie do? What iconic turn will Ethan gift us with next? Unfortunately for literally all of us, we have to wait to see how it all turns out. And if you are anything like me, patience does not come naturally.