Grrl TV

Original Air Date: October 7, 2008

After last week’s drama-filled “Model Behavior,” 90210 has almost succeeded in getting me to stop making fun of the show and instead just enjoy the ride. This week’s “Hollywood Forever” helps a lot in that area because it has a couple of great developments that make for really good TV.

On the less interesting side, Annie and Ethan are teamed up as a couple in their health class to take care of a fake baby that cries if you ignore or mistreat it. The two learn as they work together that maybe there’s still some feelings there, but they don’t get a chance to fully act on those emotions in this episode. More developments are definitely coming.

Meanwhile, Silver, in her never-ending quest to stand out and apart, is absorbed with celebrating her half birthday, which is exactly what it sounds like: the six-month point in between birthdays. She’s dismayed to learn that Wilson doesn’t share her love of horror flicks (I completely understand — that’s a potential deal-breaker for me, too), but he scores some points when he researches The Ramones, one of her favorite rock bands.

Now moving on to the good stuff: First of all, a sassy new student named Kimberly, played by previously announced cast addition Jessica Lucas, is assigned to Ryan Matthews’ class. From the moment she opens her mouth and starts giving the teach and annoying Annie a hard time, I can’t help but love her. We discover at the end of the episode that there’s a reason why her attitude is so rebellious: Kim is actually an undercover cop assigned to West Beverly Hills High to help nab whomever is dealing drugs to students.

Her arrival is almost simultaneous with a drug search, complete with drug-sniffing dogs and cops in uniform, to trick the dealers into thinking the worst is over and the police are done investigating their activities. The unexpected drug search also coincides with a much better storyline for Naomi, who finally comes to terms with the fact that her parents’ marriage is over, thereby ending the dullest subplot of the series thus far.

Genuinely concerned about her best friend Adrianna (I didn’t realize they were that close, by the way) after hearing lots of rumors, Naomi tries extremely hard to talk Adrianna into getting help. But, as usual, Adrianna’s not interested, especially after landing the role she and Annie both auditioned for, and she continues to lie that she’s fully in control of her supposed recreational drug use.

The two are still going at it over this issue when the cops and dogs arrive at the school for the surprise locker search, right after Naomi sees the fake lipstick case that holds drugs in Adrianna’s bag. Adrianna goes into panic mode at the sight of the police, so Naomi “helps” by grabbing the lipstick case and rushing to the bathroom to flush the coke down the toilet.

Too bad a cop sees what’s happening and chases her, which results in Naomi’s arrest, her parents’ ballistic fit, and a visit to an attorney to prevent Naomi from having a permanent drug record and potentially going to jail. Adrianna promises to show up that night and confess when Naomi tells her how bad the situation is, but, unfortunately, her mother delivers another sob story about how they were going to lose their house and were saved by her latest acting gig.

Predictably, Adrianna doesn’t go to Naomi’s meeting with the lawyer, but there’s a good reason why. The final scenes of the episode show her on the ground with her lifeless eyes wide open, surrounded by frantic paramedics and apparently dead of a drug overdose. Naomi’s eerie last words to Adrianna come when she calls, pissed that Adrianna didn’t show: You’re dead to me. I guess “Truer words were never spoken” applies.

Yet another subplot focuses on Harry, who learns from Naomi’s mother Tracy that she intends to hire a private investigator to locate their son she gave up for adoption 22 years ago. Harry wants that, too, and Debbie doesn’t mind … until Tracy tries to kiss Harry in his office at school and he comes clean to Debbie later. Now his wife has an even deeper dislike of Tracy that could produce some high drama down the road. I’m not at all opposed.

And on the comic-relief side, we have Navid teamed with another bigmouthed male student for the baby assignment in health class and Kim constantly haranguing Ryan, who, unaware she’s a cop, thinks she just has one of those schoolgirl crushes on him. Some of the episode’s funnier moments happen when he resorts to online dating while Kelly’s away. After Silver more or less challenges him to date other women besides her sister, he attends an outdoor Psycho screening with an airheaded actress named Jacqueline who starred in a herpes commercial.

Kim has a ball with that one, and I had such a good time during her scenes, I hope Lucas is on the show for a long time to come. As of now, Kim definitely seems like a better fit for Ryan than Kelly is, so maybe the love connection announced at the time of Lucas’ casting will be with Ryan.

Factoid: With the arrival of Lucas, 90210 now has/had four actresses with the first name Jessica: Jessica Lucas (Kimberly, of course), Jessica Lowndes (Adrianna), Jessica Stroup (Silver), and Jessica Walter (Tabitha). I’d love to be there during group table reads!

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