In Medias Res: 90210, 4x14 "Mama Can You Hear Me?"

In Medias Res is a post in which I watch a current episode of show that I haven't been following. Thus, I start in medias res or "into the middle of things." This allows me to give an outsider's perspective on the show.


This is my second In Medias Res post. It's been almost a year since my first one on The Event, and I thought I'd give it another go. For this post, I've chosen the most recent episode (it's no longer the most recent, but it was when I started writing this recap) of 90210 that's available on the CW website, "Mama Can You Hear Me?" I think I watched part of one episode a couple of years ago plus I've seen some promos, but I really don't know much about the show. All my screencaps are from CWtv.com. That's about all the pre-recap info I want to cover. So in the words of Coolio in the "Keenan & Kel" theme song, "Aw, here it goes..."

Luckily, the previously segment gives me a glimpse into the show. It features the following things: cheating or perhaps faux cheating, a break-up, baby drama, Lexi aka Lindsay (depending on if you're a Vampire Diaries or Gilmore Girls fan), and a "no, I don't know her" that's filled with double meaning. It's certainly not enough to catch me up completely on all that's gone down in the infamous ZIP code, but it's a start.

I'm going to take a guess and say that Naomi gets a lot of screen time.

The episode begins with some couch-crasher making his opinion on The Civil Wars quite clear.  F.Y.I he calls their song "broken-hearted country crap." Some other guy disses their music as well. But you know you does like country music?

Shirtless guy does! 

Shirtless guy (presumably the one who Naomi broke up with) walks into the room shirtless, pours the last of couch-crasher's cereal, and then abandons it for a beer. I'd probably just nab the box of cereal to enjoy in my room, but I guess we all grieve in different ways. Anyway, the point is his depression is annoying his roommates, and some of them are prepared to leave if he doesn't shape up soon. The guy who I suppose is the only official roommate of shirtless guy agrees to comfort him. Until I find out his name, he will be the "comforter."

Meanwhile, Naomi (I do know a couple of names) walks in wearing this.

What can I say? I'm not a big fan of jumpsuits and fedoras. 

I'm assuming she works in fashion because she compares her boss to Miranda from "The Devil Wears Prada." This outfit looks kind of awful to me, but I guess I'm not a fashionista. Anyway Annie basically calls Naomi a slut and tells her that's why her boss doesn't like her. Naomi retorts by essentially calling Annie a psycho ex-stalker. That's got to mean they're BFFs, right? While some random girl in another questionable outfit joins their conversation, Annie defends her case with some sassy head bobbing. 

Homeless chic, anyone? I guess I really just don't understand fashion.

Next thing you know, Holly (thanks 90210 for mentioning a name) is bumping into Naomi. Look out guys, I think we've got a mean girl on our hands. I might just have to side with Holly though because she's the only one whose outfit I can get behind. Plus, she has the guts to do this.

I feel they all must be looking at her dress with envy.

Annie walks up to Naomi, and I realized that the gap in her black mourning gown is not a belt, but rather it's just a gap of flesh. Anyway, she's wondering where Naomi's fighting spirit is. Naomi assures her that she just needs to solve Holly's mommy issues therapist-style, and everything will be just peachy. 

Homeless Chic and some photographer have a conversation about his going to Afghanistan to pursue his dreams, and that's about that.

Then, one of the brunette girls (I know one is named Silver, but I get the girl from the beginning and this one confused. Until I learn their names, the one in the first scene is Brunette #1 and this girl is Brunette #2) walks down the street with some professor. He tells her that he's booked a table at a swanky restaurant because of "crabs" and his divorce. She tells him that his divorce is none of her business, and I start to think maybe she's just the babysitter for the kid in the intro (that's supposedly her birth kid???). Then they reference "our relationship," and he asks her to move with him. So I guess they're dating. If his kid really is her birth kid, that really does mean that there's drama a'brewing. If not, I'm really misreading things.

If that's not enough drama, there's a run in with Silver's (They named her! Now if they'd just mention Brunette #1's name.) ex, Couch-crasher, and his friend, the Comforter. These storylines are just starting to come together like an intricate tapestry! It's an awkward run-in, and even worse, it appears Couch-crasher vaguely recognizes the Professor. Maybe he just took his class or something, but because this is the CW, I'm thinking Silver's got a secret, guys. Maybe it has something to do with the kid drama.

"I wore my armless shirt in honor of this occasion."

Meanwhile, Lexi shows off her muscles to some guy. Okay, it was actually a tattoo. He wants the deets on it. She says it's a boring story. He wants to get to know her. She protests that she's a boring girl. This steamy flirting session is interrupted by Annie. Apparently, Some Guy is Annie's ex, and Lexi is the girl with the fake IDs. I guess this run-in with the ex explains Annie's midriff-bearing outfit. Annie threatens that Lexi needs to make like a banana and split, but I just don't think it's going to be that easy.

During a meeting with her boss, Naomi tries to make nice with Holly, but it just backfires on her. Poor Naomi, she just can't figure out how to mend fences with this girl.

Twelve minutes into the show, its theme song appears. I'd just about given up on it having opening credits. That was one heck of a cold open. At twelve minutes long, can you even call it a cold open? Anyway, the credits are totally unhelpful at telling me anything about the show. It's mostly just a bunch of random images like this.

I suddenly understand everything.

After the opening credits, we see Naomi working on her super-posh event. She gains points because I actually kind of like her dress in this scene (although the magically appearing bracelets that resemble rolls of duct tape aren't much my style), but she loses some for throwing out a humble brag about the stomach ache she's getting from all the movie stars, tv stars, and models that are attending the upcoming event she's working on. Homeless Chic (who's wearing a very similar sweater to the one she wore the day before) doesn't seem to mind the humble brag, but that's probably because she's trying to scam her photographer boyfriend (aka Nick) into a gig at the party. There's little drama there because Naomi quickly agrees.

No duct tape bracelets.

Duct tape bracelets!

Next thing you know, Holly's entering the kitchen in her best puffy shirt. Seriously, is there a rule that only one of these girls can look decent at a time? Anyway, there's some tension between the two which only escalates when Holly informs Naomi that her coffee contained a trip to the dentist, although she just refers to it as spit. Naomi's still desperate to make nice with Holly. So she gives her the all important job of transporting a VIP to the event. That sounds like a great plan, right?

There's a brief scene where we learn that shirtless guy has put on a shirt but is still down in the dumps. Annie's still obsessing over her ex's girlfriend. Based on the number of people who have told her that she's crazy, I'd say there's about a .05 percent chance that Lexi's not hiding something big. Brunette #1 tells her to chill, and what Annie gets from this is that she needs to do some serious Googling.

Meanwhile, Holly shows up to the party sans the celebrity, and her mom is not pleased. There's not that much to say about this scene other than to point out a mullet dress of note and for me to admit that Naomi actually looks really nice in this scene.

If Macgyver were a dress, he would be this one.

Coach crasher and Brunette #1 have a nice little bonding session where she talks about Maisy, the girl she gave up. I'm kind of bummed that it was her child instead of Silver's because I was hoping for the drama that would come with Silver dating the guy who adopted her kid. Oh well. 

Back at the local bar, Shirted Guy is listening to some more country music. Listen, I'm not buying the idea that this country music correlates with his depression. I mean anyone who owns a denim shirt such as this probably listens to country music regardless of the mood he's in. 

Couch surfer decides to pay Silver a visit, but it turns out that her boyfriend is the only one there. There's some awkwardness, but then this happens.

According to her dad, this child is a cell-phone using, Angry-Bird playing child prodigy. 

I guess I wasn't so crazy for thinking that the Professor is Maisy's dad after all. Sure, I got a little confused about which brunette was which, but I was closer to the truth than I thought. I apologize for my disappointment a few scenes ago; this storyline is pretty juicy. Apparently, Silver is well aware of her boyfriend's connection to Maisy. More importantly, Brunette #1 is revealed to be named Adrianna (or "Ade" as her non-friends like Silver call her), Couch Crasher is Navid, and the Professor is Greg. They're just throwing these names out there like crazy.

Going back to the Holly/Naomi storyline, they manage to find their VIP at his hotel, and he's drunk with a capital D. Could this be good news for their friendship? After all, nothing brings enemies together better than co-managing a drunk celebrity.

In the Lexi/Annie's ex's storyline, we finally find out what Lexi's big secret is: she hit him while he was on his motorcycle or something like that. I'm assuming this secret is relying on some knowledge from previous episodes because I'm little bit fuzzy about the accident. The ex acts like it was a pretty serious accident, but the only evidence of it I see is a small scar on his face. Anyway, Annie appears post-confession to share the secret with her ex. He calls her a crazy Google stalker, and he returns to the girl that marred his face.

Look at that hideous scar.

Naomi's event takes a turn for the worse when the drunk VIP throws up in medias carpet. Holly's mom starts to chew Holly out, and by now, you'd think Naomi would have learned to just let well enough alone. Instead she tries to take all the blame and goes on a self-righteous tirade about how she was attempting to repair Holly's relationship with her mom. Holly's mom is not having that nonsense, and she fires Naomi. If Naomi gets her job back, I sincerely hope that she'll learn to just mind her own business and not play the part of smug family therapist.

"Basically, I'm a saint."

Homeless Chic and Annie have yet another conversation about how crazy Annie is. Then Annie decides  she's going to mind her own business until everything comes crashing down around her ex. Then she'll be there to pick up the pieces because that totally sounds like the plan of a sane person. Some of the conversation is also devoted to Homeless Chic being worried about her boyfriend becoming a war photographer, but that's much saner stuff and therefore, kind of boring.

I feeling like Torrey DeVitto should be playing this character.

Guess what? Naomi's dumb family therapist plan actually kind of worked. Holly and her mom bond, presumably over their mutual hatred of Naomi. Now that she's taken over Naomi's job, Holly feels like she can afford to show some kindness to Naomi and gets her a possibly client, the drunk VIP. Naomi becomes smug once again and starts rambling about having her own company.

Homeless Chic's brush with true insanity (aka Annie) scares her into apologizing to Nick. Both of them acted fairly rationally in this storyline, and therefore, I'm not that interested. Still, good for her.

Finally, we reach the last scene of the episode. Navid's back in his natural habitat, the couch. This time, however, he's plagued by Silver's secret rather than country music. He tells Adrianna to take a seat and prepares to tell her the secret.

I honestly have to give 90210 props for not dragging that secret storyline out, and I feel like it's going to bring some drama on the next installment.

I can't say I'm going to add 90210 to my TV viewing schedule, but it was somewhat entertaining to watch for an episode. There were a couple of things I was confused about, and I'm sure some of my speculations were wrong. Still, I thought it was pretty easy to follow. All in all, it wasn't a bad pick for In Medias Res.

90210 fans, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the episode, my review, or even just the show in general. If you're not a fan, but just stumbled upon this review, I'd love to hear your thoughts as well. As always, feel free to leave a comment.