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.

In Medias Res: The Event-"A Message Back"

For some reason, I haven't felt like reviewing any of the shows I watched last week. I like to think it's because I didn't have time to write reviews during the week, and I wouldn't remember them well enough if I wrote the reviews now. It's probably just because I'm lazy, but whatever the reason, I didn't want to review them. However, I did want to post some new content to this blog. So, I thought I'd try something new. That's where the "In Medias Res" series comes in. The idea behind it is that 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." For the shows I've covered so far, I've used more of a review format than a recap format. However, I've been wanting to try out the recap format, and I think this idea lends itself to that format. I'm calling this a "series" because it's something that I'll probably do again if this turns out well. If it's a failure, however, this may just be a one shot thing. 

I had a little bit of a trouble choosing which show to cover for this. However, I've chosen "A Message Back" of The Event. I've heard vague things about this show (and have seen the old-lady-faced children scene), but I really don't know much about it. 

Luckily for me, the episode starts off with a "previously on" segment. Unluckily, I don't understand most of it. There's an explosion, a gun shot, some fighting, mention of boy's name, a dramatic hospital bed scene, talk of the President, and Luke from Gilmore Girls. That's about all I got out of it.

The actual episode starts in some kind of control room with two guys in it. One of them is playing with one of those cool collapsible sphere things when an alarm goes off. The two guys have some dramatic conversation about radiation or something. Collapsible-sphere-dude freaks out, but the guy in the striped shirt tells him to chill out. I'm assuming from collapsible-sphere-guy's acting that he's either a one-shot character or has incredibly sweet connections in Hollywood. Only holy crap, I feel bad for criticizing him because he get's shot in the head by chill-out guy. Then, I find out that chill-out guy is named Anthony. He had a dramatic conversation about a secret message from "home" (does this mean that these two fellows are aliens?) with a man who is amazing at making expressions.

Here are two shots of Mr. Expression in action. Photo Credit: NBC.


Then, the show flashes their opening sequence. I miss the days of sitcomey, long openings, but I have to admit that The Event's opening sequence is kind of cool. I have to wonder why one of the "E"s is backwards. Does it mean something? Does it represent a three? Does it stand for "extraterrestrial?" Is it just attempt to be cool?

The next scene features a creepy, old pedophilish-man watching children in a park. He points out "the girl in the purple sweater" as "one of the special ones" to a woman with a bun. So, bun lady goes up to the girl and has a conversation with her about turtles. She tells the little girl, "everything has to go home sometime," a sentence with a double-meaning that the little girl seems to miss. I don't know if bun lady is a terrible actress or a terrible actress that is trying to act creepy and malicious. Either way, the creepy man seems to like what she's doing because he gives her the nod.

A woman in a leather jacket enters her apartment, and the shaky camera work practically shouts that something is wrong. If you missed that hint, a close up is shown of a disheveled blind and an opening in the window, revealing that something is definitely wrong.

Dum. Dum. Dum.              Photo Credit: NBC.

Shocker! The intruder is Jason Ritter, and he wants answers. Leather jacket woman has a gun, but so does he. After taking her gun, they both attempt to threaten each other. Leather jacket wants an explanation too, and Jason explains that her mom led him to her. Her mom also is also used as leverage for her to help him. She apparently loves her family or something because she tells him to look for "James Dempsey" (Patrick Dempsey's brother, perhaps? Or better yet, Mr. Expression?).

                                        Is she an alien, too? Actually, is anyone an alien?       Photo Credit: NBC.                                    

She also tells him that the VP is in on all the sketchiness and "is in bed with Dempsey." Despite this rush of information, he makes sure to throw in another threat to her family.

The President gives a speech about something. I was munching on some Fritos as I watched this scene, so all I got out of the meeting was no more mistakes...I mean really no more mistakes....Sophia....I'm serious guys, no more mistakes. The people in the room must have gotten about as much our of his speech as I did, because they gave a loud round of applause for a man who interrupts it. Then the President glares at the interrupter. Seriously though, I'd like to know why they were clapping for the man.

Luke and a random woman have a conversation about something. I don't hear what it's about. This time, instead of being distracted by chips, I'm distracted by Luke's hair. As a phone rings, it's revealed (to me, at least) that this woman is Sophia. There's one mystery solved. The caller is Mr. Expression (who disappointments me by not doing anything screencap-worthy in this scene). I guess from what he says that Sophia is an alien. I wonder if Luke knows. Is he an alien too?

I love you and all, Luke, but please put on your baseball hat. I'd also like you to know that I spent a large part of Saw 7 trying to remember if you were still alive or if Jigsaw had killed you.    Photo Credit: NBC.

 The President tells some dude off. Oh wait, this guy is the VP, right?

The government knows about Sophia's call, and Mr. Prezzie wants her dead or alive. I'm guessing he knows that she's an alien. I wonder if the President is supposed to be a good guy. My guess is on yes, because he seems to be just trying to get by, but who knows?

Jason Ritter and Leather Jacket are now driving somewhere. I'm guessing Leather Jacket hasn't seen this week's episode of Grey's Anatomy because she takes her eyes of the road to look at Jason Ritter.
There's mention of aliens and the little girls; both are things I knew vaguely about before the show! After that's out of the way, things get personal. Jason tells her, "you make no sense to me." She reveals emotional family background to him, even going so far as to say that she shot her abusive dad. Jason's taken aback until she reveals that it was all a lie. She is who she is just because that's who she is. Nice one, Leather Jacket. I bet you two are going to end up together.

I know it's on a rival network, but you could learn something from Grey's Anatomy.              Photo Credit: NBC.

The President talks to that guy from Heroes. I actually learned quite a bit from this conversation. At least I think so. The president says that he made the mistake of releasing Sophia and her people. Before the show started or after the first episode or so, I remember hearing something about the President releasing prisoners. So, I'm going to guess that the premise behind this show is that there were aliens who were somehow captured by the government. Then the president, possibly not knowing they were aliens, released them. This caused drama of some kind, and the President wants to make things right. Sophia seemed kind of cool, so I'm going to guess that she's a good alien, but Mr. Expression (who is probably Dempsey) is a bad one. Somehow, Jason Ritter got involved. And maybe the VP is on the aliens' side? And Leather Jacket was probably working for the VP and such, but quit when she found out about all of the drama. Or maybe she's still working for them? I'm not quite sure where the old-lady little girls and the creepy pedophile man tie into the story. Maybe they're part of the alien shenanigans? Am I even close? I'd love to hear an assessment of my theory from someone who's been watching the show.

Anyway, back to the episode. Jason Ritter and Leather Jacket eat together at a diner, and she tries to reason with him. He'll have none of it, though. So, they plan to go to a party together. Plus, Leather Jacket discusses Jason Ritter's hacking the Pentagon. I guess that's how he ties into the story.

Some random couple's getting ready for the party when Leather Jacket shows up sans her leather jacket (or any clothing other than a towel). It's a trap, and Jason comes in with a gun! Leather jacket is soon wearing her leather jacket again as Jason ducktapes the poor couple. I feel bad for them, because they paid a lot of money for this party. I learn that the woman's name is Cynthia Fisk, but I still don't know leather jacket or Jason Ritter's true names.

A text goes out, and Sophia and Luke talk about a "Thomas." I'm thinking it's more likely that Mr. Expression is Thomas than Dempsey. I learn that Luke is named Michael. So, Michael definitely knows about the aliens. I thought he was an alien for a second because Sophia called them "our people." But then she said that he doesn't have to go with her, so maybe he's not. Anyway, he's going with her. Awwww. So sweet.

The government gets ahold of the text message, but it's too encrypted to read. They see Michael with Sophia and decide that he's an alien too. So, I'm thinking that he's probably not an alien, but I'm still not a hundred percent sure. The government decided to follow Sophia to the meeting of aliens. I guess aliens are like Pokemon, you gotta catch 'em all.

It's time for the party, and Jason and LJ (aka Leather Jacket) are there. You know these two are going to end up a couple eventually. The security guard looks suspicious of LJ, but she passes the fingerprint test. But, oh no! Jason does not pass his. He tries again; this time, for some reason, he passes. LJ heads to the bathroom to pull an Alias-esque move in putting together a gun. This gun is then used to threaten Mr. VP at a party. Jason introduces himself as Ted. I don't know if this is his name or the name of the guy who's identity he stole.

Sidney Bristow would approve.                      Photo Credit: NBC.

Speaking of the guy who's identity Jason Ritter stole, the camera returns to him. His wife is knocked out or asleep, but he inches his way towards the door to bang his feet against it.

Jason Ritter wants to recruit another person to his gang using force. Seriously, is there anybody who's on his side by choice?

The ducktaped man appears again, still banging his feet against the door. He appears to be getting tired, so it's lucky for him that a maid happens to be going to down the hall. She enters with an "omg," and is entrusted with the task of calling 911 because the VP is in danger. Omg, indeed.

The scene switches back to the VP, LJ, and Jason Ritter. Jason (Ted?) gets frustrated as the VP says that he can't help him get to Dempsey. Mr. VP, getting less scared of the gun, sasses that someone will come looking for him soon. Ted? (I think I'll call him that until I learn otherwise), not liking Mr. VP's sass,  throws him against the wall holding the gun against his throat. And nevermind. Ted? is apparently not Ted at all; he's "Shawn Walker." If I'm not mistaken, his name was the boy's name that was mentioned in the "previously on." Apparently Dempsey has framed him for murder. After a good roughening up, it turns out the VP does know some stuff about Dempsey. The secret service come in to rescue the VP, but the man who I now know is Shawn and LJ have already gotten away.

Meanwhile, government people are still spying on Luke, I mean Michael, and Sophia. Michael and Sophia reach a cathedral. The government uses some kind of heat technology to sense that about two hundred beings are in the building. This is the meeting they thought it was, so they target the building. Mr. Expression (who is disappointing me with his lack of funny faces) turns out to definitely be Thomas, and Sophia turns out to be his mom. Sophia wants a moment alone with her son, but Thomas will have none of it. He's ready to start his meeting. He brings up the message from home that got collapsible-sphere-guy killed.

A creeper appears.          Photo Credit: NBC.

Apparently, "their sun is going supernova." Everybody looks really sad. And they have good reason too. Thomas tells them, "In less than a year, our planet will be uninhabitable," and I'm guessing this means more aliens will come to earth to claim it as their planet. I'm also guessing that Michael might actually be an alien because he looks really bummed about all this. But maybe he's just showing support for his wife.

I knew you wouldn't disappoint me.               Photo Credit: NBC.

Thomas says that his plan to "bring thousands of people here is now obsolete." I wonder why they were going to bring the people to earth before that? He said something about them being worried about their planet before the message, and so maybe they were just going to be more gradual with the aliens to earth thing. Also, does that mean he's going to bring all of his alien buddies? I have a brief interlude of government people with guns surrounding the building to ponder this question, before it's confirmed by Thomas. I kind of feel bad for these soon-to-be-homeless-aliens, but I have to say that my allegiance is with my home people. Is there anyway the aliens and humans can just coexist on earth? That might be cool. The episode ends with the government nearing in on the alien meeting, and the aliens aware of the government nearing in on them. I was hoping for some kind of epic smackdown before the end, but whatever. I have to admit that a lot of this episode was just confusing (at least to someone who's unsure of what's going on), but the last scene intrigued me. I like the idea of some massive alien invasion, and I'm kind of curious to see what's going to happen at the beginning of the next episode. Still, as a whole, the show was cheesy and a little dull, and I probably won't be tuning in again.

So, that was my first installment of In Medias Res. It took me about forever to do, but it was fun. If I have some free time in the future, I might do one with another show.

If any The Event (So, is this alien invasion the titular "event"?) fans are reading this, how close to the truth was I in my assumptions? Do you know anything about the show that might clear some things up for me? Care to correct any of my mistakes? Even if you don't watch The Event, I'd love to hear what you thought of my recap. Do you have any show suggestions for a future In Medias Res?