Sorry I missed last week. I just could not get motivated to recap Degrassi. Or anything else. I know I would definitely be motivated if I was getting paid, though. >_>
I’m still on the fence about whether or not I want to start splitting the Degrassi reviews so Saturday is DJH and Sunday is The Next Generation, or if I want to just finish all of DJH and Degrassi High before moving on. I’m also considering having the Girl Meets World posts go up on Saturday or Sunday rather than Monday as I’d originally planned, since GMW is supposed to air on Fridays I think. So that leaves the question of whether I’ll continue to have two Degrassi posts each weekend, or just have one on Sundays, or have one Sunday and one Monday. This is very difficult. Also because I haven’t mentioned it in a while, here’s my Patreon account if you have money and feel like this blog is worth spending that money on.
205, “Stagefright,” Febuary 1, 1988
Something something electrodes. Caitlin’s hooked up to some crazy brain machine for some reason.
After the credits, we find out Caitlin has been diagnosed with epilepsy. Her mom doesn’t want her to participate in the school play, but Caitlin’s been preparing for the audition and stuff. Her mom still says no, and also tells Caitlin to remember her epilepsy pills and her medic alert bracelet. Caitlin doesn’t want to, because she finds it embarrassing. She doesn’t want people to know she has a medical condition that EMTs should be aware of just in case anything happens to her.
Caitlin heads into the bathroom, I think to take her medication, but stops when Kathleen comes in. Kathleen asks where Caitlin’s been for the past week or two, and Caitlin claims she had the flu. Kathleen says she never gets the flu because she always eats a balanced breakfast. Kathleen is one of those people who hates subsidized health care because she eats well, completely ignoring that you can still get sick even if you follow the food groups, and keeping junk food out of your diet won’t save you if you get hit by a bus. Or if you’re diagnosed with epilepsy, for that matter.
Kathleen and Caitlin are also auditioning for the same part in the school play. Caitlin better watch her back, Kathleen is no friend to people who oppose her. She’s not even nice to her friends.
Alexa is excited about how she’s going to give a speech on fashion for Raditch’s class. The other girl, Michelle, doesn’t want her to talk about speeches. Then Joey pokes her in the sides and yells, and Alexa tells him to buzz off. She also asks why Michele doesn’t just tell Joey to go drown in a river, but Michelle is too shy for that. Michelle has actually been in almost every episode up to this point, but this is the first scene she’s spoken in, so I think she’s definitely got a point about being shy.
Suzie’s having a birthday sleepover, and Caitlin, Kathleen, and Melanie are invited. Melanie wants Suzie to invite some boys over. All the boys in their grade are losers, and so are most of the 8th grade boys, so I think Melanie’s crazy. Kathleen calls her a sex-starved maniac and asks if she wants to end up like Spike with that attitude.
Caitlin’s just staring blankly into the distance and after several tries, Suzie finally gets her out of it. Caitlin denies day-dreaming. Is this a side-effect of her medication?
In Raditch’s class, one kid is giving a terrible speech on why he enjoys watching tv. It’s because you learn about the world, and also, it’s fun. Thanks, kid.
Michelle is supposed to give her speech on Tuesday. Joey calls her a mouse and asks if she’s planning on bringing a microphone so everyone can hear her. Alexa tells her to cheer up, it’s only a three-minute speech. Michelle claims this is three minutes too long, and declares there has to be a way out of giving the speech. I know she’s nervous – I was always nervous when I had to give a speech, which taking a mandatory speech class in college did not help with at all - but her speech cannot possibly be any worse than “tv is fun” kid’s.
The auditions for the play, “Love’s Fresh Face,” begin. Rick is part of the backstage crew because Caitlin’s auditioning. Awww. As she gives her auditioning monlogue, Alexa gives Michelle some ideas on how to get out of the speech – a death in the family, or tell Raditch she’s got debilitating menstrual cramps. Michelle can’t even tell her mom about her period stuff, though.
Suzie tries to congratulate Caitlin on her audition, but Caitlin is just staring off into the distance again. She doesn’t hear Suzie or remember her saying anything. Caitlin actually hasn’t had any medication, so the staring thing can’t be a side-effect. She never did any of that stuff before. She gets diagnosed with epilepsy and suddenly she’s just staring into the distance.
At the sleepover, the girls are holding a seance until Melanie says it’s dumb. They argue about cookies and Caitlin starts seeing everything with double vision. Then she has a seizure.
The girls start freaking out, thinking Caitlin’s playing some sick joke. But Suzie has an aunt with epilepsy and realizes Caitlin’s not faking. She tells one of the other girls to get her mom while Kathleen says someone should get a spoon so they can put it her mouth. Suzie says no, you aren’t supposed to do that, and starts putting pillows under Caitlin’s neck. This is actually really important because Suzie is right. DON’T put anything in the mouth of a person experiencing a seizure. You should cushion their head, and try turning them on their side if you can, but DON’T hold them down or try to restrain them. You should also loosen any tight neckwear they might have on. I don’t know if it’s necessary to call emergency services whenever anyone has a seizure, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
At school on Monday, Caitlin’s mom is all “I told you so.” The sleepover was on Friday, I don’t know why her mom waited so long to tell Caitlin the sleepover was a bad idea. Meanwhile, Kathleen is telling Nancy and Trish, who I don’t think I’ve mentioned or screencapped before, about Caitlin’s seizure. She says Caitlin’s a freak and she’s afraid of catching epilepsy from her. Why does anybody like Kathleen?? Nancy went to camp with a girl that had epilepsy and she never caught it, but Kathleen still says she wouldn’t drink out of the same bottle as Caitlin. What’s Kathleen worried about, she eats a health diet so she can’t catch any illnesses anyway, right?
Also Rick overhears this and stands up dramatically.
I have to say, that’s a rather handsome shot of Rick. I’ve never really thought he was that good-looking, but he looks pretty great in that screenshot.
Also Kathleen got the role that she and Caitlin auditioned for. Caitlin got the role of Kathleen’s character’s servant. Melanie got a great part too. “I’m a wench!”
Michelle whispers to Raditch that she can’t do her speech because she lost her voice. Raditch tells her “Then you better get it back by tomorrow.” Then he says that’s the oldest excuse in the book. Ah, yes.
“Come on, Pharaoh Ramses, you’ve got a meeting with the king of Sparta!”
“I can’t, I lost my voice.”
Caitlin thinks Kathleen only got the part because Kathleen doesn’t have epilepsy. She skips out on rehearsal. When her parents ask her about it, Caitlin says since she’s got epilepsy she shouldn’t bother with the play. Her mom says epilepsy is no reason to just give up on doing everything, but her dad says Caitlin has a point about taking it easy.
At school the next day, Suzie confronts Caitlin, who is wearing a very fabulous outfit, I must say. Their argument boils down to Caitlin thinking she should just give up on the play because of her epilepsy, and Suzie thinking she’s just saying that because she’s jealous of Kathleen getting the part.
Michelle delivers her speech in Raditch’s class. She does her speech on being shy. She ends the speech by saying that because she’s shy, she can never stand up to pushy salespeople, and she hates the shirt she’s wearing. Everyone claps, and Raditch announces that Joey’s the speaker for tomorrow. Joey offers to pay Michelle to write his speech. She tells him to buzz off.
At rehearsal for the play, Kathleen is talking smack about Caitlin again, about how she dropped out because of her epilepsy. I’m surprised she didn’t add something about how she’s glad, that way the epilepsy won’t spread to the other people in the play. Rick tells her to shut up.
Rick is my new favorite character. He’s sitting up in the rafters or something working on doing the lightning, which seems illegal since he’s only 14.
He spots Caitlin. It turns out Caitlin decided to participate in the play after all. Also she’s taking her medication like she’s supposed to. Yaaay.
206, “Fight!”, February 8, 1988
Joey Jeremiah skateboards onto the scene, announcing himself. Large teenager Dwayne kicks him off his board. Joey’s pissed, but doesn’t want to get into a fight with the guy who’s like 4 times his size.
Dwayne is proof there are in fact more than two classes at this school.
After the credits, Dwayne helps Smart Kid Scooter open his locker. Scooter gives him a cheesey puff.
Steph has a plan to get Simon to rescue her when she “sprains her ankle” while wearing a shoe that has a broken heel. The twins tell her she ought to give up on Simon, since he’s going out with Alexa. Stephanie doesn’t believe it. And even though the one twin has shorter hair now, I still don’t know which one is which.
In the bathroom, Wheels reveals that, since he got a B on his last test, he’ll be able to play for the Zit Remedy again. The three guys start singing in the bathroom but stop when Alex comes in. Weirdos.
Joey also insults Dwayne. Dwayne is coincidentally in one of the stalls. Pooping, I guess.
Joey tries apologizing to Liz for thinking she wanted to have sex with him. He does a magic trick and gives her flowers. Magic tricks are the best way to a woman’s heart, but Liz is still too hurt by their previous encounter. Her heart does begin to thaw, but not nearly enough for now.
Dwayne helps Scooter get his cheesy puffs off of the lockers. Who the heck threw those up there? Raditch and Snake are the only people in school that tall. Plot twist: Snake is actually a huge jerk?
Arthur wants to talk to Stephanie about their dad, but Simon walks by right then. So Steph collapses to the ground, complaining about her ankle. Arthur tells everyone to clear out of the way because he knows first-aid. He’s going to use CPR to heal Stephanie’s ankle I guess. Who needs the school nurse? Simon, seeing that he’s not needed, leaves without doing whatever Stephanie wanted him to do.
Dwayne is challenging Joey to a fight, to take place the next day. Dwayne wants Joey to sweat nervously all night. He oughtta get his lackeys to do like Helga did in the pilot of Hey Arnold, after Harold challenged Arnold to a fight, so Helga just kept following around Arnold and yelling “Hey Arnold! Only 22 hours, 15 minutes, and 42 seconds until you DIIIIEEE!!” or whatever amount of time was left. Even when she’d been at it for hours and was clearly exhausted.
Um and it turns out Stephanie’s and Arthur’s dad is reopening the divorce. He wants full custody of the kids. Stephanie is angry about this, since things finally got settled for them.
The next day, Joey asks Raditch for some tutoring after school so he can get out of having to fight Dwayne.
Stephanie asks Simon if he wants to be on the school’s music committee, so they’d have to get together and talk about it. Simon thinks that idea’s pretty cool. You know, honestly, I think if Stephanie and Simon did get together, Steph would get really bored of him after a while. I mean their personalities are way too different, she’d probably get tired of him being a total doormat all the time.
Wheels and Snake find Joey to ask why he hasn’t shown up for the fight. Joey lies and says it’s all Raditch’s fault. Wheels tells him if he doesn’t show, everyone will think he’s a wimp. Pretty much everyone in the school hates Joey already, who cares if everyone then thinks he’s a wimp?
Meanwhile, Scooter confronts Dwayne and asks about the fight. Scooter thinks it’s unfair, since Joey is way smaller than Dwayne. But Dwayne says Joey has insulted his honor, and for that he must die.
Stephanie and Simon meet up. Before they go off to talk about the dance committee or whatever, Simon says they have to wait up for Alexa. Steph is at the end of her rope and straight-out asks why Simon doesn’t like her. Simon’s just like “??? Uhh I like Alexa?” Stephanie tells him to just forget the dance committee thing and leaves.
Joey eventually decides to show up for the fight. Dwayne totally creams him, which is a poor choice of words in today’s internet scene. After a while, Snake and Wheels jump in to pull Dwayne off Joey.
Joey’s mom is disgusted someone would beat up her kid. She says she’ll call the kid’s parents, or the principal, or whatever, but Joey insists that it’s all his fault and she doesn’t need to talk to anyone.
At school the next day, Dwayne says hi to Scooter, who calls him a bully. Scooter offers a cheesy poof to Joey while Dwayne looks on sadly.
And Yick Yu also looks on sadly for some reason.
Stephanie’s and Arthur’s dad wanting full custody is probably coming up in another episode.
