90210 - Episode 1.3 Summary & Review

The third episode of 90210 is titled Lucky strike. The basic storyline is Annie and Dixon has their Friday night plans disrupted when their parents insist on family night. Warning: my 90210 episode summary and review contains plot spoilers.

Lucky Strike is a great episode further showing the family dynamics of the three main families: the Wilson's, the Taylor's, and the Clark's. Annie and Dixon make plans for Friday night but their parent's inform them to cancel the plans because they are having a family night at the Lucky Strike bowling alley. Not willing to give up on their plans, Annie and Dixon invite the gang to join them at Lucky Strike in hopes that Debbie and Harry will let them leave early.

While Annie and Dixon think bowling is now lame since they are in Beverly Hills, their friends think otherwise. Silver, Ethan, and Navid have a great time bowling with the Wilson's. Silver is the most impressed and has a touching moment with Debbie when Silver comments that she wishes her mom did stuff like this. Ethan and Annie seem to hit it off and even flirt a little but they are interrupted when Ty stops by to take Annie to a concert. Ty doesn't seem interested in hanging out with the gang and quickly leaves Annie behind since she is more concerned with her friends and he is more concerned with the concert.

Meanwhile, Silver is having difficulty at home. Apparently her mom is a mean drunk so Silver has been staying at a woman's shelter while her mom thinks she is staying with friends. After having a great time with the Wilson's, Silver fall asleep in her car outside of their home. Dixon finds her later that night and talks her into telling his dad what is going on. At first she is reluctant but Dixon reveals that he had a hard life before the Wilson's adopted him so he knows what she is going through.

In the beginning of the episode, Naomi is excited to go away with her father for the weekend. He cancels on her at the last moment citing some work excuse and buys her a brand new car to smooth things over. Naomi is upset but decides to take food to her father at work and is quite shocked to catch him kissing another woman. Naomi is crushed and confronts her mom the next morning. Turns out Mrs. Clark knows about the other woman and the affair has been going on for over two years. Mrs. Clark basically says she likes her life and doesn't want to lose it.

Harry calls Kelly over and Kelly is upset that she didn't realize what is going on. She goes to confront her mom who is visibly drunk already in the morning. They argue and the mother kicks Silver out which is fine with Kelly because she wants Silver to live with her. Interesting side story is Kelly and Ryan go out on a date and they talk about Sammy's dad. Kelly says he is someone she dated in high school and they hooked back up four years ago for one night. The father didn't want anything to do with the child until recently. She never mentions the father's name and later Mrs. Taylor yells at Kelly about Sammy's absentee father and again never mentions his name. The writers are very good at keeping suspense. So who is Sammy's father? It will either be Brandon Walsh or Dylan McKay. Please let it be Dylan McKay because I can see his character being an absentee father but I don't see Brandon disregarding his own child. I'm hooked now and can't wait until the father is revealed.

The ending of the episode has a montage of scenes of all three families eating breakfast. You can clearly see the Wilson's and the Taylor's (Kelly, Sammy, and Silver) are happy together but the Clark's (well at least Naomi) are miserable. I feel sorry for Naomi but I am still confused on why the writers are making her such a sympathetic character. Where is the witchy character that everyone loves to hate? That is what I loved about the original Beverly Hills 90210. That being said, I still found Lucky Strike to be a great episode.