90210 Episode 1.4 Review and Spoiler

The fourth episode of season one for the new series 90210 aired on the CW on 9/16/08. The episode is titled The Bubble. Warning: my episode review and summary also contains plot spoilers.

The Bubble was a very good episode with one major plot spoiler finally revealed. The episode focuses on Dixon whose likeable personality seems to be mirroring Brandon from the original series. Dixon accidentally knocks a mirror off of his friend's car when parking the family van. The friend needs $500 to fix it within a week. He doesn't want to involve his parents or the insurance company because he heard his parents discussing money problems so he gets a part time job at the peach pit. Nat is very impressed with the likeable Dixon and even compares him to Brandon Walsh.

Meanwhile, Tabitha replaces the director of the school play. At first Harry is thrilled that his mother is helping out but Tabitha turns out to be an overbearing stage mother who is very critical of Annie and the rest of the girls. With Kelly's help, Harry remedies the situation by getting Brenda to assist Tabitha. Brenda very subtly shows Tabitha how overbearing she is and Tabitha graciously bows out, leaving Brenda now in charge of the school musical.

Annie is not happy with Ty about ditching her at the bowling alley (from the previous episode) so she happily accepts a date from Ethan. Ty tries to make it up to Annie but she blows him off but later regrets it when Ethan stands her up to help Naomi with family problems. Silver points out that Ethan and Naomi are in a "Bubble" and even though they are broken up, it won't last, not even the whole episode. Ethan and Naomi decide to give their relationship another try by the end of the episode. Annie rethinks her crush on Ethan and decides to stick with Ty. Annie tries to apologize by baking Ty cookies but he initially rebukes her apology until she passionately kisses him. The scene looked romantic but it set of warning bells in my head (and the previews for next week confirm my suspicions). The impression I get is that Ty is only after one thing.

Naomi decides to confront her father's mistress Gail after snooping on her father's cell phone. She tracks Gail down to a store and tells Gail to go back to Denver and leave her family alone. Gail tries to be nice to Naomi and says some crap about how she can't help that she loves him, blah, blah, blah. Whatever, you are still an adulterer. Anyway, Naomi finds out that Gail has moved to Beverly Hills and into the family beach house. Naomi's mother is very upset when she finds this out. Naomi's mother was willing to put up with the affair when the woman lived out of state in order to keep her family (and lifestyle) together but now the affair has taken a more serious turn who knows what Naomi's mom will do.

Back to the main storyline, Dixon is busy working at the Peach Pit, studying, and flirting with Silver. Dixon picks up as many shifts as he can in order to come up with $500 quickly so of course his schoolwork falters. Harry confronts Dixon, saves the day by loaning him $500, and everything is peachy again with Dixon. After seeing how easily Dixon and his friends don't hold grudges, Silver kind of makes up with Naomi.

Now to the best part of the episode: the Kelly, Brenda and Ryan triangle. Ryan Matthews helps Brenda out with music for the school musical. He tries to quiz Brenda on Kelly's relationship with Sammie's father but Brenda basically says he needs to talk to Kelly, not her. Ryan makes a comment that Sammie's dad must be a great guy traveling the world helping people. Hmmm, sounds like Brandon is the father. Brenda mentioned that her brother was in a foreign country in the second episode.

Ryan makes the mistake of bugging Kelly again about Sammie's father and mentions that he talked to Brenda about the situation. Ryan thinks there is unfinished business between Kelly and Sammie's father and wants to talk about it. Kelly storms off and confronts Brenda. Brenda defends herself and says obviously Kelly is still in love with Sammie's father, Dylan. Oh my, that has to be the best revelation of a major plot secret that I have ever watched. I loved it and I was very relieved that Brandon is not the father, only because his character doesn't seem the type to be an absentee father.

The Bubble is a great episode, even more so by the few scenes with Kelly and Brenda. I can't wait to see how that arc plays out. Silver was very good in this episode and Naomi is revealing more character depth. Annie on the other hand is a bit annoying and I think she is going to get a reality check real soon.