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“Degrassi” recap: “When Love Takes Over”

I can’t figure out if I love Valentine’s Day themed episodes because they allow me to live vicariously through someone else’s love life or because I find them cathartically masochistic. Regardless, it’s sweetheart week at Degrassi, and love is in the air! As luck would have it, Friday’s back-to-back episodes were heavy on Adam (Jordan Todosey) and Fiona’s (Annie Clark) storyline.

Adam – whose hair is looking so much better than it did the first half of the season – is wandering through the hallway with Eli, trying to find the perfect leading lady to star opposite Adam in the play they’re putting on. Spotting Fiona, Eli makes a hasty exit, leaving Adam to face her.

“Starting to get the feeling that you’re ignoring me,” Fiona says, and Adam shoots back, “‘Sorry I couldn’t make it to your party, Adam. I was washing my hair.'” She tries to win his forgiveness for flaking off on his party by saying that she wanted to come, but Adam interrupts her. “Something better came up, it’s OK, I get it,” Adam offers, his expression conveying hurt and resignation.

Just as he begins to walk away from her, she calls out, “My great-aunt died.” He turns back to face her, and she offers to make it up to him. In return, he suggests the school play. The catch: her character has to kiss him. Without missing a beat, she returns, “OK, but I get final wardrobe approval.” And then she totally checks him out before walking off; the look on Adam’s face is just the cutest.

Like Adam, I want to believe Fiona, but it’s early in the episode. TV’s never that simple, right?

At rehearsal, Adam muses that, if he could get Fiona to know the real him, then perhaps she wouldn’t care about “the whole transgender thing.” He offers to run lines with her, and she accepts, proposing her condo as a location. “It’s a date,” he says, before hastily back-treading, “well, not a date.” Fiona just smiles sweetly. “I’ll see you at seven, Adam,” she says.

Over at Fiona’s place, she nonchalantly asks if Adam minds her having some champagne to get into character, and he – presumably not knowing her history with alcohol – waves the question away. They decide to start with the kissing scene, but just as they’re leaning in, Adam pulls back.

“Before we do this, there’s something you should know,” he tells her. “I’m transgender.” Not batting an eye, she simply responds, “OK.” Being from New York, he’s not the first trans person she’s ever known, she explains. And then sweetly: “You thought I’d freak out?”

“It’s a pre-established pattern,” he explains. He doesn’t exactly have girls lining up to kiss him. “Well, I’d rather kiss you than any other guy at school,” she counters.

And this is the line. This line is going to be important. But not yet, not this episode. Adam, too, wants to delve further in to what she means by that, but oops! Fiona just happens to spill her flute of champagne on him and runs off to find a spare set of her brother’s clothes for him to wear.

The next scene with them opens on Adam attempting to put on a tie. Why he needed a whole new outfit when it was just his pants that got wet, I don’t know, but I won’t complain – a tie-wearing Adam may just be my favorite.

As they stand there, reflected in the mirror, he asks her again why she skipped his party.

Fiona: I told you, my great aunt-

Adam: Is probably alive and well.

And I love this kid, ’cause he’s not taking any of her crap. Yes, by the end of the episode he’s given her the benefit of the doubt a few times too many, but he’s a high school student who desperately wants to feel wanted and who, as far as we know, has never had anyone express a romantic interest in him before.

Adam waits patiently while Fiona drains her most recent flute. “You look at me like I’m this perfect princess,” she sighs, “but I’m not. And once you realize that, you’ll get sick of me. Everyone does.”

But he’s young and hopeful and willing to see the best in his princess even when he knows that something’s off, so he assures her that won’t happen. As she starts to walk off for another drink, he grabs her arm. “Your turn. Dare.”

As far as my opinion on Degrassi goes, this scene is perfection. They kiss.

Perfection can only last so long, though. At school the next day, Fiona brushes Adam off, telling him they were just caught up in the moment. It’s best to pretend it never happened. With his heart in his throat but without missing a beat, he responds, “Pretend what never happened?” They both smile tightly, and Fiona says, “I knew you’d understand.”

When Adam relays the story to Eli, the other boy assures Adam that he might still have a chance with Fiona. After all, Eli explains, she was drinking, and “in wine there’s truth.”

Adam goes back to Fiona’s condo to return her brother’s clothes and to let her know he’s dropping out of the play. Now that he knows he doesn’t have a chance with her, he explains, starring opposite her in the play “kind of blows.”

And pause: Can we talk about how brave this kid is? How honest he is despite knowing how much it could hurt him? How he’s jaded and hopeful and disillusioned and forgiving and crushed and confident all at once? He puts himself out there for Fiona, and, happily, she returns the favor. She takes a deep breath and wonders aloud: what if you did have a chance with me? “Then you’d invite me in,” Adam advises. So she lets him in – champagne flute in hand.

Now that he’s aware of her drinking, he notices it and tries to call her out on it. He likes her too much, though, so when offered half a shred of an explanation, he quickly turns a blind eye to her behavior. “In France, everyone has an apertif before dinner,” she coaxes him. “It’s like the law.” And Adam – precious, gullible, hopeful Adam – suggests that maybe she should have two then.

When Holly J, a close friend of Fiona’s, turns up some time later at Fiona’s place looking for her history book, she stumbles across Adam and Fiona making out on the couch. Fiona claims they were just rehearsing, and Holly J remarks with displeasure that Fiona is drunk.

“I just had a glass or two, right, Adam?” Fiona trips around the couch to the fridge as Adam agrees with her clearly false statement. “Very convincing,” Holly J says, but when Fiona continues to rebuff her assistance, she resigns herself to leaving advice with Adam, who maintains Fiona isn’t that drunk.

After Holly J leaves, Fiona pours another flute of champagne and asks Adam if everything’s OK. “Yeah, now that Holly J is gone,” he assures her. Right. This is clearly going to end well.

The second half of the episode finds a pleased Adam showing up late for play practice. He and Fiona were up late, he explains to Eli and Clare. “Rehearsing?” Eli prods, and Adam unabashedly responds, “If that’s what the kids are calling it.”

Eli congratulates him on getting Fiona to act on her feelings for Adam, “no champagne required,” but then stops at Adam’s expression. “She likes champagne and me, separately,” Adam defends. “If you spend time with us, you’d see that.”

“Then let’s spend time with you,” Clare proposes, inviting the two of them to join her and Eli and the Lover’s Lunch in the cafeteria that day. Adam seems to sense this might not go well but, seeing no way out of it, agrees.

In class, Holly J confronts Fiona to ask if she and Adam are “a thing,” and Fiona plays dumb. She doesn’t know if they’re a couple, she doesn’t know if she likes him, and she doesn’t know why they were making out.

Then Holly J says, “I’ve never seen you with someone like that,” and though I listened to this scene at least five times, I cannot tell from her inflection whether she means she’s “[never seen you with] someone like that” – as in Adam – or whether she means’ she’s “never seen you [with someone] like that” – as in Fiona doesn’t normally let loose and drink around people she dates. They would imply entirely different things, and I don’t know if I’m too new to Degrassi, if the line is purposefully vague, or if it’s just a weak line.

Fiona’s response that she feels comfortable and safe around Adam does nothing to solve this mystery. Holly J’s happy for Fiona, but doesn’t understand why drinking is part of the equation. “Drinking makes me feel good, Holly J,” she shoots back testily. “Why would I stop?” That her drinking problems first developed while she was under the stress of pressing charges against an ex for battery probably doesn’t help.

Back in the cafeteria, Adam sits alone with Clare and Eli. Right when they decide that Fiona’s not coming, she shows up – drunk. Mortified by her behavior, Adam convinces her to take a walk with him, and they sit down to talk.

“I thought you liked me,” Fiona protests, confused. “You’re drunk,” Adam answers flatly. Fiona tries to appease Adam by claiming he understands her better than even Holly J does.

Fiona: She doesn’t understand me like you do. She doesn’t get that drinking makes it easier.

Adam: Makes what easier?

Fiona: Being with you.

Adam’s jaw clenches, and he suddenly begins to understand. “You’re drinking because of me?” he asks, horrified, and a relieved Fiona exclaims, “See, you do understand!” She leans in for a kiss, but Adam pulls away. “No. I don’t.” And he walks away.

When Fiona, substantially less intoxicated this time, finds Adam later that afternoon, he tells her he thinks they should stop hanging out. He gives her a second chance at asking his question: was she drinking because of him? At her silence, he looks devastated. I want to give him a hug. Or at least give him a tie to wear. Either way, I’d be smiling.

“I can stop,” Fiona begs. “Just please don’t leave.” Adam demands “one good reason” he shouldn’t walk out, and she pulls out the oldest trick in the book: I’m falling in love with you. OK, Degrassi, fine. Let’s say “I love you” before the first sober date. Awesome.

But whatever. Adam admits to feeling the same way, takes her hand, and begins to walk her home. Despite not liking the writing here, Todosey was phenomenal. I’d love her Adam, too.

The next day, Adam comes up to Fiona in the hallway and they start planning dates. When Fiona catches Holly J watching her, though, she bolts to go to class. Holly J approaches Adam and tries to convince him that Fiona has a problem. She explains that Fiona is good at pulling people in so that they want to believe what she says, but that, in the end, she thinks Fiona’s an alcoholic, and Adam’s enabling her.

Adam keeps denying Holly J’s statements, and when Holly J says that she and Fiona’s mom are organizing an intervention for that evening, all Adam hears is: we’re taking away the one girl who’s ever shown an interest in you.

He darts into Fiona’s classroom and convinces his princess to cut class with him to go somewhere. He heads off to get some money while Fiona goes back to her condo to pack “some essentials.” When he gets to her house, he finds her passed out on the couch. Finally realizing the extent of her drinking, he calls Holly J and offers to help.

When we next see Fiona and Adam, they’re getting out of a taxi. Fiona is blindfolded and under the impression that this is a date; Adam’s flat affect would imply otherwise. In fact, it’s an intervention.

Fiona tries to leave, and she yells at Adam when he blocks the exit. “Sweetie, Adam did a good thing,” Holly J soothes, but Fiona insists that Adam leave. “I never want to see him again,” she says, refusing to look him in the eye. And so Adam leaves.

He goes to The Dot, Degrassi’s local coffee shop, where he runs into Holly J. She assures Adam that, although Fiona’s mad, he did the right thing. As thanks, she hands him a page she found in Fiona’s journal:

You’ve just left, and I can’t stop thinking about you. Your face, your voice, your touch. How you listen to me the way no one else does. How it’s easier to be with you than not. How when we’re together, I never want it to end. It’d be easier if I didn’t feel this way because there are a million reasons why we shouldn’t work. But even though I know that, I really, really hope that we will.

I really hope they will, too.

I love that we saw this episode from Adam’s perspective and that, when all’s said and done, it was a story about a boy who likes a girl. Unfortunately, I suspect it’s not as simple for Fiona as a girl who likes a boy.

I’ll be hoping, but I won’t be holding my breath. What did everyone else think? You can watch the full episode at Teennick.com.

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