When last we saw our favorite fraternity guys and sorority girls, Dale and Rusty had locked horns in the Battle Bot ring, Rebecca had accidentally burned down the Gamma Psi house after ZBZ was robbed of first place at SongFest, Evan and Cappie were fighting again after the Omega Kais got Wade, Ferret, and Jeremy expelled, and Evan and Rebecca were hooking up.
Chronologically, things pick up again after semester break, what I suppose is what some of us used to call winter break. Which, in short, means only one thing: Evan, Cappie, Casey, and Ashleigh are all due to graduate at the end of this half-season. And while what happens to them is looming large over the show, Spencer Grammer wasn’t giving much away in a conference call that she held this week. WARNING: minor spoilers to follow.
The premiere spends a lot of time on the after-math of the fire that burned down the Gamma Psi house. The ZBZ sisters are losing it left and right, while Rebecca’s managed to find a pretty place in her mind where she can pretend she had nothing to do with it. It’s a skill she learned while shredding documents for her father as a kid. I won’t give away too much, but the episode eventually finds the girls, dressed up for the Gamma Psi Fairy Tale Ball fundraiser, burying something in the woods. It’s crazy but fun.
Dale makes many an appearance in the premiere, and he does so in a grand fashion. It’s too juicy to spill here, but the phrase “Team Kettlewell” does fly around the room. As does a reference to Cappie’s Christmas newsletter.
Ashleigh returns with a chip on her shoulder, and that doesn’t do Casey or Cappie any favors. Neither does the mood that the premiere finds both members of the couple in — Cappie’s still mourning the loss of his brothers, and Casey feels the pressure of her ZBZ secret weighing her down.
Rusty (Spencer says that she and Jacob Zachar are extremely close, and cook dinner together often) assumes a new position in the KT house, and the role, as well as his ascension to it, is really great for Rusty … and for us. And he finds himself with a new nickname — The Impaler.
In couple-land, Rebecca and Evan try to sort through their shared evening together, while Calvin wonders whether Grant’s closeted lifestyle is what he wants in a partner. If I liked Grant maybe I’d care more, which is a shame because of how much I love Calvin. He doesn’t pick the best boyfriends — but one of his old ones makes an appearance!
Overall, the premiere is a strong episode, even if I did find myself annoyed at some of the plots. And the rest of the season holds a lot of promise, in large part because of all of the questions surrounding the seniors’ futures. Spencer confirmed that Casey will spend most of the upcoming episodes focused on her future. Graduate school (at CRU or elsewhere), house mothering, and politics were all mentioned as possibilities for her, and Spencer said that Casey finds herself working on a local politician’s campaign this season, where she meets a legislative aide who makes her seriously reconsider going to law school (isn’t it too late to apply?). The question of Casey’s future is so pervasive that the season will end on a cliffhanger, with it unclear to us what Casey will do.
Other events this half-season will include our introduction to Cappie’s parents (I’m very excited!), Ashleigh giving Rusty a nerd-chic makeover, ZBZ continuing their climb back to #1, and Casey setting Katherine up with Rusty for a party. And, of course, Cappie and Ashleigh trying to figure out what they’re each going to be doing after graduation — apparently a point of contention between both and Casey at one point or another.
But perhaps the most interesting thing Spencer relayed was just how compartmentalized the show seems to be. If she’s not in a story (like Calvin’s, for example), she didn’t really know much about it. That’s certainly reasonable, but I feel like this was the first time an actor actually said as much, at least that I’ve heard. It also sounds like ABC Family views 10PM as a less-competitive timeslot for the show — I suppose they target different demographics, but I know that I have a huge problem Mondays at 10PM with Greek, Castle, and Men of a Certain Age. And Spencer herself named Damages as a problem for her TiVo.
Oh, and I realize that I didn’t explicitly mention it, but Spencer confirmed that she and Cappie will be together all half-season. Good to hear, and personally I think they’ll both be back on campus come next fall. But I guess we’ll just have to wait and see about that.
In the meantime, catch Greek’s newest episodes starting this Monday night, January 25, at 10PM on ABC Family. You know, right after you finish watching Make It or Break It.
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Jan 22, 2010 @ 14:00 EST5EDT
I don’t like the sound of season ending on a cliff hanger. The ratings are horribly bad and unless the show does really well on Mondays at 10 the show is dead. They really should be planning for that.
*POST AUTHOR*
My guess is that 1) they have yet to figure out if they want to keep non “Greek” people around, and 2) obviously they’re taking advantage of viewers’ interest in the subject. It’s like not having known on shows like 90210 that all of the cast members were going to end up at the same college.