WARNING: THIS EPISODE REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS


 

TOUCH OF GREY SOUNDTRACK: (there’s only one song credited)
1) Upfront With You, by Universal Honey

MAIN PLOT

What happens when Degrassi gives us an episode where Emma “redefines” herself yet again? We end up hating her even more.

“How can I prove that I’ve got more to offer than cute hair and a cute boyfriend?” Is this what has become of the determined, over-opinionated girl we once knew? Emma is now just a muddled mess of her former self.

What better way to make friends than to become a pothead?

What better way to make friends than to become a pothead?

Three months into university life, Liberty, Manny and even Kelly have active social lives while Emma has yet to fit in. In a desperate attempt to make friends, she decides to smoke weed for the first time with a couple of girls.

The girls think Emma is funny when she’s high, so they give her the nickname “Blaze.”

To keep her popularity going, Emma passes out weed brownies at the Floor Olympics (gotta love they used the same music that played when Paige and Alex were high in “Death of a Disco Dancer”). Afterward, Liberty doesn’t approve of Emma doing that, and Emma tells her she’s just jealous that her weed brownies made the event more lively.

Emma’s I-have-to-do-crazy-stuff-to-define-who-I-am routine is getting quite old. Maybe it’s annoying because she NEVER suffers any lasting social consequences. In “Hungry Eyes” she was able to go almost completely nude in front of the school and not get suspended or anything (Now imagine if Manny would’ve done that…). Heck, even her blowjob days in “Secret” only landed her a brief bout with gonorrhea and a social slap on the wrist.

THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT EMMA!!

THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT EMMA!!

She’s able to get off once again in “Touch of Grey”, when one of the girls is taken to the hospital because of the weed brownies.

Dorm inspections ensue to find the culprit, and Kelly takes the fall for Emma. Even worse Emma lets him, and Kelly gets kicked out of the dorms.

Minus the ending, the story itself isn’t all that bad, with its very simple message that it’s stupid to do irresponsible things to fit in. The problem is the storyline was given to Emma, who always ends up being an annoying hypocrite in some fashion. 

Kelly acts nonchalant as he gets kicked out of the dorms because of Emmas stupidity.

Kelly acts nonchalant as he gets kicked out of the dorms because of Emma's stupidity.

God knows how many times she’s gotten up on her soapbox to preach to Manny about right and wrong, but Emma never really ends up being held accountable for her irresponsible actions.

Even worse is nowadays she’s simply a boring, lifeless character, which I’m not sure if it’s a product of the writing, Miriam McDonald’s acting or both.

However, I would gladly take the obnoxious “Crusader Emma” of old over this “Dull Emma” any day.

TOUCH OF GREY MAIN PLOT GRADE: D-

 

SUBPLOT

KCs super sensitive about his past.

KC's super sensitive about his past.

Priming KC to be Sean 2.0, this episode is one of the rare occasions where the subplot is way better than the main plot.

We learn about KC’s guarded past; he stole a car with friends at his old school, and now he lives in a group home. He’s terrified that if people find out they’ll just write him off as a bad kid.

Conor reveals this info to Reese, a kid at school that KC has a beef with. This is a great setup episode for Clare and KC. Not only does it deal with KC’s fear of being judged, but he briefly comes face-to-face with that fear when Clare see’s Conor’s busted lip, and suddenly assumes KC hit him. Clare apologizes and tells KC that she knows he’s a good guy, but the damage to KC’s ego has been done. Will he be able to get over his insecurities and realize that not everyone’s going to write him off because of his past?

TOUCH OF GREY SUBPLOT GRADE: A

Posted by Kary

8 Comments

  1. Main Plot- I agree I did not like it. Emma gets off easy as always! i hate that. To amke the episode better she should have turned herself in and go be with Kelly. I think it would make it just a bit better. I never really liked Emma Probably only season 6 i kinda liked her but no. She is a boring character. This plot just bugged me unlike the sub plot. I would give Emma making weed brownies C-

    Sub Plot- LOVED IT!!!!! KC like I’ve said is my favorite character. And I don’t believer he is a Sean 2.0 Because Sean likes being known as the tough bad boy and lives with the title. But KC wants to be good. He doesn’t want the bad boy name. He is one of the gifted students. I loved this because he was trying so hard to keep anyone from knowing his past. He even got mad for Conor figuring it out, but Conor annoyed me when he told. That’s not a good friend. But like when KC said “You thught I was a good guy… I liked it. Now conor went and ruined it.” Then Conor came over with a busted lip I love KC’s emotion when Clare asked “KC, you didn’t hit him?” Sam Earle is a good actor. I loved this plot. I give it A+

    Honestly the plots should of been the other way around sense we’ll have another KC episode in ‘Danger Zone’ which is related to this one. and we probably won’t hear about Emma’s weed brownies ever again.

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  2. I think it has to do with Miriam’s acting
    Just like Ellie & Marco in the latest seasons
    they forget to get into character and just be themselves

    Miriam’s acting is this weird trying to be sexy type of thing. Annoying.

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    1. Ever since the shooting in season 4, Miriam’s acting has been robotic…nowadays it’s just sad.

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  3. Joey Sambrineli August 9, 2009 at 12:34 pm

    Who the hell goes to the hospital for weed? The cheesiness in this episode killed me. A college kid talking about weed in D.A.R.E. fashion is just too unbelievable, and lame. I know it must’ve killed Liberty to say those lines when in fact she smokes in real life! For a Canadian program, this was pretty conservative. I’m unimpressed.

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    1. No, she didn’t go to the hospital for weed, she went for hypoglucemia (spelled wrong, sorry) because of her diabetes and the weed lead her to forget or whatever… not that it makes that any better. That episode was awful, in my opinion. But the KC plot was good.

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  4. on The-N when they advertised this I remember thinking that it was dumb that they advertised the sub-plot (I had already seen it on zshare) but then I figured it out, the main plot sucked

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  5. I liked this episode if only for the b-plot. completely RENEGADED the lame A-plot. they shouldve been switched.

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  6. To me it seems like the KC plot was the main one… I don’t know why, it just did. I jus tveiwed it as the A plot. When I saw this I was like “the Emma plot was the A plot?!”

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