[WARNING: THIS EPISODE REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS]

NO relationship on Degrassi goes untested.  Somebody is the followup to Waiting For A Girl Like You, and puts and interesting roadblock between Declan and Holly J’s future together.

If you haven’t noticed by now, Holly J is a very smart, organized overachiever.  In this episode she’s in the running to earn a high-profile business mentorship.  How is she going to balance all of the work as well as a boyfriend?

I give kudos to Degrassi for taking this plot in a slightly different direction than I would’ve guessed.  Declan convinced her to skip class so they could spend the day hanging out, so I thought the story would be about her losing focus and letting all of her responsibilities slip because she was too busy being stuck on Declan.

Instead, it involves a mini scandal of sorts.

Holly J is a lock to win the mentorship until she finds out Declan’s mom is one of the judges…and Holly J tells his mom they’re dating.  Fear of having an “unfair” advantage forces Holly J to withdraw, but she still manages to win the mentorship anyway.

…and when they call her name, where do they find her? Backstage, getting hot and heavy with Declan.

Despite the public embarrassment, Declan’s mom lets Holly J keep the mentorship…but she can no longer see Declan.

This was obviously a filler episode so there was no doubt that Holly J and Declan would both end up together, and Holly J would also get to keep her mentorship.  One of the greatest things about this plot was that Holly J was unwilling to have a secret relationship where they’d have to sneak around to be together; it was either be out in the open about it, or nothing at all.

The dynamics of their relationship still baffles me, because their wasn’t very much development between the two before they became a couple to begin with.  But what else is new? Though Degrassi has focused too much on relationships over the past few seasons, this plot was still pretty good.  Their coupling doesn’t seem contrived.  As a matter of fact, most of the relationship stuff in Season 9 has better than what we’ve been used to.  I think back to say Season 8 when Peter and Mia got together quickly; the difference in the quality of writing is so much better now it’s not even funny.

“SOMEBODY” MAIN PLOT GRADE: B

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SUBPLOT

Dave gives me another reason to love him.

It’s a relatively simple subplot, but interesting nonetheless.  Connor and Dave are friends and things get rough between them as Connor’s weirdness conflicts with Dave’s desire to be accepted by the cool guys on the basketball team.

It was disappointing to see Dave basically tell Connor to his face that having a “rep” with the team was more important than their friendship.  However, he redeemed himself x1000 after Ethan made fun of Connor in front of their teammates, and little Dave got up in his face about it.  Even more importantly, Dave gave Connor a confidence boost and convinced him to not quit the team.

The only issue I have about this plot is that KC didn’t defend Connor like Dave did, considering KC and Connor are much closer.  Either way, Dave is awesome. The end. 

“SOMEBODY” SUBPLOT GRADE: B+