BECKY/ADAM’S PLOT SUMMARY: Becky has feelings for Adam, but doesn’t know what to do until Jenna suggests that she ask him out. Becky can’t get up the nerve to ask him on a date, instead asking him to volunteer for the school fundraiser (and also asks WhisperHug to perform, to which they agree). The two flirt while collecting donations at the mall and Luke puts a damper on Becky’s mood by pointing out their parents won’t approve of Adam. Becky tells Adam that she likes him, but that her parents are very conservative. The two agree to date and keep their relationship a secret. Becky lets it slip at home that she has a boyfriend, and her dad demands to meet Adam. Becky’s worried that her parents will find out Adam’s transgender, but the dinner goes without a hitch.
Becky starts feeling guilty about lying to her parents and eventually tells them Adam is transgender. At first her parents seem fine with it because they don’t hate Becky like she thought they would. However, when Adam comes over again Becky’s dad suggest that Adam enroll in therapy to “repair” his sexual orientation. Adam storms out and Becky feels betrayed. At the fundraiser Becky yells at her parents, but they tell her that she won’t be able to have kids with Adam, and ask her if she’s willing to give up her faith because Adam is a girl in the eyes of God. Becky is upset and torn between her parents and Adam, until she goes into Adam’s backpack and stumbles upon his tampons. She realizes she can’t deal with the fact Adam is transgender right now, so she breaks up with Adam after telling him that she is enrolling in the sexual orientation therapy because she feels confused.
Ever since the moment it was apparent in Scream that Becky had decided to not care whether or not Adam’s transgender, and in turn develop feelings for him, a cloud of doubt has shadowed over everything. It made zero sense that she would go from wearing her Christian values as badge of honor, to throwing them out the window all willy nilly for the sake of romance. There’s no way I could buy into Becky and Adam as a couple without Becky going through a personal struggle first.
A Degrassi fan commented about Becky, saying “I don’t think the quick change in Becky is strange; she has always known Adam as a boy, and she only seems very conservative because it is all she has ever known.” The key part of the statement is “she has always known Adam as a boy.” Part 1 is almost over-the-top fluff, painting the kind of cheesiness you would expect when it comes to teen romance.
However, in Part 2 reality kicks in the door, destroying everything with a baseball bat. It delivers something deeper than expected by exposing the reality of Becky’s position: she had no true understanding of what she was getting herself into with Adam.
If it weren’t for Jenna pointing it out, Becky would’ve never known that Adam was transgender. By that point Becky had already started developing feelings for Adam. In hindsight Becky really had no idea what being transgender is beyond the most basic “gender is between the ears” explanation. During the episode Becky kept saying that Adam is a boy, but she also seemed to avoid verbally saying the word “transgender.” A mixture of those things and her believing Adam was a boy from the very beginning made it easier for her to disregard him being transgender altogether and fall for him, even if it goes against her beliefs.
That all came crashing down though once she discovered Adam’s tampons, coming face-to-face with a physical aspect of Adam being transgender. The turmoil that Becky feels at the end of this episode is what I was hoping would’ve happened before they actually got together, but better late than never. Either way, it paints a heartbreaking picture of how harsh reality can be for Adam; not everyone is going to be supportive or understanding of him, and it‘s not always going to come in the form of bullying. The kind of rejection Adam deals with in this episode is the kind that makes you surprised he’s willing to put himself out there as he did during his big reveal to Eli and Clare in My Body Is A Cage.
It was expected that Becky’s parents would derail Becky and Adam’s relationship, but even with Becky going to therapy it’s clear this situation with Adam isn’t over quite yet.
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BIANCA/DREW’S PLOT SUMMARY: With Drew still refusing to talk to his mom, Bianca feels caught in the middle. She wants to be honest with Audra, so she convinces Drew to meet with his mom so they can announce their engagement. Audra is against them getting married so young because she thinks they‘re rushing into things, and Drew walks away angry. Bianca starts to have second thoughts about getting married, but Drew tells her that Audra is manipulating her. Bianca doesn’t know what she wants, yet Drew assures her that he wants to marry her this upcoming summer. She talks to Audra again, who tells Bianca that she doesn’t want Drew stuck in a mall job and a teen marriage. Bianca thinks that Audra still thinks she’s bad for Drew, so she and Fiona team up for a plan; Fiona wins the bid for the seven airline tickets to Vegas. Bianca wants to go to Vegas with Drew and five of their friends so that the two can get married over spring break.
I can honestly say I know what Audra was trying say to Bianca, but I’m so surprised at how poorly-worded Audra’s comments were. Heck, I would feel insulted and hurt too because the way it was phrase made it seem like Audra thought Drew specifically marrying Bianca is a bad idea, as opposed to saying two teenagers getting married before graduating high school is a bad idea. Bianca has more stability in her life with Drew and Audra supporting her than at any other time before this. This plot is far more interesting with Bianca as the focus, trapped in between Drew and Audra’s conflict yet ultimately jumping onto #TeamDrew. With that said and the intentions of a Vegas wedding Bianca’s still a smart girl, so there’s no telling how things will pan out…oh who are we kidding, is there any way this marriage thing actually goes as planned?
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ELI’S PLOT SUMMARY: Film Director Bret Barnett is going to do a guest lecture in one of Eli’s classes, so he sees this as an opportunity: he intends to impress Bret and receive a letter of recommendation to NYU. He annoys Bret by asking too many questions, and is frustrated when he can’t come up with an idea for his short film. He turns to Jake for help, who in turns gets him high, and Eli puts together a film he’s convinced Bret will love. However, Eli’s abstract film about life leaves Bret speechless at how bad the film is, and Eli embarrassed. Clare convinces Eli to try again and he creates a new film about his fear of leaving Clare behind when he graduates. Bret is impressed and agrees to write Eli a letter of recommendation.
As humorous as this plot was, I’m far more interested in what it shows us about Eli. As Imogen once said, he‘s “passionate, impulsive,” and “will do anything for the things and people he loves.”
The difference now is that he can avoid having that big meltdown, and even if things fall apart he’s able to make smart decisions and bounce back with the help of friends, family and his girlfriend.
This plot was predictable, but still decent filler. And despite everyone and their mom still saying that Eli will be held back somehow when the seniors graduate, the show continues to make the same case it’s been making the entire season…that basically Eli is already as good as gone.
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How Do YOU Grade Building A Mystery?
You will be able to grade the plots in this episode later tonight…come back at 9:30pm EST after the episode airs to cast your votes!
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Kary's Degrassi Blog 
Why was Audra so rude to Bianca? Her son is a BUM and that’s all he’ll ever be. She’ll realize that one day.
The Bakers can go bye-bye for all I care.
And I thought I’d add that Dylan looks “dylicious” in the Doll Parts promo. But I’ll be late next Friday night, have hockey.
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Becky’s transition to acceptance of Adam seemed too fast in Part 1. The real struggle—with
her family and with herself–started tonight and was pretty well done.
I’m interested to see how her journey develops and how Adam handles another rejection.
Audra was undiplomatic but not necessarily wrong about Bianca’s desire for a stable home life distorting her judgement. Bianca hears “She doesn’t think I’m good enough.” Audra is saying “No teen marriage is good enough.”
The Eli plot was predictable but enjoyable enough.
I give the episode a B.
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This episode made a pretty decent turn around in part two. However, the only plot I thought was excellent in a sense was Becky/Adam. The problem I had with this (other than the writer’s being complete douches to Adam in the romance department…again) was that Becky’s transitions were almost completely random. She just came up out of the blue in her wanting to be Adam’s girlfriend…(they mentioned the play ended like a week ago) and then letting her parents brainwash her and then breaking up with Adam. Although, I thought the tampons part was pretty great as a weird revelation for Becky that Adam was still in a girls body. The writers are starting to piss me off with the same old Adam storyline: he likes a girl, she likes him, she finds out he’s trans, Adam loses. This is being played out very fast. Adam needs to find happiness. He’s one of my favorite characters.
Eli’s plot was really lame and completely unrealistic. No NYU graduate is going to just up and write someone a recommendation like that. Especially after the disaster of the first film Eli made (Even though it was pretty freaking hilarious). And the whole Eli/Jake pot scenario was amusing at first – but went completely nowhere. Maybe there’s more to that later on this season. Probably a way for Eli to screw up and be held back so that the writer’s can please the EClare fangirls.
Bianca/Drew is already getting old and I’m quite sure their little wedding plan in Vegas isn’t going to work. Can’t wait to see the probable hour long special “Spring Break” episode Teennick will most likely have for it. Audra stepped nowhere out of line in this episode. She’s the only part of this plot that I really liked because I think she is correct about the whole teen marriage situation. Lets be honest, a big reason that Drew wants to marry Bianca is because he knows it’ll piss off his Mom (great way to start a marriage). Bianca IS just looking for some kind of emotional bond to latch on to. Audra was not being rude or disrespectful in any way. She was just telling Bianca the absolute truth, especially about her throwing everything away. If Bianca marries Drew she is going to screw up her life. Drew’s already a massive screw up. Bianca WILL be the only responsible one of their household while Drew will continue to be a lazy ass bum-douche. Bianca needs to listen to Audra and get out while she can.
All in all the this episode in whole is a C+/B- for me. Not a great return for Degrassi, but what is there to expect anymore. The characters are all becoming stale quickly (minus the niners).
Sorry for the novel. Lol.
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Audra didn’t say what she actually meant at all. She doesn’t think that a teen marriage is a good idea at all, but she made it seem like she she was just concerned that Bianca was good enough for Drew. After everything that Bianca had been through its only made her stronger so why would she need anything to latch onto. She can do fine all by herself but that doesn’t mean she shouldn’t not want to be w/o someone she genuinely loves who genuinely loves her. And you wanna know why he loves because she doesn’t judge or discourage him. She pratically inspires him. I’m sure he knows that he doesn’t deserve her but he doesn’t want his mother have control over his relationship. What drew and Bianca do shouldn’t be all about Audra. That’s lame and pathetic. She had a point about waiting but she needs to learn to word her opinions which don’t ultimately matter in the end, way better. The fact at Bianca loves drew no matter what, especially after all they’ve been through shows how true and real they’re love is. What some ppl choose to see on the surface of all that is just pure inability to read between the lines and view things on deeper level. Ppls views on drianca are just so sadly one-sided. Smh
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Wow…that episode was horrible. Sarah Fisher’s acting was really….remarkably bad. She just does not know how to deliver with genuine emotion. Jordan made the best out of a very, very bad script, but it was all just so hard to watch. And on top of that it was so unsatisfactory. Main plot grade- D
Bianca’s plot was very well done I think. And, though I think Audra has a point, I can see how Bianca would get offended by that, even though I think Bianca did maybe misunderstand Audra’s comment. I’m just hoping Bianca doesn’t lose her thunder with this marriage. Grade – B+
Eli’s plot was everything I expected it to be, which is essentially filler. But it was definitely amusing filler. Grade – B
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I completely disagree when it comes to Sarah Fisher’s acting. I think she portrays Becky’s emotions very well. Yes, it isn’t always 100% convincing when she talks, but she makes up for it with body language. I also loved that story line, and I just don’t understand how people found that unrealistic. I guess that most people just doesn’t get the whole thing about Becky’s upbringing + her faith + her feelings for Adam + Adam being transgender. I would give that plot a solid A.
I do agree with you about the other plots, though. Eli’s plot almost reminded me of those “everyday moment” storylines DJH did so well. In all I really liked all of this episode.
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I don’t know about this episode. I felt awkward watching it. Becky’s feeling for Adam just came out of nowhere maybe this may lead to her own sexual confusion like with Fiona.
Eli and Clare acting like an old married couple.. The 2nd one was alot better and I think it really opened his eyes about him leaving Clarebear behind. Which is pretty normal when you leave for college and for Eli to learn to let go.
I understand were Audra is coming from and Im pretty pissed at Drew for manipulting Bianca about his mom.. His Mom is right in this matter. Im sorry if you guys disagree.
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I am actually pretty happy with the way the writers are handling Becky’s reactions. I think of her as very, very sheltered and Adam is really the first guy she’s had feelings for. She may have had minor or celebrity crushes before, but nothing like the way Adam makes her feel. He hits her hard with a reality check…namely that she’ll accept discrepancies with the Bible when it suits her (the fossil he brings in). She wants to like him so badly that she convinces herself that she’s okay with the trans issue to 1. prove to herself that she is progressive and not just another Christian Bible-thumper and 2. because if Adam really is a guy then she’s not a lesbian. She throws herself at him; the way any girl who has a crush will do, and when he reciprocates her feelings, she’s excited and pushes the relationship forward. Now, she has a boyfriend (something any girl her age would be excited about) and putting energy into making Adam happy keeps her insecurity about the whole issue at bay.
When her family gets involved, her confidence falters. She’s worried her parents won’t accept Adam, not solely because of their views but also because of her unresolved issues. After her dad corners her and Adam about the possibility of reparative therapy, she lashes out because she doesn’t want to admit that she’s still wrestling with those feelings. She wants to accept Adam for who he is, but can’t shake the feeling that it’s wrong. Talking to her parents at the auction makes her question the situation even more, and seeing the tampons is the last straw. She never really accepted Adam as transgender, she just hid her problems to try to make it work.
I don’t know that Sarah Fisher was ready to handle a plot with all this subtext, but it is there if you look for it. This plot is so much more than screwing over Adam in a relationship again. It’s about Becky’s inner struggle.
Eli’s plot was improbable, but not impossible. If his second film was really that impressive, the NYU grad (whose name escapes me right now) may have decided to write the letter. I think that he would need to build more of a personal relationship with Eli, but maybe that all happened offscreen. I hope like hell that they don’t decide not to send Eli to NYU, or away in general, just to keep him on the show another season. Even though I like Clare and Eli as a couple now, that’s not a good enough reason to keep him around.
Drew and Bianca need to move to Africa with Darcy and Dr. Chris. I’m so tired of their plot lines. They’re monotonous and predictable at this point.
Wow, that’s a long post.
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I love this!
I came back to the comments to read it again!
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Thanks Sara!
One of the things I love most about this site it’s that there’s plenty of thoughtful, open discussion happening in the comments. I like setting everyone’s thoughts whether they agree with me or not, but it’s great to see such an awesome compliment!
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Oops! Seeing everyone’s thoughts, not setting. :-)
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I had all but given up hope on the episode until the scene where Becky discovered Adam’s tampons. That had a lot of impact and saved the episode for me.
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Wow. That ep was extremely unrealistic. In the space of about 9 days, Becky falls in love with one of my all-time favorite characters, completely ignores the building blocks of her childhood, gets into what might have possibly been the first real fight she’s had with her parents, and suddenly seeks the help of therapy. I am a hopeless romantic, and I have to admit, I did enjoy those fluff scenes from earlier. I am hoping either Jenna or Adam has an intervention with her parents.
Oh, hurrah. Yet ANOTHER Drew plot. And again, he’s still the close-minded, will-not-take-no-for-an-answer, dangerously impulsive guy he’s always been, except now he’s got himself a fiancé he doesn’t deserve. Bianca has really turned her life around, and I’m sorry to see her possibly marrying the biggest screen-hogger on Degrassi. Yeah, sure, won’t THAT marriage go well.
And finally, the Eli/Clare/Jake story. I loved the scene with Eli’s first film, though I’m not sure Jake was the right actor for the job. And the way everybody was speechless after L-I-E became E-L-I, priceless! The Batman scene was cute and couple-y. Still waiting for that scene of Eli shirtless though…
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I’m glad we finally got a Bianca plot. We’ve been seeing way too much of the Drianca relationship from over Drew’s shoulder. Much in the same way I’m glad we got an Eli plot over a Clare plot. I love Clare, but we need to hold the other side of the card sometimes.
How long it’s been between Scream and Building is… debatable, they said 8 more showings which probably means at least two weeks (Possibly three weeks) of Romeo and Jules shows. If every showing Becky was there (and Adam was there, as he’s crew) then the sudden turnaround on her part isn’t as crazy as it was made out to be. Of course the reason they went with cheesy and cute before drama is to get us invested in the couple.
Because the tampon scene and the ending scene have much less impact if you don’t care about them at all. So I’m entirely okay with that order of cheesy to drama.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVQ1piE3rpk haha i know this is random but i found this on youtube the other day and it is hilarious
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I actually really liked the build up for Becky/Adam and it made sense to me that she didn’t fret and doubt till right now. Becky just dove right in and because she accepted that Adam was a guy, she immediately put him in that category and didn’t think about the other aspects…it seems pretty normal for her character since she seems to think in neat little boxes. But when her parents disapproved and started telling her about life w/ Adam, it scared her because she never thought about it and all the feelings we thought should happen before, happened after…I thought the plot was well written Meh on all the other stuff lol
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Part 1 was just so cheesy and not a good start to a block. If that was my first time watching Degrassi, I would never watch it again. Part 2, though, was much better. I liked how after seeing Adam’s tampons reality hit her, and even though I’m kinda disappointed in Becky, it’s much more realistic than the alternative of Becky and Adam running off into the sunset. I don’t think Audra meant what she said the way she said it, but she made it like she really didn’t care about Bianca; it was all about Drew, which was a terrible move. Eli’s plot was funny. I liked the LIFE . . . LIE . . . ELI part and how Jake was smiling throughout the whole film. The first part overall was a D- and the second was an A-.
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I JUST WANT ADAM TO BE HAPPPY!!!!!!! WTF FUCK ALL THIS NOISE!!!!!
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Is it me or Degrassi really becoming bad quickly? Like, I see the comments here and on Tumblr and it’s weird. Before when the Old Cast left, EVERYONE was shouting Degrassi was bad despite some of its best episodes coming from the new cast right after that point in Season 10, 11, and in 12. However, now it seems the summer episodes are good then the Fall/Winter episodes are decreasing GREATLY in quality each block. By time next Fall block, will the episodes be horrendous? I guess all we can hope is that the Summer episodes continue to excuse the bad Fall/Winter episodes.
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It’s more a matter of tempo, the episode overall quality isn’t less or more in the summer, but the wait time means you don’t notice how much an ep is weighted in part 1 or part 2. For instance, if they ran this ep during the summer, we only would have had 24 hours to think on how cheesy and fluffy Part 1 was before Part 2 took our breath away.
In addition, two ep sets a week meant if any episode focused on cast you don’t care for? There was a good chance the other set had cast you did care for. One of the advantages of having 3 plotlines.
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does anyone have a link to eli’s redo of the vidoe project that isnt on teennick? i loved it and wanna watch it again. thanks!!!
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I loved the Becky/Adam plot this week. Even though I did want to see Adam finally have a relationship go right, I also am happier that they are showing what would have to be really dealt with if they did. I just hope they don’t have Becky completely disregard her faith since it seems to happen with most of the Christian characters on here. While I wasn’t crazy over the other plots, they did seem to lighten what was a very heavy episode.
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This episode was so great for Becky. I’m now concerned for what happens to her in the future; her character has me pretty hooked. :)
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Certainly there are a variety of different opinions on the plots, particularly Adam and Becky, and I think the comments reflect my own feelings in watching through the episode to a large degree. As an Adam and Becky fan I came in basically expecting to like the episode, and though I agree some of the moments were kind of cheesy I thought overall it was good, probably Kary’s grade was fair. Some of the things I didn’t like at first made sense in later viewings (I thought the pace was too fast in first viewing, but that was kind of the point, it was all happening so fast and Becky was so caught up in her emotions she wasn’t thinking anything through). I would suggest though that there be plotline grades in addition to episode grades, because it’s hard to grade part of a longer term plotline isolating just the one episode’s development.
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Great episode in my mind. As a huge Drianca fan, I thought that the plot was played out very well. I have to side with Drew over Audra. I think that Audra has been way too possessive of Drew throughout this whole season, and she is just struggling with letting her “little boy” go out into the world. What she said to Bianca was downright cruel, and I think she really showed some of her true colors. That said, I doubt that the Drianca wedding is going to go as planned, and I do agree that they’re a bit too young to get married–as fairy-tale as it would be. Other than that, this episode made me feel really bad for Adam and hate Becky Baker even more than I already do. Most characters in this season have done some good and bad things, and are easy to like, but Becky Baker has done nothing to show me why I should support her, and right now I absolutely hate her and she is my least favorite character. I thought the Eclare plot was pretty good, particularly when we found out that Jake does weed. I may be wrong, but I bet the writers are going to continue that storyline later on, and that Jake is eventually going to get caught.
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