I feel like episodes like this one have to be looked just a tad bit differently than standard Degrassi episodes.  It’s technically an episode within the season, but like all of the episodes that have taken place elsewhere (Hollywood, Manhattan, Nowhere To Run and the Spring Break episode in Season 7) it’s intentionally meant to be a more lighthearted, entertainment-heavy episode.  While I wasn’t a big fan of Katie’s plot, Drew’s was quite enjoyable.

DREW’S PLOT SUMMARY:  Drew, Bianca, Fiona, Imogen and Adam are ready for their trip to Vegas for Drianca’s wedding.  In order to make sure Audra doesn’t find out, Drew and Adam convince her they’re going on a camping trip together.  On the plane Drew is stunned to find out that Katie is on the flight (along with Jake, Mo and Marisol).  He tries and fails to smooth over an awkward confrontation between Katie and Bianca by inviting Katie to their wedding.  This upsets Bianca, but she gets over it once they finally land in Vegas.  Drew takes off with Adam, Mo and Jake for his bachelor party, which isn’t as exciting as he’d hoped.  He talks to another bachelor whose family is there and supports his wedding, and that causes Drew to have second thoughts about marrying Bianca without his parents being there.

The wedding starts off as planned until Audra arrives and stops it.  She reveals that Drew wanted to cancel the wedding, which upsets Bianca to the point she runs off.  Drew’s upset because he doesn’t want to lose Bianca, and Audra tells him she can’t support a teen marriage.  Drew agrees to call off the wedding, but he wants Bianca in his life and begs for Audra to support that.  She agrees.

Drew apologizes to Bianca by dressing up as and performing Elvis with the help of Audra, Adam, Mo, Marisol, Fiona, Imogen and a couple of drag queens.  Once everyone returns to Toronto the Torres family has an official engagement party for Drianca.  Audra apologizes to Bianca for the way she’s treated her, and welcomes Bianca to the family with open arms.

There’s a point almost halfway through the episode that clearly defines the goal of this episode:  to finally conclude the ongoing storyline of Drew vs. Audra.  Drew meets a fellow bachelor named Steve who is in the same situation as him in one aspect (they’re both getting married), but completely different in another (Steve’s family supports his marriage while Drew’s doesn’t).  We witness something click in Drew, and for the first time in God knows how long I find myself proud of his decision making.  When Audra arrives in Vegas the conversation between her and Drew is the emotionally brilliant moment I‘ve been waiting for.  They both realize that they’ve each been acting irrational, and they both need to compromise in order to get what they need.  Drew needs his mom’s support, and Audra needs her son back in her life.

I’m satisfied with the way Drianca is handled in the end.  We all knew that Drianca wouldn’t get married.  It was easy to be fixated on the idea that if the wedding fails, so will the relationship.  However, the show decides to keep the couple intact…for the longest time there’s always been that feeling that Drianca is one step away from self destruction, but that feeling has officially been put to rest for me.

Within the serious elements of this storyline were many funny moments, including Drew’s awkward exchange with Katie on the airplane, and of course Drew’s Elvis performance.  It was two-hundred percent cheesy, and I loved every single minute of it.  It’s easy to criticize Degrassi because they sometimes wrap up storylines in a neat little bow.  However, this one where by the end of it all you’re hoping all ends well for those involved because they finally deserve it.  Drew’s made so many stupid decisions, especially when it comes to girls.  But in LoveFool he proves that, without a shadow of a doubt, he is “all in” when it comes to Bianca.  The Degrassi fandom may be convinced that Eclare is the apple of this show’s eye, but this episode (and the amount of time that’s been invested into Drianca since the beginning of the gang storyline in Season 11) thoroughly says otherwise.

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KATIE’S PLOT SUMMARY:  Katie, Marisol, Mo and Jake are excited about their trip to Mexico until they find out it’s been canceled because of a hurricane.  Instead, they decide to spend their spring break in Vegas, and end up running awkwardly running into Drew and his crew on the flight there.  Katie wants to hit the casinos and risk gambling her college savings to pay for school because earlier she’d recently been accepted to Stanford, but her parents can’t afford it. At the table she runs into the creator of Facerange, Darrin Howe, who tries to hit on Katie before giving her his card and leaving.  Katie loses her entire savings and calls Darrin, who offers to give her $5,000 just to spend the day with him.  She agrees to, but lies to Jake about her whereabouts.  Darrin gets her a fancy dress and throws a private concert for her with Hedley performing, however, he eventually tells her his true motives:  he wants to sleep with her.  He’s willing to pay for her first year at Stanford if she agrees, but she tells him she’s not that kind of girl.

Katie arrives at Drianca’s wedding to find out that Marisol had to tell Jake the truth about where Katie had been.  An upset Jake walks out, and with nothing left to lose Katie decides she should sleep with Darrin for the money.  She returns to Darrin’s place, but upon seeing her reflection in a window she realizes she can’t go through with it.  On the flight home Jake refuses to talk to Katie, and she tells Marisol what happened.  Katie decides she’s done with boys and wants to focus on her future instead.

Katie’s plot didn’t do as much for me as Drew‘s did.  I get that it’s Katie literally betting on her future then being desperate to the point of no return to secure said future by almost sleeping with Darrin.  Despite Katie’s introspection, in the end it all feels like simply a lot of hoops to jump through to end Jatie, and it becomes a random entry in the diary of Katie Matlin (who for some unknown reason acted as if this was the only way for her to get into school).  It was interesting to an extent watching a character go so back and forth over with such a moral dilemma, it’s just difficult to see the point all this within the terms of Katie’s development as any Degrassi girl who says they’re giving up boys tend to do the exact opposite.

SIDE NOTE: There are several smalls things within this plot that I’ve got to praise because they were fantastic:

1) Continuity:  Katie kept the fake i.d. Bianca made for her last year.  She also mentioned that she was great at counting cards at Vegas Night, an event that happened well before we even knew Katie existed in the Degrassi universe.  It’s tiny details like those in the writing that I enjoy the most.

2)  Hedley’s cameo:  This is yet another celebrity cameo that I have no issues with.  Their existence isn’t intrusive and doesn’t dictate the flow of the storyline.  They just come in and do their thing…nothing more, nothing less.

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How do YOU grade LoveFool?

You can grade the plots in this episode by voting below!

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In other news…..

*BILYK SWAG: Earlier this week I released my new Degrassi song “Bilyk Swag.” If you haven’t heard it yet, you can check it out below:

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It is officially Bilyk approved lol

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*DEGRASSI in 2013: Degrassi will be back starting in February 2013 to air the final 10 episodes of Season 12.   No exact date has been set for its return, but we can casually estimate that the Season 12 finale will be sometime in April.

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