After delivering a pretty solid premier in This Is How We Do It, Degrassi delivers another decent, yet uneventful episode in You Got Me. Drew’s inability to cope with Adam’s death remains a strong, reliable focal point of the episode. However, the other two plots are still in setup mode, delivering what are ultimately faux happy endings. There’s some good stuff here, but nothing stands out as great.
DREW PLOT REVIEW: Any worries that Degrassi would immediately up and forget Adam’s death have been calmed by Drew’s storyline, one that even now seems far from over. Drew is stressed out over planning the dance, which he’s doing all by himself. Dallas steps in to help and all Drew is responsible for is the sound system and music, but he can’t even concentrate on that once he stumbles upon one of Adam’s old music playlists. After having told Zoë earlier in the episode that any nightly advances he’d made toward her were a side effect of his medication (which he‘s run out of), Zoë offers him more sleeping pills as part of a personal scheme she‘s working on. Drew ends up taking them and Zoë drags him to the dance, where he hallucinates and sees visions of Clare talking about Adam. He also strips down to his underwear and finds himself jumping into a kiddie pool.
Degrassi used to be a show that would use drugs as focal point of a storyline, doling out life-altering consequences that come across as a PSA to the audience about the dangers of drugs. Nowadays the focus has shifted a bit, with situations such as Jake smoking weed and Eli doing the same, as well as him taking MDMA at one point.
In Eli’s case there were consequences, but they never involved getting caught doing drugs by an adult or his parents. Instead, more emphasis was placed on the reasoning behind Eli’s drug use, which is happening this time with Drew. The writers hinted multiple times in this episode that Drew could’ve become addicted to his sleeping pills, but they chose to forego the predictable addiction path, instead sticking with the simple and most important fact through the episode‘s touching, final scene: Drew finds himself unable to cope with the loss of Adam. The death of Adam Torres is one that still hurts the characters and fans alike, and a strongpoint of this show, especially when it comes to Drew mourning the loss of his brother. It is expected that Drew will have trouble coping for the remainder of his tenure on Degrassi.
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ZOE PLOT REVIEW: Zoë continues to be the odd man out at Degrassi, with bridges burned when it comes to the Tenners and her romantic prospect coming unhinged. As a ploy to make Miles and the gang jealous, she brags to them that she’s basically dating Drew. The Tenners are baffled, given that even they know Drew has a girlfriend who’s away at college. Zoë confronts Drew and he explains to her that he’s engaged, and that if he’s been hitting on Zoë it was a side effect of the sleeping pills he’s no longer taking.
During school Zoë approaches Zig, assuming by his attire that he’s got a drug connection. The two chat and Zoë offers him money for sleeping pills, which she gives to Drew. She drags Drew to the dance while he’s high on the pills, dancing with him in order to make Miles and Maya jealous. However, Drew starts hallucinating and runs off.
While initially coming off as a diva in the early episodes of season 13, Zoë as of late is more like a fish out of water at Degrassi. Because of the industry in which she was raised she doesn’t relate to anyone at the school, and every attempt to be accepted by her peers (the Tenners and Drew) has failed. Maya tries to befriend Zoë and the two share a hug, but it’s obvious Zoë has found her way in to ultimately get revenge on Maya for “taking Miles from her.”
Little has changed from This Is How We Do It, as this is all setting up for what will eventually (and hopefully) be an exciting feud between Zoë and Maya. Another setup comes in the form of Zig Novak returning after having been missing in season 13 for the first nine episodes. His limited role throw us a curveball as he’s spotted hanging out with a sketchy group of kids, and he’s wooed enough by Zoë’s cash to secure drugs for her. Oddly enough it’s not surprising that he’d somehow get caught up in that kind of thing, but it is exciting thinking about the capacity in which he‘s involved and how it all may play out.
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ALLI PLOT REVIEW: The romance Alli compares to a Nicholas Sparks movie continues to drag along at an inoffensive pace, which is still a step up from the nonsense we had to endure in Paris. The plot in You Got Me is predictable, but it contains several noteworthy moments. Jenna and Alli aren’t talking because Jenna doesn’t agree with Alli dating Leo. Clare suggests that Alli invite Leo to the dance so that they can get to know him. Leo declines at first, but shows up anyway. Determined to show people he isn’t the guy they assume he is, Leo kindly interacts with Dallas (whose text messages to Alli he was jealous of in Paris), and he also dances with Jenna and Clare.
While Alli continues to see this as a fairytale romance, it’s good that we have outside eyes weighing in on the situation. Jenna is extremely against Alli and Leo, but Clare is more moderate in her views, and more willing to reserve full judgment on Leo before meeting him. By showing off his charming side, Leo slowly breaks down the negative view Clare and Jenna had toward him. For me that’s the most interesting part of this plot: they have a preconceived idea of someone that they don’t know, but find it difficult to retain those ideas once they’re face to face with Leo. Is Leo someone who’s good at manipulating people, or is he just a guy with a bad temper? Hopefully we’ll find out the answer soon, for our patience with this storyline could run as thin as Leo’s patience in Paris.
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Kary's Degrassi Blog 
This episode was too clunky for my taste. Zoe pretending to be Maya’s friend and her actually believing it and Zig being involved with drug dealers. What are these writers doing?
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For Zoe it’s have your friends close and your enemies closer – she’s really to hurt Maya in the long run, a frenemy. Zoe was a well off actress and Maya saw her genuine desperation for friends and belonging somewhere, though Zoe will obviously sabotage it for the sake of her bruised ego. Maya isn’t an overly suspicious person by nature and Zoe hasn’t really done anything to the level as in Paris anytime recently either. The set up from Paris and her break up with Miles was obviously leading to this. As for Zig, considering his financial situation it wouldn’t be a big stretch for him to feel pressured or sold the idea to being a dealer or working for one to help out his family or feel better about himself and try to obtain materialistic things to get away from how little he had before. We don’t know what happened to Zig over the summer, maybe this is another way he’s coping with guilt, to cause this change.
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I understand that but I just wish the reason for her doing it was better which I hope will not turn into a melodramatic situation. Now that you mention it, Zig doing drugs may actually make sense with his wealth status. Hopefully he gets an A plot in this episode block instead of the gruesome twosome, Alli and Leo.
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i dont think hes involved with any drug dealers his parents own a grocery store and thats prob how he got the pills. but on another note… this was the best episode of the season so far!! i loveddd the zoe and zig interaction! and ZIG IS BACKK HALLELUJAHHHHH
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@ Aayize Diaz
The sleeping pill Drew is likely taking is Ambien – a narcotic (and has a high chance for dependency as the show pointed out) so unless they have a pharmacist to dispense this, that’s an unlikely place for him to get those pills. His family looks like they own a modest grocery store that you get some basic necessities not like a big chain like CVS or Walgreens. It’s possible a family member has them, but they’d have to be pretty forgetful or take them infrequently not to notice that several are missing. It’s more likely that he got involved in some shady business and it will possibly by explained further in the season since we don’t know what happened over the summer. I liked Zig a lot last season, but his current behavior (and his ‘tough guy’ outfit) so far is slowly chipping away at that.
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lol you didnt mention the addition of Miles little sister, she is new, no?
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Miles having a little sister, kind of threw me in for a loop. Where was she during the episode when Maya went to their house to return the credit card?
But the thing I am most interested in Zig’s story line.
I really hope they expand on that (Like he he a drug dealer or just the middle man and why is he hanging out with shady looking kids now), and explain what happened to him, since he was absent from the summer episodes.
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yo as soon as they introduced miles litte sister i was like this is the future of degrassi right here! maya, clare, alli, all little sisters became the faces of degrassi! i really liked her yooo! she seemed like a lil bad ass especially if she befriends zoey jus like that! shes cute!
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my prediction for degrassi is that there going to start introducing a few11th graders now so that we can have seniors in every season and a graduation before mayas class! jus like they added katie and jake! i think they will introduce one more grade after miles little sister and the show will end on that grade by its 20 season or so
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I think they’ll end up ending the show with Maya’s class in some capacity. it seems like they’re already losing viewers this season. i can only see the show going on a couple more seasons at most for some reason.
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This episode just didn’t seem to click with me. I had some hopes for the B Block after This Is How We Do It, but this seemed to deflate them a bit. The plots just seemed average to me, but I suppose its early and these plots could still be in the stages of being springboards into bigger story arcs.
I have to agree with Kary that Drew’s plot was basically to make the point that Drew and the other students aren’t over Adam’s death yet, and Drew probably won’t be through this season. It certainly is notable that the focus of the sleeping pills didn’t become a PSA as it did with past characters in earlier seasons. Honestly, I am happy to see this. The dangers of drugs should always be pointed out to kids, but I always felt that a single 30 minute episode dealing with a single serious issue ran a large risk of trivializing it to a certain extent. My prime example of this would be Peter Stone being on drugs for seemingly one episode. To me, making an issue with an individual teen character would be more realistic and relatable if they show how there is a real-life, long term struggle with the issue. The best examples of this that I can think of would be Riley struggling with his sexuality and Adam trying to find his identity as a female to male transgender.
Zoe’s plot really lacked any flash, but I suppose that’s because the writers still seem to have her character’s whole storyline in a slow transition that will culminate fairly quickly as this block moves along. There will definitely be some fireworks when she tries to “get back” at Maya. Zig’s intro into the season seemed off key to me, considering his situation in the episode. Given his baggage from last season, I could understand his frustration at Maya and resentment towards Miles. Still though, for someone who was so protective of Maya, he didn’t seem to really care when Zoe mentioned out loud that she had intentions of revenge. Also, it seemed a bit naïve that Maya would suddenly want to be her friend after all the drama from their overseas trip, but if that’s how the writers want to set up the next school rivalry, then I guess its their call. I personally think I would have gone a different route however.
As far as Alli’s plot goes, as bland as it was, Kary was correct to point out that this has basically been the best Alli/Leo plot since their intros in the summer block. It will be interesting to see exactly what they have intended for the character of Leo, given tone of Alli’s short conversation with Dallas. It is obvious that there are still feelings of mutual attraction there, and I honestly would be shocked if the writers didn’t actually act on it until the C Block.
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Even though Miles’ father mentioned his sister while belittling his son at their mansion, I never really thought his sister would make an appearance or rather I didn’t expect her to attend Degrassi. I guess I envisioned her in a prep school or something, but I hope she has more appearances especially with his upcoming plots.
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For Zig, I think the drug connection actually ties in with Cam’s suicide. He could take drugs as he is still dealing with the guilt he feels towards Cam’s death like Drew’s relationship with the sleeping pills.
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A plot was strong; I am, however, genuinely sick of this back-and-forth between Maya-Miles-Zoe where by they got a plot every week that goes in a circle but winds up accomplishing absolutely nothing. It’s like the would have been solid Sean/Peter/Emma storyline at the beginning of Season 6 that was destroyed by the overkill of it being the A plot in the first three episodes of the season… Consider that, then consider that Maya/Miles/Zoe has been going on for the past 10 episodes without much time off from it. The best part of the episode besides Drew/Clare/Dallas was the Zig mention, which could lead to a very interesting plot down the road (Nothing will ever measure up to Turned Out, but I’m sure they would have fun trying!).
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First of all I had no idea that Degrassi was back on, I just randomly thought about it. Guess I’m slowly starting to lose interest. I started watching when the Lakehurst students came to Degrassi so I’m sure when Ali and them graduate I probably won’t continue watching because the new students don’t hold my attention.
Zig….wow talk about a major change! I didn’t even recognize him at all. I thought he was just some random student. It wasn’t until I read your review that I found out it was Zig.
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I rather liked this episode. For DeGrassi, this was about as drama free as it gets. This episode laid a lot of foundations for the drama yet to come. Kary summarized them very well in his review.
Here’s what I want to know:
1.) Was Eli’s character held over just for the summer block and the 4 MTV webisodes or will he appear throughout the year? * (if so, this will set a president for what happens to the cast at the end of 13)
2.) Will season 13 include the entire school year or will it spill over into the 14th series?
*(just wondering if the creators are going to be willing to part with all the seniors at the end of this series. Clare, Jenna, Ali, and the rest who comprise 75% of the cast)
3.) Who’s going to be featured in the throw-back arc coming in the spring? (saw in the HR that someone’s coming back for a few eps)
Anybody have any answers or suspicions?
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Those are really good questions. Kudos, they are very well thought out! I’ll throw out a couple half hearted theories/guesses for discussion’s sake.
I think its almost impossible to predict what goes on in the Degrassi writers’ minds, considering all of the curveballs and unexpected scenarios and plotlines they present every year. At least it helps keep viewers curious and on their toes, not boring them entirely.
I thought I’d read somewhere that this season would cover the entire school year, but then again, I may have misread what I saw. Melinda Shankar has been on the show since Season 8, I think at least, so I doubt she would be coming back. I imagine she must have other acting projects going on by now that would take up most of her time. Jessica Tyler has her music to keep her preoccupied probably, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the writers/producers kept one of the lesser noticed seniors back. (I mean, one that wasn’t already repeating their senior year at Degrassi this season.)
It would seem a bit weird for them to just have Munro Chambers quietly slip out of the show, given all the history of his character with Clare on the show and her still being around. Then again, he might be done, considering they did keep him around basically to enhance Aislinn Paul’s cancer storyline in the summer block and be a strictly background character.
I wasn’t aware of the throwback arc with a returning character. Where did you find that at? My guess would be either Chloe Rose reappearing, and coming back as Katie to help Maya out of a bind. Then again, possibly Shenae Grimes comes back as Darcy to come to Clare’s aid if they revisit a cancer plot with her again. I know the second one is probably impossible, but that was my out-of-the-box guess.
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I should have clarified that a bit. In a late June or July issue of the Hollywood Reporter they mentioned an appearance of an old cast member who would be in an arc late in the season. I googled it a minute ago and came up empty. THR is a weekly magazine that mostly deals with the business end of things. I have hard copies of them and am fairly sure I have that one laying around. I’ll look and see the particulars. It wasn’t a big expose or anything, just 1 or 2 sentences in an article dealing with another DeGrassi related issue.
I think if I recall correctly, Chloe Rose was one of 3 actors who were given contract extensions for this series. She’s had maybe 1 brief appearance so far, that may have had a one line. Shoot, she might not have even appeared so far. I’ve got to figure they didn’t resign her for just that and I’m betting we’ll see some more of her soon. Alicia Josipovic also re-signed along with Munro Chambers.. These three are in addition to the 3 who, in the story are actually repeating their senior year. So, it stands to reason that they have something planned for them. Alicia is pretty simple, Drew probably goes nuts again and she’s called in to save the day. Could be the same with Maya, she does something stupid and big sister comes home from Standford to help deal with it.
Thanks for the reply. One of the things I enjoy most about this show is trying to crystal ball what they have planned….
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Did anyone else feel disappointed that Zig didn’t directly mention Cam to Zoe at the dance? I think Zoe’s reaction would be interesting. Would she feel bad for Maya and start to show her more compassion? Would she try to remind Maya of Cam as she gets closer to dating Miles?
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