MAYA PLOT RECAP: After Zig spends the night ignoring text messages from the gang, Maya’s plan is for him to skip school so he won’t run into Tiny. However, Tiny arrives at the Matlins’ home and tells Zig the gang members are pissed. While Maya is running Degrassi Panorama, Zig arrives and tells her he’s leaving. He heads to the bus depot, but before he can leave he’s stopped by Maya, Miles and Miles’ dad. Mr. Hollingsworth tells Zig he knows people who specialize in gang intervention, and offers to introduce them Zig. Though worried at first Zig agrees, but only if Tiny can be involved too.
In You Are Not Alone, we saw Maya trying to solve Zig’s problems on her own. We know she’s constantly concerned about him, and that’s reiterated here in Enjoy The Silence. This plot is primarily from Maya’s perspective, and while I wished it would’ve shifted more toward Zig’s point of view in this episode, his limited role became even more vital. We see he’s scared because he doesn’t know how to get out of the gang’s grasp; he knows hiding from them won’t work. He also believes telling Maya’s mom will only get him kicked out.
“You can’t help him if he won’t help himself,” Alli randomly tells Maya. But how applicable is that statement in this specific situation, when Zig’s back is against the wall and the only option he feels he has is to run? He can’t reach out for help, because he doesn’t know where to get the kind that he feels won’t endanger his life or those around him. Besides, when he’s offered help from Mr. Hollingsworth, Zig accepts it with virtually no resistance.
The show keeps making it blatantly clear that Maya has no romantic interest in Zig, so if viewers ignore the perceived “Zaya” teasing they’ll see this has strictly been a friendship plot. Isn’t this something to be celebrated, friendship between a guy and girl on Degrassi superseding any potential romantic drama between them?
I would’ve like to have seen a conversation between Maya’s mom and Zig. There’s a perception at Degrassi that the rubber room kids are just troublemakers; Maya sees through that. Zig was afraid Mrs. Matlin would kick him out because he was involved with a gang, yet in the end she was completely on board on doing whatever was needed to help him. Often times kids are afraid to go to adults with their problems because they’re afraid of the reaction, so it would’ve been a nice touch to have her reassure Zig in the end that she doesn’t view him as some punk kid whose lifestyle poses a threat to Maya’s wellbeing.
But again, this plot was more from Maya’s perspective. It’s good to see that she realized she couldn’t help Zig alone, so she found someone who could. And not only did Zig accept the help for himself, he agreed to get help for Tiny as well. Degrassi once posed this question:
MEDDLING: When should you intervene in a friend’s life?
Simple, when your friend needs your help. Going back to Alli’s comment, my response is sometimes people can’t help themselves. If Maya hadn’t kept prodding, Zig would still feel trapped in the gang life. Zig has said before that Tiny is a good guy, and once Zig was offered a potential way out he naturally extended the helping hand to Tiny. In You Are Not Alone we were shown how not to help someone. In Enjoy The Silence, we see how beneficial a helping hand can be when offered the right way.
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WINSTON PLOT RECAP: Miles’ is on the warpath after finding out an older guy kissed Frankie. To keep his cover from being blown, Winston agrees to help him and points the finger at Damon. Miles eventually discovers it was Winston, but isn’t upset. He’s fine with the two having kissed, as long as they don’t actually date.
There’s not much to see here. The previous episode was a setup for Enjoy The Silence. This episode set up Winston and Frankie actually having a secret relationship in the near future. The only difference is this episode’s setup was less interesting than You Are Not Alone’s. The shtick of Winston trying to throw Miles off the trail by blaming Damon falls flat. Winston isn’t that strong of a character to begin with in terms of comedy relief. There many other characters who, if in his place, could’ve made this scenario humorous.
I did enjoy Winston and Miles’ final conversation though. Miles wasn’t mad about the kiss, revealing that Frankie had a crush on Winston when she was 8 years old. While he finds the situation hilarious, he scoffs at the idea that Winston and Frankie might actually date. “It’s not like you’re gonna date her, she’s in grade 9,” Miles says. Despite this portion of the plot being forgettable, I’m still excited for the potential drama that can come from this storyline.
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CLARE PLOT RECAP: Clare is still angry at Drew, and decides to get revenge. She hooks him up to her Degrassi Panorama exhibit, a lie detector, and tries to embarrass him in front of the crowd of spectators. She tells Alli that she feels bad because Drew dumped her after they slept together. But then she decides she needs to not worry about boys as much, and continues to become involved in her new axe-throwing hobby.
“And then he just ditched me. Now he gets to walk around like nothing happened while I feel terrible and gross and rejected.”
That one line from Clare strikes a nerve and defines this entire plot for me. Let me start out by saying Clare took it too far with the lie detector test. Confronting someone publicly about your private matter for revenge is childish. However, I simply like what this plot addresses in terms of Clare’s feelings and how they should and shouldn’t be handled.
Excluding her public outburst, I fully stand behind the idea that Clare is justified in being upset with what happened with Drew. There is no “blame” here because not every situation is black and white, with someone clearly labeled as the “good guy” while the other person is the “bad guy.” Drew was justified in his reasoning for cutting things short with Clare. Things had not been fully resolved between her and Eli like Drew had assumed, so what he did was in his own best interest and rightfully so.
When it comes to Clare, it’s not difficult to understand why she’s mad at Drew. She liked a guy, he reciprocated feelings, they slept together and then he rejected her immediately afterward. In what alternate universe would someone not feel used after that, unless sex is the only thing they wanted (we know Clare wanted to date Drew)? There’s simply no way I could do what Drew did, and then expect the girl to NOT be angry and bitter. My reasoning for rejecting her wouldn’t matter, regardless of how valid it is; it’s the timing of said rejection that’s suspicious, period.
Removing the fact that it involves Clare and relationship drama, the general idea speaks to a much larger audience. In You Are Not Alone, Clare was alright in terms of dealing with her feelings. She was upset, but she found ways to move on by getting involved in clubs. In this episode she suddenly bumps into Drew, becomes consumed by her anger and decides she needs to teach him a lesson. You’re pissed off? That’s okay. Seeing someone makes you daydream of ways to wipe the smug look off their face? That’s cool. But you take that anger and find ways to channel it through something productive. Even in this TV show’s fandom, you see fans viciously attacking other fans they feel have wronged them, and that’s not the way you should handle things.
This is such an important lesson in today’s society, where people feel as if they have to aggressively retaliate any time they’ve been slighted.
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Kary's Degrassi Blog 
I could not stomach Clare at all in this EP. I wanted to throw up. The sickest part is I think she more mad at what Eli did and Drew was the salt to her wounds after he told her he didn’t want to be her rebound.. ( As Eli said, She hears things but does not listen) Clare brought this on herself and she is known to lash at the wrong people when bad things happen. Also She did that to Eli at the Dot after she broke up with him, She said bad things to Jenna at the dinner table when she broke up with Jake. I understand why shes angry and I can’t defend her. Clare doesn’t know how to deal with rejection at all and this is what gets her into trouble. What if Clare goes to NY to try to get Eli back but Eli ends up being with Lenore. Is Clare going to go crazy again and start something with Drew?? That means Clare has detachment issues and needs therapy. Sorry for the Rant but she really angered me.
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How did Clare bring this on herself ? She feel for Drew, she slept with him and when he got what he wanted ended things. As for Clare yelling at Jenna at the dinner table. Put yourself in her shoes. Jenna once again goes for Clare’s sloppy seconds. Is she to smile and say how pretty she looks ? Jenna is has been a pain in Clare’s ass since she came to town on her cow.
Clare is going to NY for SCHOOL !!!! And things between Lenwhore and Eli are over with. She’s only in the webisodes.
Clare could cure cancer and people like you would find things to bitch about.
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Wow, you are mean and rude, this is Abby’s opinion. Clare did bring this on to herself she became dependent on guys. Clare never dealt with rejection well with guys. She was the one who wanted to have sex with Drew. She had no idea what the out come will be. I love Clare but she doesn’t need a guy to make her happy. Clare needs to be free and get her independence back. I hope she doesn’t go to a NY University I hope she gets into Brown University for Journalism. I think the reason she picked Columbia is for Eli. I feel like fans are watching a different show.
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Oh, I for got to add Lenore is not a whore. Eli kissed her and she didn’t try anything after Eclare got back together.. You need to relax.
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I agree completely with your final thoughts on the Winston/Miles/Frankie situation. I’m really interested to see where it goes.
I felt that the last scene between Miles and Winston was a little tense, and hinted at a friendship in which the two parties involved don’t necessarily view each other as equals. Miles is totally dismissive of his friend. He laughs at the hook-up between Winston and Frankie, so totally focused on himself that he doesn’t even notice that Winston’s developing sincere feelings for his little sister. He was ready to pound the guy who made out with her, but as soon as he found out it was Winston, he thought nothing of it. As if Winston poses no threat. I don’t know if we’ve seen that dynamic between two guys on the show before, sort of a leader-sidekick thing. I hope that this allows the writers to have Winston stand up to Miles and stop playing second fiddle.
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That’s interesting, I didn’t think about it like that but you’re right. I’m glad we’re seeing more of their friendship. I’m excited to see the bumps in the road and I hope Chewy stands up for himself too.
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I can’t help but feel people are so tired of Clare Edwards. How can you like a character who constantly feels victimized by every last thing. She needs to realize if her relationships with boys are consistently failing then maybe they’re not the problem, she is. The sad part is Drew wanted to talk. He wanted to expain himself and resolve the situation and the promo suggests he still wants to do that. However Clare is on warpath for the sake of being on warpath. She’s not factoring his feelings while he’s trying to handle hers. Who’s being selfish now Clare?
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This situation is weird for me. Yes, Clare has a tendency to go overboard and feel victimized, but as someone who’s been in this specific situation before, how she’s feeling right now hits a little to close to home. Though I didn’t talk trash about or try to get revenge on the girl, I was most certainly angry and bitter about the situation, and felt disgusting and used afterward.
The difference between the two is that I wanted answers, but of course I wasn’t going to get any out of her at the time. Drew tried multiple times to talk to Clare, but she shut him down. We know she wanted answers, but she became more hellbent on being vindictive as opposed to actually solving anything. Thankfully Drew seems intent on explaining himself, even though he has his own personal agenda: he wants to be known as a good guy, continuing this image re-brand he’s been trying to accomplish since running for student body president.
Several months down the road after I’d gotten over it the girl apologized, and explained to me why she did what she did. It all became water under the bridge, but I felt even better knowing the actual motivation behind the actions and the girl was truly sorry. Hopefully Clare realizes she can actual get closure and move on with her life by actually allowing Drew to talk instead of freezing him out.
Degrassi fans are most definitely tired of Clare; actually, they hate her. I don’t condone the actions she took in this episode (shutting Drew out and opting to humiliate him instead), but I get how she’s feeling. The problem is Clare’s history of behavior has left this fandom feeling jaded. So even if she’s completely validated in feeling a certain way, it’s kind of like the boy who cried wolf…people just see a girl who’s overreacting and blowing everything out of proportion like she always has.
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I honestly think the reason Maya is always up on her friends business and try’s to solve there problems because of Cam. I think she still thinks about him from time to time because of the way she acts with Miles and Zig, she doesn’t want to miss any signs or problems like she did with Cam.
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Kary! I was wondering how you feel about the possibility that the gang sets the school on fire? I remember seeing that on the first page of the 14th season script it said something about paying for the repairs!
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Yeah if the gang were going to be involved in setting fire to the school we probably would’ve seen at least some of their faces by now. It’d be weird to have an invisible antagonist do something like that to the school.
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That’s true ! Just a thought :)
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I’m pretty sure the school is damaged by a tornado because in the promo it shows the wind blowing trees around and Simpson saying “no ones going anywhere”
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Why do these girls throw themselves at Drew and then can’t accept that he just doesn’t want to stay with them for the long haul?
Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2014 15:46:40 +0000 To: lornefreeman@hotmail.com
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Looks. That’s the only reason. He’s proven over and over again that he’s not a good guy, but since he’s good-looking, that all becomes water under the bridge, sadly. This also extends to a lot of the fans too. I get the feeling that if, say, Wesley treated girls like this, the fans would be calling for his head.
The fact that he’s basically the male equivalent of Emma is also a factor (meaning that he’s a creator’s pet and is more easily forgiven for bad behavior than other characters).
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Yes, Drew is attractive however he’s a good person that makes mistakes like the rest of us. True, there are fans that support characters because of their attractive looks (ie; Eli, Drew, KC, etc) but there are more fans that support characters based on their core. There are incidents where Drew was a jerk or just plain awful, but there are more incidents of him being a good brother, friend, or boyfriend to those around him. He had moments of justifiably anger, confusion, and bitterness. Obviously, not every fan (Drew fans included) are going to excuse his bad behaviors and worship him like he’s perfect but at the same time we’re not going to claim he’s a bad person either. It doesn’t make sense to ignore all the positives of a character, just to focus or magnify their negatives or mistakes. If you wish to talk about “creator pet” wouldn’t that title more fit with Eli, still on the show just for romance drama, dragging us all through more love triangle mess, and fueling the whole eclare ship Stephen Stohn posts about at times. Even so, I don’t think there is a pet, just some actors or actresses are stronger and are chosen for more plots even though it’s a bit unfair to the remaining cast.
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the school is damaged by a storm hint *thunderstruck
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The solution to zigs problem was ridiculous. He was worried about the gang possibly shooting him, or Maya, or messing with her house, so by talking to a counselor the gang is going to just lose interest in zig and tiny? It was a big deal him skipping out on just one day of their chores, but he’s gonna figure out ways to fade away, I don’t think so. He had the right idea at first – leave town.
They had done a good job of making this gang seem like a very bad group and one u don’t want to fuck with, and then the solution from miles dad was like jarringly unrealistic.
And how long til Clare is off this show. The number one problem with her, among others, is that she’s been on too long. Other people are on much shorter and u wanna see more of them, but it seems like Clare has been on for ten years! I hope they introduce some new people soon and get rid of Clare and Allie.
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Why would Drew even WANT to be with Clare after all of this? She isn’t worth it.
That being said, Drew deserves no sympathy. This was a well-deserved dose of karma for the Zoe thing.
I think another reason that fans (and by fans I mean me, LOL) hate Clare is that she’s the creator’s pet. She can do no wrong in their eyes. No matter how many terrible things she does, the writers will ALWAYS try to justify her actions and she’ll be forgiven in no time. Emma was the same way and Maya will obviously be going down that path too. Drew is the male version.
Speaking of creator’s pets, why isn’t this story from ZIG’S POV? I really shouldn’t be surprised, since they’ve done storylines from the wrong POV before (the JT/Liberty pregnancy was all about JT even though it really should have been mostly Liberty’s arc and the Drew/Bianca gang stuff revolved around Drew when it should have been about Bianca), but that doesn’t make it any less annoying.
Zig/Maya WILL happen, even if it appears that she has no romantic feelings at the moment. They’ve been setting them up as the show’s next great romance since they were introduced. No offense to Cam fans, but I always saw him as a stepping stone to Maya’s eventual hook-up with Zig, not as the great love of her life.
Since Frankie is obviously going to be the new non-Emma-type it girl, maybe this will save Chewy from falling into the black hole. It’s just nice that both of the show’s nerdy guys have girls at the moment (even if Connor no longer looks the part).
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Has anyone else noticed how Claire’s character always seems to be worse when she isn’t dating Eli. I hope that’s not the case because the would be really offensive and lazy on the part of the writers.
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Is there a season 14 promo already? Someone mentioned something about wind, a tornado and Simpson saying nobody move. Where is this found lol?
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The show has been very clear that Maya has no interest in Zig and they will not be together. And I like Miles, I do. I think the character is very well acted and I think there’s a lot of dynamic to him. However, I have always wanted Zig and Maya to get together. He has been there all along with Maya. He has liked her through her lowest points; Miles has really only experienced her highs. Additionally, I think it’s odd that the show is so insistent that Maya feels nothing for Zig when she used to like him back when they first were brought on the show. You may stop crushing on someone and not care enough to pursue someone but it’s unlikely that she would suddenly not be the least bit attracted to him when she used to care for him. It strikes me as a bit unnatural. I think she and Zig both seem willing to sacrifice a lot more for the other than with her and Miles. Nevertheless, she and Miles had a pleasant relationship there for a while and I won’t mind if it returns. (Side note: I enjoyed their dynamic more when they were flirt fighting while he was with Zoe than I did when everything was perfect. I found it more interesting.)
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