Can’t We All Just Get Along?
In 1401, Miles talked to a reporter about his father. In this episode, we learn the reporter then published an article claiming Mr. Hollingsworth is a homophobe who hates his own son. Instead of yelling at Miles, Mr. Hollingsworth decides Miles should skip school and the two hit up the golf course for the day. Miles, who’s preparing to take his driving test, is even allowed to drive to the country club to practice. However, Miles realizes his father is using him as a photo-op when the reporter shows up at the club and takes photos of the Hollingsworth men hugging.
Miles storms out as Mr. Hollingsworth is being interviewed, and at home Miles accuses his dad of manipulating him. When Miles tries to leave, Mr. Hollingsworth grabs him and slams him up against a wall; afterward the two are stunned, and Mr. H says it was an accident. Miles goes to school to find Tristan, who now wants nothing to do with Miles; Tristan thinks Miles went public with their relationship to piss off his dad. Maya finds Miles upset, and while he doesn’t tell her what’s happening, Maya urges him to talk to someone about what’s bothering him.
To make up for what he did to Miles, Mr. Hollingsworth buys Miles a new car. Miles shows up to Degrassi and tells Tristan he’s been invited over for dinner. The two reconcile and Miles insists that he’s making things right with his dad, but Maya knows not everything is okay.
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Zig and Zoë’s Crossed Wires
Zoëmund had been doing a lot of heavy flirting lately. They’re not dating, but Zoë gets upset when she sees Zig is receiving nude pictures from girls on Oomfchat (the Degrassi version of Snapchat). Zig doesn’t understand why Zoë would be upset, until Grace points out that since her sexual assault, Zoë might not feel comfortable dating someone who’s looking to receive nude pics.
However, Zig soon receives a nude Oomfchat from Zoë. He tells her she doesn’t have to send him pics like that, but she gets upset because she feels like she’s being judged again; she’s tired of people thinking she should be treated or behave a certain way since she’s been sexually assaulted. Zig tries to earn Zoë’s forgiveness by humiliating himself…he paints the words “I like you” on his chest shirtless and apologizes to Zoë in front of everyone. However, Zoë refuses to accept his apology and tells him she’s done with boys.
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Baby Daddy Drew
Reality has finally set in for Drew, who realizes he’s going to be a dad. He breaks the news to Dallas, who urges Drew to talk to Clare about all of the options in regards to the baby. Drew tells Clare they’re too young to be parents, but she tells him it’s her choice and she’s keeping the baby. She then tells Drew that he doesn’t have to be involved in the baby’s life.
Drew is relieved to find out he’s not obligated to be responsible for the baby, and sets his sights on settling things with Becky after days of avoiding her. However, Dallas tells Drew that his decision to not be a part of his baby’s life is stupid. Dallas tells Drew about the anger the kid will feel, and what could happen if you suddenly wanted to be a part of the kid’s life. In Dallas’ case, he hints that he wanted nothing to do with his son Rocky at first, but by the time he did it was too late. This causes Drew to reconsider, and despite Clare not really wanting him involved, Drew says he will be a part of the baby’s life somehow.
Drew also tries to make things right with an injured Becky Baker. When Drew confirms that Clare is pregnant, Becky breaks up with him.
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Random Thoughts
*There’s several things to note about Miles’ storyline:
1) Miles is unaware of how similar he is to his father, and that comparison gets under his skin. This has to be one of the deepest looks at a parent/child relationship we’ve seen on this show. As disturbing as this is, it’s even more disturbing watching my fellow fans talk about how they relate to this plot.
2) I keep mentioning that Degrassi’s doing this thing where characters’ personal issues bleed out and directly affect how they interact with those around them. I’ll bring it up again when I talk about Zoëmund later, but once again the death of Cam lingers and is a driving force behind Maya’s behavior. She’s the only person that sees what’s going on with Miles. He isn’t okay, just like Cam wasn’t okay when he committed suicide. Maya sees the warning signs and you’d better believe she’s not going to let it go, regardless of what Miles says.
3) I feel genuinely bad for Miles. Mr. Hollingsworth didn’t take Miles golfing or buy him a car because he loves him. All this kid wants is to be loved by his father, but everything Mr. Hollingsworth does is motivated by his own political interests.
*Zig and Zoë were on two different pages in this episode. Grace helped convince Zig that Zoë isn’t necessarily okay after what happened with the sexual assault and trial. His conversation with Zoë about her not needing to send him pictures was him trying to be genuine and understanding because he likes her. However, Zoë completely misinterpreted his intentions. Because of Becky’s ridiculous behavior in Smells Like Teen Spirit, Zoë saw Zig as casting some kind of judgement against her for being sexually assaulted. There are times where Zoë seems fine, and others where she’s clearly not okay. I’ve been impressed with how Degrassi has made her character go through back-and-forth swings since the assault; it would’ve been easy for them to completely reset Zoë’s character in season 14 and pretend like nothing ever happened.
*Good job, Drew. It only took a 30-minute episode for the good side of Drew to overtake his chronic, moronic side.
*So…what exactly was the point of Drecky? I understand the mechanics of how/why they came together. But I don’t understand the decision to bring together a ship that clearly wouldn’t sit well with fans, only to have them break up all of two episodes after they got together.
*Oh, so that’s what happened with Dallas’ kid. Bless Ramona Barckert…of course she would find a way to insert some sort of reference and explain why the hell Dallas’ son Rocky randomly appeared in a handful of episodes, and hasn’t appeared since. I roll my eyes when people pull out their rose-colored glasses and act as if during the TNG years every storyline was wonderfully fleshed out and Degrassi never dropped plots that could’ve been continued. If that were truly the case, I would’ve gone into tonight’s episode expecting a Rocky mention as opposed to assuming he would never be mentioned again because he hasn’t been mentioned in about 20 episodes. This kind of random closure to a plot that was opened up such a long time ago and seemed dead RARELY happened in the TNG days. Given the fact Dallas is a secondary character, I almost guarantee back in the TNG days the concept of Dallas as a father would’ve been blackholed after the nuts allergy incident.
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Kary's Degrassi Blog 
Kary I miss your grades. If you are still writing recaps with your thoughts, why not stick in some grades? Thanks.
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Thank you, I understand where Miles is right now its scary and it hurts. I loved Maya in this EP she does care even though they are not together. Maya is a good person.
I don’t get Drecky at all. I still feel that we will see a bit more because we still have a kiss scene and a flirty one that were in the promos. I think something big changes in Becky’s personality later on. Maybe shes pretending shes ok with Drew, then she meets Jonah then things change and she leaves Drew. Or maybe she already knows Jonah and maybe dating both guys. Who knows..
I don’t know about Zoe, I think shes trying to hard to be strong and wont let her guard down. many women react differently after being sexual assaulted or raped. They act cold, many live in fear from men. Some can walk away from it with no problem and they’re many who pretend everything is ok until they snap.. etc
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I prefer Zoemund (LOLZ, I used to call them Zog) over Zaya. The good girl/bad boy thing is so played out. However, I want there to be a very slow build-up. Zoe needs to be single in the aftermath of her assault. The other sexual assault victims on this show were already in relationships when they were attacked and the writers really need to show a victim who isn’t ready for a relationship, especially since they failed so epically and threw Alli with Dallas before the ink on her annulment even dried.
Drecky is awful and unhealthy, but I still prefer it over the contrived mess that is Clew (not that Drecky isn’t contrived as well).
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The only reason you can’t stand Clew is because you hate Clare/Aislinn. Dreckyi is a slap in the face to Adam’s memory. Becky and Drew should be ashamed of themselves. Brightside is Becky broke her ankle. If that’s not karma, I don’t know what is.
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Lol not really, what if pocksuppet hates Drew?
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^^^ Nope. Read any post this person writes, and it’s always something about how awful Clare/Aislinn are.
Whatever though. There’s a couple characters/cast members I can’t stand, but I’m not going to write an essay on how much they suck.
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@Adamtorreshatesdrecky I do dislike Clare, but I hate Drew even more. I also hate Drecky. I have also never said anything negative about the actors, so I think you’re confusing me with somebody else.
The main reason I hate Clew is because I just can’t see why they would be interested in each other. I’m also disappointed in Clare for falling for Drew after the way he treated her best friend.
As for Clare, my main problem with her is that she’s a Mary Sue who is adored by the writers. I hated Emma and Mia for the same reason.
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Poor Miles. His brother and sister say it’s partially his fault that he and his dad fight so often. It’s gotta be some kind of victim blaming. Yes Miles fights but like you pointed out in your recap he just wants to be loved not used for political gain.
I see this going into a abuse/honeymoon storyline with Miles and his dad. He’ll get hit or pushed then his dad with buy him things to make up for it. At least, That’s what I’m thinking will happen. Miles seems to think by allow this to happen he’s making things better. I don’t see him telling anyone because his siblings just told him it’s his fault.
Miles’ actor did a good job in this episode. It’s rare for me to think the actors on this show are good lol.
I’m glad they mentioned Rocky in this episode. I figured they would. I think Drew would be a great dad- maybe not strict and responsible all of the time but I could see him as a fun, loving parent. He means well and that’s what’s important.
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Kary please explain because I don’t understand. Are you saying Dallas chose not to be involved with his kid? If he feels so strongly about drew being a good father, than why is he still an absent dad? I just thought he was talking when rocky was born and him realizing that he needed to step up after and I just assumed the reason we haven’t seen rocky was because degrassi drops plots like hot potatoes and because sadly Dallas a a secondary character. That maybe he still sees rocky once a month or something.
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I was under the assumption that Dallas initially didn’t want to be involved in Rocky’s life, tried to be (what we saw in season 12/13), but it didn’t work out…which is why we haven’t seen or heard mention of Rocky in a while.
But now that you mention it, it very well could be what you thought since Dallas is stuck as a secondary character. Degrassi dropping plots has existed since the beginning of time and will always exist. Either way, it was still surprising that there was any mention of Dallas being a father at all this late in the game.
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It could be both. They could have dropped it to show that it didn’t work out. So it could have been done deliberately. That’s not to say he still doesn’t see him because he probably does but not as much as he would like to. You can still be an absent father and see your child/children occasionally. He could feel strongly about Drew being a good father because he doesn’t want to see his best friend make the same mistake like he did. That’s how I saw it anyway.
Dallas’s words really hit home to me because I can relate to it having been a child in that situation.
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It feels like another victim of S13 having that clusterfuck of nonsense during the A block. The reorganization of the plots dropped a lot of secondary character centered plots. Dallas as a father probably would have shown up (permitting the kid playing Rocky was available).
This did feel better than the S8 dropping of Mia the Teenage Mom.
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Maybe Rocky’s mom doesn’t want him around?
I am so disappointed in the writers. Dallas’ journey as a teen dad could have been an amazing story arc.
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Also I’m pretty sure freckles reunites. In one promo there is a shot of them kissing while she’s wearing that khaki coat and you can see a crutch.
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I know majority of the ship names for Degrassi – but what the hell is Freckles??????????????????????????
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I’m assuming it’s Drecky with an autocorrect,
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Thank GOD Drecky broke up. Like really, what was the point of them? Them being a couple is ridiculous and makes no sense. Especially before Adam died pretty recently and Drew spent all of season 13 being into Clare. Then all of a sudden he’s in love with Becky? That doesnt make sense. There was no reason those two needed to be a couple at all.
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It would have been so easy for the writers to turn Miles’s dad into a villain the way they did with Craig’s dad, but that moment when Mr. Hollingsworth pulled himself off of Miles during their physical altercation, horror in his eyes, unable to believe what he had just done, really sold me on this plot. Despite his unrelenting dickishness, Mr. H truly does love his son. I wish that the show would tackle parent/child relationships more often, rather than having parental characters who are all bland and interchangeable (with the exception of a select few). I mean jeez, parent/child relationships are such a huge part of being a teenager, and a strong bond with a parent–or lack thereof–can really provide insight into why a child does what he or she does.
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I don’t think that Mr. Hollingsworth becomes horrified because he loves his son, but because he is so absorbed in his mission to appear to be a morally righteous candidate that he becomes scared when he does something that is socially unacceptable. We see how he only makes up with his son because he wants to appear to be less of a homophobe and accepting of LGBT, because that’s socially acceptable these days. As was said in the conversation before the media came, Miles and Mr. Hollingsworth don’t know each other very well, but they understand their relationship towards each other. (For example, Mr. Hollingsworth sees Miles as a rebellious son who should take after his ideals (to become a well-behaved, traditional male leader) but doesn’t even know much about Miles’s interests). So Mr. Hollingsworth is probably shocked because he commits a social transgression by pushing his son to the wall (he’s understanding this on an intellectual level rather than an emotional one) instead of because he’s hurting someone he loves (he sees people as tools, just look at the way he treats his wife, the media, and Miles). (sorry the post is so rushed).
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Yeah Mr. H is horrified after slamming Miles up against the wall because he knows if Miles were to go tell the press about it, it would destroy his campaign. And his response afterward (getting Miles a car) is the same manipulative nonsense he pulled when he took Miles golfing. Mr. H is smart and has caught on…nothing he did in this episode is because he loves Miles, it’s because he wants to keep Miles “under control.”
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My impression of the way Miles his father reacted after his father pushed him? It’s happened before. I watched that scene a few times, and the way that both react didn’t seem like the shock of a first-time event. The way Miles flinches when his father’s hand comes near him afterwords, and the way he quietly and calmly asks, “now can I go?” before just walking off both suggest that he knows his father is capable of worse–he grimaces from the pain in his back but brushes it off like a kid who’s experienced worse–and that his father has nothing to say to him. If his father was really, actually shocked at his action, I think he would have said something more. There’s something about the whole event that remains a secret between them–something in the way that they look at each other.
The way he is with Maya afterward also reads more to me like someone having trouble dealing with an ongoing situation more than a singular shocking event. I’m not sure that the car was to prevent him from going to the press so much as it was to prevent him from going to his mother, who likely knows about the past abuse. Remember, Miles was looking for his mother when his dad intercepted with the car; the action of the scene made it believable that he wanted her to take him to his driving test, but he also tells the twins–before they say he’s just like his father–that he needs to talk to her. I think the twins telling him that it’s all his fault, and that he’s just like his father might contribute to his loosing his nerve. I also don’t think that the twins know about the abuse; perhaps this is the “family secret” alluded to in the video promo.
Anyway, I think that the actors did an amazing job with these scenes. I also appreciate your bringing up this situation and not simply getting mired in which ship Miles will sail on this season. I’m a Triles fan, but I suspect that the bigger plot here is the situation with his family. I think it’s great that the writers have opted to make the first potentially male bi character a fully-formed subject, and not just an opportunity for more complex love triangles. That is to say, it’s not like his problems disappear while he’s trying to sort out his feelings, you know?
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I honestly do not understand how some people can dislike Maya. This episode proved once again how caring she is, as Miles still isn’t very fond of her post-breakup yet she still is looking out for him.
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Degrassi is being ‘subtle’ (for a given definition of subtle) with Maya’s motives, since she doesn’t shout ‘this is for Cam’ every time she meddles. This means some people are reading the wrong thoughts into her actions and expressions. Every time she meddles she’s afraid the person she’s after will die, even when that’s not a reasonable belief. When she sighs and acts uncomfortable with PDA from her friends it’s loneliness at the fact that she doesn’t have anyone right now.
But people interpret this as vindictive and hate of her friends not being focused on her, because her usual leap is first to things about her. They view her groaning and eyerolling at Zig/Tori and Zig/Zoe as wanting Zig, when mostly she wants to be with someone. Her meddling with Tristan, Miles, and Zig is trying to save them even when she can’t actually help.
Also some people just want to hate the current authorroom favorite. Which is definitely Maya from the Grade 10s.
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The last reason on being the writer’s favorite of the Grade 10s bothers me, because while you can see it in the show, Maya doesn’t get nearly as much focus as Emma and Clare had gotten in the same amount of time on the show. The seniors are still the front runners, so hearing people complain about Maya for that reason is kind of ridiculous.
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Emma always got the lion’s share of time, until the after grad seasons where she really should have just been gone and nobody would care.
Clare wasn’t really the forefront until S10, when the series doubled screentime, Clare (and Alli, and K.C. to an extent) was on the rise while Holly J and co were waning.
Maya has been pretty heavily focused for the Niner/Tenner plots of S12-S13 (S11 she was very minor). Mostly due to the Cam plot arc having to take up S12, S13 Maya went to the background a bit, but by then the damage was done.
And the repeated Maya love triangles aspects didn’t help. Maya is definitely top dog in the younger class, but she’s not overshadowing the seniors.
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I admit that I seem to be conditioned to hate the Emma types, but so far, Maya is much more tolerable than Emma or Clare. Hopefully, the writers will keep this up and not make her into an unlikeable Mary Sue or screen hog.
Here’s a pattern I noticed:
Fans generally agree that Emma became unlikeable in Season 4.
Fans tend to agree that Clare started going downhill in Season 11, which was her fourth season as a regular.
This is Maya’s fourth season. Maybe she’ll break the chain.
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The real difference between Emma and Clare was that S4 Emma was never called on her crap, while there was a decisive effort to call Clare on her S11 crap (StuffClareSays). Maya is about to be called on her crap too, and unlike the previous two characters the establishing moment of suck for Maya’s life is a bit more logical in her motives.
Emma: Witnessed school shooting, suddenly sexually promiscuous.
Clare: Parents split up, first boyfriend went off the rails, second boyfriend became stepbrother, suddenly cannot give a single care for her friends.
Maya: Boyfriend kills himself, suddenly terrified everyone she knows and loves will die.
Maya has also never been painted as the righteous pure pureness of the show, not to the same degree anyway.
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Well, Emma actually lost fans by the dozens even before the shooting in “King of Pain” and her behavior in “Mercy Street” didn’t help her regain them.
I am getting more optimistic that Maya can break the Emma/Clare Mary Sue curse. She’s making good progress so far. I also choose to believe that it’s a good omen that she hasn’t ditched her glasses yet.
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Kary-What do you think the most forgotten plot was in TNG seasons?
To me it has to be the storyline in “Talking In Your Sleep” with Paige and Griffin where they never even followed up to show if Paige had HIV.
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Just to throw my two cents in (I know you weren’t asking me), I was upset they never mentioned Manny’s abortion after Accidents Will Happen. Paige was pretty much at the end of her run in Talking In Your Sleep. I’m not saying it wasn’t important but in comparison to Manny’s abortion, Manny was still on the show for 5 seasons after that happened while Paige only had a few episodes left.
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I do remember JT and Manny fighting about Manny talking to Craig and she mentioned that Craig was just asking how is she doing (post-abortion). I figured that the only follow up. It would be nice to see some remorse when seeing Mia’s daughter, Emma’s pregnancy scare, or Liberty pregnant. But never happened.
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@Rosemary, well… maybe we didn’t see any remorse because Manny didn’t regret her decision? It happens more often than you think. That doesn’t make her a bad person. I don’t want to get into an abortion debate, so I’m going to say no more on the matter.
I do agree that Manny should have been around during Liberty’s pregnancy. They’re close friends and Liberty really had nobody to confide in during that storyline.
Emma also (bitchily) brought up Manny’s pregnancy in “Secret” and it was slightly alluded to when Emma was taking her pregnancy test.
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Am I the only one who’s baffled about the fact that Becky was essentially told by Zoë that Drew impregnated Clare, only for Becky to totally ignore the issue and not even discuss it with Drew? Like surely if you hear a rumour and you dismiss it as being untrue, you’d at least mention it to your boyfriend/girlfriend…
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She did mention it. He said “who told you?” And she said “so it’s true” and he tried convincing her that he’d stay out of the baby’s life. But that’s not good enough for her so they broke up.
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I do remember JT and Manny fighting about Manny talking to Craig and she mentioned that Craig was just asking how is she doing (post-abortion). I figured that the only follow up. It would be nice to see some remorse when seeing Mia’s daughter, Emma’s pregnancy scare, or Liberty pregnant. But never happened.
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Posting this again, because it will make replying easier:
Maybe we didn’t see any remorse because Manny didn’t regret her decision? It happens more often than you think. That doesn’t make her a bad person. I don’t want to get into an abortion debate, so I’m going to say no more on the matter.
I do agree that Manny should have been around during Liberty’s pregnancy. They’re close friends and Liberty really had nobody to confide in during that storyline.
Emma also (bitchily) brought up Manny’s pregnancy in “Secret” and it was slightly alluded to when Emma was taking her pregnancy test.
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Am I the only one who likes Clew? I hope they have another fling this season lol I thought their build-up was slow and well done in season 13. But they kinda broke it off without any closure and stick Drew and Becky together the last 2 episodes because… they both had problems with their brothers?
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I love Clew too, I hope the sparks come back. I feel the at When Eli comes back the old felings return but Eli will be so pissed after he finds out about her carrying Drew’s baby Eli pushes her away.. Maybe (Fingers Crossed) that Clew rebond again. You can’t just drop feelings like that. Drecky is one thing, I think Drecky try again but that fizzles quickly. Then later we may have the Jackogen Drama. So knowing Eli he will be there for Immy since Immy is the only real friend Eli has right now. This is why I am getting that S11 Deja Vu feels. idk.
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After the lie detector incident, I completely understand why Drew would lose interest in Clare. That was over the top and as much as I dislike Drew, I can see why he wouldn’t want to deal with such a drama queen.
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I honestly kind of think that claire’s gonna find out that drew isnt the father and that eli is and thats why it looks like drew and becky might get back together. Like i’m seriously waiting for something like this to happen. Because claire doesnt even know exactly how far along she is.
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Even if Drew is the father, that doesn’t mean that he and Becky can’t still be together (although that relationship would be unhealthy, so I am not a fan). As long as he supports Clare, they don’t have to be romantically involved.
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