Degrassi Power Rankings: 1402

This week everyone moved up or down on the list except for Jack and Jenna, who are still sitting at the very bottom.  Miles clearly takes the top spot this week, and for now it’s looking like he and Zoë will be hovering around the top for a while.

I was super excited to see Dallas and Grace move up…they both moved up the highest number of spots from where they were last week.  Tiny and Eli dropped the most spots from their positions last week…they’ve yet to appear this season, so they’re now among the ranks of characters who have been M.I.A. so far.

1) Miles Hollingsworth (Last week: #2)
Part of me is waiting for this plot to plateau, but it just keeps getting more interesting.  What makes this plot work is that it’s not really over the top…the friction between Miles and his dad is at a level that easily hits close to home for viewers in a tumultuous relationship with their own parents.  I feel sorry for Miles; no one seems to really know or understand what he’s going through except for Maya, and Miles is intent on keeping her at a distance.  And instead of fighting back against his dad it seems as if Miles has conceded to the shallow relationship with his dad…if he can’t get the love he wants from his dad, he can at least get something valuable out of it (material things).

2) Zoë Rivas (#1)
Boy did Zoë overreact toward Zig in Wise Up.  But it just goes to show how much of an effect her sexual assault still has on her life, even after Luke and Neil received the punishment they deserve.  We haven’t received the “Happily Ever After” treatment with this arch; Zoë wants to move past it, but the dark cloud still finds a way to creep in and hover over her life.  Zig is just a casualty of Zoë’s frustration, which looks to get worse in upcoming episodes.

3) Drew Torres (#4)
He’s able to jump above Clare since Degrassi flipped from Clare’s POV in 1401 to Drew’s in 1402.  If it weren’t for the guidance from people like Adam, Audra, Bianca and Dallas over the years, Drew’s future would consist of him either being dead in a ditch or doing porn for a sketchy website for a living.  He’s a good guy who clearly needs someone around to keep his head on straight, and thankfully Dallas was there to talk some sense into him about the baby.  Good Drew wins the battle against Dumbass Drew for the moment.

4) Maya Matlin  (#7)
God, I really hope the Degrassi writers realize how fantastic of a character Maya Matlin can be without romantic boy drama.  Her streak of being great continues, as she’s the only one who notices how wrong things are with Miles.  The disturbing part of this is knowing how many people we interact with in our own lives, oblivious to how bad things might be for them emotionally.  That isn’t a knock on Tristan, Zoë, or Winston.  But Maya’s own personal issues (Cam’s suicide) have her on red alert for the warning signs for unstable behavior…I don’t blame her one bit for aggressively intervening.

5) Zig Novak (#8)
I haven’t hopped on the Zoëmund bandwagon yet, but I’ve enjoyed the flirting these two have done in season 14.  Zig had nothing but good intentions when telling Zoë she didn’t need to send him nudes, but she took things the wrong way.  Zoë’s got her own major path to travel this season, as does Zig.  However, I am a sucker for enjoying watching guys trying to go after an unattainable girl (JT/Manny, Parcy, Bhandurner, Bhandallas).  A slow burn with Zoëmund could win me over in the end.

6) Clare Edwards (#3)
We got the impression in Wise Up that Clare wasn’t interested in having Drew be a part of the baby’s life, but she caved upon Drew’s insistence that he be involved.  Does she see Drew as being too irresponsible to handle the task (sort of a Spike/Shane parallel from Degrassi Junior High), or does she think he’ll get in the way of other things (Columbia, Eli)?

7) Frankie Hollingsworth (#9)

8)Becky Baker (#5)

9) Mike Dallas (#14)
Finally, a reason to bring Dallas into the top 10! He’s a top-notch secondary character who executes his role perfectly.  He’s been in Drew’s situation and doesn’t want him to make the same mistakes, so he delivers some of the best advice Mr. Torres will receive in his life.

10) Tristan Milligan (#6)
At this point, Tristan (and Triles for that matter) is just a device for Miles’ overall arch.

11) Alli Bhandari (#12)

12) Grace Cardinal (#18)
Secondary characters are such underrated roles on Degrassi.  It allows characters to deliver a sharp persona without having their existence become exhausting with constant A-plot exposure.  Plus Degrassi loves to rely on any given character’s friends to be the voice of reason in a plot…Grace is one of the good ones.

13) Hunter Hollingsworth (#15)

14)  Winston Chu (#13)

15) Eli Goldsworthy (#10)

16) Tiny King (#11)

17) Connor DeLaurier (#16)

18) Imogen Moreno (#17)

19) Jack (–)

20) Jenna Middleton (–)

UNRANKED: Lola Pacini, Shay Powers, Arelene Takahashi, Jonah Haak.  Okay, so Lola and Shay both had lines in Wise Up.  But for the mean time they are literally playing support characters within a specific character device (the cheerleading squad).  Notice how the squad simply followed Zoë around this episode, and surrounded her as if she’s a queen that’s to be adored.  The only difference between Lola and Shay and the rest of the cheerleaders right now is those two actually get to speak.