We start off in the courthouse following Peter’s hearing. Emma is waiting nervously outside, until the cocky Peter returns triumphantly. He tells Emma how he pretty much got off free, with exception of a loss of license, house arrest, and community service. Emma, Peter, and Ms. H. are talking and of course Sean comes up in conversation. They all agree that they won’t be seeing Sean for some time and all are pretty much thrilled about it.
Back in Degrassi, all the kids are sitting in Mr. Simpson’s class watching a televised public apology from Peter to the school community for his actions. The whole thing seems terribly insincere and Snake makes a crack about how celebrities and athletes often use public apologies to defend their characters. One must assume that it is only necessary that the principal’s son be held to the same social standards as famous people right?
In the hallway, Emma and Manny are chatting when Peter strolls up and starts hanging all over Emma. Manny exits claiming she doesn’t want to interrupt “visiting hours”. Emma is en route to a dance committee meeting, which is when Peter decides to drop the bomb that he isn’t allow to go to the dance in lieu of his recent house arrest. In the dance committee meeting, Liberty is droning on about how they should hire a mariachi band. Emma reminds them they don’t have a theme yet and suggests they have a masquerade ball. The idea is a hit and Emma is smugly proud of herself for crafting an incognito method for getting Peter to the dance.
In class, Emma sees Jay walk in talking to Mr. Simpson. Angry at the thought of Jay being back at Degrassi Emma runs into the hallway to confront Jay. Jay and Emma instantly start arguing over the well being of Sean or lack there of really. Jay tells Emma that Sean got “jumped” in jail and had to go to the infirmary. He suggests Emma go to his court hearing as Sean really needs a friend right now. Clearly Jay is all too busy to be his friend.
Back to the university cast. Ellie struts into the newspaper office and nonchalantly picks up the paper- only to find her article on the tuition rally wasn’t published. Pissed off she seeks out Jesse. Jesse claims her piece just wasn’t that good and brushes it off as “sorry sweetie, that’s the journalism biz”. She begs for another shot. He coyly suggests they go talk about it over a beer. Secretly enthralled by the idea she of course takes him up on the offer.
Raining on a dark street we see Peter hanging out in his BMW and Emma runs up toward the car. Turns out Ms. H. is in a P.T.A meeting and he was able to snag the car for a little while for some quickie make out action with Emma. They kiss, chit chat, etc. and Peter makes some crack about hating the smell of Emma’s honey vanilla shampoo. It’s apparent Emma is losing interest and she suggests that he go home before he gets in trouble.
Post-beer chat Ellie and Jesse are walking up to Ellie’s door ranting about the band they both just saw. They stand there awkwardly- to kiss or not to kiss. Finally, Jesse goes in for it, Ellie turns her cheek and it’s officially more awkward.
Obviously Emma decided to go to the court hearing. We see Sean all sorts of beaten up. Looks like he took a brick to the face. He hugs Emma and compliments her honey vanilla shampoo and says he’s missed it- how ironic. After the hearing Sean is enraged, turns out his public defender didn’t show. Looks like he’s going to be stuck in jail till he can come up with the money for a real lawyer. Naturally good girl Emma offers to help him out in anyway she can.
Back in school, Snake asks Emma why she wasn’t in homeroom. She explains that Sean needs real help and even tries to convince Snake to move so that they can rent out the basement to raise money for Sean’s lawyer. Thrilled with the idea of moving in with a three year old Snake tells Emma to come up with better fund raiser ideas.
Meanwhile, at the CORE (the university paper) Ellie is amped to see that she gets to cover the Toronto rock concert article. One of her co-workers slyly says how she loves the new year because it means a new frosh for Jesse. She is quickly shut down by random newspaper guy #2 who claims she should talk being the reigning Ms. 2005. Ellie is officially bummed and that rock concert just doesn’t seem so cool anymore.
At Degrassi, Emma opens up her locker to find a rather fancy feathered mask for the masquerade ball. Peter tells her it’s a gift. He then notices the roll of raffle tickets she’s carrying and she makes up some silly excuse for having them, as mentioning Sean is just taboo.
Looks like a party! Nope, Ellie is in the kitchen of her apartment cooking up a storm. Dylan and Marco walk in confused and hungry. She claims she only cooks like that when she’s stressed. They agree she should be stressed more often. Marco begins probing at the source of Ellie’s stress. She tells him all about her newspaper boy drama. Marco breaks it down as so- you can either be the new Core tramp or keep your self-respect. Just remember that the devil is definitely not ugly. In fact, he’s pretty cute. Putting words into practice- at the Core Ellie sees Jesse approaching her. She immediately suggests taking some stupid piece on intramural water polo, switching it for her rock concert assignment. Take that cute news boy. This girl won’t take your hand outs for putouts.
It’s the night of the big dance at Degrassi and all the kids are in costume. Emma is standing outside the door selling random raffle tickets. Luckily, nobody knows they are actually benefiting Sean’s defense fund. Manny seeks out Emma and goes about her usual rant about how Sean is no good and Emma should just give it up. Emma tells her that there will always be a place in her heart for Sean. Random change of subject- Manny compliments Emma’s feathered Big Bird mask. Emma goes on to tell her how it surprised her and it was in her locker from Peter. Wait! Oh shit, how did Peter know the combo? Here comes the turning point…
Emma goes to track down Peter. She demands he open her locker. When he says he doesn’t know the combo, he admits he had it written down from earlier in the day. He then goes onto admit everything everyone already knew. He planted the pot in Sean’s locker and he did it to keep Emma and him together. Emma tells him to get lost and she never wants to see him again. Immediately following Emma’s complete telling off, Ms. H. comes out from the corner and spots Peter sans his gorilla mask. A violation of house arrest. Yes, now he’s now dumped and busted.
Ellie and Jesse sit at the Core office and are reviewing her water polo piece. He admits he likes both the piece and her. Jesse said giving her the rock concert assignment wasn’t a move to try and get in her pants, but rather he thought she’d be good at it. Well that’s enough evidence for Ellie and she leans in and kisses him. They both decide to keep their new office romance a secret. I’m sure it will stay that way.
Emma and Sean are sitting in a visiting room in the prison. She tells him she could only raise a couple hundred dollars for his lawyer, but insists Snake is going to find him a good public defender. The guard signals times up. Emma pulls a little bottle of shampoo out of her jacket and tells him it’s honey vanilla. The next best thing to actually being with her. Sean naturally says nothing can replace the real thing. Could it get anymore precious?
P.S. There are viewer polls on the N now like “Should Ellie and Jesse hook-up? and you vote with your remote control. It’s pretty silly.
P.S.S. The new theme song/intro is lame.
