Greek 3.12: "Pride & Punishment"

“Casey, I’m ready for my bedtime story. I have to read Maya Angelou by Thursday, and I couldn’t find the book on tape.”

-Beaver

This week’s episode of Greek seemed mostly about finding out who people truly are beneath the secrets they hide and the façade they put on. Casey confesses to the Gamma Psi fire and unearths some treachery on the part of the Gamma Psi president in the process. Rusty learns that when it comes to women, he shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Ashley learns that not all guys are going to be as much of a jerk as Fisher was. Cappie learns that Rebecca can take care of herself. Overall, I thought this episode was still trying to handle too many stories at once, but it was somewhat more focused than last week, so that’s a plus.

The ZBZ house, except for Rebecca because she has no shame, is still very on edge about the Gamma Psi fire incident. Casey is especially feeling the pressure due to her position on Pan-hel, where she has to interact with Katherine, a Gamma Psi she actually respects, on a regular basis. Things only get worse for Casey when Katerine re-offers the VP of Judicial position and tells Casey that her first assignment will be to investigate the fire. Casey takes the job, and she struggles mightily throughout the episode with whether or not she should confess what truly happened or use her new power to deflect blame away from ZBZ.

The guilt eventually becomes too much for Casey, and she confesses to Natalie, the really annoying Gamma Psi president. Casey is very careful to implicate only herself, not anyone else in ZBZ, even though leaving the candle lit was really Rebecca’s fault. Natalie doesn’t seem to really care all that much. She just seems happy to have a chance to get more out of ZBZ. She tries to blackmail Casey. She wants the ZBZ house to be given to Gamma Psi in exchange for her silence. This is not at all what Casey expected would happen. She ends up going to an unlikely source for help- Evan. Evan suggests that Casey take more of a stand against being blackmailed. The advice turns out to be quite good. Casey investigates Ryan, the judge suspected of cheating at Songfest. She realizes that he has some sort of connection to Natalie. Casey had seen a “Fiddler on the Roof” script in Natalie’s bedroom, and Ryan mentioned that he recently was in a production of “Fiddler.” Now Casey has some ammunition.

I don’t really quite buy the resolution (at least for now) of this plot. Casey sits Natalie and Katherine down, and banking on Katherine’s innate sense of justice, spills everything (although she still insists she was the only ZBZ involved). The houses reach a rather uneasy truce, with Gamma Psi promising not to say ZBZ burnt down their house while ZBZ promises not to reveal that the Gamma Psi president traded sexual favors for blue ribbon points. I know that Katherine hates messiness and bad publicity for the Greek system, but all her possessions were destroyed! I would think that would mean a bit more than the amorphous concept of Gamma Psi’s “reputation” being in jeopardy.

Meanwhile, Rusty is having some trouble getting back into the dating game following his break-up with Jordan. He tries to hit on a hot tri-Pi in his marketing class, but as soon as she finds out he’s an engineering student, she scoots herself to the other side of the classroom just about as fast as she can. He discusses his problems with Ashleigh, who also happens to be in the marketing class. Ashleigh says that nerds actually make really good boyfriends, and to prove her point, she has an idea for a philanthropy to help the Gamma Psis. A nerd auction. Rusty is pretty enthusiastic about the idea, although Dale has to be bribed to participate with a promise of 5% of the profits.

Ashleigh tells Rusty that he will do well at the auction if he changes up his look a bit from pure nerd to “nerd chic.” Nerd chic basically seems to involve a lot of hair gel and fake glasses. Rusty thinks Ashleigh’s idea is working. The tri-Pi is much more interested in talking to him with his new look, and she even seems enthusiastic about the auction. Meanwhile, Rusty continues to ignore Dana, a very nerdy fellow science student who seems to be very interested in Rusty. The whole situation plays out pretty predictably. Both the tri-Pi and Dana bid on Rusty at the auction, and Rusty makes a stupid joke about how he could go home with multiple girls. This enrages Ashleigh, who was upset because she just saw Fisher for the first time since the break-up. She makes a comment over the microphone about how Rusty will probably cheat on the winner, just like all guys cheat.

The tri-Pi wins the auction, but it doesn’t work out all that well for Rusty. She and a few of her sisters pooled their cash so they could get some tech help. She’s not interested in Rusty romantically at all. Rusty realizes too late that he’s been treating Dana like crap. He tries to make it up to her, and he asks her to coffee, but she’s not having it. She has too much self respect to go out with Rusty- for now at least. I have a sneaking suspicion that pursuit of Dana is going to be Rusty’s next romantic story arc. Either that or a relationship with Ashleigh, which frankly, would just be weird considering she’s his big sister’s best friend and all.

The final plot of this episode focused on Cappie and Rebecca, and kind of implicated Casey somewhat as well. Rebecca and Cappie are both trying to get into the very in-demand Human Sexuality class. Their machinations are kind of silly and amusing, but the real substance of the plot is all about the show’s romantic entanglements. Cappie for some reason feels it is his mission to keep Rebecca from making the mistake of dating Evan. He has a point, considering Evan is most definitely a douche. As Casey rightfully observes when Cappie discusses the situation with her, though, Rebecca never, ever does what anybody tells her she should do.

I was left feeling a bit uneasy about the future of Casey and Cappie by the end of this episode. Casey, although she didn’t say as much, didn’t love the idea that Cappie was talking with and planning to take Human Sexuality class with Rebecca, and Cappie wasn’t thrilled that Casey went to Evan for advice on how to handle Firegate. Both Cappie and Casey tell each other that they’re good, but an obvious look on Casey’s face as they hug suggests otherwise.