“How did we become one of those gay married couples that host dinner parties and watch Bravo?”
Last week’s episode of “Greek” brought Valentine’s Day to CRU, and everybody was feeling the pressure. Some characters are feeling pressure to find a date, some are feeling the pressure to get their date the perfect gift, and others are feeling pressure brought on by other, already existing issues in their lives. I tend to be a bit cynical when it comes to Valentine’s Day, but I thought this episode was pretty cute. I liked some of the plots better than others, but I didn’t especially dislike any of them. I was about to complain that there were too many plots, but it just occurred to me that given the episode’s title, the writers may have been trying to do an homage to “Love, Actually,” which does indeed tell multiple stories, much like this episode does.
I think my favorite story was the story of Rusty and Catherine. Rusty is determined to have a date for the KT Valentine’s party this year, and he’s getting pretty desperate. He even manages to get slapped by one random girl he tries asking out. Rusty asks Ashleigh if she’ll go with him as friends, but she already has plans with her new Omega Chi boy. The conversation does give Ashleigh an idea though. When Casey tells Ashley that she feels bad for Catherine, who is planning on having a girls’ chocolate fondue night for Valentine’s, Ashleigh thinks Rusty and Catherine would be the perfect set-up. It makes sense in an odd way- both Rusty and Catherine are smart and socially awkward. It could either be the perfect match or double the awkward.
At first, it seems like things are going to go towards the double awkward end of the spectrum. Catherine wants to go on a “pre-date” double date with Cappie and Casey. Rusty tries to get conversation going, but Catherine only gives one word answers. In turn, Rusty keeps bringing up increasingly touchy subjects, with the Gamma Psi house as the grand finale. Surprisingly, Catherine later reveals to Casey that she’s actually pretty smitten with Rusty. Rusty, however, doesn’t exactly feel the same way. Casey still desperately wants to repair her friendship with Catherine, though, so she bribes Rusty to go to the KT party with Catherine by offering him use of her car.
The party, at least at first, goes better than the pre-date. Catherine actually starts talking to Rusty, and after a little more awkwardness, the two find some common ground. Things start to go south again when Rusty says he’s glad he decided to give Catherine a second chance. Catherine is furious that Casey bribed Rusty to go to the party with her. She doesn’t get to be furious for long, though, because she gets injured by someone shooting at a cupid-shaped target with an arrow and missing. Once hopped up on pain killers, she forgives both Rusty and Casey, and Rusty offers to walk her home. Their good bye at Catherine’s dorm was both awkward and adorable, and it sold me on the pairing, even though I originally thought it was a horrible mismatch.
The other plot that I especially enjoyed was Cappie and Casey’s. Cappie is determined to find the perfect Valentine’s gift for Casey to make up for the disaster that was their last Valentine’s Day together back during Freshman year. Casey ups the stakes by challenging Cappie to a contest to see who can get the other the better present. She also jumps the gun and tells Cappie she has the perfect present before she’s actually gotten him anything. After several failed attempts, Cappie does eventually find the perfect gift. He takes Casey to a nearby convenience store and tells her the story of how that’s where he first fell in love with her. Casey is incredibly touched that he can remember this story in such detail. The whole scene is really very sweet. I’m really pleasantly surprised by how the writers have had Cappie approach his second shot with Casey. I like that he’s totally in love and committed to her instead of being his usual wishy washy self. It’s a nice change.
Several other characters end up confronting their own personal demons via their relationships, and some confrontations work out better than others. Calvin is feeling like his relationship with Grant is moving a bit fast. He’s kind of dismayed to come back to his room and find Grant full-out primping. Calvin is a bit uptight about flamboyance, and by the end of the episode, he realizes that’s something he needs to get over. Evan, like Cappie, wants to find the perfect gift for his Valentine, who would be Rebecca, of course. Evan explains to Calvin that Rebecca is the first girl he feels really understands him and accepts him with all his poor little rich kid baggage. Evan ends up getting Rebecca an expensive necklace, and Rebecca is pretty happy about that until Calvin tells her what he learned from Evan. The idea that Evan thinks they might have a future together freaks Rebecca out, and she goes into self-destruct mode quickly. By the end of the episode, it looks like she’s going to cheat on Evan with Beaver.
Ashleigh is dealing with her Fisher-induced insecurity as she tries to begin a relationship with her new Omega Chi. She finds out suddenly that he used to date Natalie, the slutty Gamma Psi president, and Natalie makes a big show of calling him a cheater because she didn’t think he had ever broken up with her, and now he’s with Ashleigh. Ashleigh is still very gun shy about cheating. Throughout the episode, Ashleigh keeps thinking she has more reasons to mistrust Pete, but each keeps getting explained. Natalie just keeps getting crazier and crazier, trying to lie about her father being killed on Valentine’s Day. Pete is sympathetic to Natalie, which irritates Ashleigh even further. Ironically, what turns Pete against Natalie ultimately is Natalie revealing that Ashleigh and the ZBZs burned down the Gamma Psi house. It sounds so preposterous that Pete finally thinks Natalie has been lying about everything else.
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