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“Degrassi” recap (13B.1): This is How We Do It

After a tumultuous summer, the students of Degrassi High return for what is sure to be another exciting, and most likely melodramatic year. This first episode focuses on the tension between the student council leaders-Dallas, Alli, Connor, Jenna, Clare and Drew-as Drew struggles to deal with his brother Adam’s untimely death, and a summer fling gone wrong between teen actress Zoe and millionaire Miles.

The episode opens with Clare rushing to school in a new, brightly colored dress, ready to take on the school as student council vice president. She enters and is greeted by Jenna, Alli and a locked auditorium door. Soon, Connor shows up and kisses his girlfriend, Jenna, and Dallas enters to inform the rest of the group that he couldn’t find the key to the auditorium. He does offer Alli the key to his heart, which causes Alli to scoff, “You can put that back on your keychain, bud.”

Before Clare can fret too much about how they are going to set up the “Welcome Back” assembly ahead of the arrival of the rest of the students in two hours, Drew throws open the auditorium doors from the inside and announces that because he couldn’t sleep anyway, he decided to come to school and get a head start preparing the assembly. Which means that now all of the work has been done. Sure enough, the group enters the auditorium to find the balloons decorating the stage, the video projector set up and the sound system cranked. Clare is incredulous, but Drew assures her that he wants to make their senior year the best one Degrassi has ever had.

Students begin to arrive for the assembly. Imogen greets Becky (one of only two glimpses of Imogen we get all episode, by the way) who asks her if she had a fun summer. After and awkward pause, Imogen realizes her gaffe and apologizes. Becky brushes it off.

As Tristan and Maya take a seat, Tristan teases Maya about having her crush already lined up for the year. Maya informs him that she will be concentrating on music this year, not boys, but Tristan doesn’t believe her and points out that she didn’t get contacts so she can make flirty eyes at her cello. Meanwhile, Miles is teasing Winston that although Winston had been there for a whole year it’s as if none of the girls know him. Winston retorts that there are no girls worth knowing. Miles disagrees. Looking pointedly at Maya as he passes her chair he responds, “I don’t know. There might be one or two worth checking out.” Maya, in turn, looks back at him longingly as he walks away.

The assembly begins and everything is going great-there’s a smoke machine, a light show, and pompoms. Drew is firing everyone up for the best year of their life! That is, until, Drew steps forward, falls off the stage and passes out.

Moments later, Drew is coming back from the nurse’s office with Dallas. Drew tries to convince Dallas that he is fine even though he hasn’t been sleeping well lately, but Dallas isn’t buying it.

“Thinking about Adam?” Dallas asks. “Trying not to,” Drew replies.

Dallas insists, “But you’ve got to sleep. You taking those pills the doctor gave you?” Drew insists that he doesn’t need the pills. What he needs is school, and student council because it’ll keep him busy and tire him out.

“For the first time since Adam died, I’m excited about stuff again,” he admits.

What he’s most excited about is planning student council’s first big event of the year and at the student council meeting he proposes that the first event should be a dance. However, Clare would rather do something to honor Adam and Becky suggests a “no texting and driving” campaign. Alli agrees that it would be a great way to learn from the tragedy. Becky chimes in saying that Adam would want the campaign but Drew disagrees saying that Adam would want a Degrassi Beach Blast dance. Clare proposes that they “put it to the people” by preparing presentations for each idea and take a vote at the next day’s meeting. Drew reluctantly agrees.

That night after playing video games until one o’clock in the morning, Dallas tells Drew that he’s tired and heads to bed. Drew makes a bed on the couch in front of a table decked with picture frames. Because he’s still wired, he decides to take one of the pills his doctor prescribed for him. As he drifts off to sleep, the camera pulls back and focuses on a picture of Adam. Drew is awakened by a call from his fiancĂ©, Bianca, and is shocked to discover that it’s nine a.m. Although this means he is late for school, it also means that he finally slept! The fact that he doesn’t remember calling Bianca at four in the morning doesn’t faze him.

When he arrives at school, he finds Imogen lying on a pile of sand in the parking lot, tanning. As if this isn’t confusing enough, he’s then confronted by an irate Clare who accuses him of ordering sand and beach decorations for the dance without her.

When Drew complains about Clare’s behavior to Dallas, Dallas informs him that he did in fact order the sand. Dallas heard Drew banging around in the kitchen at three in the morning and came downstairs to find Drew eating ice cream and ordering sand, palm trees and tiki torches online. Drew and Dallas realize that Drew must’ve been sleep walking as a result of taking his pills. The only thing left to do is pray that Drew wins the vote in student council. As he watches a pretty young girl walk by, Drew says he thinks there might be a way to make that happen.

Meanwhile, Zoe is starting her first year at Degrassi. As she is registering for school, she complains to her mother about having to attend “this steaming hellhole.” She confesses that she is worried that people will find out why she has been kicked off her show, West Drive.

Yet, it seems as if she has a lot more to worry about, such as being iced out by her former flame, Miles. First he greets her with a disgusted “You go here now?” when she shows up to his first class. Zoe tries to make an excuse to leave the classroom, but when the teacher insists she get over her boy drama and chill out, she get’s angry and flustered and throws her iced coffee on him.

Later, Zoe tries to make the most out of a bad situation and attempts to have conversation with Miles, Tristan and Maya in the hall. Miles shuts her down by saying, “Let me put this in television terms so that you can understand. I don’t do reruns. Especially not with mean girls.” His tone is so harsh that even Maya’s face registers sympathy for Zoe, and yet, Maya follows Miles down the hall anyway. As Zoe backs away muttering “screw you,” in their general direction, she trips and falls right into Drew’s arms. As she lies there smiling up at him, he persuades her to come to come with him to the student council meeting. “I need you,” he says. “I’ll explain on the way.”

At the student council meeting, Clare is surprised to find a gaggle of young girls sitting at the table. Drew informs her that he filled some open position-drama rep, outdoors club rep, and so on. When she objects, he asks her if she really wants him to turn away eager new council members. The Beach Blast dance wins by one vote with the help of Drew’s new recruits and Clare is so frustrated she quits council and storms out. Drew doesn’t miss a beat and moves forward planning the dance. He announces that he will need everyone’s contact info and hands Zoe his phone. She enters her digits into his phone and says that he should feel free to call her anytime.

That night, lying next to pictures of Adam, Drew struggles to fall asleep once again. So, he takes another pill. Later, Zoe phone rings and, although groggy, she is pleased to discover Drew on the other end of the line. Drew drowsily thanks her for helping him today, telling her that he so glad that she fell into his arm. The episode ends as Drew lies on the couch, obviously out of it, going on and on about Zoe’s beauty.

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