Previously on Chasing Life, Brenna met a lovely college student named Margo who we found out is so not straight, Natalie found a “fiction” novel their dad wrote that read more like True Crime, Leo and April decided to get married, and Sara pulled Brenna out of Charton to help with the bills.
Brenna wakes up to an email from Greer that says she misses her and asks how things are going. (We miss you, too, Greer!) Brenna starts to write back about how she’s being forced to leave Charton and that she can’t compete with April’s cancer, so she can’t even complain about it. She’ll just have to sit back and ride it out until graduation. Not that she’s even that surprised; she feels like she has always been in April’s shadow. When she goes downstairs, Sara tries to make light of her last week at Charton by talking about the outfits and offering to take her shopping, all of which Brenna is not interested in. April apologizes that she has to change schools because of her and tries to make things better by asking April to be her maid of honor. Brenna agrees, but doesn’t look the MOST thrilled.
April gives Brenna duties, including picking up invitations and showing up at a dress fitting. Brenna has film club but she’ll get the invitations and pretend to be glad about it.
At lunch, Ford and the rest of the film club are bummed about Brenna leaving, and when Margo hears the news, she’s pretty upset herself. But she promises to help Brenna finish her film before she’s no longer an official student so it still counts for the festival.
Ford teases her about Margo’s promise to help, making suggestive eyebrow waggles while Brenna lets herself dare to hope.
After school, Ford and Brenna run to the card shop to get the invitations before film club, but the invitations are spelled wrong and they end up missing the whole thing, getting back to Charton to find an empty room and a sad post-it note where Margo waited as long as she could.
Brenna goes to chat with Natalie because she needs to vent, but knows she can’t go to April because her problems, while piling up, still don’t nearly amount to cancer. Speaking of problems, Brenna asks what happened between Natalie and Dom, and Natalie says she’s just tired of feeling unwanted. She blames it on her daddy issues, then apologizes since he was actually a good dad to Brenna. Brenna doesn’t mind though, she’s glad they can have this sisterly bond.
The next day, the ladies all go to the bridal shop to try on dresses. April asks the sales girl for something that will cover her port scars, but the girl looks at her like she has leprosy and runs for her life. Before April can think too long on that, Brenna breezes in, late because she had to say goodbye to all of her friends, but ready to try on dresses. Brenna, Natalie and Beth have quite the adorable bridesmaids dress montage, and the whole things goes significantly better than the dress shop scene in the movie Bridesmaids.
The sales girl continues to treat April like she’ll catch cancer if she gets too close, so Brenna heads off to find someone else to help them and almost runs square into a guy who makes her face go pale and her eyes fill with fear. She turns to run away but gets caught up in her dress and ends up faceplanting. Natalie helps her up and Brenna manages to get out that the guy at the counter is Jake, the guy who got her pregnant two years ago. Natalie immediately launches into Big Sister mode and starts ripping Jake a new one. Brenna decides she needs to go get the invitations immediately, and this whole ordeal worries April. Or, at least the fact that no one will tell her what it’s about worries her.
Once they’re alone, April asks Natalie about what happened, and Natalie casually mentions the abortion and hush money until the look on April’s face tells her that Brenna only told one sister this secret. The useless sales girl comes by just then, which is bad timing for her but good timing for April because she is FIRED. UP. April yells at her for being a worse sales girl than Cece “Mannequin Leg” Drake, and even name drops Leo to let her know exactly how big of a purchase she could have just gotten. Natalie is hella impressed and happily follows April’s lead as she storms out.
Brenna gets the invitation and finds out that Margo is still at Charton so she heads over to the school. They get to working on the film, and Brenna apologizes for bailing on her the night before, explaining that ever since her sister got cancer, it’s been impossible to say no to her. Margo understands, because she has an ex that she stayed friends with (a lot of lesbian stereotypes are just that; “friends with exes” is true more often than not) because she’s an alcoholic, and Margo worries what will happen if she cuts her off.
Since they’re not quite finished with Brenna’s film, Margo offers to help out the next day even though it’s Saturday, since she’s officially no longer her student advisor. Taking this as a hint, Brenna leans in and plants one right on her. Margo immediately pulls back, causing both of them to start apologizing profusely.
Margo says she’s just not into Brenna like that, and that Brenna is still so young and figuring out who she is. Which, on paper is fine advice, but Margo is 22 (ish…fresh out of college) and Brenna is 17, which admittedly is a big jump in life events, but of all the things Brenna has been confused about, who she is has never been one of them.
April, meanwhile, takes Brenna’s Big Secret and immediately tells Beth, and in the same breath is confused as to why Brenna didn’t confide in her big sister. Beth kindly doesn’t point out the blabbermouthiness of the situation, and says that April is just more of a mother figure than the sister-friend thing Brenna and Natalie have going on.
Brenna comes home from school and Sara asks where the invitations are, which is just Brenna’s breaking point. She starts to cry and says the invitations are at Charton, and not that anyone cares, but she’s had a really shitty week. She storms off the Natalie’s, who is more than welcome to let her lil sis crash, but April is not far behind her. April promises Brenna that any wedding pressure she’s feeling is 100% coming from Sara, not her, and that they should just go break into Charton and get the invitations right now. Brenna realizes she can’t get expelled anyway and agrees, and April grits her teeth and invites Natalie, who is always down for a little B&E.
And let me tell you, I didn’t think it would get better than a bridesmaids dress montage, but it did when April, Brenna and Natalie start sneaking around the school like some kind of combination of Pretty Little Liars, Charlie’s Angels, and the Scooby Gang.
When they make it into the film club room, Brenna and Natalie whirl around in a joyful hug and April admits she kind of hates things like that; she feels like she’s being edged out of the relationship. Natalie reminds April that she asked her to take care of Brenna while she was in the hospital, so of course they got close. Brenna is a little insulted on this, but Natalie has already moved onto the topic of Dom. April waves off the idea that Dom and Natalie breaking up had anything to do with her, but Brenna says EVERYTHING has to do with her like she was the star of a show or something. And as if the universe decided they needed intervention, the alarm goes off and the Carver girls get locked in the film club room.
April doesn’t have service and mentions not being able to be stuck in the school all weekend because she needs to take her meds, and Brenna reaches her breaking point again. She tells April how she feels about her problems all automatically paling in comparison to April being sick. And on top of that, Brenna always feels like April is trying to fix her instead of just listening.
April asks if that’s why she didn’t tell her the Big Secret, and Brenna realizes Natalie told April about Jake and the abortion. Natalie slumps down in a chair, declaring herself as hated as April and none too pleased about it.
Since they’re in a One Tree Hill-esque truth trap, Natalie figures now’s as good a time as any to tell April and Brenna about their dad’s manuscript. She says that the three of them are depicted as reductive caricatures of themselves, and declares their dad the worst.
April doesn’t want to follow in his secretive footsteps and asks Brenna what has gone wrong with her week. Brenna tells her sister about the film festival she might not be able to enter, and about the unrequited kiss with Margo.
Brenna felt humiliated and doesn’t want to see her again, even if it means giving up on her film. Natalie and April share similar stories – a babysitter and college TA respectively – and suddenly Brenna doesn’t feel quite as bad.
Now that they’re all laughing again, April suggests they play Breakfast Club, but the youngins don’t know what she’s talking about.
The next morning, the girls wake up and start to scurry out of the film club room, but they run smack into Margo. Inspired by her sisters, knowing she isn’t the single most embarrassing person on the planet, Brenna decides to stay and says goodbye to April and Natalie.
Brenna tells Margo that she might be young, but she has an old soul. She’s been through more in the past two years than some people go through in a lifetime, and she knows that no matter how uncomfortable she is sitting so close to the girl she kissed after having been rejected, she knows she’ll get through it, because she’s gotten through far worse.
Brenna tells Margo she’ll be fine if she wants to go, but her speech moved Margo – moved her lips right on over to her own.
I think maybe the age thing was just an excuse Margo told herself, but now she sees that Brenna is a mature 17, and as of today she’s not technically her student advisor anymore.
Later that night, Brenna is smiling to herself on her bed, pleased her week has been turning around, and April comes in to say she has the copy of their dad’s book. April says they’ll read it and then decide together whether or not they should tell their mom.
Brenna goes back to the email to Greer she started but had been too crazed to finish, and deletes everything she wrote about April having cancer making it seem like no one cared about her own problems. And while she’s responding to Greer, she gets an email from Margo that says she misses her already, because Brenna is a chick-magnet if I’ve ever seen one.
(Do yourself a favor and don’t pause to read Margo’s email. It will ruin the moment.)
At school, Ford smiles on as the school discovered Jake’s picture in the trophy case smashed and doodled on, knowing her best friend finally got a little taste of revenge.
What did you think of Life of Brenna? Do you ship Bargo? Next week, Leisha Hailey guest stars as Margo’s alcoholic ex-girlfiend! Who’s excited?!
Here are some of our favorite #ChasingLesbians tweets from this week:
Go Brenna Gooooooo join Margo to “finish” the movie!! #Bargo #ChasingLesbians #ChasingLife
– Audrey (@pamplemoussee76) July 21, 2015
“Bet you’re happy not to have to wear that uniform anymore.” What a dick thing to say. #ChasingLife #ChasingLesbians
– Josh (@YankeeJosh) July 21, 2015
Emma’s favorite poet is Nicki Minaj? She just keeps getting more perfect. #ChasingLife #ChasingLesbians
– TheOtherNic (@CloneNic) July 21, 2015
And still, no one has mentioned that Leo can pay tuition. #ChasingLesbians
– Samantha J. Green (@SamanthaJGreen) July 21, 2015
Natalie can definitely stay! #ChasingLife #ChasingLesbians
– Anne (@Lacey1789) July 21, 2015
Every show needs a dress montage. #ChasingLesbians
– Lady Liberty (@CindyLMarshall) July 21, 2015
Are the Carvers going to become one of Boston’s top crime families now? Because I’m totally in for that. #ChasingLife #ChasingLesbians
– TheOtherNic (@CloneNic) July 21, 2015
Brenna you can totally keep emailing Greer too #ChasingLesbians
– Karly (@karlyko) July 21, 2015
Seriously though, Haley Ramm and Leisha Hailey? Margo has the best game of everyone. #ChasingLife #ChasingLesbians
– Angela G (@gpgurl50) July 21, 2015
