by Alden C. Caele
After the school changes its policies, requiring extracurricular involvement for certain 'privileges' the gang start to fill their schedules. Mark is invited to try out for the Drama Club, where he meets shy and sensitive Logan; Gabe and Dominic try to cross a milestone in their relationship again after a disappointing first try; and Charlie convinces Sam to help her start up a Gay-Straight Alliance.
Back to Crestview, then. While Pathways still isn't the kind of thing I'd typically read, I think it's a good thing for me to read. If that makes sense. It always helps to be familiar with all kinds of genres, I find, and if I'm only going to be reading one soap-y kind of show it may as well be a well-written one, eh? Besides, the characters here are all engaging and interesting and it means that their stories are things I do actually want to know. Must be the same guilty part of me that watches [i]The OC[/i].
Mark staggers out of bed and downstairs to find his more hyped up mother making an unusual request - she's got the weekend off, so suggests going to Africa. *blinks* Right... is she on medication? I think Mark's suggestion of the movies was more what he was expecting, but anyway...
Act I then, and over at Chez Jones, Anna gets a romantic breakfast in bed from psuedo-husband James while Gabe is busy getting ready. James tries to have the awkward 'I'm not trying to be your dad, but...' conversation, but thankfully Gabe makes it easy on him. Everybody's always so darned happy in Crestview, aren't they? Must be something in the water. Maybe the drama queen in me always looks for ways to wring the most conflict out of any given situation, but at times I'm still finding too many of the relationships in Pathways are just too blummin' nice. Thank goodness for Parker - he's using every moment he can to widn up Gabe, looking for any excuse to get a fight out of him and have a reason to push James to move them both back out. Thing is, as Gabe heads off to meet Sam, what do we get? Parker looking a bit jealous! Oh dear, oh dear. Now this can't end well. Over at Brighton Academy, we meet the engaging art teacher Mr. Mead, who earns brownie points by throwing a Veronica Mars reference into his opening speech, before the more straight-laced Mr. Greyson announces the launch of a 'Brighton Points' scheme. Rewarding students for extracurricular activities, it sounds like another way to widen the divide between the school's social classes to me, but then again higher education's never been something I've understood. Anyway. Some random guy slips Mark a note inviting him to a secret meeting, which understandably confuses the young lad, before we get to the first lunch of the new term. Starting on a Friday must be an American thing - or maybe just something the more exclusive places offer! Sam still keeps coming out with lines that make him sound far too much like Logan Echolls, though. Always a risk when you cast such a strong character, I guess. Mark chirps about needing to find an excuse to get out of going to Africa (and he and Sam bounce off each other really well, especially with that Frankenstein line), until there's mention of a 'Gay-Straight Alliance.' The boys sound horrified, but we do get a few comic lines from Token Straight Guy Troy out of it all.Over on the basketball court (blimey, how long is this Act anyway?), Parker's blowing off some steam when Kaia intrudes on his workout, taunting him in that delicious way that only good soap opera bitches can, and Mark heads to his meeting to encounter a new girl called Alanna. She's already set off the Crazy Alarm for me - all she'd need is a twitch to complete the picture - but all she seems to want is to get Mark into the Drama club. With several hints to emotional baggage just waiting to be searched by Customs (a 'rough year' and some trauma with her brother), Alanna invites Mark into the club and he's only too happy to sign up.
Act II finds Sam and Charlie petitioning the Dean to get their Alliance set up (oh, and Sam name drops a 'Mr. Echolls' - bah!), before Charlie bemoans Julie's animosity towards her again. Sam plays it diplomatically, but as we cut over to Julie she's far less restrained with her tongue-lashing. Heckling Charlie for not seeing that Sam's gay (which prompts a little awkward shuffle from Parker), Julie's going to be in for a shock when she finds out how Parker really feels, eh? Gabe and Dom meet up for a chat and start talking about the 'hem-hem' again, both seeming too eager to get round to it again. They're obviously trying to say what they think the other wants to hear, which is a nicely human moment between them. Gabe casually mentions the 'hem-hem' to Sam and Mark to some nicely comic reactions, and after Julie gets a few lines in (and everybody's been drinking their Wisecrack Juice today) it's back to Mark's house, where he sighs with guilt as his mother clears out for the weekend.
Gabe's doing a little homework at the start of Act III when Alanna shows up to drag him away. There's an obvious 'thing' between Alanna and Parker here - I'd even go so far as to say they have 'history,' making little speech marks with my fingers. Parker seems to be the one trying not to admit he misses her out loud, hiding it (as always) behind a few loudly vocalised insults. Turns out little Mark's been hurt by a falling stage set (and working in a theatre myself that's something I've seen happen!), and Alanna's whisking Gabe over to the hospital for some moral support. Mark seems to be reluctant to bother Sam for some reason, but as fellow drama club guy Logan (and again with the Veronica Mars!) pops in to see Mark, Gabe ducks out to see Alanna. She claims to be checking up on her 'Aunt Ruth' but the name on the patient card reads 'Edward O'Neill.' Hmm! Why would Alanna know Eddie? This girl has secrets. Me likey. There's a sweet moment as Gabe shows up, before Gabe runs into Julie and waits for Anna to come pick him up. To be honest, the end of this Act seems to peter out a bit - ending on Gabe discovering Alanna's lie would have been a better moment, but anyway.
Act IV, and Gabe finally makes up with Anna. Aww. But out of the Hallmark moment we do at least get some insight into Parker's chip on the old shoulder - his absentee mother. Well, that explains some of his issues, anyway. Back at the hospital, Mark assures a guilty Alanna that his injury wasn't her fault. He dreamily recalls the audition and you can't help but think we were looking at all the wrong scenes this episode. Mark's audition and subsequent accident would have made for some good drama, as well as character development, and instead we've just had a lot of people chatting absently to each other in the background from start to finish. This is even more apparent when Mark's mom Lily shows up to tell her how proud she is of him - how come she got to see his big moment and we didn't? Anyway. Gabe and Dom are still nervously arranging their next bout of 'hem-hem' when Gabe intercepts a call from Alanna - she's pissed that Dom moved Eddie to private care without telling her. Aha! So how does she know Dominic? We will have to wait and see. Luckily, Gabe and Dom's little rendezvous goes better than planned, despite Gabe still having a big hang up that Dominic isn't officialy gay. And that's where we leave them.
So! A curiously drama-less episode here. Alanna stands out as an interesting new addition to the cast, obviously full of secrets and with lots of stories to tell, but by missing out on seeing Mark's audition or accident, which seems to have been a pretty major thing, all we're really left with are a bunch of conversation pieces that don't really push any of the plots forward that much. We needed to spend more time with Alanna - seeing her lead the audition would have been ideal - and the Gay-Straight Aliiance sub-plot gets forgotten about, presumably to return in a later episode. And there's still this annoying feeling that everything's so bloody nice all the time. There's stacks of potential avenues for conflict and drama here, but this show seems a little too comfy with most of its cast being loved up and happy to start setting up any big plots here. You could mark this down to simmering tensions, but even Gabe/Parker seems more like mild irritation than actual resentment. A disappointing third episode, then, in a series that has plenty of room to take some risks with its well-presented and written characters and needs to start taking advantage of that.
ZPM RATING:
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