WHAT IF? - SEASON 2 EXPLANATIONS PART 2
Hi everyone. It´s time for a new round of explanations, so without further delay let´s get into it.
Sean and Emma this past half season: It would have been easy to score some cheap points by having things being easy between them after the adoption, but something as big as that was bound to change things between them, the way I saw it. So, I decided to go a different direction with them and having the story this half season being more about Emma finding who she is without Sean, so she can make a more qualified decision on them later. Whether they end up together remains to be seen, but as for now you can´t blame either of them for having doubts about a possible future together.
FUN FACT:
Not many fans of Degrassi know it, but Miriam McDonald tried her luck at a movie career in her younger days. Okay, so it was a Lifetime movie, but you can´t deny that it was movie length! I saw a humorous review of it on YouTube and it looks as much like a Lifetime movie, as it can be. Basically a mother finds out that her daughter is having sex too early (is that a requirement in all of their movies?) and that her and her friends (Miriam playing one of them) have some pact to have sex with as many boys as possible. If you thought they went easy on Miriam, seeing as this was shot around Season 3 (based on how old she looks in it), you would be mistaken. She basically plays the school slut and gets well and truly shamed for being a ho, who should just learn to close her legs, according to the movie. There´s no mention, that there´s almost certainly other and much deeper reasons why a girl that young would act out in such a way, when it´s much easier to stamp her as an irredeemable tramp! Shockingly, the role didn´t lead to any big movie roles for Miriam.
Jay and Ellie this past half season: The opposite to Sean and Emma, or one of them at least, was Jay and Ellie, who were happily in love for the entire season. I could have done more drama between them, but Jay was always best as a comedic anti-hero, so those were the kinds of stories I came up with. As for Ellie, I just wanted her to be happy after everything she went through in her earlier teens, with her mom and being a cutter and all of that. It didn´t make for much in the way of drama, but the series needs it´s light hearted feel good moments as well and that was what they mainly provided.
FUN FACT:
Mike Lobel (who played Jay) is once again playing a character named Jay on TV these days. He plays the role of "Caretaker Jay" in the kid´s series "Detention Adventure". He´s been in four episodes so far, so it looks like it´s a nice recurring role for him. I wonder how they came up with the name of his character, though?
JT and Manny this past half season: I faced the classic problem with them, that after a storyline that was so strong in the first half of the season, it would be hard to follow up. I also felt like they had perhaps been a bit overused in the past half season, which was why I cut their roles down a bit in this half of the season. They still had some decent episodes, I thought and to me, it´s like their relationship has become the backbone of their friend group now and it´s almost impossible to imagine them not being together in this universe.
FUN FACT:
The reason why Ryan Cooley, who played JT, wasn´t in Drake´s "I´m Upset" video, was because he thought it was a scam, when he received the invite to the tapings. Apparently no one told him the truth in time, so he ended up missing out. That has to be one high school reunion that it sucked to miss out on!
The Jane and Johnny romance: As I´ve said before, I liked Jane and Spinner, but with Spinner leaving the series more or less after this season, I went with something a bit more out of left field. Or was it, when you think about it? Johnny for all of his faults could be very loyal to girls, when he wanted to and without Spinner being Jane´s only option (until that kind of lame storyline with Declan came along), she could go for someone like Johnny, who´s brooding and kind of mysterious most of the time. They´ve been a fun couple to write so far, so expect them to last at least a while longer.
FUN FACT:
Scott Paterson (who played Johnny) was the real life prom date of Melinda Shankar, who played Alli. Apparently the two of them became really good friends, when they shot all of those uncomfortable scenes together during her early days on the show. You can see pictures of them both before and at the prom on Melinda´s page on the fandom website. I can only imagine that there would have been a Degrassi fan or two in attendance that night, who got a big kick out of seeing them together in real life.
Rick running away: I´d been wrecking my mind trying to come up with a big storyline for Rick and that´s when I (25 years after I last saw it) re-watched the movie "The Fisher King". It´s a brilliant movie starring Jeff Bridges as a depressed radio DJ and with Robin Williams playing a somewhat crazy homeless man in one of his best roles, of you ask me. If you haven´t seen it, I can only recommend seeing if you can find it. I remembered the "Man in the Mirror" song while watching it and after the movie was over, I listened to it on YouTube. Before it was done playing, I had the entire story built up in my head, starting back when Darcy cheated on Rick with first Peter and then also Danny, if you count one kiss as cheating. In the end, that whole storyline probably ended up being my favorite of the second half of the season and made for some powerful episodes, I thought.
FUN FACT:
Speaking of post Degrassi activities, one of the actors who has the best career going to this day is actually Ephraim Ellis, who played Rick. Besides having grown into quite a handsome adult (with a much better haircut than he had as Rick), he´s got 30 credits to his name on Imdb so far and has done a nice mix of TV series and movies over the years, with his most recent movie coming out earlier this year. Good for him!
Paige´s sad life: Things just haven´t been going Paige´s way for a while now, even if her life isn´t terrible either. One of the main inspirations for her was Bridget Jones, in the way that things just wouldn´t work out for her most of the time. I guess that all of those chick flicks my ex made me watch with her finally paid off! I wanted to paint a picture of Paige as the girl, who was at the top when high school started and now at the end of it, is left with arguably less than anyone she´s graduating with. Of course there were ups too, but it´s undeniable that this is nowhere near the life she envisioned for herself at this age, when we first met her. We´re gonna continue to follow her in college, so there´s still plenty of time for her to get her happy ending.
FUN FACT:
This is what Lauren Collins had to say in an interview about her role as Paige, way back during the early years of filming DNG: "Paige is probably one of the best roles I've ever done, but she can be quite a mean girl at times. Sometimes I feel so bad about the things I have to say to the other actors. Then again, she does get some of the funniest lines!" She sounds like such a sweetheart, doesn´t she?
Jimmy´s injury/addiction storyline: This is a story I easily could have seen them do with him on DNG, had he not been shot. Maybe not entirely in the same way, but it was time have an addiction storyline and it´s a sad fact that many athletes get hooked on pain killers or push their bodies to try to fight through injuries. Mix the two and we get this story, that also furthered the bond between Jimmy and Liberty, as well as gave Jimmy and Spinner one big farewell story together. Not that they´ll disappear completely, but it´s time to move on with the next generation, if I´m gonna keep the series based around the school as it´s centre of most of what happens.
The same can be said for Liberty, who I sent off into the world with what apparently is the happiest ending possible. Whether it actually is, you´ll find out somewhere down the line.
FUN FACT:
Jimmy´s storyline of him tearing his ACL wasn´t ripped completely out of nowhere. The exact same thing happened to the real life Jimmy/Drake once, also while playing basketball. For such a safe sport, it sure can be dangerous at times! Sarah Barrable-Tishauer, who played Liberty, also has ties to basketball, in that her only non-Degrassi acting credit was in a movie called "The Red Sneakers", which was centered around the sport.
Marco´s coming out episodes: I knew that these were going to be some of the biggest episodes of the series and with Marco being one of my favorite characters in Degrassi history, I wanted to make sure that I did them right with the right amount of build up to it, before he was ready for it. The only question was when to do it, but it felt right to do it at the end of high school. That way it also symbolizes Marco having become ready to be called an adult in his own right. The coming out episodes were some of the ones that it took the longest to finish, but they ended up being pretty good in my own humble opinion.
FUN FACT:
Marco´s storyline as the first openly homosexual main character in the series was (I think we can all agree) one of the highlights of the entire Degrassi saga, but it was nowhere near the first time, that a gay or suspected gay character had been a part of Degrassi. Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High, although they were too afraid of it being too controversial for them to have an openly gay teen on TV back in the late 80´s/early 90´s still dealt with homosexuality in two episodes. The first one is where Caitlyn starts having dreams/lesbian fantasies about her teacher (albeit extremely innocent ones), who is suspected of being gay, since she´s unmarried and is rarely seen with men. The second and more famous one was when Snake´s older brother comes out to him and Snake has to deal with it, which he has his troubles with in what is without a doubt one of the highlights, as far as storylines in the old Degrassi series goes. DNG had already had the "gay" storyline with Ashley´s father, before Marco had even entered the series.
Spinner and Terri ending up together: Sometimes on this series, I do things to redeem what the original series did with certain characters and if anyone was done wrong, it was Terri. Her story ending in such a depressing way with her just disappearing (in storyline off to a private school, but still) after the Rick storyline was one of the worst cases of it, up there with Adam´s ending, if you ask me. Her and Spinner were from the beginning written as the couple that was meant to be, almost as much as Emma and Sean were and when I first saw the series, I was surprised that they gave up on that whole story as fast as they did. In the end, I can think of no one better for either of them than each other and I wish that was how it had turned out in the real series as well, if he wasn´t going to end up with Jane.
FUN FACT:
Here´s what Christina Schmidt had to say in an interview, back when she was on the show and was asked about her character: "There are things I like and don't like about Terri. I like that she's so laid back and that she's nice. The only thing I don't like is that she's so self-conscious, but it's realistic, 'cause there are lots of people like that. I think lots of girls relate to Terri." I couldn´t have said it better.
The season finale: It ended up getting quite a few re-writes along the way and I´m still not sure, that I´m completely happy with it. I wanted to do something special and something that you wouldn´t see coming, which was how the idea of Heather finally being a real part of the story came from. I thought that finding out that she was such a sad character and through her casting a darker light on the characters we love, seeing as they all (maybe except for Jay, although it´s debatable) played their parts in making her life miserable would make for an interesting twist to the feeling of the story. It certainly puts all of the Heather Sinclair jokes I´ve made in a much darker light. I wanted it to have a hopeful feeling at the end of it though and I think it accomplished that. Craig´s story was about showing why it would be best for him to return to Toronto and Degrassi, which (spoiler alert) he will from the beginning of next season.
FUN FACT:
Heather Sinclair did actually appear in Degrassi once, albeit not it a canon episode of the series. In stead it was in a Degrassi Mini entitled "Beware of Heather Sinclair" where we followed "Heather" in a point of view shot, as she walks through the school berating one character after another. It´s pretty funny and is still up on YouTube, if you haven´t seen it.
THAT´S IT FOR THIS TIME. THERE WERE OTHER THINGS THAT I COULD HAVE TOUCHED ON LIKE ASHLEY´S STORY FOR EXAMPLE, BUT I DIDN´T WANT THIS TO BE OVERLY LONG. THE FIRST SIX EPISODES OF THE NEXT SEASON HAVE ALREADY BEEN WRITTEN, BUT I DON´T KNOW IF I´LL BE ABLE TO KEEP UP WITH THE RELEASE SCHEDULE FOR THE SEASON´S ENTIRE 22 EPISODE RUN. ANYWAY, I HOPE THAT YOU ENJOYED THIS LITTLE EXTRA "FEATURE" TO THE SERIES AND THAT YOU´RE CONTINUING TO ENJOY IT. IT´S JUST HIT 7000 VIEWS ON THE SITE AND IT´S GREAT TO SEE HOW MANY LOYAL FANS IT´S GAINED SO FAR.
I WISH ALL OF YOU A GREAT DAY WHERE EVER IN THE WORLD YOU MAY BE AND I HOPE THAT YOU´LL CONTINUE READING IN SEASON 3!