Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi: The Next Generation, which aired from 2001 to 2015!  The series can be streamed on YouTube and Tubi.

This week, Emma tries to destroy someone’s life.

Episode 1.10 “Rumors and Relationships”

(Dir by Paul Fox, originally aired on May 20th, 2002)

This episode features Spinner at his best and Emma at her worst.

Let’s get Emma out of the way first.  When Emma happens to see Liberty and Coach Armstrong alone in a classroom together, she assumes that Armstrong is hitting on Liberty.  She tells Manny about her suspicions.  Terri overhears and tells Sean.  Sean tells Spinner.  Spinner tells Jimmy.  Jimmy tells Paige.  Paige tells Hazel (Andrea Lewis).  Hazel tells Ashley.  Ashley tells Liberty.  Liberty gets upset.  When Emma sees Liberty crying, Emma ask Liberty about her and Armstrong.  Liberty swears on her life that Armstrong was not hitting on her.  Emma wonders how the rumor got started–

Uhmm, Emma …. YOU STARTED IT!

Emma promises Liberty that she will work her backwards to find the person who started the rumor–

IT WAS YOU, EMMA!  YOU STARTED THE RUMOR!

Because Emma is apparently incapable of remember what she said earlier in the day, she goes from Ashley to Hazel to Page to Spinner (she skips Jimmy) to Sean and eventually she confronts Terri.  Emma says that the rumor is all over the school and it’s all Terri’s fault.

Terri, quite sensibly, points out that Emma is the one who started the rumor.

Now, in her defense, Emma does feel bad about starting the rumor.  When Mr. Raditch calls Coach Armstrong out into the hall to tell him about the rumors, Emma walks up and confesses that it’s her fault.  But one thing Emma doesn’t do is really apologize.  In fact, when she later talks to Liberty, she instead acts as if it is somehow Liberty’s fault for not telling Emma why she was in a classroom alone with Armstrong in the first place.  Liberty finally admits that she had dyscalculia (which is dyslexia but with numbers) and that Armstrong — THE MATH TEACHER — has been tutoring her and helping her not to feel bad about it.  Emma again asks why Liberty just didn’t tell her that to begin with.

Hey, Emma — maybe Liberty didn’t tell you because IT’S NONE OF YOUR FREAKING BUSINESS!

The episode ends with Liberty telling Emma that, when it comes to helping people, Emma sucks.  And Liberty certainly has a point.

Meanwhile, in the cafeteria, Spinner discovers a bug in his food.  “Boycott the caf!” he yells, “it has earwigs!”  Unfortunately, no one believes Spinner.  So, the next day, Spinner collects a bunch of bugs and takes them into the cafeteria.  He thinks that if someone else sees a bug and reports it, they will be believed and someone will call an exterminator.  Of course, the only thing that anyone sees is Spiner carrying a tub of bugs.  The bugs get free and Spinner is sentenced to work in the cafeteria until he’s paid off the $300 that it’s going to cost the school to have the cafeteria exterminated.

“But it needed to be exterminated anyways!” Spinner says.

This was classic Spinner.  Even when he cares about Degrassi, no one listens.  It’s a little bit gross that he was carrying around a tub of living bugs but his heart was in the right place.

Spinner’s the best!