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, several important characters make their first appearances!

Episode 2.4 “Karma Chameleon”

(Dir by Stefan Sciani, originally aired on October 21st, 2002)

This week, Ellie makes her first appearance!

Though she doesn’t do much in this episode, Ellie Nash (Stacey Farber) would go on to become one of the most important characters on Degrassi: The Next Generation.  (And Farber herself would go on to have one of the more-successful post-Degrassi careers of the show’s regulars.)  When I first watched Degrassi, I related to Ellie, largely because we both had red hair, we both tended to wear black, and we both had a weakness for Craig Manning.  (There was another reason why I related to Ellie but I won’t go into that until we reach season 3.)  Now that I’ve gotten older, I can see that, in high school, I actually had more in common with the overly dramatic Ashley Kerwin than I did with Ellie but still, Ellie is one of Degrassi’s best characters.

In her first appearance, Ellie refuses to move to another computer, despite Paige ordering her to so that Paige can sit next to Hazel.  Later, she provides some sarcastic comfort to Ashley after Ashley’s latest poorly conceived plan blows up in her face.  “That went well,” Ellie says and yes, it’s a little bit snarky but that’s what made Ellie so cool.  As I said, Ellie doesn’t do much in this episode.  (Stacey Farber wouldn’t become a regular until the third season.)  But she definitely makes an impression.

As for Ashley, she spends this episode trying to get back into everyone’s good graces.  Following Terri’s suggestion, Ashley swallows her pride and apologizes to Paige, Jimmy, and Sean.  Everyone seems to be willing to forgive Ashley, except for Paige.  Paige continually warns everyone that Ashley is just being manipulative.  Jimmy, however, wants to restart his romantic relationship with Ashley.  But when Sean calls Ashley and asks her on a date, Ashley happily accepts.  Terri says that Ashley is going to hurt Jimmy if she goes out with Sean because Jimmy thinks that he and Ashley are about to get back together.

Ashley rolls her eyes, explains that she’s single, and then tells Terri that “Ter, one day when a guy likes you, you’ll understand how this works.”

AGCK!

I mean, actually, Ashley’s right.  She didn’t tell Jimmy that she wanted to get back together again.  (She did say that she missed having Jimmy around and I would say that Ashley should have been able to guess how Jimmy would interpret that, given their past relationship.)  And there’s no reason why she shouldn’t date Sean Cameron if she wants to.  And, for that matter, no one likes Terri.

(At least not yet.  Eventually, Terri’s first boyfriend will end putting her in a coma and then shooting up the school but that’s a while off….)

But Ashley definitely could have put things a bit more diplomatically.  One reason why I cringe so much watching this is because I can remember saying similar stuff when I was a teenage and not understanding why people got offended until many years later.  Ellie never would have said something like that.

Meanwhile, Toby has a girlfriend!  Kendra Mason (Katie Lai) loves anime even more than Toby!  The only problem is that …. KENDRA IS SPINNER’S ADOPTED SISTER!  At first, Toby is terrified to talk to Kendra because of Spinner.  But Toby finally finds the courage to stand up to Spinner and tell him that he’s going to talk to Kendra whether Spinner likes it or not.  Spinner says that he will disembowel Toby is Toby hurts his sister.  Toby says he’s prepared for that.  (Toby, never prepare for something like that.)  It’s nice that Toby has a girlfriend and can presumably stop whining about Emma liking Seasn.  It’s just too bad that Kendra’s going to vanish after this season and never be mentioned again, not even by her protective older brother.

Also, all the boys in school are in love with the new science teacher, Ms. Hatzilakos (Melissa DiMarco).  This was Hatzilakos’s first appearance.  It’s only one scene of Spinner and Jimmy drooling at their desks.  Of course, Ms. Hatzilakos is destined to eventually become principal of Degrassi and her son Peter will eventually enroll as a student, break a lot of hearts and law, and write the deathless song House Arrest.

Anyway, Jimmy gets mad at Ashley.  Sean gets mad at Ashley and calls off their date.  Paige tells Terri that she has to make a choice between four years of being popular or four years of being an outcast and Terri decides to be popular.  Ashley breaks down crying as her school picture is taken.  So ends another happy episode of Degrassi!

Oh, this episode.  It’s actually pretty good for an Ashley episode.  And the freeze frame of Ashley getting her school picture taken as a tear sloppily rolls down her face?  That’s image pretty much sums up Degrassi perfectly.

Next week, Spinner is a part of a science experiment and …. well, this would never happen on American television.