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, Degrassi goes there.

Episode 2.20 “How Soon Is Now?”

(Dir by Eleanore Lindo, originally aired on February 9th, 2003)

After intensive therapy with the school’s counselor, Ms. Sauve (Jennifer Podemski), Paige convinces herself that she’s emotionally recovered from being raped by Dean.  Paige says she doesn’t need any more therapy and she just wants to get on her with her life.  However, when she discovers that Dean’s school will be coming to Degrassi for a basketball game, she starts to spiral.

Paige’s rape was one of Degrassi’s first “mature” storylines, in that it dealt with a controversial issue and it did so in  a realistic way.  Instead of simply wrapping things up after an episode or two, Degrassi stretched this storyline over several seasons and let it play out with an honesty that is rarely seen on television..  Instead of having Paige magically go back to being who she was before she was raped, Degrassi portrayed how Paige changed as a result of both the rape and her struggle to get justice.  That the show did so realistically is a credit to both Degrassi and Lauren Collins’s portrayal of Paige.

One of the things that makes this episode difficult to watch is that Paige largely suffers alone.  Only a few people know about the rape.  A bitter Spinner still thinks that the encounter between Paige and Dean was consensual.  When Dean does show up at Degrassi, it’s obvious that he feels no guilt about what happened and, soon, he’s even hitting on Manny.  When Paige tries to warn Manny, Manny replies that Dean told her all about how crazy Paige is.  It’s only when Paige tells JT about what happened that someone finally stands up for her.  JT may just be the mascot but he doesn’t hold back when he attacks Dean on the court.  Of course, JT is still JT so it’s not like he really does that much physical damage to Dean but it’s still gratifying to see.  In fact, this is the first episode in which JT actually reveals himself to be something other than just the annoying class clown.

At the end of the episode, Paige tells Ms. Suave that she wants to press charges against Dean.  Ms. Suave warns her that, with the amount of time that has passed, it’s going to be Paige’s word against his.  Paige says she understands.  I always want to applaud at the end of this episode, even though I know how things are going to develop.

As for the B-plot, Marco’s being a jerk.  He and Ellie are working on a class project.  They have to create an ad campaign for a fake cologne.  Marco wants to do a “Bollywood thing.”  Ellie wants to turn Marco into a sex symbol.  Marco gets annoyed because Ellie hasn’t fully accepted that he’s gay and not romantically attracted to her.  Hey, Marco — you’re the one who asked her to pretend to be your girlfriend so that you could stay in the closet so instead of getting mad at her, maybe think about what you’re putting her through!

Seriously, I get that Marco was a ground-breaking character at the time and I respect that, just as with Paige’s storyline, the show attempted to be realistic in its portrayal of Marco slowly finding the confidence to be his true self.  That said, Marco could be really self-righteous.

But no matter.  Even with Marco acting like Marco, this was an important episode.  Degrassi went there.