Mony Yassir | Through the Shattered Lens

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.

Don’t watch this episode if you have a weak stomach.

Episode 2.9 “Mirror In The Bathroom”

(Dir by Paul Fox, originally aired on July 18th, 2003)

This is the one where Toby decides that the only way to get people to notice him in school is to join the wrestling team. However, when he discovers that he and Sean are in the same weight class (and there’s no way that Toby could ever beat Sean), Toby decides to lose a lot of weight in a very short amount of time.

Yep, this is the episode were Toby starts taking laxatives and throwing up his lunch.

Ugh. Yes, I know that eating disorders are serious. It’s nice that Degrassi did an episode about a guy doing something stupid instead of a girl. If there’s anything I get sick of, it’s the assumption that some people have that any woman who isn’t fat must have an eating disorder. Seriously, you can’t win. If you gain weight, you endanger your health. If you don’t gain weight, everyone assumes you’re throwing up everything you eat. This episode featured a guy struggling with body issues and I appreciated the change of pace.

That said …. ugh! Toby using laxatives! Ugh, ugh, ugh!

While Toby is losing weight, Terri is using her weight to get rich as a plus-sized model. Good for her, I guess. Terri’s kind of a boring character so, for now, it’s difficult to really care about her storylines. In season 3, she’ll start dating Rick Murray and everything will change. But we’ve still got a while to go.

Anyway, as always happens when someone gets an eating disorder, Toby ends up fainting in front of the entire school. He’s off the wrestling team but at least he’ll never take another laxative.

Seriously, ugh!

This week, Emma is annoyed about something.

Episode 2.5 “Weird Science”

(Dir by Bruce McDonald, originally aired on November 11th, 2002)

Emma is still upset that Mr. Simpson is dating her mother. This episode opens with an extremely awkward “family” dinner, in which Mr. Simpson asks that Emma call him “Archie” at home and Emma responds by calling him “Mr. Simpson.” (At least he didn’t ask her to call him Snake.) I could actually relate to Emma in this scene, if just because, when I was Emma’s age, I was an absolute brat towards anyone who tried to date my mom. If anything, Mr. Simpson should be happy that all he has to deal with is Emma glaring at him. He wouldn’t have been able to survive me and my sisters.

It’s science fair time! Emma’s experiment takes a look at whether or not having a healthy breakfast can be help someone perform better at school. She takes first prize but, because Mr. Simpson is one of the judges, she’s not sure that she earned it. And, after Manny accidentally sends an email to the entire school in which she mentions that “Mr. Simpson loves Emma’s mom,” second-place finisher Liberty isn’t so sure that Emma deserves the prize either.

Liberty says that Emma should withdraw her experiment and give the first prize trophy to Liberty. Liberty, as I’ve mentioned in the past, is the absolute worst. Emma confronts Mr. Simpson and he explains to her that all of the judges voted for Emma to get first prize. Emma apologizes and promises to be nicer to Mr. Simpson.

(This, of course, frees Mr. Simpson to later knock up and marry Spike before cheating on her with Ms. Hatzilakos but that’s an entire season away.)

Meanwhile, Spinner is freaking out because he keeps getting erections at awkward moments — hey, Degrassi goes there! (Seriously, that was Degrassi’s slogan for a while.) Spinner blames it on Emma forcing him to eat bananas as a part of her experiment. Jimmy thinks that Spinner is crazy and eventually they ask Sheila the Cafeteria Lady if certain foods could be to blame for Spinner being perpetually at attention. Sheila says that it’s just a part of growing up. Spinner and Jimmy are relieved but I’m concerned that, in Canada, it’s apparently left to the cafeteria workers to explain these things.

This episode is largely remembered for the Spinner subplot, with Spinner panicking and getting embarrassed in Ms. Kwan’s class, so much so that I’m always surprised to discover that it’s mostly about Emma getting mad at Mr. Simpson. Emma, of course, is destined to eventually marry Spinner at the end of Degrassi Takes Manhattan. The Spinner/Emma marriage has often been criticized because Spinner and Emma hardly ever interacted in the seasons leading up to their sudden decision to get married. But this episode shows that Emma apparently felt close enough to Spinner to experiment on him.

Next week: Craig and the gang get into trouble!