" Crazy Little Thing Called Love "
Airdate: Friday, November 17th

Emma is about to engage in a time honored Canadian tradition � picking up her boyfriend from jail. That�s not to say every guy in Canada is a jail bird... just most of them. Kidding, kidding... anyway, Shawn tells Em that he�s free, out on probation, and ready to live the good life. �Now we can be together � the perfect girl and the guy who doesn�t deserve her,� Shawn says. Oh yes, this is starting out on a good foot. Emma, don�t you know that a guy who doesn�t think he�s worth you will deliberately screw things up? Run, run for the hills! But no, she gives him a gift: a laminated picture of the two of them when they were just wee. Shawn tells her he wishes he could go back. �To bad hair, braces, and general pre-pubescent awkwardness?� Em asks. �Back to a time when you were proud of me,� he says. Em, I�m telling you � lost cause until he gets into therapy to deal with his anger and inadequacy issues.

Shawn is having dinner at Em�s. No, wait � he�s staying with Em until he can get himself a place to live. Spike starts grilling him, but Emma protests, insisting Shawn be given the opportunity to explain his plans, which amount to meeting with Jay to get a job as a mechanic and finding his own place. �What about school, have you given any thought to going back to Degrassi?� Snake asks. Yeah, I know it�s more PC to call him Archie or Mr. Simpson, but he�ll always be Snake to me. Shawn says � and I�m paraphrasing here � �Hell no.� He goes on to say he wants to open his own custom car shop, which prompts Snake to snark about a bank not giving money to a high school drop out, then spins his wheels and says, �I�m sure you�ll figure it all out.� Three cheers for friendly support!

Second storyline time!: Danny and Dwight � who will forever be known as D1 and D2, the two Ds � run through the halls and smack into a teacher, who drops his coffee cup and wails, �Look at my new shoes! They�re ruined!� I hate to be catty, but they weren�t much to begin with. At any rate he gets way too agro over shoes and a coffee cup, prompting Snake to remind him, �Go easy � they�re just kids.� I smell an abusive teacher coming on!

Meanwhile, Shawn is interviewing for his mechanic gig and � naturally � aces his interview and starts immediately.

Numero Two: D1 gives a report in Agro Teacher�s class � scarily, named Dom... are there no other names available that don�t start with D? � when Agro Teacher bags on his efforts. D2 speaks up, landing them both in detention.

Emma drops by Shawn�s work to meet up with him, and Shawn�s in the mood to celebrate. Wrapping one arm around Emma and the other around Jay he says, �My best friend and my girlfriend � the only two people I can count on!� �Girlfriend,� Jay says with a tinge of disgust in his voice. �I guess not even jail time can keep you two lovebirds apart, huh?� He shoots Emma a look, which she returns as Shawn suggests the three of them hang out and catch up on old times. Yes, let�s hope it�s not at the ravine, right Em? �Yeah, Shawn�s not up on old times,� Jay says. �Old times are overrated,� Emma tells him. �This is going to end ugly,� Carly predicts. Instead, Shawn opts to take Em out for dinner.

Dos: D2 runs into Agro Teacher at the bus stop and is stunned that, upon trying to be nice to him, A.T. picks on him some more. Clearly he�s still dealing with his own high school inadequacy issues.

�Where is my lucky bra � the one that gives me Manny boobs?� Emma wails, rifling through her clothes. I�m thinking that�s the quote of the episode at the moment. Manny asks what the big deal is, and Emma blathers on about nonsense until she gets to the meat of the matter � she hasn�t told him about what happened between her and Jay after Shawn left, and she thinks she should. That, and she wants to be perfect. �Unlike those shoes, nobody�s perfect,� Manny advises. For goodness sake, Manny has wormed her way into my heart with all this maturity she�s showing. Give the girl a daytime talk show.

Shawn makes arrangements with Spinner to shut down The Dot and lights a bunch of those 100-per-bag tealights from Ikea, then sits with Emma and holds hands with her over burgers. Shawn says he could forgive her if she weren�t really perfect. Emma asks if he could hold it against her. Naturally he says no, but does she tell him about Jay? Noooooo. At work the next day, Shawn tells Jay about the date. Naturally, Jay spills the beans. What does Shawn do? Flip out and almost starts a fight with Jay. He then goes to Degrassi and confronts Emma. �Who told you that?� Em asks. Yeah, not a good way to answer that. Predictably, Shawn takes off in a huff.

Back at work, Shawn winds up pressing Jay for information and doesn�t like what he hears, so he starts scrapping with him. Back at school, Emma starts stabbing a fake heart in bio class with her pencil as she explains what happened with Shawn to Manny. Manny basically tells her Shawn�s pot shouldn�t be calling her kettle black. Word.

Duo: Agro Teacher attempts to make amends with D2. But when he starts picking on another student, D2 goes to Snake and rats him out, which results in an investigation. Guess who�s getting a failing grade in history?

Meanwhile, Shawn freaks out at a customer at work and winds up at Emma�s, where he starts packing up his stuff as he laments that Emma has changed. �Well what do you expect, Shawn? In three months I�ll be old enough to vote and legally drink in Quebec � I�m not in grade seven anymore,� she says. By the way, you�re better to drink in Quebec anyway � bars are open later there than in Toronto. That�s not a good enough explanation for Shawn, who lives by the credo of Billy Ocean � when the going gets tough, the tough get going. He takes off to the bus shelter and debates leaving, right up until that six year-old picture of him and Emma falls to his feet. He picks it up and spots a couple kissing in the distance. An omen!

Just as the camera zooms in on Emma�s tears, Shawn appears. �When I came back here from Wasaga, it wasn�t about school or opening a garage,� he tells her. �The funny thing is you got what you came for,� she says. He tells her not to give up. She says she can�t be perfect. �Good � I want you to challenge me � to call me on my crap,� he says. �Good, but you need to save yourself from yourself sometimes,� she advises him. Are you kidding me? 17 year-olds really talk this way now? This terrifies me � I don�t want to have my child telling me it�s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all when it�s still in the womb! Shawn tells her he�s going to ask for his job back, get his high school equivalency and find his own place. He kisses her. �I want to get to know you again, Em.� Aww. But you know what they say, it�s all fun and games until someone goes to the ravine...

iTunes Links

Degrassi: The Next Generation - Series
Degrassi: The Next Generation - Season 6
" Crazy Little Thing Called Love "

Vern Seward is a writer who currently lives in Orlando, FL. He’s been a Mac fan since Atari Computers folded, but has worked with computers of nearly every type for 20 years.