This is the first of many class election episodes throught Degrassi’s history and while it’s not my favorite (that’s a toss up between DelRossi/Nunez season 4 and Matlin/Lewis/Mashkour season 11) it’s still a good episode.
This episode opens on Ashley on the phone with her best friend Terri saying how great this school year is ever now if only they could find Terri a boyfriend. It then goes into them talking about how Ashley is a shoe in for being class president as she’s running unopposed however she’s soon interrupted because someone is hogging the bathroom. Who is this someone you ask? Well remember when Toby said he and his dad were moving in with his dad’s girlfriend? Well said girlfriend is Ashley’s mom making Toby Ashley’s not quite step brother. Now it’s assumed that sometime during the series Jeff and Kate do get married however it’s done off screen and it goes from them saying we’re not siblings to referring to themselves as such.
After the cold opening it goes back and forth to both non siblings ranting to their friends about the other. This is when we meet Paige who is one of my personal favorite characters of the early years saying how she hadn’t heard from Ashley and Terri all summer and declares ‘New Year New Look New Paige’ Paige is the HBIC made apparent by her off the cuff remark about how Ashley should spend more time on her looks and less on school.
This is about the time of the episode we also meet Spinner which is amusing considering just who he dates in season 4 and who he eventually ends up with when he leaves the show. He’s in the hall stopping underclass-women Emma and Manny asking for a hall pass along with Jimmy though the later just watches his bro picking on the weaklings. As the girls leave he comments how grade 7’s are such geeks.
We are then introduced to the two main teachers Simpson who teaches Homeroom and Media Immersion in this scene to the grade 7’s while the grade 8’s are in Kwan’s Homeroom/English class.
It is now that Toby gets the idea to shake it up and have JT run against his non sister mostly as a joke to piss her off and JT ends up agreeing to the proposal.
Now we meet Liberty who is in the grade 7 group and is a major to use Canadian slang….keener. She’s running for secretary and approaches Ashley about issues including the schools lack of newspaper (an issue that gets resolved sometime between now and episode1x05) Ashley then sees Toby hanging Vote JT posters and rolls her eyes….they can’t be serious. However after a campaigning montage it seems that JT is winning in the polls. This doesn’t please Ashley who gets Jimmy and Spinner to grab JT for her and eventually pays him $80 to publically concede.
We get another scene with Bully!Spinner with Emma and Manny and get a glimpse of Actress!Manny who cries on cue and then as Spinner walks away tells Emma it always works on her brother….a brother that later becomes nonexistent….
Back to the debate. Toby is pissed JT took the money even though the campaign was meant to be a joke anyway. JT ends up following through however and Ashley ends up being president.
The episode ends with a heartfelt conversation between non-siblings.
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