Monday, June 24, 2013

1x08 Secrets and Lies: Recap


This episode opens with Ashley in the car with her bio dad Robert who has come back from England. She’s glad that he’s visiting and giving a lecture in their MI class. She gets dropped off back home and watches as her mom and Jeff are having a minor argument (I think it was about dishes but I didn’t note it) however Kate soon stops to ask about her time with her dad. Ashley smiles saying she had a good time.


WHATEVER IT TAKES……

Flash-forward to the school where Terri is showing Ashley her mother’s locket that was passed onto to her after she died. She asks Ashley what her mom thinks about her dad being back.

The scene now cuts to the MI lab where Emma is asking Sean if he’s worked on his poem for English class. Sean says how stupid poetry is while JT tosses a paper plain across the room. Liberty takes the fall for this and it’s clear she has a thing for JT. This moment gave me many emotions especially knowing that happens with these two as the seasons progress especially seasons 4-6. Not jumping ahead of myself Liberty tells JT that she needs to cover his back and then states how the school paper has yet to have a seventh grader as it’s featured student and she intends to fix that by featuring JT.

In English class Sean reads a poem about not liking poetry while Liberty reads one about JT much to JT’s distain. What is it with Liberty can she not take a hint….

Ashley’s dad talks to Simpson’s class and Terri and Paige are swooning about him. He’s kind of hot for a dad….you know if you’re into that sort of thing which they totally aren’t.  They ask weather Ashley thinks now that he’s back if he and her mom will try and start over and Ashley shrugs.

JT is hiding from Liberty and once she catches him and brings up the interview he makes an excuse that he has to go to dance class….with Toby. Liberty however sees through this lie.

Robert drops Ashley off and Kate is outside. Kate comments about how nice her ex has aged and they engage in some other small talk as well prompting Ashley to ask her mom once her dad drives off why they don’t get back together. This conversation culminates in Ashley commenting ‘What…is he gay or something’ and is met with an awkward silence. Claiming she was kidding Kate tells her that yes, her dad is gay and this is the reason they got a divorce.

Toby must of either listened in or a dinner convo happened off screen cause he and JT are talking about this development the following day at Degrassi and think it’s weird a guy could like another guy.

At Lunch Terri asks Ashley what’s up and she simply says she heard some news however Paige soon shows up with a theory….the reason Ashley’s parents split is because her father is Gay. While this is true Ashley doesn’t want to talk about it and tosses Milk over Paige who proclaims her oldest brother is gay and she was trying to help. Yet another bit of foreshadowing as while we only do meet one brother later on in season 3 he is in fact gay.

JT in the meantime decides that the way to brush Liberty off is to pretend that he himself is gay which seems to crush Liberty’s heart…

Ashley confronts her dad who said he was planning on telling her himself but wanted to talk with her about it when she was older. The divorce was apparently five years ago so thirteen is much more mature then eight. He then talks about his partner Christopher a guy who Ashley knew as his friend from work who went to the zoo with her when she was younger. She’s upset about it and storms off.

Liberty suggests JT come out to the school in her profile piece which leads him to admit he was lying about being gay just to brush her off. Liberty is even more crushed then before

Terri now knows about Ashley’s dad and talks to her about it. Ashley says how her father is dead to her and Terri says that’s harsh to say because her mom actually is dead and Ashley at least has her dad around to patch things up with and that she should make the right choice.


This is the first episode of many which Degrassi talks about members of the LGBT community and each plot is diverse and complex in its own right.   

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