Season 5, Episode 4 – “Life After Death”
-Starts with Brandon giving a eulogy at Josh’s funeral. Brandon, a guy who barely knows Josh and a guy who loathed Josh all of freshman year as Josh was constantly on his ass, is now having to stand up there and act like Josh’s BFF. But oh how these episodes somehow always come full circle don’t they? Stay tuned.
-Donna’s mom Felice wants her to date since god forbid she’s ever seen in D’Shawn Hardell’s vicinity ever again. Clutch the pearls. She has a friend of hers that has a son who’s a junior at CU that she wants to set her up with. Donna is reluctant. Why? Who knows? She still wants that D from David and apparently can’t function without him and is garbage bag sized shirts in her life.
-On campus, David sees Clare working on a computer and thinks she’s kinda fly. I just assume that’s what David thinks of her since that’s how I see David describing women in 1994. He asks her if she wants to help him with a college production he’s putting together. Did I mention that David has no idea who Clare is and who she lives with? I didn’t? Good. Because it’s about to get awkward sauce up at the beach house once he does.
-We’re at the beach house next and Clare is telling Donna about this new cool guy she met in computer class. It’s like the female version of what’s going on with Dylan and Steve both talking about the same girl but neither knows who the other is referring to. Also, Brandon comes over to the beach house to talk to Kelly. He’s still haunted by Josh’s death and wonders why it wasn’t him in that car. Brandon has no answers, and neither does Kelly. But she’s not helping and I guess we can call this their first “fight” as a couple. Fight #1 of 1,000. Because having couples happy on this show lasting more than 3 or 4 episodes is a miracle.
-Back on campus, Andrea runs into Kelly. But Andrea has her stroller with Hannah. Ok, I’ve got some questions. What is Andrea doing at the school? I know she’s in nursing, but we never actually see her in nursing at CU? Do they even have a nursing program? And yes, there are definitely women in college who have children, but do any of them bring them on campus and stroll them around the quad area like it’s a normal thing? Because Andrea Zuckerman sure does.
-Clare brings Donna to introduce her to the new cute guy in the oversized shirts and baggy pants and she sees it’s David. How do you think Donna responds to this? Yeah, not well. Basically Donna leaves and David tells Clare that Donna is his ex and Clare realizes that she’s now living in David’s old room and we’ve got a conundrum on our hands. One that actually took a lot shorter to get resolved than you would think.
-Big student council meeting, and Alex Diaz is questioning Brandon’s legitimacy to be the student body President because he wasn’t elected, Josh was. But, well, Josh is no longer with us. Andrea joins in on this meeting, along with her stroller and Hannah. Again, does anyone find this remotely weird this single mom is showing up at meetings with a baby in a stroller? No one? No one wants to say, “Hey, maybe not the time and place for this?” Guess not. Just me. Ok, got it.
-KEG house (which is Kappa Epsilon Gamma, clearly a fake fraternity) is having a get together for a party later that night, and we’re introduced to one of Steve’s frat bros, Griffin Stone (Casper Van Dien), a guy you’ve seen do a ton of character work on TV throughout the years appearing on shows like “Life Goes On,” “Silk Stalkings,” “Titans,” “Monk,” “Hawaii Five-O” among others. I think people thought he would be a bigger star after this, but definitely has gotten a lot of work since then. Griffin Stone will be a player in the next few episodes.
-Brandon is at the Peach Pit talking to Nat about Josh’s death and how he feels so empty and why it wasn’t him, etc. Brandon is very affected by all this even though he barely knew the guy and wonders why Josh even considered him a friend. Yeah, I think we’re all kinda wondering the same thing too Brandon. Don’t beat yourself up over it. Order a Megaburger and stop moping around.
-Val is over at Dylan’s. Again. And now because they’ve exchanged bodily fluids, they are opening up about their dads. She tells him how hers committed suicide by shooting himself, and Dylan tells her how his dad was blown up in a car. Ahhhhh, now we see why these two are kindred spirits. Makes total sense now. Even though Dylan didn’t have a clue about that until she told him. Sex changes everything apparently.
-KEG party. Brandon is still pouting, Kelly apologizes to him even though it’s probably Brandon who should be apologizing. Griffin Stone sees Donna from across the room and, here we are again, with another scene of people in close quarters dancing awkwardly. I mean, when was the last time you went up to someone at a party or bar and said, “Hey, would you like to dance?” It’s happened 862 times already in 3 episodes.
-David goes over to the beach house to see Clare but wants to tell her that the break up with Donna was rough, and he doesn’t know if seeing Clare is a good idea. He doesn’t want to hurt Donna. Clare reluctantly agrees to this and it’ll last all of about an episode or two before that changes. By the way, in real life when this season was airing, I believe Brian Austin Green and Tiffani Amber Theissen were a couple in real life, which also made things a little weird around set I’m sure.
-Back at the KEG party, Griffin makes an off handed joke to Donna in the middle of their dance about being good at indoor sports. She immediately tells him she’s a good Catholic girl, he says he’s the same – even though he’s not. Security then shows up to try and break up the party. Brandon pretends to not know Steve and being the acting President on campus, advises that he’s there to clear the party himself so Brandon bails Steve out – again.
-Val and Steve are at the Peach Pit after the party gets broken up, and whaddya’ know, they run into Dylan. Dylan has to pretend he has no idea who she and they were just lying naked the night before. Steve is clueless and still under the impression Valerie would be interested in a blonde permed party good with the IQ of a sock. Then again, he does have money, so she’ll have to at least pretend to have interest for a little bit.
-The next day, Donna’s mom’s friend is coming over with her son that she wants Donna to date. Guess who it is? Griffin! He knew who Donna was and that’s why he asked her to dance at the party and not because that’s weird or anything. Awwwww, looks like we’ve found a little partner for Donna as she gets over David. Well, until next episode when you-know-who makes his first appearance and that courtship of Donna begins.
-At the beach house, David and Clare are getting cozy working on a project and Donna walks in in her bikini, forcing them to jump out of their coziness. Donna doesn’t seem to mind though. Why? Because Griffin is there and they’re headed to the beach.
-The episode ends with Josh’s sister visiting Brandon before she leaves to go back home. She hands Brandon a letter that Josh had written to their mom about this new friend he’d met on campus – which was Brandon. Brandon reads the letter to Kelly, he’s now content with Josh’s passing, and all is good in the world. No real cliffhanger in this episode, just ends on a happy note that a guy who hated Brandon last year came around on him and said some nice things before a dump truck crashed into his crappy car on the street.
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