Privileged, 1x04, “All About the Power Position”

Episode Title: All About the Power Position
Writers: Rina Mimoun and Christopher Fife
Director: David Paymer
Originally Aired: 09/30/2008
Grade: A+

I thought this was the best episode so far. The first 5 minutes alone were pure awesome--I love that Rose isn't a virgin, and that she’s actually extremely responsible and well-informed about the various safety precautions.

Seeing Megan struggle to figure out how to talk about sex with Rose, and work through some of her own feelings about it in the process, was also a brilliant bit of writing. I was a little bit miffed to see her be so preachy with the "sex should be for people you love" angle with Rose, only to turn around and do completely the opposite thing with her own life (because there's no way she loves Jacob already). But then I realized that that may have been exactly what Rose needed to hear right now in order to hammer home the self-respect angle and the "porn sex doesn't necessarily equal the kind of sex you should be having with your boyfriend at 16 years old" angle. The other intricacies about sex for simple pleasure being okay if you're mature enough to handle it is probably something that Rose isn't ready for yet.

I also loved Marco calling Will on being a playboy and making it clear that his lifestyle isn't right for Megan. Their conversation was directly related to Megan, but it also dealt with them in a way that fleshed out their characters a bit. It's clear that the writers know that Will isn't the right guy for Megan right now, and it’s also clear that Marco genuinely cares about her and was willing be blunt with Will about the fact that he's kind of an ass. To his credit, at least Will took Marco’s advice to heart and didn’t pursue Megan because he knows he’s not in the right place yet, either.

I think Kristina Apgar is still a bit 'off' as Lily, but at least they fleshed the character out a bit by having her show her awareness of Megan's flaws, stick up for her anyway, and then admit that teeheehee, she still can't resist the urge to rile her sister up. And it was nice to see her call Sage on her BS.

As for Charlie, I can see how it could come off like he was sabotaging Megan by bringing up the high school story, but I just really don't get that kind of creepy Chuck Bass vibe from him. It's not like he brought it up--Megan's the one that started talking about her sex life, and Charlie just responded as friends do in those situations, and ended up talking himself into a trap without thinking it through. His emotions may certainly have played a part there, but I don't think he brought it up deliberately—it was something that just sort of happened and that he genuinely regretted later, hence him pointedly apologizing for it and telling her to answer Jacob's phone call (in spite of the fact that Jacob was about to possibly ask her out and thus smash Charlie's heart into itty bitty pieces).

I like Charlie because he seems like a real, patient friend who wants Megan to be happy even if it's not with him, as opposed to the fake "nice guy" friend who's secretly angry that she can't read his mind. Even so, I think he needs to come clean with her within the next few episodes, because as traditionally "romantic" as the secretly pining best friend trope is, the show really seems to value emotional honesty. It's really not honest or fair to anyone involved for him to keep playing the friend role when he wants to be more than that.

Other Thoughts

-Megan blew off Charlie once again to do her own thing. Charlie came over to watch the game with her, Megan insisted that she told him she had a date, and then she just breezed out of the room without even a quick apology. Rude!

-The only other thing that wasn't really working was some of the 'clever' dialogue, like "Judgy Judgerson," "lunachick tutor," and "original Gossip Girl."