Privileged, 1x08, “All About Defining Yourself”

Episode Title: All About Defining Yourself
Writer: Jenny Lynn
Director: Paul Lazarus
Originally Aired: 11/04/2008
Grade: A-

My take on the early portion of this episode is that if Charlie needs to apologize for being “mean” a couple of times, Megan needs to apologize for being a self-absorbed twit for literally months (and possibly even longer than that, if this is how their friendship has always operated). And from what I recall, she hasn’t done so, within this episode or anywhere else.

It was nice that we got some insight/backstory on Charlie, but it seems lame that it was used to get him out of his fight with Megan, and kind of a fakeout for the audience in leading us to believe he was going to confess his feelings for Megan. I’m not even sure what the writers are trying to say here. Are we supposed to believe that Charlie was using something he’d realized was true through his conversation with Rose to give Megan an acceptable, but not entirely true, explanation of where his animosity towards her came from? Or are we supposed to think that this is genuinely the source of Charlie’s anger, and that his feelings for Megan were beside the point? I think they needed to linger with Charlie a little bit more to make it clear whether he was telling Megan a big whopper or whether that was honestly supposed to be the truth.

It was great to see Rose stand up to Sage, but I wish their fight had been a bit longer, especially because the entire fight occurred and was resolved in the last 15 minutes of the episode. Still, Rose made an important first step in separating herself from Sage.

Will wandering into Megan’s room and plopping down on her bed was very WTF for me. When did they get so friendly? Who does he think he is? (And the anvilicious song choice at the end of the scene didn’t help one bit.) The later scene outside, with her smacking him on the head affectionately, worked much better and seemed more like where they should be at in terms of their relationship, rather than him nonchalantly strolling into her room and sitting on her bed like he’s the Dawson Leery to her Joey Potter.

And Mandy… I like her in theory, but the ho patch and the bobblehead make me a bit hesitant to cheer for the reality… I do like that she’s able to be honest and call people on their crap, and yet not be some typical queen bee heartless bitch, like early Cordelia Chase or various other characters of that type.