Beneath all the relationship drama, bad puns and Casie-Cappie stuff, the season finale of Greek touched on the very theme that makes the show popular and, ultimately, fascinating. Last week’s installment dipped its toes into this idea, but the Spring Break capper to this season embraced it. The most interesting thing about this week’s Greek wasn’t anything happening at Spring Break, but the hints of what happens after it. And by that, I mean what happens after college finishes.
The episode left hints about that post-collegiate fear throughout the episode: the middle-aged hotel receptionist seemed downright miserable, entertained only by Who Wants to be a Millionaire at an otherwise drab career. Conversations about majors and the inevitable return to school were underlined with fear and anxiety. Near the end, the adult world interrupted the festivities via a Congressional scandal (no, seriously) that directly affected three characters. The most morbid line came, oddly enough, from a character who hasn’t said anything intelligent all season (and wouldn’t say another non-cringe-worthy word the rest of the episode). Before the title sequence even flashed by, Ashleigh said, in reference to appropriate beach music, “No Jimmy Buffet, we have plenty of time to listen to him when we are sad and old.” And yet “Spring Broke” hinted at the fact that the characters on this show may not have much more time before “Cheeseburger in Paradise” becomes a sonic staple.
And I’m glad Greek finally spent a lot of time touching on one of the central themes of the show. After tonight’s season finale, the future of the series seems a bit better off — sure, plenty of rehash, but the conflict of the characters trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives offers a whole slew of new possibilities in coming seasons. Tonight’s episode wasn’t the best episode, but it did an excellent job setting the next season up.
Summary
Everyone is going to Myrtle Beach, S.C., for spring break. Rusty ends up having a miserable time, and opts to head home early. As does Calvin, who misses his boyfriend. The two end up on the same bus home, and much re-connecting happens (eventually). Evan goes on a tear, meeting tons of new girls after the Casey episode, but eventually gets closer to Frannie. Casey and Ashleigh just want to have a good time and meet some boys. But things change when Casey and Cappie start getting close again, and Ashleigh finds a super hot guy she “wants to molest.” She calls him the “Hot-ness Monster,” by the way. Cringe.
Representations of College
- I think it’s hard to mess up a spring break episode of a college show — just show lots of partying and some live music (from a band called American Bang, a group I initially confused with Kings of Leon) and you pretty much cover everything that needs to be covered.
- One of the wacky things on Casey’s “spring break to-do list”? Play a drinking game. Uhhh, that doesn’t seem that out of the ordinary to me. Shouldn’t she have played one at some point at college? Weird.
- Casey freaks out when Rebecca starts doing stupid stuff while wearing her letters. I’ve been told by some of my sorority pals this is a policy, that letters can’t be displayed in photos or videos featuring alcohol.
- As much as the title “Hot-ness Monster” makes me ill, I’m starting to see that girls really do dub certain boys with equally idiotic titles. Maybe the writers of this show are really geniuses, and I’m the idiot. Why not?
Examples of Greek’s Bad Writing in Action
- Hidden geniuses or not, I’m still pointing out “Hot-ness Monster” as stupid.
- “I just met the man I’m going to molest!” Sad face goes here.
- “You’re putting my tray table into its upright position.” Cappie to Rebecca. Suprisingly, I don’t hate this because it is a bad erection joke. Rather, it’s dumb because Cappie uses an airplane metaphor for no reason. They weren’t talking about planes or commercial airflights or anything. There has to be stuff at the beach he can compare his boner to.
- Also, Ashleigh named her credit card Teresa Visa. Just… poor Ashleigh.
Closing Question – Why can’t September come sooner? Also, why is Ashleigh so stupid? The actor who plays her seems coherent enough, if the below video proves anything.