Hungry Eyes
Damien approaches Emma and Manny about supporting the purple dragon's. The dragons are a soft drink company that's going to sponser Degrassi's bad minton tournament. Damien encourages them to become purple dragon sponser girls. Manny is excited to do it. But Emma says no. Liberty invites Emma to an anti-purple dragons meeting. She says she'll go--and no one seems surprised about that. Manny tells Emma that she'll never change her ways. Emma replies by saying "I can change". At the meeting Liberty complains about the school sponsering sports and not academic activities. She also says that the dragon's shouldn't exploit young women to sell their product. Emma suggests that the best way to defeat the purple dragons is to become one. She and Liberty go undercover to audition to become purple dragon spokesmodels. Liberty gets cut but Emma gets chosen. She's required to wear a short, purple dress and give out samples of the soft drink to students. Guys go crazy when they see Emma in the short dress. Emma lets the male attention go to her head by kissing Damien. Everyone is shocked by Emma's behavior. The head purple dragon model, Natasha, tells Emma not to be so aggressive. And Manny can see that the attention is changing Emma for the worst. But Emma doesn't care. She wants to redifine herself. She seems perfectly content with her new image until a guy sexually harasses her while she's giving out samples. He says he "wants to see whats underneath her dress". Emma gets mad and pours the drink on him. Natasha finds Emma in the locker room later on and tells her that she shouldn't have reacted that way. She says that purple dragon girls are suppose to portray a sexual image. Emma says she doesn't want to be a sexual object. She gets ready to drink some purple dragon soda, but Natasha stops her and tells her they're full of calories. She says Emma should be careful of that since she wears the biggest size in the purple dragon dresses. Emma goes home and starts examining her body in the mirror. She considers going back to her anorexic days, but then she forms a plan. She shows up at the school wearing her purple dragon dress. When she gets on stage to announce the winners of the bad minton tournament, she says that she's taking a stand against purple dragon. She says she doesn't want to be used as a sexual object. Natasha tells her to shut up or take off the dress--and that's literally what Emma does. She says she won't shut up and she strips down to her underwear infront of the entire school. Everyone is shocked. The next day she recieves a couple of days of detention for violating the dress code. Mr. Simpson tells her to cool it with the antics. Emma decides to go back to her old self. But she wants to let Sean know she's not the same girl he left behind.
In the sub-plot, Mia has a crush on Sav and she agrees to help Sav with the ladies if she helps him with bad minton. Little does she know, Sav is secretly crushing on someone else.
This was a pretty light hearted episode. It's probably the first dramaless episode we've had all season. The previous episodes in season 7 have been pretty dark and heavy. Hunry Eyes was a lot less serious. The first half of the episode focuses on Emma redifining herself. She decides she's tired of being boring and predictable, so she becomes a purple dragon spokesmodel. Then the basis of the main plot sort of shifts. After Emma gets harassed by a punk at school, she starts to realize that she wants to be more than just a sexual object. And after Natasha insults her body, the old Emma comes back and takes a stand against the purple dragons in front of everyone. Emma was staying true to form throughout this episode--hypocritical and indecisive. I know that sounds terrible, but that's how Emma has always been. She calls herself a protester and crusader, then she decides to use her body to sell a soft drink. That's Emma for you--she represents one thing, but her actions represent something entirely different. The episode seemed to flow nicely, until the main plot shifted into an entirely different storyline. We went from Emma redifing herself, to Emma taking a stand and protesting. Emma also began having brief body issues again, and by brief I mean it lasted about two minutes. I'm not sure why the writers decided to throw that in the script, but it was both rushed and poorly executed. If they want to re-address Emma's body issues, they should spend more time on it instead of trying to incorporate it in an entirely different episode. Aside from that, I thought it was a good Emma centered episode. It's just that the focus of the main plot was all over the place.
The subplot was pretty bad, however. These new Lakurst kids don't offer a whole lot to the show. While the characters we've known and loved for years are maturing and getting older, these new Lakurst students are still in their "kiddie" phase. Sav's behavior in this episode was pretty comical. You gotta be pretty clueless to not realize that the girl who's giving you make out lessons likes you. I refuse to believe any teenage boy is that ignorant.
Overall, a good main plot, but a shotty subplot.
Final Grade: B