Season finale time! To start, I’m impressed with Jenna—she’s trying her best to keep a good face on for Matty, and besides her overuse of the word “fantastic,” she’s doing a good job of hiding her despair. Ma Lacey is waiting for her excitedly, but Jenna bursts her bubble and (respectfully) asks to be alone. At which point I started yelling “NO JENNA NO!” at my TV, since she grabs a pair of scissors and cuts herself out of the $750 dress she just bought. YOU COULD HAVE RETURNED THAT! Sigh.
To soothe her deeply disappointed soul, she grabs Unraveled (the book Hart gave her) and dives into a deep obsession. After an ill-advised declaration of love and some research, Jenna is horrified to find out that author Russell Jonathan is actually Mr. Hart. As Jenna squirms in class, Hart asks his students to reflect on what he asked of them. “You asked us to give you permission to torture us,” and “You asked if we were morons,” come before Sadie’s exasperated, “You asked us who we wanted to be.” Hart then assigns them an opus on who they want to be. “I don’t know who I want to be, don’t know who I am, but I know who you are, RUSS.” Besides thinking she was in love with him for a hot second, I’m not sure why Jenna is so angry about Hart’s penname.
Breaking down the prom, character by character: Lissa’s making herself third wheel to Sadie and Austin, since the only guy for her is “JC” (NOT Jesus Christ, as we discover later, but some dude) and she can only see him at church. Sadie is detailing how Austin’s lack of social filter comes along with a lack of judgment, so he knows about her former bulimic tendencies. Sadie reluctantly admits she’s in love, punctuating it with, “If you tell anyone I’m having this softside moment, I will cut you.” Sadie: a girl after my own heart. At the dance, Austin calls her out on loving him but not knowing how to say it. He tells her he loves her too, and they carry on being adorable.
Now on to Jenna, Matty, and Bailey: Bailey turned down Matty, so he’s not going to the prom because he doesn’t want to ask anyone else, thus crushing the last vestiges of Jenna’s hope. Jenna continues avoiding Bailey, until Bailey tracks her down, panicking that Jenna would never speak to her again. She explains, “Jenna, you are my only friend, I would never do anything to hurt you.” Jenna is moved by Bailey’s show of friendship, causing her to make one of her own—she drags the two of them together and says, ““I could make this weird all day or you could end the pain and go to prom together.” Little by little, Jenna is redeeming herself.
After talking about how Hart’s assignment exorcised some “demons” for him (stop), Colin confronts Jenna: “Have you finally gotten over your hatred for me?” Jenna shuts him down with a “I can’t hate someone I don’t care about.” BAM. Jenna then turns to Hart, trying to take a zero for the assignment since she spent the last half season trashing her life. Hart details how he became a teacher—he had a successful first book and a flop of a second book. He became a teacher to help talented kids face criticism. “Success isn’t about winning, it’s about staying in the game and not quitting.” Hart knows what’s up.
Now, let’s check on Ming: earlier in the episode, she was in the midst of a nervy b, panicking that she and Fred Wu going to the prom meant that they’ll be having sex afterwards. Fred Wu picks up on Ming’s hesitation, asserting that he doesn’t care about what happens as long as she’s comfortable—of course, he thought her angst was over her wanting to wear a pants suit. Failing to pick up on the actual reason, Fred says, “We’re going to have a great time, especially when we get back to the hotel room!” Wondering why they can’t play “Fucking mah jong” (lol) instead, Ming’s (failed) tactic is to use her overprotective parents to save her by trying to destroy their view of Fred and forbid her from going to prom. Ming, I admire your creativity, but I feel like this could have been quite problematic in the future. Turns out Fred Wu got the hotel room so they can stay up all night, watch pay-per-view, and hopefully make out.
Tamara and Jake have the same fight they’ve had all season, prom edition. Except this time Jake shows up in a leopard print tux to prove his point. Carry on!
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Back to Jenna: a heart to heart with Ma Lacey convinces Jenna to both send her paper to Hart AND go to the prom. Bailey is excited to see Jenna and pushes her and Matty to slow dance together. Jenna admits that she bought the prom dress thinking that Matty was going to ask her. Matty’s surprised—he didn’t know they were still open. Jenna didn’t know they were closed. “When I hurt you, I didn’t understand what I was doing—I didn’t love myself enough to let you love me.” Impressive self awareness right there, Jenna.
Jenna goes off on her own, clearly a bit sad, but also clearly in a better place. She says, “I want to be someone willing to forgive, who cares more about others than themselves, who tells it like it is, who would give up everything for the right reason, who sees the best in everyone, who is a true friend, who always strives to be a better person, who learned from their mistakes, and that girl who doesn’t need a boy to be happy, because I’ll know how to dance all on my own.” Mic drop.
Well it looks like J has come out of her self destructive tornado with a bit more sense, respect, and self worth than she did at the start of the season (thank the good lord). I’m curious about what direction they’ll take her in for the next season—fingers crossed that she doesn’t regress.
What are you hoping to see next season? Do you think Matty and Jenna will get back together?
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Previously on Awkward.: Mr. Hart gives Jenna a book to help her figure out who she is/what kind of writer she is. Jenna introduced Matty to her new friend Bailey, which she lived to regret once Matty asked her permission to ask said new friend to the prom.
Season finale time! To start, I’m impressed with Jenna—she’s trying her best to keep a good face on for Matty, and besides her overuse of the word “fantastic,” she’s doing a good job of hiding her despair. Ma Lacey is waiting for her excitedly, but Jenna bursts her bubble and (respectfully) asks to be alone. At which point I started yelling “NO JENNA NO!” at my TV, since she grabs a pair of scissors and cuts herself out of the $750 dress she just bought. YOU COULD HAVE RETURNED THAT! Sigh.
To soothe her deeply disappointed soul, she grabs Unraveled (the book Hart gave her) and dives into a deep obsession. After an ill-advised declaration of love and some research, Jenna is horrified to find out that author Russell Jonathan is actually Mr. Hart. As Jenna squirms in class, Hart asks his students to reflect on what he asked of them. “You asked us to give you permission to torture us,” and “You asked if we were morons,” come before Sadie’s exasperated, “You asked us who we wanted to be.” Hart then assigns them an opus on who they want to be. “I don’t know who I want to be, don’t know who I am, but I know who you are, RUSS.” Besides thinking she was in love with him for a hot second, I’m not sure why Jenna is so angry about Hart’s penname.
Breaking down the prom, character by character: Lissa’s making herself third wheel to Sadie and Austin, since the only guy for her is “JC” (NOT Jesus Christ, as we discover later, but some dude) and she can only see him at church. Sadie is detailing how Austin’s lack of social filter comes along with a lack of judgment, so he knows about her former bulimic tendencies. Sadie reluctantly admits she’s in love, punctuating it with, “If you tell anyone I’m having this softside moment, I will cut you.” Sadie: a girl after my own heart. At the dance, Austin calls her out on loving him but not knowing how to say it. He tells her he loves her too, and they carry on being adorable.
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Now on to Jenna, Matty, and Bailey: Bailey turned down Matty, so he’s not going to the prom because he doesn’t want to ask anyone else, thus crushing the last vestiges of Jenna’s hope. Jenna continues avoiding Bailey, until Bailey tracks her down, panicking that Jenna would never speak to her again. She explains, “Jenna, you are my only friend, I would never do anything to hurt you.” Jenna is moved by Bailey’s show of friendship, causing her to make one of her own—she drags the two of them together and says, ““I could make this weird all day or you could end the pain and go to prom together.” Little by little, Jenna is redeeming herself.
After talking about how Hart’s assignment exorcised some “demons” for him (stop), Colin confronts Jenna: “Have you finally gotten over your hatred for me?” Jenna shuts him down with a “I can’t hate someone I don’t care about.” BAM. Jenna then turns to Hart, trying to take a zero for the assignment since she spent the last half season trashing her life. Hart details how he became a teacher—he had a successful first book and a flop of a second book. He became a teacher to help talented kids face criticism. “Success isn’t about winning, it’s about staying in the game and not quitting.” Hart knows what’s up.
Now, let’s check on Ming: earlier in the episode, she was in the midst of a nervy b, panicking that she and Fred Wu going to the prom meant that they’ll be having sex afterwards. Fred Wu picks up on Ming’s hesitation, asserting that he doesn’t care about what happens as long as she’s comfortable—of course, he thought her angst was over her wanting to wear a pants suit. Failing to pick up on the actual reason, Fred says, “We’re going to have a great time, especially when we get back to the hotel room!” Wondering why they can’t play “Fucking mah jong” (lol) instead, Ming’s (failed) tactic is to use her overprotective parents to save her by trying to destroy their view of Fred and forbid her from going to prom. Ming, I admire your creativity, but I feel like this could have been quite problematic in the future. Turns out Fred Wu got the hotel room so they can stay up all night, watch pay-per-view, and hopefully make out.
Tamara and Jake have the same fight they’ve had all season, prom edition. Except this time Jake shows up in a leopard print tux to prove his point. Carry on!
Back to Jenna: a heart to heart with Ma Lacey convinces Jenna to both send her paper to Hart AND go to the prom. Bailey is excited to see Jenna and pushes her and Matty to slow dance together. Jenna admits that she bought the prom dress thinking that Matty was going to ask her. Matty’s surprised—he didn’t know they were still open. Jenna didn’t know they were closed. “When I hurt you, I didn’t understand what I was doing—I didn’t love myself enough to let you love me.” Impressive self awareness right there, Jenna.
Jenna goes off on her own, clearly a bit sad, but also clearly in a better place. She says, “I want to be someone willing to forgive, who cares more about others than themselves, who tells it like it is, who would give up everything for the right reason, who sees the best in everyone, who is a true friend, who always strives to be a better person, who learned from their mistakes, and that girl who doesn’t need a boy to be happy, because I’ll know how to dance all on my own.” Mic drop.
Well it looks like J has come out of her self destructive tornado with a bit more sense, respect, and self worth than she did at the start of the season (thank the good lord). I’m curious about what direction they’ll take her in for the next season—fingers crossed that she doesn’t regress.
What are you hoping to see next season? Do you think Matty and Jenna will get back together?
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