At Mathletes practice, Rico finds out the person who sent the video – his teammate Doug, who came back to the party to get a coat he left behind and saw Danny and Lacey hooking up through the window. He then noticed the Danny mask laying in the bushes and filmed the goings-on, which only Rico has seen thus far. Rico tells Doug that he violated the Mathlete Code of Ethics and that he should delete all traces of the video, lest everyone involved (and Jo) get hurt upon a leak. Meanwhile, Danny runs into a fired Coach Chandler, upset that he stuck up for Danny by lying about the poisoning incident in the locker room. What sunk him wasn’t anyone from the school finding out or new evidence popping up, but Coach Larson running to the school board to confess what happened. Now Larson has taken (temporary) hold of the team and Chandler is left regretting ever getting involved with Danny Desai.
News of the firing travels quickly and makes it onto the local news telecast, where they reveal Danny’s connection to the poisoning. While Jo doesn’t seem all that torn up about what her friend is going through, both Tess and Kyle feel bad for Danny, the latter due to Cole’s family not having enough concrete evidence to press criminal charges and letting the entire thing air out in the public eye. He goes on to inform her that the murder of Regina has now gotten more complicated than what he expected, implying that Danny might not be the sole killer in this scenario, but Gloria Crane has locked in on the young boy as being responsible for the death of her daughter. As Vice President of the Green Grove School Board, she’s pushing for him to be expelled over a missed mandatory therapy appointment, when he worked the Mathlete booth at Fall Fest, that he cleared with his therapist. During the meeting about their options going forward, Karen calls Gloria out on the fact that this comes two weeks after the fact and that it’s not the real reason she’s pressing so hard to bring her son down; what’s decided is that there will be an expulsion hearing the following day, where character witnesses can testify on Danny’s behalf and the board can call on people to speak on Cole’s/their behalf.
As Lacey tries to convince her friends that now’s the right time to blow off some steam, surprising them due to how aloof she’s been in recent weeks, Danny tries to talk to Cole, who Gloria had mentioned said Danny was responsible for the poisoning. There’ll be no convincing, though, as Archie is very much inside his teammate’s head and not even a budding friendship with Danny can get him to switch sides right now. Interestingly enough, though, Cole told Danny during a hospital visit that he was sorry to have his new friend quit the team, meaning that something changed between then and now. Later, Lacey comes to talk to Jo about everything that’s happened, surmising that maybe it would be better for everyone if Danny was expelled, and they receive a visit from a decidedly toned down Archie. He expresses sympathy for what Danny’s going through and uncertainty over whether or not Danny actually poisoned Cole in the first place; this all but sends cartoon hearts shooting from Lacey’s eyes, but it triggers suspicion in Jo, as she remembers Danny saying that Archie set him up at the cemetery party.
After the meeting with Principal Tang and the President and VP of the School Board, Karen and Danny head home to see how many people they can round up to speak on his behalf. However, Danny’s still upset at the possibility of being taken out of school against his will, since he felt like he was making real progress toward assimilating into life at Green Grove. Across town, Mayor Rollins and Kyle grab a bite to eat and discuss the Regina Crane case, with the former uncomfortable with the lack of progress and not buying into the connection between the Desais and City Hall that Kyle found; two years ago, Marna filed building permits and when he went to check them out, they were nowhere to be found, indicating that someone at City Hall was covering for the Desais. Rollins is more concerned with their “prime suspect” running freely around town and the PR hit that he continues to take each day where no one gets brought to justice in the murder case.
Jo gets approached by an apologetic Tyler and hears that he killed his documentary after what happened at the party, as barely anyone could find a kind word to say about Danny. She feels guilty that she left her friend out in the cold and shows up at his house to say that while she doesn’t trust him, he shouldn’t be punished for something that he didn’t do and begin helping him prepare for the hearing. Back in school, Lacey gets wind from Rico of the existence of the video, which has now reached the debate team after Doug refused to comply with his request to delete it; he more or less dumps the responsibility of taking the video out of circulation onto her shoulders, in hopes of someone with better social graces coming in to save the day and keep Jo from ending up with a broken heart. The thought weighs heavily on Lacey’s mind and sours her time with her friends that evening, their time to veg and gossip about celebrities interrupted by her hypothetical question over whether there was anything bad enough that she could do to lose their friendship. However, all three of Phoebe, Sarita, and Jana agree that they’d always be friends with Lacey and indicate that there’s nothing that could drive them away.
Danny and Jo talk about any possible ways they can gain an advantage and the idea comes to check out the footage of Tyler’s movie. Though there’s a lot of negativity, there’s bound to be a few positive comments that can be edited together and as it turns out, they find something important in an interview with Cole, who calls Danny a great guy and an asset to the team. Additionally, he mentions that the rumor of Danny being behind the poisoning had to be bogus, because the Danny that he knows wouldn’t do something like that. Jo wants to show it at the hearing, but Danny suggests that they let Cole have a look first and they do, though it doesn’t do anything to change Cole’s mind. In fact, he’s already set to speak at the expulsion hearing after being called by the school board, claiming that the team is everything to him and that he couldn’t take the ostracizing that came with his friendship with Danny. Desai gets it, though, the desperation in doing anything you can to keep from being the outsider and seems to drop the matter entirely, much to Jo’s chagrin.
Tess meets with Gloria to talk about the case and things spiral quickly, with the former’s attempts to have the latter sympathize with Karen falling on deaf ears and the encounter ending with the latter insulting Kyle, who she claims is in over his head, and Jo, who she says follows Danny around like a puppy. Elsewhere, Rico tells Lacey that Doug is spreading the video even further and that soon, the entire school will have seen it. She doesn’t seem to care, though, and rationalizes that her friends will believe her; but, he asks, will Jo? Rico tells Lacey that Jo is in love with Danny and despite her claims to be over him, has yet to let go of her feelings. This causes Lacey to go after Doug, still basking in the glow of the popularity and social status that the video brought him. She demands that he delete the video from his phone and find everyone he sent it to and have them delete it from all of their devices, and so on; if he fails to do so, she’ll make it her focus to turn the rest of his high school experience into hell on Earth. He scrambles away and Rico calls Lacey’s verbal tirade “hardcore,” which it was.
First to speak at the hearing is Archie, who gives fairly decent, straightforward answers to the board – until talk turns to the “scary” physical confrontation he had with Danny, which he says he still thinks about due to the look in Desai’s eyes. After hearing from Mr. Stevens about Danny disrupting his class and making teaching stressful, it’s Cole’s turn to speak and he doesn’t go that against Danny, saying that he likes him, thinks he’s a good friend, and honestly doesn’t know if he’s responsible for the poisoning. Though it’s not as good as it could have been, Danny will take that all day, considering that he was expecting the worst. For her part, Gloria’s acting very unprofessional during the hearing, raising her voice when Cole doesn’t give the answer that she was either wanting or expecting. Surprisingly, it’s Tess who calls her out during her speaking opportunity, as Gloria questions the appropriateness of letting the wife of the Chief of Police, who’s currently investigating Regina’s death, speak at a hearing in favor of the prime suspect. Tess reasons that it’s inappropriate for Gloria to have any say-so in Danny’s future at Green Grove given the loss of her daughter and the conversation they had the other day, where Gloria said that it would be her mission to make Danny suffer for what happened to Regina. When Gloria insults Danny, Karen stands up and defends her son by calling Regina a whore and then the meeting has to be brought back into order by the School Board President in order for the hearing to finish on time.
The final person to speak is Jo and while she has a hard time being specific about why Danny’s someone she can’t turn away from and why he’s such a good person, she eventually all but confesses to loving him, that she doesn’t know how he can be bad if she feels this way for him. Following the hearing, Danny makes it clear that he values his (current) relationship with Jo and wouldn’t know what to do if she wasn’t in his life, implying that he doesn’t want things to change between them. Jo runs into Lacey later and confesses to loving him; while Lacey completely gets why Jo didn’t say anything, Jo says that most of it was because she knows he doesn’t reciprocate her feelings and that even if she did, she never would have dated him with talking to Lacey first. The two agree that they care about their rekindling friendship and share a hug.
Mayor Rollins has hired Marilyn Rossi, a private investigator from a prestigious firm and someone he’s bringing onto the Crane case, which he thinks has gone off course. Meanwhile, the results of the hearing deliberations are in and Danny has been expelled from Green Grove, leaving him shell-shocked. He might be feeling like that for a while, as the video of him and Lacey has gotten around even more. First to Sarita, who looks startled and slams the phone down in her locker. Then to Phoebe at the hair salon. Then to a giddy Tyler in the computer lab, followed by the entire soccer team, the chess club, Lacey, Danny, Jo, and Rico.
Additional thoughts and observations:
-“Can’t I just dislike Jana for her personality?”
-“I shamed him, but clearly, it didn’t take.”
-So, this was the best episode of Twisted thus far, I think. A lot of humor (Karen calling Regina a whore was the funniest thing in the history of television and I will accept no arguments), an increased and active role for Rico, the investigation being put on the backburner (which didn’t kill the episode and bodes well for life after Regina’s killer is found), Danny getting more wins than losses, Archie getting his just desserts (the emasculation in the locker room was superb and made up for all of his psychosis being vomited on screen thus far this season) – well done.
-We’re all in agreement that Eloise is the evil mastermind behind all of this mess, right? I wouldn’t doubt for a second that she was the one who filmed the encounter between Danny and Lacey and Doug just fell on the grenade to protect her. I mean, he went back to the house, he said, to get her coat and we saw that she was the main influence in getting the video out there, so she has some score to settle with Lacey – or is sadistic enough to watch some poor girl she barely knows suffer social humiliation for her own amusement. Also, I told you guys that it wasn’t Sarita.
-Speaking of, her hatred of Jana is something. Is it just due to Sarita being an unpleasant person or was Lacey right that she has a thing for Scott? If she has a thing for Scott, do you think he “recruited” her for the prank at Danny’s party or, for that matter, got her to help kill Regina?
-Second favorite moment of the episode: Tess stepping up during the hearing and calling Gloria out on her hypocritical BS. That was beautiful (and made me disgustingly happy to hear, because I love a mother character who isn’t a hot mess or a shrinking violet), yet it makes me think they’ll pull a big secret out for her in the finale. Thus far, she’s too perfect of a character and this show is about imperfect people hiding their secrets from each other, so there’s bound to be something there that is informing how she conducts herself. I hope it’s nothing too irredeemable, because I genuinely enjoy her and hope she stays on the side of good for as long as possible.
-I’m also really glad that we got something of a timeline with the reveal that the Fall Fest was on October 19th and we’re about two weeks from there, meaning that the entire series has likely been about two months long. When the show returns, do you think we’ll get to see winter/the holiday season in Green Grove?
-It’s pretty obvious that Archie is the one who set Danny up, considering the 180 he took between the rabid dog he was for much of the season and the calm, seemingly rational person he was tonight. (Minus the look he gave Danny after lying to the board, of course.) Is he acting alone? And, I know I’ve asked this before, why is he so intent on getting Danny out of Green Grove? Dare I ask for an Archie-heavy episode where we get inside his head for a while?
-Jo’s not-confession confession was just awkward and awful, but I totally believe that she was so overwhelmed by the moment and desperate to do what she could to keep Danny around that her feelings for him just kind of slipped out. Still, ouch, girl.
-The next episode of Twisted is slated to be a recap episode narrated by Rico, but on the summer finale, Danny and Archie have a confrontation at a soccer team party, Lacey makes a decision on whether to speak out on Danny’s behalf and lose her friends in the process, and Marilyn unearths shocking new evidence that refutes Karen’s confession.
2 Comments
Your reviews are always great in offering an unbiased synopsis coupled with insight and analysis. But I must disagree with you about this being the best episode of Twisted. Here’s why:
1) The school board hearing was a travesty – they expelled him based on circumstantial evidence and the “feelings” of Archie and a teacher. This would not fly in the real world.
2) The impending (and subsequent ) release of the “sex-tape” was played for laughs. The Doug/Rico scenes were comical and reduced the severity of what was actually happening – that the intimate moments of a 16-year-old girl hooking up (with a convicted killer no less) were about to be seen by the entire school. A teenager’s body would be on display, she would be set up to be shamed, called terrible names, shunned, and vilified. This type of scandal can follow someone for years, coloring their sense of self, sending them into a tailspin of depression, and possibly resulting in suicide (as has happened with similar real life cases). Using this tape as a plot point for the storyline development of a character that wasn’t even in the video is unconscionable.
3) Lacey was completely out of character. She has spent 9 episodes adamant about not losing her hard won status, but suddenly she’s not concerned about this video getting out and ruining her reputation? She only sprung to action when she realized that Jo’s feeling may get hurt? And even though she was really angry with Danny for yet another lie, she turned her back on him 100% – pretty cold behavior from someone who was so into him she broke up with her boyfriend to be with him.
4) Jo’s declaration made her seem like a weak, love-struck girl who couldn’t even say something clear and specific on the stand to help Danny. No one would do this, even “can’t keep a secret, even my own” Jo. Just unrealistic.
5) Jo’s sudden declaration of friendship fuzzies for Lacey – the two of them have just begun mending their friendship and are certainly not that close yet. Her confession that she would never have dated Danny without clearing it with lacey first also rang false. Do the writers think we have such short memories that we would forget Jo was ready to kiss Danny at fall fest (without telling Lacey first)? Or that she sent a text to Danny, planning on telling him her feelings for him (without telling Lacey first)? This just feels like a heavy handed set-up by the writers for Lacey to be painted with the “bad friend” brush again once Jo finds out about the video. Another fail in clever and complex writing 101.
When I watched this it was so cringey when Jo basically said she was in love. I think the writers made a massive mistake putting that in the script for that moment, it was almost horrendous to watch. If you had only told a few people about your love for someone you wouldn’t basically come out and say it infront of a crowd. I wish it had been Jo, Lacey and Danny and Jo tellingly Danny privately. I feel like both women characters have lost their edgy, self richious ways and I miss Jo being sarcastic instead of looking like a lost puppy. The exact same for Lacey.