Season 1: Episode 16: Palm Springs Weekend

This week, we are watching Seasons 1, Episode 16: Palm Springs Weekend (aka a Fling in Palm Springs).

This episode starts with Brenda and Dylan, doing some heavy petting in Dylan’s Porsche. Brenda pulls away first, saying they’ve got to stop, and then going right back in. Dylan pulls away, telling Brenda that something is blue, and it’s not the ocean. They’ve been together for a whole two months, and he has been faithful that whole time. Give the boy a medal. Or some lotion and a box of Kleenex. Dylan suggests they go away together the following weekend, and she says that she can’t because she is going to Palm Springs with Kelly and Donna. Ok, so many things here. First off, isn’t this something that a couple in a relationship of 2 whole months should have talked about? Dylan exclaims, “President’s Day?” like it’s a national boning holiday. But the show finally got the timeline right because this episode aired on February 21, 1992 and President’s Day was on February 17. He suggests that Brenda go to Palm Springs with Kelly and Donna, but have them drop her off at a hotel where Dylan will meet her for a weekend of prayer and fasting. Just kidding. They’re gonna do it.

The next day at Casa Walsh, Brandon tries to convince Jim to buy him a $25,000 classic car. He says that he works super hard at his part time job that allows him to study and hang out with his friends while on the clock. He IS staying home from Palm Springs over the weekend because he has got to work. The sacrifices this poor child makes. And for some reason, he is uncomfortably close to Jim’s face and pretty much yelling at him. But again, he doesn’t get in trouble.

David and Scott are walking through the halls, discussing some trip to a amusement park, when Steve walks by. David stops him, presumably so they can discuss how horrible their patterned button up shirts are, when Steve tells him he’s not in the mood for him. His mother is having their house in Palm Springs fumigated so he has got to cancel the trip for everyone. David shares that his grandparents have a place in Palm Springs that they said he’s able to use whenever he wants, and they just happen to be on a month long cruise around the world. Ah, rich retired people. David cancels on Scott, and then doesn’t invite him to Palm Springs, and the girls are less than happy about the fact that they are traveling to Palm Springs with David Silver.

At the Peach Pit, Brandon, bitter about missing his trip, argues with a grade school kid who is at the Peach Pit alone. The kid accuses him of not being a very good waiter. And I think he might be right.

The rest of the gang stop at a gas station to get gas station snacks, and a girl in a midriff and bejeweled leather coat, so we know she is not Beverly Hills, starts talking to David. Her name is Tuesday. They hit it off, so Tuesday is coming over to the house and bringing some friends. Brenda, Kelly, and Donna talk about Brenda possibly losing her virginity, and Donna has a lot to say about it……and none of it involved the fact that she is a virgin too…..afterthought?

Brenda arrives at the hotel, and tries to check in, but there is not Dylan McKay registered. When she tries to verify the information, she discovers that her wallet is missing. David takes the gang on a tour of his grandparents house, only to discover his grandparents making out in the hot tub.

Brenda encounters a valet while slamming down the pay phone. She tells him her sob story, and he offers to let her stay at his place right around the corner. Sure. Sure. Nothing worrisome about that. Also, Tom, the valet, is Stuart Carson. Is this a point they thought we would miss? Apparently……we may have been young, but we aren’t dumb.

Back at the Peach Pit, Brandon is hanging out with Curtis, and wiping down a spatula. Is that what waiters do? Isn’t that what bus boys do? Why does no one do what they are supposed to at their jobs? Dylan calls the Peach Pit looking for Brenda, and Brandon cock blocks so hard when Dylan tells him that he and Brenda were supposed to hook up in Palm Springs. And then Dylan spots “Janie” in the lobby and gives her that Dylan look.

Tom/Stuart sets up a cot for Brenda in the broom closet, while Kelly and Donna plan for all the boys that David’s grandma is inviting over the next day. The next morning, Brenda calls home and Brandon tells her where Dylan and the rest of the gang are. Before hanging up, he asks her where she will be. “Where do you think?” she replies. Brandon seems pretty upset as he hangs up. Dare I say, he almost seems jealous?

Tuesday comes to the Silvers the next day with her two friends for Steve. Her friends are both wearing a whole lot of leather in the middle of the desert, and they could possibly be paler than I am. Steve, needless to say, is unhappy with this turn of events. To be fair, he has been wearing an Oakland Raiders hat for most of the episode that I can only describe as ill-fitting. Maybe it’s just because of how fluffy his mullet is?

Brenda finds Dylan in the ambassador suite of the hotel, but when she goes in for the hug, she sees a young girl in a crop top on his couch. Being the calm, rational adult that she is, she immediately accuses him of cheating on her. She tells him she knew she couldn’t trust him, and when Janie asks if she should leave, Brenda says that Janie should stay because she’s leaving. And then she tells Dylan she never wants to see him again. As she storms through the hotel lobby, she talks to herself quite loudly about how all these other men wanted her and she managed to be faithful. What is it with the Walsh twins and volume control?

She seems to have an epiphany and heads back up to Dylan’s room. Janie answers the door and tells her that Dylan is in the bathroom, but she’s glad Brenda came back so they could talk to each other like adults. Brenda, the consummate adult, grabs Janie’s purse and throws it into the hallway, and then slams the door shut as Janie goes to retrieve it. When Dylan comes out of the bathroom, carrying the hand towel. Like why couldn’t he dry his hands in the bathroom and leave the towel there? Brenda angrily tells him that they should do it to get it over with before ordering Dylan to take his clothes off……

And we are back at the Peach Pit? WTH?! Such a tease! Curtis is eating a piece of pie with a dirty face and dirtier sweatshirt. He tells Brandon that he probably won’t see him the next day because he’s got things to do. Like no one thinks this is suspicious? A young kid hanging out without his parents all the time?

Back at the Silvers house, the punk chicks are super fond of Steve, who all of a sudden has trouble speaking up. David, who is rubbing an extra amount of sunscreen on Tuesday, is embarrassed by his grandparents. They seem to be much more popular than David, as there are all sorts of teenagers running around that we’ve never seen before. That actually doesn’t mean anything though, because we have lots of characters who have single episodes dedicated to them and then disappear. Brenda and Dylan show up, and Dylan chooses this time, in front of the grandparents, to talk about their fight. Dylan turned Brenda down, saying he didn’t want to be pressured into sex, much to Brenda’s chagrin.

David is mean to his sweet old grandparents, telling them to basically buzz off. But Dylan and Steve have a heart to heart with Grandpa Silver, while a Kelly, Donna, and Brenda listen to Grandma Silver talk about her pre marriage relationship issues. David, meanwhile, sneaks off to the bedroom with Tuesday, who ends up breaking down and telling him that she has a boyfriend who she’s trying to forget with David, but it’s not working. The group are back together, listening to the Silvers dish out relationship advice.

Back at the Peach Pit, Brandon is closing out for the evening, and should you really let a 16 year old close out alone at night? After he leaves, Curtis sneaks in and starts emptying the register. Of course Brandon forgets something and has to go back inside, catching Curtis. He roughs him up, and Curtis admits that he is homeless and needs the money. Brandon opens the kitchen and made food for Curtis to take to his family and then we never see him again. Given the fact that he’s homeless, It’s not quite as funny.

The group plays charades at the Silver house, and Dylan gives Brenda as a clue for “Pretty Woman.” David apologizes to his grandparents, and Dylan and Brenda talk about their future before Brenda picks another fight. This one is short-lived, but seriously. Why does Dylan put up with it? She literally said she knew she couldn’t trust him like an hour ago. 

Brandon comes home, and outs his shoes on the white couch, and his parents say nothing about that or the fact that he’s so late. They talk about helping him out with a new car. He says that he’s ok with another bomber like Mondale and then does his best impression of Beaver Cleaver.