The episode starts with Brandon walking down the hall, staring back at girls who pass by him, real enlightened man stuff, until Andrea hunts him down. She tells him she has a proposition for him, and he replies, “Your desk or mine?” We all know that he is kidding, but deep down we also know that Andrea probably had to hold herself back from ripping his clothes off right then and there. She suggests that he run for school office, as he is so new that no one knows him well enough to hate him yet. Hmmmm…… I wouldn’t count on that.
Brenda meanwhile, has a conversation with Dylan about canceling plans for the weekend so that he can go visit his dad in Mexico. She gives him a hard time, because she’s not really that great of a girlfriend, and then asks him to take her with because she is so bored with her life. “Boohoo,” he says, and I couldn’t agree more.
David is following Brandon down the hall, interviewing him for his new role as, I’m assuming, student body president. The thing he just decided like 3 minutes ago. Scott is videotaping it. Kelly remarks that he looks a politician, real “Kennedy hair.” And a real Kennedy attitude toward the women in his life…but I digress. Kelly also remarks how attractive power is.
Kelly and Donna come to pick Brenda up for the evening, and come inside so they can congratulate Brandon….on saying he wants to run for office? Kelly and Donna fawn all over Brandon, while Brenda goes upstairs to apparently cry because she “doesn’t belong,” even though she has 2 close friends, a boyfriend, supportive parents….Jim, who measures his success only by the success of Brandon, is ecstatic and immediately starts on his campaign.
The girls head to a comedy club where a performer named Skye is doing a set about how being an army brat affected her high school experience. She’s clearly not in high school anymore. Why is she so focused on it? Brenda finds her relatable, and thus hilarious. I will have to agree with Kelly, “It wasn’t that funny.”
Back at Casa Walsh, Steve is being sexist about some girl who only wears orange, while Brandon quickly taps on the keyboard of his desktop computer. By my calculations, he has typed roughly 1046 words. What he tells Steve he’s typed? “I listen to my student body.” Uh, what was the rest of the typing? “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog?” Steve tells him that he is lame, that the president of the Beverly Hills went out with a different girl every week, so he could nail their vote. Brandon tells him that is gross, and yes, yes it is. Then Brandon muses that he might not have the killer instinct it takes to run for politics. A certain fiery car crash several years from now proves differently…..
Back at the comedy club, a different guy takes the stage, while Skye takes the girls’ orders. He singles Kelly out and starts talking about the amount of makeup she is wearing. Brenda quips about snap judgements, and his jokes, and everyone thinks she’s hilarious, as does she. Who doesn’t? Kelly. Again, we Kelly’s get it.
The next day, the Walsh family is busy working on campaign paraphernalia, while Brenda regals them with her supposed wit. Kelly and Donna show up, and Kelly announces that she wants to help Brandon win. Then Andrea shows up and is like, “What’s that now?” Andrea tells Brandon that she was going to run, but backed out because she didn’t want to lose. Brenda has plans to go back to the comedy club to hang with her new best friend Skye, but Kelly and Donna volunteer to stay at Casa Walsh to help Brandon work on campaign stuff. Brenda retorts, “Skye is just too mature for you.” Because she handles rejection really well.
At the club, Skye is super excited to see the girl who she met for 5 minutes the night before and invites her to an event the next morning, when Brenda is at school. Skye tells her how she dropped out at 16, traveled the country, and came back to work at a coffee shop. Brenda thinks Skye’s life sounds amazing and decides that she wants to get her GED.
Her parents obviously think it’s a bad idea, and tell her no. But she’s Brenda, and nobody tells her what to do. Meanwhile, upstairs at the Walsh house, Kelly is playing professional political photog, while Andrea is figuring out what issues for Brandon to run on. Brenda tells them all that she plans on dropping out, and Kelly is like “You’re a jackass.” And Brandon tries yelling in her face, his favorite thing to do.
At school the next day, Brandon schmoozes the ladies of West Beverly, while Kelly butters up David to film a video for Brandon. Michael Miller, Brandon’s opponent suddenly feels the need to come talk to Brenda, who is writing jokes for her set for amateur night. Michael encourages her to keep working and Kelly is worried that the fact he is suddenly on the show, even though we have never seen him before means he is trying to get info for his campaign.
Brenda’s new comedy club friends do not think she is funny. And then they provide some pretty stale clichés on how she can improve. Skye then mentions that she needs a house sitter, and Brenda volunteers.
Back at campaign headquarters, Andrea is disgusted by the slick political video that Kelly had made, and quits the campaign. After she leaves, Kelly comes on to Brandon pretty aggressively, and he declines, saying he is only thinking of Steve. Brenda interrupts the sexual tension, calls them political kindergartners, and then goes upstairs to start packing. When her parents come in to check on her, she tells them she is moving out. Apparently that’s a thing that 16 year olds can declare. Her parents agree to let her house sit, and she’s gone for a few minutes and Brandon has already made it his campaign headquarters, and remarks “It seems weird without Brenda here.” She’s been gone for like 10 minutes Brandon, relax.
At Skye’s apartment, which has been sponge painted to an inch of its life, Skye gives Brenda the run down on the locks, the fish, and the plants, before putting on her Blossom hat, and leaving. Brenda uses her new found freedom to try on hats, eat cake in bed, and go to bed without taking her makeup off.
At school, Brandon walks around shaking everyone’s hand, telling them “Damn glad to meet you.” Andrea and Brenda commiserate about how awful they think Kelly and Brandon are now. Kelly asks Brenda to stop dressing like a hippie until the election is over, and then invites her over to the campaign party. Brenda tells her it is not hippie, it’s Twin Peaks, which is very fashionable. One, I watched Twin Peaks, and that is not Twin Peaks. Second, this is the second week in a row they talked about Twin Peaks. Is this like when we do promos on other people’s podcasts? Cross promotional?
When Brenda gets back to Skye’s apartment, she finds the door ajar and strange men taking furniture. She thinks they are thieves and hides behind a ornamental pole. Very effective. Remind me to play hide n seek with her. The men are actually their repoing Skye’s…..everything. Not just furniture, but like appliances, and blankets, and everything….where did she go? Is this place like a rent a center on crack? Then the creepy dude from the comedy club shows up, and is not surprised that Skye owes everyone money. He says they can enjoy a romantic spaghettios dinner together, but Skye didn’t pay the gas bill either. Maybe you shouldn’t try to be romantic with a 16 year old who isn’t even that funny.
Bran the Man’s candidate party is too much for Donna’s house, so they move it to Skye’s tiny apartment instead. Everyone soon discovers there is no food, water, power…those essentials for a party so they head out to the Peach Pit instead. Brenda and Brandon argue about his political ambitions and her lack of support before Brenda spits angrily, “I don’t even want to vote.” What is it with wealthy white women? Jack, the creepy guy from the club decides that a young girl with young girl emotions is more than he wants and bails too. Brenda crosses her arms and looks to the corners so we know she wants to cry.
The next day, Brandon and Mike Miller are getting ready to debate and Brandon actually talks with his opponent and finds out how qualified and passionate he is about leading his class. During the debates, which are taking place in a hallway it looks like with an audience of roughly 20 people, Brandon ends up throwing his support to his opponent. Andrea decides that they can be friends again, and Brenda says that she would vote for him. Great Brenda, now that he’s not running. It’s like 2016 all over again. Kelly tries to make up with Brenda, since she has nothing going on at night anymore, but Brenda says she’s busy writing her act.
Brenda comes home, only to grab some clothes, and her parents talk about resisting the urge to beg her to come home, and make a care package for her. You literally don’t have to let her go. That’s kind of how being a parent works. Brenda heads back to Skye’s apartment to find Skye sitting against a wall with her head in her hand. She tells Brenda that living on her own is hard, and she had to go home to borrow money from her parents. Brenda naively says, “But you have a job?” like all jobs pay enough to live in LA.
Brenda performs a stand up show, which isn’t very funny, and tells everyone that she wants to stay in school. Real funny stuff. People in the audience keep murmuring along. Don’t they know that’s frowned upon? Brenda moves back in to the Walsh House, and everyone is so excited to see her that they forget she stormed out to live on her own for 3 whole days, and couldn’t handle it. But, that performance, am I right?
Donna Martin Graduates: For the Love Of 90210 