Virtually no one watches The CW’s “90210” anymore, but that reality does not change the fact that the show has been, from a creative standpoint, the strongest teen drama on television this season.
The writers, who truly found their voice in centering the show around the infinitely charismatic AnnaLynne McCord (who plays Naomi), raised the stakes for the finale, ending the season with some major cliffhangers and dramatic plot turns.
Among the highlights:
— The false sexual harassment allegations produced devastating consequences for a vulnerable Naomi, who approached Mr. Cannon–the subject of her claims–for comfort in dealing with the breakup with Liam and the stress of her sister’s re-emergence. It turned out, as was expected given how he reacted to Naomi earlier in the season, that Mr. Cannon was indeed a creep who wanted to sleep with his attractive student. When Naomi tried to halt his advances under the threat of “telling” school officials, Mr. Cannon reminded her that she had no more credibility due to the prior false accusations. He essentially could do whatever he wanted without any fear of punishment.
— Annie revealed the truth of her hit-and-run incident to Liam, with whom she had been bonding at the end of the season. She also prepared to tell her parents in the show’s closing moments.
— After seeing Annie and Liam bonding on his boat, Jasper retaliated by setting the boat on fire. On crutches, Jasper was unable to flee the scene in time, and Liam absolutely punished him with punches to the face as police and fire sirens were heard in the background, presumably to respond to the fire.
Earlier in the episode, Liam apparently came clean to his mother about stealing the coins.
— It turns out that Ryan is the father of Jen’s baby. Ryan, who learned when Naomi secretly slipped him the paternity test, approached Jen about being there as a father, but she dismissed that he would have any role in the baby’s life. This set him over the edge, and he ended up going on a drunk driving binge, that included damaging the high school’s sign and starting a fire.
— In conjunction with the arc to justify Rob Estes’ impending departure from the show, Harry was fired from his principal position and subsequently engaged in an argument with his wife Debbie. It came out that their love for each other had been shattered.
Harry’s firing was a result of Dixon and Mark’s school break-in towards the end of the season. Even though Dixon had no idea what Mark and his lacrosse buddies planned to do (nor did he know they would vandalize the school when their plan to steal the SATs fell through), because he was the only one not wearing a mask, he was the only one caught on the security camera. Harry thus had to cover up the tape, as reporting the incident would have resulted in his son getting in trouble.
Dixon accidentally let this fact slip to Mark, who used it to blackmail Harry when a plagiarism allegation came about. Harry decided to come clean to avoid the blackmail, and coming clean meant a firing.
— Despite being told he could not go due to his gambling and the school break-in, Dixon, who had cleared the air with Ivy about his kiss with Silver last week, snuck out for the Australia trip during his parents’ fight.
— Silver and Teddy are back together.
— Javier ended up (unintentionally) giving Adrianna the bracelet Navid had intended to gift on last week’s episode. Navid confronted Adrianna, who had been offered the chance to open on tour for her popstar boyfriend, about the bracelet, and rather than turning him away, she admitted she was into Navid and they ended up back together.
Javier nonetheless swore he would not lose Ade, and it resulted in Javier still offering her the tour position. The catch, however, was that the tour was for a full year–she would have to drop out of school, and Navid naturally could not go with her. She vowed to think about the decision.
