Season 3, Episode 1 and 2 - Father Figure

Original Airdate - September 17th, 2003

Content Warning - brief mention of attempted suicide

Welcome back, Panthers! It’s a brand new year of human existence based on our arbitrary calendar and a new school year at Degrassi. There have been some changes. We have five (five!) new series regulars. All are friends we’ve seen before getting the upgrade from recurring to regular - Grade 10s Ellie, Marco, and Hazel and adults Christine and Caitlyn. Did we need five adult characters? I don’t think so.

We also have a completely refreshed opening credits sequence. This one centers Emma a little less and doesn’t end on a butt. JT’s voice has dropped. Things are changing in real life too. I have become obsessed with a different Canadian television show, but we’ll get there.

She may not be the main character of the opening credits, but Emma still gets star billing in our two-part season premiere. There’s big drama at the Simpson/Nelson house because Christine is going into labor. Emma and Mr. Simpson trip over themselves trying to prepare for the home birth, until Christine lets them off the hook. It was just a drill.

Emma is a little annoyed. Yes, home birth is a big deal, but she’s feeling a little deprioritized by her mother. She’s agreed to give up her room and move into the basement, but feels like everything in the house is centered completely on the baby. It’s all very teenaged. Her saltiness continues into the first day of school where she has an outsized reaction to being called “Emma Simpson.”

During club sign ups, she looks through an old yearbook. She shows Ashley a student named Shane McKay. Her dad. She tells Ashley what she knows. Her dad took off early on, and Emma has only met him once. He’s a doctor, and she and Christine went to visit him at work when she was three. It didn’t go well. Her mother has never discussed him again.

Slight spoiler, this story isn’t true. And I say that now mostly because I want to discuss that Christine had Emma at 15. If her father was a full-on physician by the time Emma was three, that implies a pretty dark age gap! Also interesting is that this feels like the first time the show has accepted that most of its viewers really aren’t familiar with the old generation. The viewers who are get to be ahead of the story, but the rest of us get to stay aligned with Emma. I like that.

There’s a small C story here that works best looped in with this story. Caitlyn Ryan has moved back to Toronto and there’s some will they/won’t they energy with Joey. Caitlyn bails on decorating for Christine’s baby shower to work, leaving the task to Joey.

Back at the Nelson house, Emma confronts Mr. Simpson and asks if he’s the one who changed her name. He wasn’t, but the secretary knows Emma is his daughter. Emma bristles and hits him with a “you’re not my real dad.” Christine doesn’t know why Emma is concerned about her real dad at all, and refuses to say any more. When Emma storms off, Mr. Simpson implies there’s a secret.

Baby shower time! Caitlyn meets a woman named Sydney. Caitlyn talks about how she’s not sure what’s going to happen with her and Joey romantically now that she’s back, and then finds out that Sydney is Joey’s new girlfriend. We also meet Christine’s midwife, Liz, and her introduction gave big “this character was in the original show” energy, but I’m not looking it up!

Emma asks Caitlyn about Shane, and while Caitlyn understands her curiosity, she doesn’t want to go against Christine. Emma takes matters into her own hands and uses the internet to search for a Dr. Shane McKay. She finds an address and tries to convince Sean to skip school to go with her. Sean refuses, urging her to wait until the weekend. Emma doesn’t want to wait and turns to Craig. With his own complicated paternal experiences, he agrees.

It’s a bust. The Dr. McKay at the address is Black. They go back to Emma’s house and Emma hacks into the alumni directory on Simpson’s computer. She finds the actual address in a nearby town. She and Craig hop on the train. The address is a mental health facility and at no point does Emma wonder why this is listed as his address! She’s really not thinking things through.

Craig distracts a nurse so that Emma can sneak upstairs to what she thinks is her dad’s office. But it’s actually his room. Shane is a patient, clearly mentally unwell, and Emma is shocked. This is the break when the episode is aired in two parts.

Emma doesn’t handle the situation well, though I can’t blame her. And Shane struggles to understand that his daughter is no longer the little girl in the picture he has. Once he puts it together, he explains that he fell and hit his head, and now has to live here, and he didn’t think Emma loved him because she never visits.

The nurse arrives and tells Emma she needs to leave. Shane can’t handle these kinds of surprises. Shane flips and the nurse has to hand him his knitting to calm him down. Emma promises to visit again and gives him her address so he can write to her.

Emma and Craig miss the last train home and Craig calls Joey, interrupting a flirtatious scene where Caitlyn insults Sydney’s baby gift. Joey yells at them for skipping, but doesn’t know what to say about why they did. Christine is furious at Emma when she gets home, but Emma doesn’t even want to talk to her. She can’t believe Christine lied. The agitation almost puts Christine into labor, so Emma is able to escape the confrontation.

The next day, at school, Simpson encourages Emma to listen to her mom’s side of the story. Shane’s parents wouldn’t let Shane see Christine when she got pregnant and that sent Shane into a spiral. He took acid and either fell off a bridge or jumped, they can’t be sure, and caused his brain injury. Simpson’s story recontextualizes Emma’s memory. They weren’t visiting a doctor, they were visiting a patient. Christine was worried Shane would hurt Emma and decided to keep her away.

Simpson encourages Emma to talk it out with her mom and Emma agrees. She goes to a pay phone to call home (lol) and the line is busy. Strange…

Turns out, Shane is at the house. He surprised Christine who was home alone. He seems to believe that this house, the baby, all of it should be his, not Mr. Simpson’s. He takes the phone so Christine can’t call for help. Christine tries to talk him down, but accidentally sets him off. He has a tantrum, smashing decor and furniture.

During his outburst, Shane cuts his hand. Christine tries to use this as a opening to grab the phone, but Shane shoves her. She goes into labor. Luckily, Emma shows up to investigate the disconnected phone line. She makes it clear to Shane that if he does anything to her mom, she will never speak to him again. She distracts him with Christine’s knitting and is able to call Liz and Mr. Simpson.

Joey is at the school for some reason and has to interrupt Simpson at his insect club to tell him about the baby, which I mention only because he has a hilarious awkward hug with Liberty.

Christine apologizes to Emma. Emma tells her to focus on the labor, but Christine asserts that Emma is important to her. It’s sweet! Shane is picked up by the hospital staff who should be way more apologetic for letting him get out in the first place. He knitted a cute hat for the baby. Emma promises to visit again. The Simpson-Nelsons take a cute photo and Emma calls Simpson “our dad.”

B story is Spinner. Spinner! Is that what anyone wanted? Spinner is actually the series regular who appears in the most episodes this season. Manny is not in this episode. What are we doing?

Anyway he and Paige are a strong couple now. He’s a little embarrassed that he has to repeat Grade 9 English, and still beefing with Jimmy, but things for Spinner seem pretty good. He does have a problem. He needs a gift Paige will love.

The opportunity presents itself when Paige is assigned a terrible locker. He decides to engineer a trade to get her Hazel’s locker which is in a much better location. Hazel refuses, so Spinner engineers a more elaborate trade with JT, Hazel and new recurring student Chris Sharpe.

Paige isn’t exactly thrilled. Sure the location is good, but the locker itself is kind of busted. But Jimmy’s locker? That’s perfect. Spinner goes to him and tries to bury the hatchet. Jimmy says he’s over Spinner stealing his iPod (he’s not) but thinks it’s pathetic how whipped Spinner is. Jimmy says that if Spinner will admit he’s spineless, in front of other people, he’ll give him the locker.

Spinner stands up in Armstrong’s class and fulfills his side of the deal. He says he’s helpless in the face of his demanding girlfriend. Jimmy agrees to give him the locker, but Paige is justifiably embarrassed. Plus Raditch steps in to shut down the locker trade scheme. This is against school policy.

Paige and Spinner have a heart to heart. Paige tells Spinner he needs to be less worried about proving himself, and has to admit she has been a little hard to please. They make nice and get one last hit in on Jimmy. At least Spinner has a girlfriend to try and make happy!

Look, I know. This connection is loose. Sure, both shows are Canadian, but what does that really have to do with anything? Fact of the matter is, Degrassi cannot inspire anything in my brain today. My brain is consumed only by Heated Rivalry.

This will not be my last Heated Rivalry essay, but it may be my most contentious. Because there’s something I need to get off my chest. As much as people want to swoon about impassioned speeches, dramatic kisses, and his physical appearance, I think Scott Hunter is a walking red flag.

For the uninitiated, Heated Rivalry is an adaptation of the second book of a six-book series of gay romance novels that center around hockey players. This Crave original (distributed by HBO Max in the US) has taken the world by storm, introducing a culture to a pair of incredible characters played by a pair of incredible actors and revealing to us all who the secret fujoshis in our life.

Episode three detours from the main love story to tell a second story about struggling hockey star Scott Hunter and a smoothie barista/art guy named Kip. These were the characters of the first book, and it’s clear to me why they weren’t the focus of the series. Their story is simpler, easy enough to tell in a single hour, and lacks the sexy danger of Shane and Ilya’s decade long hookups.

But for me, the real reason you couldn’t center a romance series around Scott and Kip is because their story in not particularly romantic. It’s relatable. It’s honest. It has something to say about the way people process sexuality and attraction, but for me, it’s not a story about love.

Let’s summarize it. Spoilers obviously.

Scott’s in a hockey slump when he serendipitously visits a smoothie shop and meets Kip. Fired up from their flirtation, he plays well that night. He returns to the shop, claiming that the Kip’s smoothie is now a vital part of his pregame routine. They flirt for a while over a few occasions, and Kip wonders if this sexy hockey man could actually be gay. They see each other at a black tie event. Scott is attending, Kip is working. Scott asks Kip to grab food after, which turns into a hookup and sleepover at Scott’s beautiful apartment.

The next morning, Scott reveals that he’s never really done this. He says that he is in love with Kip and wants him to stay. Kip basically moves in, starting a secret romance with the hockey star, but is unable to share what’s going on with his friends or family. Eventually, the pressure of keeping the relationship a secret gets to him, and when Kip realizes what it’s going to mean to stay with Scott. He learns why Scott loves hockey so much, and feels he can’t ask him to do anything that would jeopardize that. Kip ends the relationship.

Several years pass. In the show, we’re not privy to what happens to Scott and Kip in the mean time. All we know is that Scott finally makes it to the playoffs, and Kip, for whatever reason, is in the audience and is “sad.” Scott wins the cup and shocks the world by inviting Kip onto the ice and kissing him on the ice, publicly coming out.

Romantic right? Sure, it’s a nice scene. But that’s a deception made of pecs and strategic needle drops. Let’s talk about why none of this is a love story to me.

Scott and Kip do not know each other. They have chemistry and a connection, but their actual knowledge of each other’s personalities, interest, and way of live is almost nothing when they hookup. They know what the other does for work. Scott knows Kip likes art. It is never actually explained what that means.

It is perfectly understandable, and hot, that they consummate their flirting with some great sex in Scott’s beautiful apartment. It’s even nice that Scott invites this cute boy to stay the night so they can have round two in the morning. But then it all goes wrong. Scott waves a massive red flag and Kip, sweet small boy, doesn’t see it.

Scott’s proclamation that he’s never done this before but wants to invest entirely with Kip is certainly alluring. The fantasy of a hot man telling you you’ve changed their entire life and they’ve never met anyone like you? Sign me up! The problem is what I’ve just said above. They don’t know each other. Scott could not possibly have enough information to be truly in love with Kip. And Kip definitely doesn’t know Scott enough to accept that affection.

Scott is projecting. This man has been starved for intimacy his entire life. He doesn’t talk to anyone about his identity. He doesn’t even hook up with people. So of course, understandably, the first time he does, he interprets his feelings as love. This thirsty daddy finally took a drink from the tap of human connection in the form of cute barista Kip. He wants more, and he mistakenly believes the best place he can get it, the only place, is from this man.

Scott doesn’t love Kip. He loves feeling close to another person. And that’s understandable! But I’ve seen far too many people acting like this is a fantasy. Even if the Scott in your mind isn’t closeted, or if you’re okay having a completely private relationship, diving into a relationship with someone operating from this posture is a mistake. One day, somehow, the messy reality of Kip’s personhood would conflict with the fantasy perfection in Scott’s mind. There is no way Scott has the interpersonal skills to navigate that.

But don’t get me wrong, I get why Kip goes for it. He’s projecting too. Scott does seem like a fantasy come true. He’s hot as hell, his body is unreal, he’s rich, he’s famous. Even the power of being someone’s secret can be so alluring. But Kip is making a different version of the same mistake. Soon, the messy reality of Scott Hunter, that he can’t even look at paintings with Kip without fearing exposure, shatters the projection in Kip’s head. Their ending in episode 3 is inevitable.

Watching episode three, I thought the show presented a tragic, cautionary tale of connecting with someone when you aren’t living as your authentic self. But I was surprised to find that others didn’t share my read on the situation. People cried out for their Scott Hunter on social media. They admired his openness and honesty. They lamented the tragic parting of the characters and hoped we’d see them come back together. I felt unsure. Were they reading the show correctly or was I?

After the romcom perfect episode 5 ending, I realized I was the one confused about what the show wanted me to feel. Of course I was supposed to be rooting for Skip to find a way back together. But the episode five scene made me feel even worse about the whole thing. Scott didn’t ask Kip to come out in this way. Yes, Kip lives his life openly gay, but he is not a public figure. Scott is inviting scrutiny by coming out this way, and makes his decision knowing that. But he is also exposing Kip. And Kip, who is not an athlete, has never had to deal with any form of that, and doesn’t really get a chance to weigh in.

It’s a romantic scene of a television show, but it’s not a romantic action. Defenders of the scene will say that they’d discussed it off screen. They’ll bring up the book, where Scott and Kip are together and Scott begins coming out in smaller ways before the big public display. But I don’t think that’s fair. If that’s what happened, the show needs to tell me that. As far as I’m concerned, it’s just as possible in the show universe that that Kip and Scott haven’t spoken for years, and Kip attended the game to watch his ex win the cup, sad but supportive, and got caught up in yet another fantasy.

And yes. Romance, as a genre, is built on fantasy. I’m not so naive to expect everything that happens in a love story to be grounded in reality. There is something exciting about Scott and Kip’s story. I like watching them kiss. I’m not heartless.

But the best romance, including the main romance of this very series, combines that fantasy with beautifully observed humanity. The show does an incredible job making it clear why Shane and Ilya are attracted to each other. They share the same passion. They see in the other something they wish they could embody themselves. They know each other for years before their sexual attraction morphs into familiarity, intimacy, and love. They are clear eyed about what it will mean to be together, and I believe them when they decide that’s worth it.

Scott and Kip are two hot people who met someone hot and got caught up in it. Their hormones went understandably crazy. They went too hard at something. It’s not possible to keep something that intense going without a solid foundation. If either of them were my friend, I wouldn’t blame them at all. But I would tell them to learn from this. And to let it go.

I don’t think they’re a good match. I don’t think they’re going to stay together. I don’t think I’ve seen the true fondness and emotional intelligence from them to believe they can weather the scrutiny, criticism and even affection that is going to come at their relationship from outside sources.

Also the serial killer/spree killer conversation felt very heterosexual to me, sorry!

To all of you wishing for your Scott Hunter, I hope you find him. I hope you have a weekend of mind-blowing sex and expensive food. I hope international travel is involved. And I hope you walk away before it hurts too much. Because being the reason someone makes a dramatic and irreversible life change is a lot of pressure. And I think most Scott Hunters will have no idea how to partner you through that.