Season 1, Episode 3 - Family Politics

Original Airdate - November 4th, 2001

It’s time for the new school year and Ashley Kerwin is so excited. She’s got it all — good grades, a great best friend, a jock boyfriend, and a clear shot at school president. But there is one big problem in her life. Her mom’s boyfriend just moved in with his son, Toby. It’s frustrating enough to balance bathroom time and parental attention. It doesn’t help that Toby seems to delight in pushing her buttons.

Toby isn’t loving this new arrangement either. Ashley is uptight and hyper-critical. He complains to JT (who carries around a razor scooter for like half of the episode) that Ashley always demands things her way, and always gets them. Case in point — she’s running for school president unopposed. I feel like I should point out that contrary to my memory, Degrassi Community School seems to be only a Junior High at this point. That will change literally next season.

Toby and JT meet up with Emma and Manny at their super cool new home room - the Media Immersion Center with their super cool Media Immersion teacher, Mr. Simpson. Emma tells Toby that if he’s so mad about Ashley’s shoo-in presidency, he should run against her. Toby knows that that would get him in trouble at home, but his dad can’t get mad at him for helping his best friend run his own campaign. Toby convinces JT to campaign as a joke - he’ll get to try out his stand up (barf), they’ll annoy Ashley, and there’s no way a Grade 7 will win.

But JT’s charming and different and starts to pull focus. Ashley is livid. She knows Toby is only doing this to annoy her. She corners him at home and starts a fight. Her mom steps in to break it up, and quickly takes Toby’s side. He’s allowed to help his friend if he wants to. Toby feels smug and satisfied, his plan to annoy Ashley is going perfectly, and when he checks the local intranet Degrassi polling site (incredible), JT is actually winning.

Ashley cannot let this happen. She corners JT and offers him money to quit the race. Toby finds out and is pissed. While JT makes his campaign speech/performs his tight five, Toby pulls Ashley aside. He’s going to expose her attempt at bribery.

Ashley gives up. Fine, Toby wins. Toby has already invaded her house, her family, and her school. He may as well take student council from her too. This hits Toby in the feels. He realizes that maybe their struggles are more similar than different. As JT quits, Ashley makes one last plea. Listen to my speech, see how much I care about this, and if you still want to expose me, so be it.

I guess all of that happens offscreen because Ashley wins the election! Back at home, she and Toby fight their way through a mutual apology. This new living arrangement is tough on both of them. They shouldn’t go out of their way to make it any worse.

The B story is very brief - Emma and Manny are worried about mean grade 8s and are quickly targeted by school bully Gavin “Spinner” Mason. They do their best to avoid him, but that doesn’t stop him from hitting Manny with a spitball in the hallway. She starts crying, Emma and another grade 8, Terri, make Spinner feel really guilty, and he slinks away, leaving them alone. Manny puts on a smile. Fake crying works every time.

We also meet most of the rest of our main cast and the episode uses this very strange plot device of someone doing man-on-the-street camcorder interviews about the election to introduce them. Let’s do a quick run down - Joining Emma, Manny, JT and Toby in Grade 7 is Liberty Van Zandt, a high strung overachiever running for class secretary. In Grade 8, with Ashley and Spinner, we have Terri McGregor, Ashley’s best friend whose entire storyline is about her weight; Jimmy Brooks, cool jock, Spinner’s best friend, Ashley’s boyfriend, played by Drake; and Paige Michalchuk, a fashionable cool girl who swoops on screen with a bare midriff and a clear, plastic cube purse. New year, new look, new Paige indeed.

Rounding out the cast we have the grown ups. Mr. Simpson and school principal, Mr. Raditch. I’m acknowledging they because they’re in the credits but YAWN. Let’s move on.

I was born into a blended family. My mother’s parents are divorced and, as a teenager, her mother remarried, bringing two new step-siblings into her life. By the time I was three and had any memory of anything, I had a stepdad and a half-sister. To me, this was all very normal. The “steps” and “halfs” fell out of all of these descriptions. My sisters have always been my sisters. My aunts and uncle have always been my aunts and uncle. I still refer to my stepdad as my dad and he’s not even married to my mother anymore.

Blended families are extremely common in general. According to the most recent census data, 20% of cohabitating couples have children from multiple partners. Part of the Degrassi mission statement was to reflect the experiences of the kids watching, so including a blended family was a no brainer.

But watching as a kid from within my own blended family, I did not find this storyline particularly relatable. I really didn’t get why it was such a big deal. Why did these characters emphasize STEP-sister? Why did Toby feel the need to remind his friends that their parents were not married and Ashley wasn’t his step-sister at all?

My mom is getting married in two weeks. I’m about to have three new step-siblings. I’m an adult who lives 1,400 miles away from my mother. All of these new step-siblings are adults. In every way that matters, they will not impact my life. And I have experience with this. I should be so good at this.

But sitting down with them for Christmas dinner last year felt so fucking weird. They’re nice people. No one said anything weird or rude or MAGA. Even so, it was impossible to shake the discomfort of the whole arrangement. Who are these people? I don’t know them. What are they doing in my mother’s house?

I found my discomfort embarrassing. I felt like I should know better from my childhood experiences. Hell, this was not the first time someone new had entered my family. People got married, my aunt has a stepson, and even my new stepfather didn’t evoke the same “what are you doing here?” feelings.

But I think I was doing the math wrong. The “sibling” of it all got to me not in spite of my childhood, but because of it. I was uncomfortable because I have half-siblings and a step-parent where I drop the prefix. Because I’ve always been taught that family is family, regardless of blood ties.

Suddenly, these strangers are too real and too close and I do not know them. Neither they nor I are babies or young children who will grow together. We’re fully formed humans with personalities and perspectives squeezed into a performance of intimacy.

We’re all going on a trip after the wedding. My siblings (new and old; step-, half-, or otherwise) will be in a big house together. For several days, we will be sharing a bathroom.

It’s so weird to return a show about teenagers that you watched as a teenager and relate to it more now than you did then.