New episode! I’m late on the recap! I deserve detention! (#Foreshadowing) Let’s get right into it, shall we?
Elena and her mom celebrate her entry into womanhood with a period party. Elena is feeling it, too. She’s inspired by her mom! She’s quoting pad boxes! She is giving pads to friends in school! Live it up, Elena! However, the inspiration from her mom leads to her taking the reins for a cause at her school, their awful school namesake. He emotionally abused women his entire life and is celebrated at her school? Elena won’t stand. So, instead, she immediately begins the fight to remove him from the school.
She creates a petition that is mocked by many, and from the evil duo, coffee stained. When she brings her petition to a school official, she is dismayed to learn about the lengthy process ahead for the even the possibility of the mascot’s removal to be heard. She can’t believe how this injustice is allowed to stand, especially after hearing all about the case her mom is working on.
She eventually decides to protest at the school’s tennis halftime performance (pause for laughs). She wants to “juice” the mascot, as his years of abuse towards women took place during his reign over an OJ empire. Instead of juicing the mascot, she ends up juicing her former BFF Jessie. Whoops.
Meanwhile, Bobby is having a crisis over the tilde in his name. He knows that, no matter what the school event, they will always spell his name wrong, whether it be without the tilde completely, or with it replaced by a meaningless symbol. The tennis team jackets arrive correctly spelled, for the first time in Bobby’s life, much to his enthusiasm. However, the competing team starts to call the tilde a worm, bullying him with highly racist overtones, including filling his tennis bag with worms.
When he arrives at the tennis match, he is shaken and hurt, leading to a poor performance. When he turns to see his teammates, all wearing tildes in solidarity, Bobby finds the strength to persevere and win the match.
Gabby is struggling with creating boundaries with her boss, Jo, as they have many hours around each other working on this incredibly difficult and serious case supporting the workers union for a hotel group. Also, after Elena’s juicing meltdown, Gabby has to explain to her daughter how doing the right thing doesn’t always have to end in such an immediate way. I can take time, doing things bit-by-bit.
Also, will we ever see her as president again? It is never mentioned. We’re halfway down with the series and not a single mention outside of the pilot? Odd.
Remember to keep those notes handy to refresh before episode 6!