AWKWARD. Episode 3.02 "Responsibly Irresponsible" Recap – R.I.P., Douche-B

First of all, I want to know where I can get the t-shirt with “Jenna Lives” on the front and “Ricky Doesn’t Live” on the back. Now that I’ve gotten that out there, we can talk about the second half of Awkward.’s season premiere. Essentially, this half was simultaneously a mourning, AWKWARD.-style, plus a PSA for safe sex. It’s MTV, which means this is just how they like to do things.

Anyway, we start off with a wake for Ricky Schwartz – who, we learn, died from eating a peanut. [He had a peanut allergy.] So, the whole school goes into mourning-overdrive, with the exception of Sadie Saxton, who spend the entire episode trying to convince people that she’s not only not in mourning but also not carrying his child.

For her part, Tamara was taking the opposite extreme of the ex-boyfriend mourning scale. However, she had ulterior motives. Tamara was feeling guilty because she cast a spell on Ricky – and since he died, she was convinced it was her fault, hence the extreme mourning. Fortunately, Jenna spoke with Tamara and convinced her that she had nothing to do with Ricky’s death.

Meanwhile, Jenna is dealing with the baby scare aftermath, in which she is afraid to have sex with Matty because she’s worried that she’ll end up pregnant for real. She’d rather just avoid having sex with Matty at all, but he’s made it difficult for her as Ricky’s death has pushed Matty into YOLO mode [that’s “You Only Live Once,” for those living under a rock] – thus making him want to have sex with her everywhere and anywhere, like while at school.

After spending a day trying to dodge Matty, Jenna decides to just ask her mom if she’ll take her to get birth control – which, obviously, her mother agrees to do. When her mom comes to pick her up, Jenna loses patience with Matty, snapping at him to stop using her for sex, and start trying to prove his love for her.

Then, Lacey and Jenna take off for the gyno. There, Lacey and Jenna have a heart-to-heart [cue “Safe Sex” PSA], in which Lacey basically tells Jenna that it is the girl’s responsibility to protect against pregnancy because guys are too fragile and/or dumb to do so themselves. Besides, it’ll be Jenna that ends up pregnant in the end, not Matty, so why not do whatever she could to avoid that?

Jenna sees the wisdom in this – as do the viewers, so, lesson learned, MTV – gets put on The Pill, and goes off to meet up with Matty and her friends at Ricky’s night vigil [which also doubles as a keg party, naturally]. Matty pulls her aside as soon as she gets there and reveals how he’s decided to show his love: he got a tattoo on his leg. Totally nuts [P.S. how did Matty get a tattoo when he’s, like, sixteen?], but Jenna is touched by the gesture, so the two make up.

Kyle [AKA the “JENNA LIVES” guy] leads the group vigil for Ricky Schwartz, and is delivering a moving speech about snorting Ricky’s ashes when he’s interrupted by Sadie. Sadie takes over the vigil by informing everyone that she’s not in mourning and the only thing she feels guilty for is that she doesn’t feel the least bit guilty about his death. Tamara joins in and professes her hate for Ricky – as does Clark Stevenson, who also takes the opportunity to inform everyone that he and Ricky had been hooking up for years.

Everyone quickly goes from mourning to rioting, but thanks to Kyle’s emergency flare, Tamara manages to get the crowd back under control. She makes some speech about being in love with Jake and essentially frees them all to party. Jenna gets a little crazy, tells Jake that she’s glad she’s not pregnant. Of course, he then tells Matty that Jenna just told him that she thought she was pregnant at one point, which hurts Matty’s feelings.

And, that’s about it for the season premiere. What did you think of the episode? Everything you’ve been waiting for and more? Personally, I was surprised at how heavy the premiere got for a show known for it’s quirky comedy. Still, it was up to the standard level of humor – and packed with Tamaraisms, which is always a good time. Anyway, see you next week!

—————————

Episode 3.03 “A Little Less Conversation” Synposis: Matty becomes distant from Jenna, and Jenna freaks out when she learns that he wants to talk with her. Tamara tries to diffuse the tension.

This all-new AWKWARD. episode will air on April 23, 2013 at 10/9pm CST on MTV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaLwimDHVMs