Higher Education

Mark here...so this episode is all about cheating. Brandon is offered the answers in a class by Steve and takes them, at first inadvertently. He ends up cheating on a test, and guess who finds out...Andrea! And never failing to be judgey she reams him for it. Of course at the end Brandon realizes that cheating never pays and succeeds on his own...after much judgement from Andrea. She's the worst. (Laurel) It's really interesting how in these earlier episodes Steve is positioned as Brandon's bad influence ( and Kelly is Brenda's)....

Separately, and more interesting...Brenda meets Dylan for the first time in this episode....and promptly has a weird fantasy involving an awful blonde hairdo....which leads to Brenda dying her hair and ending up with the worst wig ....clearly meant to convy a bad dye job, but really....

Laurel here...Brandon totally inappropriately confronts his teacher, calling him out on giving a "memorization" test that he's already given for 15 years but it's obviously just because Brandon feels guilty about using a cheat sheet for the copy of the test he got in advance from Steve ...essentially blaming the teacher for his cheating. Yes giving the same test for 15 years lends itself to cheating but a student blaming the teacher for a bad test is totally inappropriate and NEVER would happen. Anyhow, the teacher takes it to heart and assigns a surprise essay question for the final so everyone has to think for themselves. Issue resolved! Neat package! All is well! Especially for nerdy Andrea who has of course uncovered the cheating "scandal" and was super worried about the curve...

Mark here... I feel like its worth noting...we both HATE Andrea yet we both find ourselves entertained ( unexpectedly) by the awful Andrea moments...go figure....Laurel here... I guess we both love to hate her. Honestly shes the worst!!! Shes like a parody of herself a cross between Debbie downer and a new character that we've invented called Judgey Judy. Honestly she's the worst We hate her so much. But she has given us many moments of mention.

Cocktail Moments

Donna Martin shows up and actually has a line, rare in these early episodes, so we feel like its worth a drink.

Brandon and Andrea moments: the first time Brandon says " its just irritating that you always think you're right" also " sometimes you have a stake in everything I do, like we're a couple or something" (forshadowing much)?

Brenda to Dylan: " I like your butt, I mean...your bike"

Brenda gets the style award this episode, strutting her stuff in dolphin shorts, a printed sports bra, and her crazy dye job. Way to go Brenda!