Isn't It Romantic?

Laurel here...time for some nine-o! For dinner tonight I made a fontina, spinach, and herb pesto lasagne with a pea purée on the side. Mark made a whisky cocktail called "twin hills" which seemed appropriate to enjoy with the Walsh twins.

Mark here...this episode is called "Isn't It Romantic?" and the romance in question is the budding one between Brenda and Dylan, finally! We've seen a few sparks up til now and references to Dylan being a ladies man, but this episode opens with Dylan helping Brandon with his car. Of course this gets him all oily and sweaty so he needs a shower, which Brenda walks in on, and the rest is history! Well, not really...the first time out Brandon is with them...to the movies and then back to Dylan's hotel room, where he puts on the sultry smooth jazz of, "Lily Was Here" (look it up). Brenda and Brandon marvel over Dylan's subwoofers...uh-huh, me too. Anyway, turns out Dylan has a complicated family life and on date 2, throws a hissy fit after a fight with Dad, causing Brenda to break out in tear...of course he's sorry, but she's fallen for his damaged psyche. Of course suddenly she's worried about sex (date 3 has yet to happen mind you). Her dad Jim forbids her from dating Dylan because of his white collar criminal dad, which of course only tempts Brenda more!

Eventually, with the aid of Patrick Swayze's "She's Like the Wind" and a guest high school speaker with AIDS (ever the walking after school special, Andrea shows up at this point), everyone calms down and Brenda and Dylan begin dating.

Laurel here...it's interesting to see how the show deals with the AIDS issue. We think about it so differently now, it's sort of surreal to watch this episode outside the context of the 90s. A guest sexpert speaker comes to the school to presumably talk about doin' the deed, and everyone is giddy and excited. But it turns out the guest ends up sharing her story of how she caught AIDS, and basically scares the kids into taking safe sex seriously. What they don't talk about is the difference between HIV and AIDS, ways to get it and not get it...sort of weird that they just brought it up and sort of scared everyone shitless then walked away. I guess at the time everyone still thought it was a death sentence, but I still think they could have done a better job of addressing it. If you're gonna go there then really go there, you can't just spend a few minutes talking about it and call it a day.

Style award for this episode goes to ...Dylan again!!! For this crazy trench coat number. With shoulder pads, extra long cut, and a grey acid wash style print this coat really has it all. Well played, Dylan. Also the pink shirt really makes it pop!