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90210 premiere recap

by Cheril on September 3rd, 2008

Tristan Wilds as Dixon Wilson and Shenae Grimes as Annie Wilson in the 90210 pilot episode “We’re Not in Kansas Anymore” on The CW. (© 2008 Canwest Media Inc.)

90210 Recap: Episode 1&2 - We’re Not in Kansas Anymore (first hour of premiere) and The Jet Set (second hour of premiere)

Airdate: September 2, 2008

The Wilson family consisting of Harry (Rob Estes) and Debbie (Lori Loughlin), daughter Annie (Shenae Grimes) and adopted son of eight years Dixon (Tristan Wilds) arrive in their dusty mini van in Beverly Hills at the ritzy home of Tabitha Wilson (Jessica Walter). Harry has accepted the job as the new high school principal, having come back to his childhood home to care for his mother, a faded actress from the 1960s with an alcohol problem.

Tabitha is welcoming to the family but insults them thinking the “crap wagon” in her driveway belongs to the gardener. Debbie lets her know that the “crap wagon” is their vehicle.

Annie and Dixon are excited about going to school at West Beverly High, and Annie is especially interested in meeting up again with Ethan (Dustin Milligan), a guy she kissed a few summers ago while visiting her grandmother.

So as luck would have it, Annie sees Ethan sitting in his vehicle in the school parking lot and waves to him, but Ethan looks occupied. When the girl raises up from his lap, Annie figures out why he looked so embarrassed.

In Annie’s first class, we are introduced to the young, hot teacher Mr. Matthews (I would have loved to have him as my high school English teacher). Spoiled teen Naomi (AnnaLynn McCord) shows up late, but doesn’t seem to care because all she’s worried about is her upcoming Sweet 16 birthday party. Mr. Matthews warns her that she has a paper due, but Naomi doesn’t think rules apply to her.

Dixon meets a pretty cool guy, the student reporter Navid (Michael Steger) in his journalism class, who gives him the low-down on everything school-related.

In the hallway, Harry and Kelly talk, discussing old times, noting they knew each other as kids. Kelly is happy that Harry is a down-to-earth principal.

After class, Annie realizes that Naomi is Ethan’s girlfriend, but not the girl who was in the car with him. Naomi introduces Annie to the lead in the school play, Adrianna (Jessica Lowndes) who makes it clear that she doesn’t care about Annie. When Annie tells her that she arrived at school too late to tryout for the new play so she’s helping with scenery, Adrianna tells her “that seems like a perfect place for you.”

Later Ethan tries to tell Annie that he’s not normally the kind of person that would cheat on his girlfriend, but Naomi interrupts them again.

Meanwhile, Adrianna gets drugs from a high school dealer, but must come up with $200.

At lunch, Annie meets Silver (her name is Erin), played by Jessica Stroup. Our first clue that Silver is someone important is when Kelly (or Miss Taylor as the students will be calling her) comes up and steals a french fry. More about that later.

Naomi quickly whirls her away from Silver, telling her to beware because Silver uses her video blog as a way to get back at her fellow students. She invites Annie to her “not-so-sweet’ Super 16^th birthday party and takes her shopping for a dress to wear.

Harry, in his role as principal, meets with Naomi’s parents along with Mr. Matthews and Kelly to discuss Naomi’s overdue English paper that she must turn in or she will fail the class. This is upsetting to her parents, because they don’t want their daughter to have any more stress, because OMG, she has a 16^th birthday party to think about! Naomi’s mom Traci, it turns out, used to date Harry when they were teenagers. She makes a comment about how if things had worked out differently, they would be talking about “their” kid. This raises eyebrows from Kelly and Mr. Matthews, but Harry doesn’t’ want to give out details.

Later at the Peach Pit, Annie offers to let Naomi look at her old English paper on the same subject to get ideas on what to write. Of course, I’m sure you can figure out what Naomi plans to do with it.

It turns out Mr. Matthews also is the lacrosse coach. Dixon tries out, kicking lacrosse player George to the second string. When Dixon has his back turned, George starts a fight on the field.

Back at the mansion, the family discusses their first school day with Grandma, who wants to know if he beat George up. Dixon tells his father that George started it, but Harry says it’s up to the coach what will happen. Before she leaves the table, sweet ol’ Grandma Tabitha says she’s ordering takeout, telling Debbie “not that your tator tots aren’t to die for.” It’s going to be fun to see these two squabble in the future.

Later, Annie expresses her disbelief that Ethan would cheat on Naomi to Dixon as they discuss their first day at school.

Naomi’s mother Traci stops by the Wilson house wanting to meet the family (especially Debbie) and shares embarrassing high school stories about Harry. But when she asks Harry to take her home, Debbie can’t take it anymore.

“Why don’t I take you home so we can swap stories of Harry’s penis?” Debbie asks. That ticks her off, sending her home alone.

While out with Naomi, Adrianna steals Naomi’s purse, then later makes it looks like both of their purses were taken.

The next day at school, everyone is laughing at Annie, joking about a cow video on Silver’s blog making fun of the new “farm” girl from the Midwest.

Annie confronts Silver, who tells her she felt left out when Naomi took her shopping, calling Naomi the Antichrist.

Overhearing the conversation, Kelly comes up to Silver, telling her the blog causes problems and she needs to stop. But Silver hates Naomi and doesn’t want to stop. Kelly tells her she’s not talking to her just as a guidance counselor, but as a sister. Actually, Kelly is Silver’s older half-sister. Kelly asks her about their mom, with Silver (Erin) replying that she’s okay, hesitantly. In the preview for the next episode, it shows Ann Gillespie reprising her role as Kelly’s (and Silver’s) mom in a guest role.

Forced by George the lacrosse player to make it seem that Dixon started the fight on the field, Ethan feels he has no choice but to lie to Mr. Matthews, which gets Dixon thrown off the team.

Dixon loves lacrosse and hopes his dad can get him back on the team, feeling a connection to Harry because he too played lacrosse. He said it makes him feel like a “real” son. Annie tells him he is a real son, as he has been with them for eight years.

Annie confronts Ethan for lying about Dixon and cheating on his girlfriend, telling him he’s not the same guy she met a few summers ago.

When Annie learns that Naomi used her English paper word for word, she wants to know why Naomi did it, but Naomi blows it off, buying her a dress she knew she wanted, thinking she won’t get in trouble.

Dixon, ticked off about getting cut off the team, texts Naomi to tell her Ethan is cheating on her.

At rehearsal for the musical, Silver convinces the director to give Annie a chance to join the chorus. Seeing her dad watch her, she’s disappointed when she learns Harry is there as a principal to find out why she allowed Naomi to use her English paper.

Having to tell her father the truth, Naomi is now in trouble, which makes her un-invite Annie to her birthday bash.

Naomi and her mom are called in to talk to Harry about her paper, telling Naomi that she needs to take responsibilities. The whole time her mother makes excuses for her. Finally he gets to Naomi, telling her he knows she’s smarter than she tries to act, pushing her to get the paper done by the next morning.

Hoping that Annie will forgive her, Silver apologizes for the blog post, wanting to be friends again.

Ethan tells George that he is going to tell the truth about Dixon to get him back on the team. Coming back a little beaten and bruised, he tells Annie that her brother is back on the team.

She tells Dixon happily, but Dixon remembers that he already sent the text message to Naomi. Annie wants to intercept or apologize for the message, so both of them sneak out of the house to go to Naomi’s party.

Naomi’s mom Traci sees Harry, telling him they need to talk, bringing up old memories. When Harry left, he though she went off to Europe, but Traci tells him she went away to have a baby — his baby — so he could be adopted. So, they have a son together.

When Dixon, Annie, Silver and Navid arrive at the party, Navid finds out that Naomi’s purse was stolen, so she hasn’t seen the text message yet. At the highlight of her party when she is about to dance with Ethan, she gets her purse back mysteriously from Adrianna, and sees the text. When she asks him if he cheated on her, she walks off, saying he ruined her birthday.

Annie wants to tell Ethan she’s sorry, but can’t find him, but Silver takes her to a beach where they find Ethan surfing. Annie apologizes, but Ethan says he is the one who should apologize for being a jerk, telling her he is trying to find that guy he was a couple of summers ago. Annie, Dixon, Silver and Navid play on the beach.

Back at home, Harry can’t sleep now that knows he has a son he’s never met.

Finally, we get a glimpse of Kelly at home, holding her 4-year-old son. No word on who the father is.

Adrianna gives the drug dude his money.

The next day, Tabitha says her computer needs to be fixed, meaning that she spilled scotch on it again. Debbie promises she will get it fixed for her. Annie announces that her Midwestern long-distance boyfriend has broken up with her.

Tabitha tells her to say goodbye to Huckleberry Finn and hello to the California boys.

When the kids arrive at school, they find their school hallway filled with trash, the work of a rival lacrosse team. The guys want revenge, especially Dixon, but Harry tells them they will face consequences if they do anything.

Ethan tries to make up with Naomi by bringing her a rose, but at this point she doesn’t want anything to do with him.

Now that her long-distance relationship is over, Annie seems infatuated with Ty Collins, the guy with the lead in the school musical who also is rich. After a few awkward meetings, Ty asks her out for dinner after practice.

Kelly and Mr. Matthews share a few moments at school, as he really wants to ask her out.

Playing video games at home, Dixon plots his revenge on the rival high school team with Navid’s help. Grandma Tabitha overhears, telling them about one of Harry’s pranks he did as a teenager where they let out pigs on the rival team’s field. Since Navid’s dad is a movie producer, somehow he has a connection and hooks them up with pigs for the prank.

Back at school, Naomi learns Silver has a new video blog, this one making fun of the infidelity in Naomi and Ethan’s relationship. Knowing that the whole school knows, Naomi hangs out with George, the lacrosse player, for revenge.

While Debbie is at a photo shoot (she’s a photographer), Annie asks her if she can go out with Ty, since it’s a school night. Debbie agrees reluctantly, but only if she picks up her grandmother’s computer and is home by 10 p.m.

Ty is super rich and takes Annie in a private jet to a restaurant in San Francisco.

Mr. Matthews attempts to try to ask Kelly out on a date, learning that she will needa babysitter before she can say yes. When he seems surprised that she has a child, she apologizes that she never told him. He picks the wrong words to say when he tells her “everyone has baggage,” which offends Kelly to have her child called “baggage.” Strike one for the hot teacher.

Finally, we see Kelly meet her old friend Brenda Walsh at the Peach Pitt. Brandon is mentioned briefly, but we don’t learn too much more.

When Annie arrives home from her date, her parents are mad because Tabitha had a wreck picking up the computer that Annie forgot about. Tabitha’s friend Mrs. Brewer is visiting her along with her grandson Ethan, so Annie and Ethan get to share a few words. He asks her about her date, and Annie tells him Ty is just a friend at this point. Ethan asks if they are friends.

Harry is upset when he learns that his lacrosse players are responsible for four pigs destroying a cafeteria at the rival high school. He wants someone to fess up or else the lacrosse season is over. Dixon takes the fall for the team, taking full responsibility. Harry doesn’t want to believe that Dixon could come up with the idea until he learns where the idea originated from. Ethan and Navid learn that Dixon is thrown off the team (again), so they confess that they helped as well. Harry then suspends Dixon and Ethan from the game against the rival high school and gives Navid community service.

Adrianna seems in a daze at school and later at a professional audition, leaves before her name is called. When Mr. Matthews asks about the audition, she lies.

Annie sees a tattoo similar to one Naomi has on Silver’s lower back, which raises questions. Silver says Naomi at one time was her best friend until she betrayed her by telling everyone her secret that Silver’s dad was having an affair. This leads to Silver’s mom starting to drink again (or at least ruined Silver’s life).

Back at the mansion, Debbie confronts Annie about the matchbook she finds from a San Francisco restaurant. Annie tries to explain, but Debbie grounds her.

When Ethan learns that Naomi spent time with George, he tells her he doesn’t want to be together anymore just to hurt each other. Though it doesn’t show her reaction, I can tell Naomi isn’t going to be happy about this.

Mr. Matthews wants to apologize to Kelly, so he stops by her house. He runs into Brenda who tells him she and Kelly are hanging out getting reacquainted and that Kelly is inside. Brenda offers to baby-sit while Kelly and Mr. Matthews go out, which Kelly agrees to. Brenda says they will have plenty of time to catch up.

Though he only had to set out one game at school, at home Dixon is grounded for two weeks alongside Annie. Though they aren’t happy, they feel pretty excited about their new move and all that has happened.

In bed, Harry and Debbie discuss whether or not they should give Beverly Hills a chance or move back to Kansas with mom in tow. Debbie is worried about the temptations the kids will be facing. Harry vows to figure out what to do about the son he just learned about, and Debbie tells him to think about it before making a decision.

Meanwhile, Ty sneaks up to the house to see Annie, and they share a kiss on the steps just as Ethan rounds the corner, seeing them, holding up a stuffed animal octopus he had planned to give her (the octopus relates to their past, so it’s meaningful).

So in the future, we can see that Naomi isn’t going to be happy that Ethan is interested in Annie. Plus, Annie will have the whole Ty-Ethan love triangle to figure out.

Photo credits: © 2008 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved

Tags: 90210, 90210 premiere, 90210 recap, we’re not in kansas anymore recap, shenae grimes, tristan wilds, shannen doherty, jennie garth, lori loughlin, rob estes

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