Crystal Clear

And we got to see into her heart, really understand how much she was still suffering over Dylan.

yulan

Yes. And the distancing from her family and friends.

Crystal Clear

I love the part where she breaks down, says "I can't go on that trip with them... I still love Dylan... Poor Wendy."

Jim and Cindy are like, "who the is Wendy?"

yulan

Then they're like, "She finally lost it." And I guess it was supposed to be funny, but it was not really.

Crystal Clear

I know exactly what you mean. It's one of those awkward beats where the writing clearly intends for the audience to laugh, but it juxtaposes with Brenda crying, so...

yulan

Yes. Also, Cindy seemed to lose a lot of empathy for Brenda in S4. I mean, Brenda was not a perfect daughter, but she was not a child from hell either. Come on.

Back to Brenda/Donna:

Crystal Clear

I love Brenda's hair in that scene

Brenda and Donna's friendship was my favorite. Their final scene in the S4 finale sums up why.

I agree with this. It's so awkward to me how the writing in S4 seemed to reflect the off-screen tension... Like you said, Cindy seems OOC. She was always supportive of Brenda in the past, even when Jim was angry at her.

yulan

I love how Brenda encouraged Donna to stand up for herself, as someone said.

But in general, I think Brenda was a better friend to Kelly and Donna than both of them were to her. Well, from S3 onwards. They were all great in S1-2.

Crystal Clear

Agreed.


It's like how the reactions are totally different to when Dylan betrays Brenda + David betrays Donna.


Donna goes straight to the Walshes and finds comfort in Brenda.

Brenda goes home and nobody except Brandon checks on her.

yulan

Yes. And Donna keeps equalizing Brenda and Kelly's roles in a demise/S3 crisis of their friendship. Um, no.

Crystal Clear

Oh, I hated that!

That stupid episode where Donna lectured Brenda for being mad that Kelly would go on a date with Dylan. Was it WILD HORSES? Man, I hated that ep.

yulan

Yes. I did like Brenda's lines to Kelly and how they made up by the end of the episode. But Donna's speech where she somehow made them both equally bad? That did not work for me.

Crystal Clear

Agreed, and that's my main issue with the triangle -- how their friends perceived it.

I think Donna had a tougher role to play because she was caught in the middle of her two best friends, so I'll give her some credit.

But yes, it just seemed like the writers wanted to see Dylan's feelings for Brenda and Kelly as balanced at that point, so they made Brenda and Kelly share equal blame in the matter.

yulan

Yeah. Also, they wanted to whitewash Kelly as much as possible.

Donna does get some credits indeed. I am glad she mediated between them. And I do love the scene when Brenda and Kelly made up.

Crystal Clear

AWWW I loved the scenes where they went to drama class together!