heyitsrachel

Everyone was pretty much against Shannon during that time.

yulan

But she also dropped out so she could take care of her kid, because she could not keep up as a single mother, right? Damn, that Jesse totally ruined her character. First he persuaded her to have a baby, but then could not help much. Very conservative.

I wish they addressed it too.

I think she was getting along well with the boys in general, especially Ian and Jason. Luke was also close to her age, so I think they were on good terms as well.

jaquen7

I just assume Andrea went back to school after the divorce. She said she dropped out to keep her daughter and her marriage together, but it just isn't working. Without the marriage maybe she was able to make it work.

Also based off the argument at the beginning of the episode between her and Jesse, where she said she doesn't want to be changing diapers for the rest of her life, I wonder if Jesse was mad at her because he wanted another kid and she didn't.

HipHopKingMike

I think Andrea felt like she was being tied down and wanted a career - she was ambitious just like Brandon.

jaquen7

Yes.

I get that these things happen in real life, but the whole early marriage/early baby story was just a bad idea for this character.

heyitsrachel

I guess they had to do that baby storyline because Gabrielle wanted to get pregnant. I guess the alternatives were to have her give up the baby, get a miscarriage, or her leave the show after the birth.

jaquen7

They had so many options:

- Andrea gives the daughter up for adoption
- Andrea goes to Yale and returns after Gabby gives birth
- Andrea has an abortion or she loses the baby (though this might have made Gabby uncomfortable)
- Andrea is a single parent. No Jesse or early marriage baggage


My choice would be adoption. When an unexpected character got pregnant on Degrassi they had her give the baby up for adoption. It was a great story. The pregnancy gave Andrea real story, but the actual baby, combined with the marriage, was just a really bad decision.

heyitsrachel

I thought Andrea being married with a baby was ok. But I didn't like her cheating storyline.

With Degrassi, are you referring to Liberty Van Zandt? If so, I glad you brought that up considering Liberty was also very smart and gotten pregnant (similar to Andrea).

yulan

That would be my favorite. It would have also made sense in terms of college storyline. Ditching Yale to stay with Grandma Rose and... whatever were the other reasons were not convincing to me. This way, she could have gone, decide she did not like it and she missed her friends too much, and came back. She could have done that instead of Brenda

Btw, did the gang know Andrea and Jesse cheated on each other? Except for Dylan, of course.

heyitsrachel

Andrea said that her Grandmother was sick and the CU was giving her more scholarship money to stay at CU. Like, how much money was she talking about?

jaquen7

I always assumed CU gave her a full scholarship, along with the perks she mentioned like the private dorm room and computer. Makes sense that they'd do all they could to secure the Valedictorian of one of LA's choice schools.

She stressed about how much Yale cost, but after she chose CU she never mentioned school as being a financial issue at all.

yulan

Thanks! I don't remember that.

That makes sense, but they should have addressed it more explicitly. Andrea made such a big deal about getting just a part-time scholarship for Yale, so if she got full thing for CU, I would expect her to say it very loud and proud, and as a big relief.

Didn't she also have a job in the CU lab with animals? Or she was just doing something for free there/as an intern?

I still wonder if super-ambitious high school Andrea wouldn't at least try Yale, although she did not get a full scholarship there. I think she would have gone there and got a job.

jaquen7

Should Andrea have gone to Yale (well earlier than she did)? Yes. But it was one of those necessary evils that these kinds of shows do in order to keep the whole gang together. I mean technically it's highly unlikely that all 8 of them would end up in CU. They tried to be more realistic with Brenda, but that didn't last. If the show had ended after season 3 I would have assumed Brenda, Andrea and Dylan all would have left. Funny enough, those are the three that did end up leaving halfway through college.

Andrea's set up for staying happening at the end of season 3. Remember Brandon jumped to the wrong conclusion that Andrea might pass up Yale just to stay in LA for him? And she corrected him and said she's really not sure she wants to be in debt for the rest of her life. She was already shown considering passing on Yale in her senior year.


I thought they were pretty explicit:

Andrea: I've decided to stay in town and go to California University. With my grandmother being sick and the alumni council throwing more and more money at me, they made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

Andrea: My not going to Yale is one of the toughest decisions I've ever had to make.

Brandon mentioned that she didn't have to take any CU placement tests, which apparently everyone, including him, had to take.

Donna (on Andrea's large dorm room): This place if fabulous!
Andrea: Oh, I know. I feel so guilty, all the other freshman have rooms the size of my desk.
Donna: Well California University had to do something to snatch you away from Yale.
Andrea: Where I'm sure they would not have gotten me a computer. Did you see this?
Kelly: OMG, they got you a laser printer too!

TBH I saw those early season 4 episodes when I was in middle school and I wasn't an Andrea fan back then but I still remember that CU threw a lot of perks at her to justify her staying.


It was a weekend job. She told Donna and Brenda she got it because they needed to save up money for the baby.

jaquen7

Looking at those snippets from season 4 reminded me:

A. Why that's arguably my favorite 90210 season of all.
B. How great of a job they did at improving her bonds with Donna and Kelly. As Brenda began pulling away it was nice to see Andrea getting closer to them.

It's funny, but as much as we say the pregnancy and marriage story isolated her, Andrea was also softened and humanized more in season 4, which actually made her fit in more with the overall gang that season.

heyitsrachel

I agree with your opinion about Andrea being more softened and becomes more with the group. But I think it's the pregnancy that stood out the most.