kaleidocat

is the eighth episode of Season 3 of the Canadian television series, Degrassi: The Next Generation. It originally aired on November 5, 2003 on CTV Television and on November 28, 2003 on The N. The episode was written by story editors James Hurst, Rebecca Schechter and Tassie Cameron and directed by Phil Earnshaw. It shares its title with the song by The Icicle Works. (wiki)

Ellie is facing some stresses in her life. Her soldier father has just been shipped overseas, to which her alcoholic mother does not react well. She has an interview for what she considers her dream co-op job working for Caitlin at the radio station doing stories on social causes, but she's up against "perfect" Paige for the sole position. These stresses end up having a physical manifestation, which Ellie, ashamed, feels she needs to hide. Ellie gets an unexpected source of support.

Meanwhile, Terri has been receiving roses from a secret admirer. She suspects it's Toby, but really is hoping it's shy Rick. (imdb)

Popgurls: What kind of research did you do for Ellie’s cutting episodes?

Stacey Farber: The director of the episode sent me a tape. It was a kind of documentary-ish film on cutting, how – unfortunately – popular and common it is in some places. I watched that, and I learned a lot about it before I went in to film the episode.

PG: In the last couple of days, a news story broke about a Canadian school where students were cutting themselves after watching the Degrassi episode “Whisper To A Scream.” When those things happen, do the producers sit down and talk with you about it?

SF: They did, yeah. This is the first time I had ever heard about anything like this happening, because usually we get such positive feedback. I’ve gotten tons of fan mail where kids are thanking me for what I’ve done, or thanking the writers for writing an episode about [cutting].

We were all really upset to hear about that. It was really unfortunate. We did sit down and discuss it, and talked about how I can’t really blame myself for anything that happened, because I was just doing my job. It’s so sad, and I was so upset to hear about it. I guess [the episode] was just taken the wrong way. (popgurls - June 7, 2004)

JustMe2000

The subplot is just about the most random thing this show has ever done.

kaleidocat

It is one of my favorite subplots. I liked seeing Toby away from JT and it was hilarious to see him troll Terri. And writers even brought back a fact from previous seasons; Terri thinks she is psychic and into tarot cards, etc. I think Toby even said he heard it from Ashley. All that is believable and not random at all.



I love how he says "Therese" like "Clarice" from Silence with the Lambs. I don't know if the younger cast or audience got it but I fully appreciate it.

JustMe2000

Yep, I watched, so let's get to it.....

-In the first scene of the subplot you can see Rick sneaking off after they focus in on him putting a rose on Terri's locker. I've seen this episode numerous times and that's the first time I've noticed that.

-Manny to Toby- "Stop being weird." Spepper!

-Not much else to say about that plot other then in retrospect Rick putting those roses on her locker comes across as hella creepy.

-They didn't waste time with Ellie's mom, her first line involves her telling Ellie not to make a scene and to just "shut up, smile and wave" as her father is leaving,

-Sauve pulls Ellie and Paige out of class to let both know that it was Ellie and not Paige that got the intern job with Caitlin. This show has always had issues with school staff members and discretion, hasn't it?

-Speaking of jobs, we hear mention of Ashley getting one with a record company. We never did get any type of follow up on that, did we? I guess she really was in full girlfriend mode at this point.

-There's a moment in which we see Ellie, who is late for school, running horribly awkwardly with her arms at her side, which is a perfect way to show how unathletic someone might be.

-The split screen montage contrasting Ellie and her mother isn't really something we've seen all that much, if at all on other episodes of this show. It definitely adds to the impact of that sequence.

-I kind of wish we hadn't seen the start of Ellie's cutting. I think having her already being an established cutter would have made for an even more powerful story line.

-The scene in the hallway where Paige finally gets Ellie to show her her arm is such a strong one. It very well might be my favorite scene for both of those characters.

I went into this episode thinking it was one of the best of that season and nothing I saw changed my opinion.

semmafightsellie

good episode