Nekoshoujo

^ Yeah I'm totally rooting for Marisol/Mo interaction in any way. I think that seeing Mo with the girls would play to his humorous nature without him just being "the dork". Mo's already stated he doesn't get a lot of play with the ladies. I bet he covers up his disappointment with jokes. Throwing him a situation with a couple of ladies would give us a chance to actually see that. And seeing is always better than just hearing about it.

woo~ I'm glad Teennick is bringing back the messages thing. They did that before with Aislinn. I wonder if Shanice shot some kind of filler clip like the one they did with Aislinn last year. That would be super cool!

JustMe2000

So...

It looks like she's going to be in Mean Girl mode, at least for a little while.

I'm happy, though, that we get to see her away from Katie and romantic triangles.

And we really need to get a title for this baby. Maybe I'll watch Nowhere to Run again (or at least her parts- you know, the good stuff from that episode) and see if I can get something from there.

Open to suggestions, too.

MegaJ

Because "Hells yeah?"

Nekoshoujo

So it turns out I'm psychic now. yup.

Actually looking forward to Marisol's HBIC-ness this season. From the new promos it looks like she's not a big fan of Imogen so it'll be cool to see all the senior girls interaction at once.

hot_vanilla

Why do I love Marisol so much!?!

Nekoshoujo

^ Because she's interesting. There was something about her last night that just made me want to know more.

Lady Azura

So, in response to a post in the Underneath It All thread, I came up with this:

"Now I'm wondering if they're gonna explore the Katie/Marisol relationship even more... because it's pretty clear that Marisol is the dominant one in that friendship. She calls all the shots and Katie, despite being very overachieving and dominant in OTHER aspects of her life (i.e: running the newspaper) she does seem to... follow Marisol's direction a lot. Speaking of Marisol and her possibly hating herself and therefore hurting those who seem weaker... that's a really interesting theory. She is very... conforming in a way, and so seeing her project this hatred onto Imogen simply for embracing her own individuality rather than trying to actively fit in with what is considered "normal" does, in fact, make sense. Also, her storyline with Mo should be interesting, especially since I see it being similar to the Holly J/Toby storyline. I can see Marisol falling for Mo but not wanting to admit it for fear of what everyone else would say, especially since Mo is not the conventional "football hunk" or anything like that. You know?"

MegaJ

Marisol apparently does have some underlying issues hinted at in her profile. I can't really guess at them, I don't know if they'll go into family stuff, so it may be something else.

And apparently Marisol's currently gunning for most disliked female characters (for good reason though, I guess) but that isn't unusual for a lot of black female characters.

Lady Azura

^ I don't think it has so much to do with her race as it does... her personality. I mean, as of now she's shown very little redeeming qualities and it's really hard to like someone who's shallow and mean 99.9% of the time. I happen to find Shanice gorgeous and think she's a very talented actress, but Marisol as a character is very hard to like. HOPEFULLY she'll get some development and become less... one-dimensional, for lack of a better word. Because I really would like to see other aspects of her character explored.

Although I definitely see your point about it possibly being a race issue... but at the same time... I think a lot of it just has to do with how little screen time they get. I mean, back in the '80s/'90s, Lucy was a pretty prominent character, but since TNG there really hasn't been much of that. I mean, Hazel was basically Paige's shadow, and Chantay really didn't do much until season 10 and even then her appearances were few and far between. Liberty was also a really prominent character, but I find that a lot of people outside of anyone who shipped Jiberty didn't really like her. Take the guys from Boycott the Caf, for example. With her, though, I find a lot of it had to do with Sarah Barrable-Tishauer not being this drop-dead-gorgeous girl. Granted, this is just a speculation, but... you get my point, right?

Anyway, enough rambling.

Right now, I'm kind of on the fence when it comes to Marisol. I mean, I love Shanice, but her character is very frustrating. It's how I feel about KC right now too. But I'm really hoping that she develops as a character, possibly in the same way that Holly J went from being this horrible person who treated her own friends like crap to a mature and reasonable young woman.

Nekoshoujo

Yeah but in a way doesn't that speak to the way the writers are choosing to write her character? We have a grand total of one black girl in the cast and she's the token bitchy best friend. I dunno, but I feel like their reluctance to give her a storyline from her perspective speaks to something. I mean if you think about it they bring in her bff and she's already gotten more development than Marisol has. They pretty much had a clean slate with her coming into S11, why have they chosen this route exactly? :\

Putting that aside I think the criticism of Marisol is way too easy. Like you can say "I hate Marisol! She's an awful person!" But like... clearly. Again I'm just tired of the writers telling me how to feel.

Personally I'm all for the mean girl. It's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it, right?

MegaJ

I actually don't mind Marisol being the bitchy type character really. I think the writers played it safe with the other black girls and were afraid to actually really have them step outside for themselves. And already with this relationship with Katie, Marisol just isn't her black best friend. There's a loyalty/power dynamic thing going on that is interesting. Even with Marisol outing Katie as bulimic last year, she apologized and in this episode she saved herself AND Katie from trouble without even consulting her on the plan. Maybe because she thought Katie would cave? Or maybe because she regularly does these things without Katie's input because Katie is too afraid? IDK.

As for being hard to like, maybe in this episode but she was a delight in Nowhere to Run

Lady Azura

^ Marisol was easily the best part - Bianca too - of Nowhere to Run.

Nekoshoujo

No I agree with all of this.

It's just that, I wish we had episodes actually from her perspective.

JustMe2000

Yeah, we don't really get to see much from the resident Mean Girl's perspective.

It does look like

It would be nice if they gave us a Katie/Marisol story line that's told from primarily her stand point. That's the one thing that's made all of the best friendships on the show like Jimmy/Spin, Emma/Manny or even Alli/Clare is that we've seen both characters involved get their perspective in a story line involving the other.

So if they want to make the Marisol/Katie friendship into the one the show's anchors heading forward, I think they'll have to give us some stuff from Marisol's perspective.

I don't hate her at all, although I can't exactly blame anyone who does at this point.

And yep, she'll always have Nowhere to Run, where she was the star.

Nekoshoujo

^ Right now that's the biggest problem I have with the Katie and Marisol's dynamic. Worse still because I almost think they want us to see Katie as the victim. Maybe as a way to make her look innocent in comparison to Marisol since they were written as the evil duo in the premiere. Having an episode from Marisol's perspective would give the entire friendship more depth. But do I think that will happen? No, simply because I get the impression depth isn't important to the writers anymore.