Awkward "My Super Bittersweet Sixteen": AKA: Way to Go Matty

So this week, Jenna is stuck dealing with the aftermath of last week's party. Tamara is still not speaking to her, and Ming is just not speaking, a online comment at the beginning of the episode informs us that she has mono, so no Ming in this episode.

Could someone please explain to me what the writers have against  Ming? She was set up in the first episode to be one of Jenna's two best friends, yet we're in episode nine now and we've hardly seen her. I know they mentioned that Ming felt left out in The Scarlet Eye, but at the end of the episode even though Jenna said she needed to include Ming more, and seemed to be mending the bridge, that was the end of it.

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But back to last nights episode, for a moment, I thought that Tamara was coming around when she went to talk to Ricky after the game. Clearly even she could see that Ricky was a dog, and how ridiculous it was for her to be ice queening Jenna, while totally forgiving him. However that didn't exactly work out as planned and basically proved that when it comes to boys and relationships, T is just a dumb girl.

I'm actually a little surprised that Jenna didn't seem all that mad at T. I mean sure Jenna messed up, tho in an altered state, but Tamara wrote the letter. Jenna was all about reconciliation, and while I realize that Tamara is/was her best friend, that letter was WAY harsh. Would a real friend really write that and send it anonymously? She said it was shock, but personally I don't know that I would be so ready to forgive someone for that.

So not only is Jenna dealing with the lack of friends in her life, but guess what, it's her birthday!! Happy Sweet Sixteen Jenna!

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Of course things don't go well, where would the fun in that be? She starts the day off by failing her driver's test, due to the discretion of an instructor with hook hands. I swear to you I can't make this shit up, but luckily for us their writers can. Things seem to be going from bad to worse for Jenna, she's humiliated by an over eager Valerie, gotten her "monthly gift", thus ruining her pants and forcing her to wear her gym shorts for the rest of the day, her mother is refusing to come get her, Sadie is back and bitchier than ever this week, oh and Matty? Well, he's acting all weird since Jenna ripped him a new one at the party. Not even her lucky socks, rainbow striped knee highs, which I LOVED by the way, could make things better.

In fact the only person, Val aside, who seems to be nice to her is our beloved Jake. He invites her to sit with him, and consequently Matty and Sadie, at lunch. He invites her to the "big game" after school and actually looks excited when she shows up. Not to mention that he invites her to come with to the after party and then when Sadie throws a mini bitchy hissy fit that Jenna isn't invited, he goads Matty into giving Jenna a ride so she's no longer stuck waiting to be picked up. Seriously, even after this supposed lecture, Jake is still a total sweetheart. What's more, he doesn't seem to be acting like that because he has ulterior motives. Sure he has feelings for her, and really they SHOULD be together, but it seems, at least in last night's episode anyway. That he respects her "wishes" to just be friends, and is treating her no differently than any of his other friends.

Side bar, Brett Davern, who plays Jake, tweeted that during the episode: "for the record there used to be a line at the game where jake simply compliments jenna on her socks, matty just chucks 'em"...further illustrating my point that Jake likes Jenna for who she is and not afraid to be different, thus clearly making him the superior choice for her. Just saying.

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Jenna gets home and sees her mother has surprised her by redoing her room. Lacey is beyond excited and it's actually quite endearing. Sure it may not be what Jenna wanted, but it is exactly what Lacey wanted at that age and so naturally, since in many ways she's still a kid herself, she thinks that there can be no greater gift for a sixteen year old girl. Although the mirror over the bed is totally in appropriate, it's almost sweet in how innocent Lacey is about it, claiming the best part about a mirror on the ceiling is that you can do your make-up in bed.


Ok, first things first I am still a full blown card carrying member of Team Jake, that being said, credit must be given this week to Mr. Matty McKibben for stepping it up. As I said last week, basically everything Jenna said was true. I mean, maybe he didn't think he was too good for her, but he certainly acted like it. So it was a great scene in the car where he admitted that she was right and that it had hurt so much more coming from her because of how much he admired her.

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 I love the fact that all the characters on the show actually have some growth to them. It would be so easy with a show like this to just have a bunch of stereo typical characters, the loser, the jock, the self absorbed mom, the bitch cheerleader, but not once while watching the show do I ever feel that way. Sure, some of the characters do things we don't like, but we are always given little glimpse as to why they are what they are, Sadie is a raging bitch, but it's mostly because she doesn't like herself. Matty can be kind a jerk, but it's b/c he's so insecure.

Despite being all about a Jake/Jenna relationship, even I found it endearing when Matty showed up at Jenna's confessing he wanted to be more than friends, giving Jenna the one thing she's always wanted.

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