'Greek': Putting the animal in Animal House
Tonight's pranktastic episode of Greek left me with one question: just where does one procure a barnyard full of animals on a moment's notice in suburban Ohio? Cows 'R Us? Pig-Mart? KFC's wholesale department? The mind, it boggles.
All of these spoilers were purchased exclusively at your local Target. Where they do not sell barnyard animals.
ABC Family has been promoting this week's episode like crazy, so during my weekend viewing of Never Been Kissed (and let he or she who does not like some random, silly romantic comedy cast the first stone) I got a nearly constant teasing for this week's fraternity wars, which looked quite promising. Unfortunately for the show, they used almost every prank in the teaser so when it came time to actually view the show it was a bit of a letdown. I blame my inability to resist Michael Vartan as a sensitive teacher (therefore forcing me to watch Drew Barrymore slog her way through high school for the 20th time) for this letdown more than the show, honestly, but let's see where Greek went a bit wrong this week and leave my strange obsessions alone, shall we?
On its face, a full-on war between the Kappa Taus and the Omega Chis was pretty much inevitable considering their presidents' longstanding rivalry, and a prank war was a fantastic way to make this war a whole heck of a lot of fun. Things got started when the Kappa Taus decided to retaliate for Evan turning in their Great Gatsby party (which hasn't been proven, by the way) by stealing their house picture and drawing all over it, then lying in wait in their booby-trapped house for the Omegas to come and take it back. Unfortunately for Rusty, he's at the forefront of the Omega's highly organized attack on the Kappa Tau house, and they manage to steal the picture back and completely cover the KT house in hot sauce and fish oil while they were at it. Imagine that lovely smell combined with the normal funkiness of a frat house and you've got one smelly cocktail of death.
Instead of retaliating Rusty gets an idea from his homework assignment, the book Animal Farm, to go directly to the Omega house and "make a case for peace," reasoning with the Omega brothers that the beef is really between Cappie and Evan and all of the other brothers should let them work it out themselves. Rusty's plea for a peaceful resolution is met with his kidnapping and duct taping to a building wall on campus. The Omega brothers obviously think George Orwell is a hack. Rusty is angry with Calvin for allowing this to happen to him, which Calvin doesn't understand because it was just a prank and wasn't personal. Well, Calvin, when you are peeling duct tape off of your more delicate parts I bet it feels a bit personal, no? Rusty then decides turnabout is fair play and puts in motion a more literal interpretation of Animal Farm, filling the Omega house will all manner of barnyard animals for them to deal with. I have to say, seeing Evan get licked by a cow he calls "Casey" never gets old no matter how many commercials you see. That's good stuff.
In the end, the fraternities decide to call a truce for now, which I'm sure will last until the next time Casey decides she wants to be with either Evan or Cappie. Calvin doesn't seem so ready to call a truce, however, which is a bit hypocritical considering having a chicken in your bedroom seems like a lot less of a burden than being suspended from a wall by only tape for 12 hours. Overall, this was a fun storyline, but a few more pranks would have been nice. A house full of popcorn, perhaps? Or a hallway turned into an ice ramp? Or a microphone implanted into someone's braces? (I obviously watch too many afternoon movies on basic cable.)
On the sorority side of campus the girls are still sick of dealing with Lizzie, especially now that she organized a mixer with the Psi Pi Phi's, the "nerdy" fraternity on campus. This is the last straw for the girls, so Ashley works on getting the Psi Pi's social chair to cancel the mixer while Casey works on Lizzie to see what they can do to finally get independent and have her out of their lives for good. Ashley meets and is strangely attracted to the Psi Pi chair Jason, which Casey realizes is because he is exactly like Ash's horrible ex-boyfriend Travis. He is "Travis in a dork suit," if I may quote dear Casey. Ashley finally realizes she needs to respect herself more and not fall for arrogant jerks and tells Jason off and gets him to cancel the mixer, saving her self-esteem and the sorority at the same time. And the point of this storyline is...Ashley needs an actual relationship. Please?
Casey, however, doesn't have as easy of a time getting rid of Lizzie once she learns what Lizzie needs in order to leave. It seems Frannie has been secretly contacting Lizzie and doing community service to get back in the good graces of ZBZ, and now Lizzie wants the girls to forgive Frannie and allow her back in the house to show how much they have all grown and changed. This can't be good, because we know as well as Casey that horrible Frannie will never truly change no matter how much she may have snowed over Lizzie. The other girls in the house are so sick of Lizzie's interference that they will do anything to get her out and unanimously vote Frannie back in, a decision Casey goes along with for the good of the house. She does (with Lizzie's unexpected guidance) put Frannie on probation and not allow her to move back into the house, a move which angers Frannie and starts everything off on some bad footing. What will Frannie's first move be now that she's back in the ZBZ fold? I'm not sure, but Casey better watch her back.
What did you guys think? Was the prank war fun or just pathetic? Is their more to the Cappie/Evan rivalry than just Casey? And do you think Frannie has truly changed, or will she be back to her old tricks?
Rusty is my least likeable character on this show.
when mining 80s era movies, real genius would be gold. but cappie even gave a "it's not over till we say it's over"-lite speech echoing animal house.
when they kept showing cappie's big league chew, i figured it'd be a better payoff than hot sauce.
Last night I watched Greek then Bones and I noticed the actress who plays Lizzie on Greek was also in last nights Bones. Does anyone know her name?
nisleib, that's Senta Moses, better known from My So-Called Life and Beakman's World.
And I wonder how often it happens that an actor is guesting on new episodes of two different shows at the same time (at least in the Eastern time zone...)
Um, the "nerdy" fraternity is called "Psi Phi Pi," a pun on "Sci-Fi" and, I ***ume, Pi is tacked on do to the math symbol.
Real Genius!
"What are you doing?"
"Self-realization - I was thinking about the imortal words of Socrates, who said, 'I drank what?'"
Even without the spoilage by overactive promo monkeys, I found this episode to be a little disappointing.
Things look like they are going to get very interesting next week, though.