Beverly Hills, 90210 - The Complete Second Season: The Brandon Walsh Dynasty Continues

During the last episode of the first season of Beverly Hills, 90210, it ended with Brenda telling Dylan that she was "late", and at first he couldn't imagine what she was possibly late for. I think he smartened up very quickly. But we had a cliffhanger! Creator Darren Star said that they originally broke up Dylan (Luke Perry) and Brenda (Shannon Doherty) because of media backlash they received from Brenda losing her virginity, and not feeling badly about it. So they caved. And they caved hard.

The beginning of the second season starts with Brenda taking a pregnancy test and not being pregnant. After she finds out she's not pregnant, she simply dumps Dylan. There's a lesson for you all. Don't make girls miss their period. In classic Donna Martin (Tori Spelling) air head fashion, after Brenda's test comes up green, Donna says that it means it must be twins. Donna's character, who didn't do much in the first season, is front and center and all over the second season. She takes on a high school Chrissy Snow type character, except without the up front sexuality. Well, she was in high school.

There were a couple important aspects of the show that changed from season one. The first was that they decided to run the second season smack dab in the middle of July, which was different from the regular TV schedule. All the new shows would come out in September, so by doing that they put their new episodes against summer re-runs. And because of running in the summer, it meant that they showcased their young cast in their bathing suits. The only thing bad about that was I don't think Brenda had ever seen the sun in her life.

The second thing that happened is that the shows were being written in a more soap opera-like fashion. The story lines crossed over more from episode to episode and you saw some episode to episode story arcs. Though the show still had it's message episodes, it wasn't like the first season where it seemed nearly every episode had some lesson to teach. I do commend them for focusing on some important things such as teenage sex, rape, condoms in schools, gun control, and steroids. If you're going to teach lessons, go all the way.

While the focus of the season was definitely on the Brenda and Dylan relationship, there were a few episodes that most 90210 fans would remember. Maybe the most memorable (and one of the most memorable of all time) is when young Scott Scanlan accidentally killed himself with a gun at his own birthday party. It was a weird episode as Scott's mother was a character outside of total reality and instead of feeling sorry for her after her son died, you couldn't wait for her to be off your television. It really hurt the episode, and it was written in a dark comedy style which was odd for an episode in which someone who is supposed to be a sympathetic figure, dies.

The other two famous episodes involved everyone's favorite crazy girl, Emily Valentine (Christine Elise). After being Dylan's first crush after his dumping, she was on Brandon's radar (and was a real life girlfriend for Jason Priestly) and became his wacky girl. She takes the gang out to an underground club that also moonlights as a place to sell drugs. After Brandon says he doesn't want to take drugs, she slips it to him anyway and he becomes the mack daddy of them all. And rather than call the drug ecstasy, they decided to call it euphoria. But this wasn't any euphoria. It was spelled U4EA. He then breaks up with her. In the other Emily episode, she becomes borderline psycho and obsessed with Brandon. But the continuity editor was slipping here. Emily had previously yelled to Brenda that she was a virgin, but after she sleezed her way into the Walsh household, she tries to slip into Brandon's bed and says that after a night of passion with her, he won't want to break up with her again. That doesn't sound like a virgin. Well, she could have been lying. And plus, the man has morals.

Five Reasons Why Brandon Walsh Is A Moral Man

- He doesn't leave Nat hanging when he gets a new job at the Beverly Hills Beach Club.

- He plays big brother to someone who doesn't have one and turns his abusive mother in.

- He writes a story about Devo (the boyfriend of a neighbor) who was harassed by security cops.

- After Emily Valentine goes psycho on him, he continues to be her friend after she goes into the ward.

- He feels sorry for Andrea and finally gives her the real deal. Ok, maybe he didn't go that far. He had a reputation to uphold.

While the Brenda and Dylan phenomenon (they eventually did get back together) was at it's strongest in season 2, there was another budding romance that actually became the focus of the final season of the show. Donna decided to let David Silver sweep her off her feet. No longer the nerdy outsider, David became a part of the gang because of Donna, and also because his father and Kelly's mother were dating, then became pregnant, and then decided to get married. David and Kelly would become brother and sister, while David and Donna would become that cute little couple.

There were other interesting plot lines and one of the strong things about the show was that they never really let the plot lines die. Andrea still loved Brandon. Just as the sun predictably rises every morning, every time Brandon talked about another girl, she became jealous. Dylan would use alcohol to fix his problems, not once, but twice this during the second season. Kelly is sans boyfriend all season long and is depressed about it so much that on Halloween she wears nearly zero clothing, exposing more breast than was ever shown on 90210 before. And there was this odd small story line where Donna's mom decided to cheat on her father. It wasn't really a focal point as it was towards the end of the season and it kind of came out of nowhere. Brenda also decides to wear a tie to school every day.

There were some fun roles by actors and actresses who are more famous today than they were in 1991. Lucy Liu plays the greatest waitress of all time as Brandon's stand in for the summer at the Peach Pit. Vivica A. Fox is Brandon's sassy neighbor who gets in a car accident with him. Richard Roundtree (Shaft!) plays her father. Ja'net Dubois, who is better known as Wilona from Good Times plays David's father's dental assistant. And last but not least, Color Me Badd guest stars and I Adore Mi Amor plays for about an hour straight.

Things sucked for Kelly Taylor. She had no boyfriend. The curly mulletted Steve Sanders was the only one who loved her. She told Andrea that Brandon Walsh turned her down. And the curly mulleted Steve Sanders was the only one who loved her. And that leads me to why it sucked to be Kelly Taylor.

Five Reasons Why It Sucked To Be Kelly Taylor

- She wanted Kyle who turned out to be gay.

- Her mom is finally there for her and then falls in love with David Silver's dad.

- She dresses up like a sexy girl on Halloween and is attacked by a cowboy.

- Her mom becomes pregnant.

- She finally meets Jake, but he just wants to knock her boots.

The last episode of season 2 finds Dylan and Jim Walsh at odds because Brenda is a rebellious young woman with Dylan and he wants daddy's little girl back. Dylan freaks out at the end of the season when Jim doesn't allow him to date Brenda (persona non grata), even after Dylan reaches out to him. His mother had given him a trust fund and asked Jim to hold it for him until he became an adult, and Dylan tells Jim that he didn't want him to hold his money. Of course, Brenda blamed Jim and the season ended with the Walsh household not intact. It would lead to a fun season 3 where the Brenda/Dylan relationship would turn into a love triangle and everyone's favorite episode would also finally happen (Donna Martin graduates!).

The special features are fun, but way too short. They bring back James Eckhouse and Carol Potter as Mr. and Mrs. Walsh. They discuss being Jim and Cindy Walsh. And yikes, they are old. It's a pretty boring piece until they put a slide show of footage together to tease what would've happened had Dylan fallen in love with Brenda's mom. These people are sick.

There's also a small featurette on Christine Elise who says that no matter what she does, she'll always be far more known for Emily Valentine than anything else she'd ever done. And let's just say that the road has owned her. She looks older than Gabrielle Carteris. The last feature shows two comics who are bad at their job talking about the show in the style of VH-1's Best Week Ever. It's bad. I thought seeing Christine Elise in 2007 was bad. This was ten times worse.

Beverly Hills, 90210 - The Complete Second Season is a fun season, but the best is yet to come. They really need to bring back the stars for some commentaries and I suggest breaking down Steve Sanders getting screwed in last season's Dancing With The Stars competition. The man should've won. It was highway robbery.