July 20, 2013
BH90210 6.8, Gypsies, Cramps and Fleas: That’s So Raven
I knew you were Trouble when you walked in
Summary: Donna wakes up on Halloween morning to find Ray putting pumpkins on the beach apartment porch. He wishes her a happy anniversary, because he still hasn’t accepted that she’s dumped him. He asks her to go to the After Dark’s Halloween party with him, saying he’s just trying to work things out. Things are much happier at Dylan’s house, which is now Dylan and Toni’s house. She’s very excited for Halloween and wants to put up a lot of decorations. A black kitten comes to the door, and though Dylan thinks it’s bad luck, Toni’s happy to have a new pet.
Back at the beach apartment, Clare deals tarot cards to tell her own fortune. One of them is the “lovers” cards, and Kelly and Donna tease that that means her relationship with Steve is going somewhere. On campus, Brandon bugs Susan about her Halloween costume, which she wants to be a surprise. She’ll only tell him that it’s “very feminist.” Shocking! Donna meets Joe, a CU football player who’s a friend of Steve’s. They talk about how the team is on a winning streak, which is making all the players superstitious. He has a crush on her, and she might like him back.
Steve and Clare exposition that nothing happened when they went to the hotel together. She’s also no longer tutoring him. They bicker, and she says she misses getting paid to have to listen to him. She tears up the “lovers” card. Valerie’s stressed getting ready for the party at the After Dark, and annoyed by the presence of a fortune-teller named Madame Raven, since her camper is taking up so many parking spaces. Raven makes a “love potion” at the Peach Pit and reads Valerie’s palm. Val asks Nat to get her to leave, but he says that’s bad luck. Raven offers to tell fortunes at the party. “I’ve already seen my future and you’re not in it,” Valerie replies.
Colin finally finishes the mural at the After Dark, telling Valerie that the payment for it will go straight to his rent. (He’s no longer Claudia’s sugar baby, remember.) Raven sets up a tent outside the After Dark and uses a crystal ball to look into David’s life. She tells him a soulmate is coming his way. David thinks that’s Valerie, but Raven says there’s some uncertainty about that. Oh, but the crystal ball is cloudy now, so she can’t tell him anything else. She gives him some of the love potion instead.
Colin goes by the beach apartment, where Kelly’s carving one of Ray’s pumpkins. She bugs him about getting a job, but he uses that old excuse of how working for money isn’t being an artist. He asks her to come to the unveiling of the mural that night. She’ll “consider considering it.” Dylan and Toni tend to their flea-ridden kitten, named Trouble, who scratches Toni. (Well, what did she expect, with a name like Trouble?) When she goes to get the first-aid kit, she finds Dylan’s gun inside. He tells her it’s just for protection in case Marchette comes after him. Toni orders him to get rid of it.
At the Peach Pit, Donna tells Ray that she wants to spend time with other people at the party, and she doesn’t want him to get upset. Ray interprets this as meaning that she has a date. She tells him that she’s willing to go to the party with him as a friend, but she needs space. He says fine, but he’s still determined to win her back. Bruno visits Toni at Dylan’s house and tells her that Marchette wants to meet with her. Dylan comes home and kicks Bruno out. Toni thinks Marchette wants to see her so he can declare a truce.
As Brandon and Susan arrive at the After Dark, Raven splashes Susan with water, saying she didn’t know Susan was there. Brandon questions her skills as a psychic. Raven sees that Susan has a letter from someone named Jonathan in Seattle and uses the information to get Susan to do a reading. Susan admits that Jonathan makes her wonder if she and Brandon should be together. Toni agrees to meet Marchette at the Peach Pit, where he tries to convince her to come home. She asks him straight out if he killed Jack. Marchette says no, but won’t answer when she asks if he had someone else kill Jack. It’s pretty clear what the answer is.
The party starts, and Brandon (dressed as the Godfather) tries to convince Susan (Pocahontas) to get her fortune told. Ray puts on a creepy mask so he can stalk his ex. Brandon and Susan visit Raven, who tells them someone is in the way of their relationship. No, wait, not someone – something, specifically truth. “Five bucks for her to tell me you’re not Pocahontas,” Brandon laments. Susan decides to tell Brandon the truth – she dated Jonathan, the previous editor of the Condor. He’s the reason she became so anti-workplace romance. Brandon doesn’t seem worried.
Valerie (a cavewoman, I think) introduces Colin (a cowboy) for the unveiling of his mural. He’s down because Kelly isn’t there, but he spots her just as the mural is revealed. Also, she’s dressed as a cowgirl. The mural is…weird. The Cramps perform as Kelly learns that Colin planned his costume after he got Kelly’s out of Donna. They seem to be okay now. Dylan hands out candy at the house while Toni mopes. He tells her to stop blaming herself for things Marchette did, and to let it go. He tries to cheer her up by getting her back in the Halloween spirit.
David (a caveman, so I guess I was right about Valerie’s costume) puts love potion in some drinks, then chats with Clare (Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie) and Steve, who looks like Major Nelson from I Dream of Jeannie but insists he’s an Apollo 13 astronaut in his dress uniform. The drinks get mixed up, and Steve and Clare get the ones with the love potion in them. Ray sees Donna and Joe (a pirate, though it’s hard to tell) dancing and yells at his ex. He warns Joe that she’ll tear his heart out.
Steve and Clare start feeling weird, so they decide to go to a dressing room to cool down (which I guess is what the kids are calling it these days). Colin collects his payment from Valerie and tells Kelly he can’t use his money for expensive, pretty things now. He’s decided to take a teaching-assistant position at CU. The love potion does its thing on Steve and Clare, or maybe they’re just driven to lust by their semi-hatred of each other.
Joe takes Donna home, then tells her that he doesn’t think it’s a good time for them to get involved, considering how Ray reacted to seeing them together. After he leaves, Donna finds out that Ray has been lurking on the porch, eavesdropping. He calls her a slut and tells her they belong together. He grabs her arm, but Joe comes back and shoves him around to give him a taste of his own medicine. Joe hangs around to keep Donna company, telling her he came back because he changed his mind about holding off on pursuing something. They kiss. Valerie and David kiss, too, and he admits that he slipped her some love potion. She tells him she doesn’t believe in that stuff. Raven watches them, thinking she contributed to their happiness.
At the Peach Pit the next day, Steve tells Valerie and David that he and Clare hooked up the night before. Valerie thinks it’s because of the love potion. Nat tells Brandon and Susan that Raven disappeared without paying her bill. A cop shows up looking for her, telling the group that Raven sells a bogus love potion. Everyone denies having seen her. Nat still has a bottle of the potion but won’t sell it to Steve.
Dylan takes Toni to the spot where his father died, wanting to see it one more time before he lets it go. He tells her they need to leave Beverly Hills. She wants to go somewhere with nice weather and scenery, so he suggests Hawaii. Toni wonders if Dylan can really let go of what happened to Jack. In response, he throws his gun in the water.
Thoughts: Two minutes in and Joe is already 80 times more likable than Ray.
A gun in a first-aid kit? Was that just the first place Dylan could think of to stash it? How weird.
Seeing Dylan with cat toys makes me go, “Awwwww!” What’s wrong with me?
Dylan to a trick-or-treater dressed as a prisoner: “You shoulda had a better lawyer.” Hee.
'90s Flashback 
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