'90s Flashback

Where teen loves meet adult cynicism


Felicity 2.1, Sophomoric: New Year, New Hostilities

The one relationship that hasn’t changed

Summary: We left Felicity in a cab, about to decide where to go, but instead of finding out what her decision was, we start out with her telling her story to…Javier! He’s back! Before she can tell him her decision, she gets summoned to her dorm for a floor meeting. She and Meghan became RAs after all. Javier threatens to kill Felicity if she doesn’t tell him which guy she chose. Felicity doesn’t take him seriously. She congratulates him on getting his visa, then runs off.

Felicity makes a tape for Sally in her new room. When she first got back, she only thought of her two guys and the consequences of her actions last year. Things felt chaotic, and her only comfort was knowing that, as an RA, she would get a single room. Felicity arrives at the dorm too late for the RA meeting and asks another RA, Nancy, to give her a recap. Nancy tells her that asbestos was found in one of the dorms, so everyone on campus has to double or triple up. Felicity still has a single room, but she has to share it…with Meghan. Neither is happy about it.

Felicity tells Sally it won’t be that bad, but she’s nervous about having to advise almost 50 people. She and Meghan hold a floor meeting to tell their new charges all the rules. Felicity keeps is all business, while Meghan adds comments, which honestly I would prefer more. Tell me where the bad food is! A student asks if she can get a prescription filled on campus, and Meghan asks her what it’s for. It’s birth control, and Felicity says she can get it filled, but Meghan says not to take Felicity’s advice on sex, since she’s only had it once.

After the meeting, Felicity slams Meghan for disclosing her sexual history to a bunch of strangers. Meghan wonders if one person is really a history. She adds that no one cares. A guy named Brian Burke (AKA Burky) congratulates them on how well they ran the meeting, then asks for confirmation that Felicity has only had sex once. It sounds like he wants to be Felicity’s second. Felicity decides to ask to transfer to another room.

Julie returns to school, running into Sean, who’s trying to sell what he calls a freshman packet. It’s a kit that contains things like maps, condoms, energy bars, and aspirin. Neither has seen Ben all summer. Julie has a new outlook and a single room, and hopes to have fun this year. Sean invites her to come over and visit once she gets settled in her dorm. She tells him to drop the price of his packets. Inside, Julie learns that she’s gone from having her own room to having two roommates, very talkative twins named Penny and Stacy.

Felicity tells Sally that New York doesn’t feel the way it used to. Maybe it’s because she hasn’t seen her friends yet. Or maybe Meghan put a hex on her. She goes to housing to try to get out of her living situation, but her only option is applying to live with another RA. Julie’s there for the same reason. She and Felicity are in the same place for the first time since May, but are now enemies instead of friends.

Ben and Noel arrive in the hallway where Felicity’s sitting at the same time. Noel walks past without talking to either of them, but Ben goes up to Felicity…and kisses her. So that answers that question. Someone tell Javier! We go back to Felicity in the cab, telling the driver to take her to the international terminal at the airport. She ultimately went off with Ben, but she first wanted to go with Noel. She’s back with Javier, telling him her decision. She stopped the driver and asked to go to Ben’s place instead. Javier thinks she should have gone with Noel instead.

Felicity says this was a good chance to get to know what Ben is really like. They didn’t sleep together, by the way. Ben joins the two and realizes Felicity’s telling Javier all about them. Felicity admits that she hasn’t talked to Noel or Julie all summer. She called Noel once while he was in Berlin, but a woman answered. Javier thinks he deserves happiness since Felicity broke his heart. She feels like whatever coldness he has toward her is justified. Javier thinks things will be okay if they just talk.

Sean thanks Julie for making him lower the price on the packets, since now he’s sold a bunch. She complains about her new cheerleader roommates, so he offers to let her stay in the loft for a while. Julie knows that would be a horrible idea. Yeah, no kidding.

Felicity finishes up her tape as Ben joins her in her room. He asks what she told Sally about them, but Felicity doesn’t want to share the details. She does say that she asked if Sally thinks Julie or Noel will ever forgive her. Ben asks if she thinks her decision to go with him was a mistake. Felicity just says she wishes the whole situation weren’t so complicated. Then they make out.

Later, Sean asks Ben if it would be weird if Julie moved in with them. Ben says no, but Julie might feel uncomfortable since he and Felicity might start dating. Sean doesn’t think Felicity is the kind of woman you date – she’s the woman you marry. Sean likes her, but Ben isn’t ready to be with someone like her. She’s smart and Ben’s an idiot. A relationship would only lead to drama. Ben tells him to do what he wants about Julie, and Ben will do what he wants about Felicity.

Felicity tells Sally that after years of hoping to simply run into Ben, she now gets to make out with him. She reunites with Elena, telling Sally that Elena and Noel are roommates in an apartment above Epstein Bar. Okay, that’s weird. Felicity helps Elena move an ugly table into the apartment, then tries to leave before Noel comes home. She asks if Noel has said anything about her. Elena says no, which worries her.

Felicity tells Elena that things with Ben are going well. Of course, that’s when Noel comes home. He’s coolly polite to Felicity, and instead of acting as a buffer, Elena finds an excuse to leave. The exes make uncomfortable small talk, though Noel does say that he thinks Felicity will do well as an RA. She tells him he was good at it.

She continues that she called him in Berlin but someone else answered. Noel says it must have been Beth. He loved his time in Berlin, after he got over the thought of her and Ben together. Noel taunts that he was thinking the same things about them that he knows Felicity was just thinking about him and Beth. Yes, they slept together, and she was great. He doesn’t consider this revenge. He just wants her to know that he hooked up like she and Ben did. Shut up, Noel. Instead of shutting up, he tells her he never wants to see her again.

Felicity goes home to find Meghan recording an outgoing answering-machine message with loud music. Meghan tries to get her to talk about what’s eating at her, but Felicity doesn’t want to chat. Meghan wants to be a good roommate, having learned at Wicca camp that you get back threefold whatever you put out into the world. She invites Felicity to open up to her. Felicity explains that choosing Ben has had a bad ripple effect on everything else. She knew she would hurt Julie and Noel, but she’s just now seeing how bad it is. Meghan stops her, knowing she’ll just say something sarcastic and hurt Felicity’s feelings. So much for that.

Penny and Stacy do a cheer routine for Julie, who pretends she loves their living arrangements and doesn’t want to strangle either twin. Then she announces that she’s moving out. Felicity goes to the loft just as Julie is finishing up moving in. The former friends just greet each other but don’t talk.

At Dean & DeLuca, Felicity shares the news with Ben, who insists that he doesn’t care and it doesn’t matter and living with his ex while dating her former best friend is totally! Normal! Javier tells Ben to stop flirting and work. Ben makes a date with Felicity for that night, making her worry that he’s going to break up with her. She’s exhausted and this is only her first week back.

Julie and Elena hang out at Epstein Bar, discussing Julie’s new living situation. Elena knows it’s going to get ugly. Julie disagrees, since she doesn’t think Felicity and Ben will last. Noel comes over and tries to get the two of them to agree on a movie to see together. Felicity and Ben arrive and things get awkward super-fast. Noel thinks they can all be adults, but he immediately starts picking on Ben.

The hostility spreads and everyone yells at each other. Felicity refuses to leave, but Ben refuses to stay, so he goes off alone. Julie comments that he leaves pretty easily. Elena and Noel bicker because she needs money. Eventually, Felicity and Elena are the only ones left behind, and Elena wonders if this is what the rest of the year is going to be like. Elena needs some new friends, guys.

Later that night, Ben goes to Felicity’s room and she tells him to go ahead and break things off quickly if that’s what he plans to do. It’s not – he just wanted to make it clear AGAIN that Julie moving in with him and Sean isn’t weird. He’s happy to be with Felicity and missed her while they were apart after the road trip. They make out.

Things are chilly at Noel and Elena’s the next day, so he apologizes for making her feel bad about not having money. Maybe she would have money if she didn’t spend $90 on an ugly table. She tells him she knows things are complicated, but they need to trust each other. She can be friends with both Felicity and Noel without betraying either of them.

Elena shares that she dated McGrath at the end of the previous year. He broke up with her a few weeks ago. Noel is now the only person who knows about the relationship. Elena invites him to share his own secrets, so he tells her that the table is ugly. Yes! Thank you, Noel!

Ben, Julie, and Sean try to hang out at the loft together without fighting. It doesn’t last long. Julie says that she made bad choices last year about who to trust and give her heart to. She was mad at Ben last night, but she has a life outside of him and Felicity. After she leaves, Sean asks if Ben has broken up with Felicity yet. She came to New York to be with him – she could be in love with him already. Sean doesn’t want Ben to get “broad-sided by this emotional Mack truck.” He thinks Ben would freak out if he knew Felicity loved him. Ben promises he wouldn’t, but he’s not completely convincing.

Ben goes to Felicity’s dorm, where she and Meghan are fighting because Meghan told a guy on the hall he could have a ferret that his roommate’s allergic to. They leave Ben behind in the room to go handle the situation. Ben picks up the tape recorder as Meghan asks Felicity if she and Ben are having sex yet. She reluctantly admits that Ben is cute. What’s not cute: Ben listening to Felicity’s tape to Sally and hearing her say she might be in love.

Thoughts: Burky is played by Michael Peña. Nancy is played by Marissa Jaret Winokur.

The school sucks for not telling people about the housing situation ahead of time and giving them the chance to choose their own roommates. Why not pair up the returning students and putting the freshmen together?

Also, even the single rooms at this school are huge. Sigh.

Sean’s freshman packet idea is great, but Julie’s right that $15 is too much. Freshmen won’t spend that much on anything.

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