90210 S1E7: Perfect Mom

Now this one, I remember. The ep focuses on Kelly and her mom. It also includes the ubiquitous mother-daughter fashion show. Brenda thinks Kelly’s mom is really cool because she’s more a friend than a mom, but in reality Kelly’s mom is a total mess – an alcoholic and a coke addict to boot. And I totally remember Cindy walking in on her doing drugs in the bathroom. I believe this is also the ep where Brandon sees Andrea as a “girl” (read: pretty) for the first time.

I wish I had a better picture for you, folks, but it is surprisingly difficult to find photos for shows that have been off the air for so long. The above photo is from much later in the show, but it’s the only one I could find of Kelly and her mom.

On to the recap: Brandon convinces Andrea to take part in the mother-daughter fashion show so she can write about it for the paper. But since Andrea can’t bring her mom (she’s poor, you know) he offers to hook her up with Cindy. David walks around with a video camera filming Kelly and going on about how she’s the girl who has everything. Foreshadowing!

Kelly’s mom, Jackie, is a different actress than in the pilot, and she is way better. One thing I really like about Kelly’s mom is that it’s totally obvious that she is truly devoted to her daughter. She just also happens to be a drunk. So, Jackie gets dumped and starts a severe downward spiral. Kelly’s all, “You said you’d stop drinking” and “Let’s go to a meeting” but her mom dismisses her. When Kelly dumps out her alcohol, Jackie freaks out.

Brenda is totally confrontational with her own mom because she wishes Cindy were cooler. Brandon brings Andrea over to ask Cindy if she can join them in the fashion show, but it turns out Brenda hasn’t told Cindy about it because she’s embarrassed by her uncool mom. Brenda also doesn’t understand why Kelly always wants to hang out at the Walsh house.

One night, Kelly arrives home to find that her mother has locked the deadbolt and she can’t get in the house. She climbs through the doggy door, finds her mom passed out, and wearily takes off her mom’s shoes and tucks her into bed. The next day at the fashion show, Cindy walks in on Jackie doing coke in the bathroom – before she knows who Jackie is. During the show, Jackie (the announcer) keeps messing up and insulting people. Andrea looks the same as always, but everyone keeps saying how beautiful she looks. Her “new look” stuns Brandon.

Kelly goes back to the Walsh house, and Jackie shows up looking for her. She tries to apologize, but Kelly is having none of it. She wants her mom to go back to rehab, but her mom refuses and storms out. However, when Kelly arrives home, she finds her mom packing for rehab. In the end, Brenda apologizes to her mom and Kelly calls Cindy to thank her for her help.

Unfortunately, the part of this show with the most potential for ridicule – the fashion show - wasn’t even all that bad. Oh, and David gets one step closer to the in-crowd when he gives his tape of the fashion show to Kelly so nobody else will see it.