90210 S1E17: Stand (Up) And Deliver

No memories.

Andrea suggests that Brandon run for student government. He is hesitant at first, but then agrees to run for president. Kelly and Donna suddenly find Brandon attractive because they view him as “powerful.” Brenda feels ignored by her friends and her parents. She feels like she doesn’t belong.

The girls go to an open mic night and Brenda identifies with a comedian named Sky who is kind of unconventional. She goes home and tells her parents all about how “performance-oriented coffeehouses are really happening,” but her parents are too busy making campaign posters for Brandon to care. Kelly decides that she’s going to run Brandon’s campaign, and Andrea is offended because she’s already his manager. But Kelly is popular, so obviously Brandon wants her.

Brenda starts to hang out with Sky, and learns that she’s a high school dropout. Brenda is impressed that Sky has “really lived.” Sky doesn’t exactly encourage Brenda to drop out, but she implies that it was the best thing she ever did. So Brenda decides to take her GED. She tells the school counselor, “I’ll just tell my parents I’m dropping out.” Yeah. That’s gonna go well.

Brenda is friendly with a dweeby guy named Michael, who it turns out is Brandon’s opponent. This is weird, because Andrea’s whole point in asking Brandon to run was that they don’t have to let the popular kids run the school. But this Michael kid is obviously not popular. WTF?

After she offers to house sit for Sky, Brenda goes home and tells her parents she’s moving out. My guess is that Sky isn’t quite as independent as she pretends, and Brenda will realize that she can’t be either. Brenda comes home to Sky’s one day and finds the apartment empty and a burly guy repossessing all of Sky’s possessions. Kelly shows up with a ton of people in tow for Brandon’s campaign party, and Brenda and Brandon get into a huge fight. And Kelly joins in. This episode is pretty ridiculous.

Brandon and Michael chat before the debate and Michael admits that he’s lost a bunch of elections before. Brendon is totally naive about the whole situation. He realizes suddenly that Michael is totally qualified, and then he gets crushed during the debate because he hasn’t spent enough time thinking about the issues or how he will implement his proposals. So Brandon drops out of the race in front of everyone.

Meanwhile, Dylan goes to Mexico to see his dad.