90210 S1E5: One On One

I remember nothing about this episode. Perhaps I had a test the next day.

Brandon tries out for the basketball team, and Steve tells him “the whole thing is rigged.” Most players are from out of district. They are allowed to play because they’re part of the “applied learning opportunity program” but they don’t go to class. Also, they’re all minorities.

Brandon convinces Andrea to do a story on this even though this is a sensitive subject for her, since she lies about her address to attend West Beverly. She discovers that the ALOP has no records on one kid, James.

Brandon corners James in the library, and James screams at him. He is allowed to attend West Beverly because his father has worked for the Beverly Hills City Library for 15 years. James is bitter because his parents pulled him out of school in Englewood four weeks into the semester, so he’s been playing catch-up ever since.

Meanwhile, Brenda is taking driver’s training after failing her driver’s test three times. She does ok at first, but then nearly gets into an accident with her driving teacher. Kelly wants Brenda to go on a double date, but Brenda refuses. When the date goes sour, Kelly calls Brenda to pick her up. Brenda takes Brandon’s car and manages to not only run out of gas, but also get the car stolen when she walks to a gas station for help.

Brandon finds James in the gym and the two work out their differences. They compliment each other on their b-ball skills, and play a little one-on-one. In the end, the cops find Brandon’s car, with Brenda’s keys in it (what?), so the jig is up. This makes no sense. If Brenda has no license, she shouldn’t have keys to the car in the first place. AND, when she takes the car Brandon isn’t home, so how’d she get keys anyway? THEN, her set of keys turns up in the car? Even though she didn’t have keys to begin with? ALSO, she left her keys in the car when she walked to get help? It boggles the mind.