Poor Ellie

No matter what an ass she was last week, I can't kick her when she's down. Turns out Manny was less than impressed with her first cocaine experience and when Craig wants to stay in and do rails, rather than leave the hovel he's made out of Ellie and Marco's spare room, she dumps him. On her way out, she informs Ellie that Craig's an addict and a liar. In a device cribbed from One Tree Hill, the plot moves by at break neck speed. Before you can blink, Ellie's gotten Craig to admit his problem and agree to go with her to group (remember when he was just a simple bipolar and she was an angsty cutter?). Despite the fact that he's started looking like Jason Patric in Rush, guest stars Taking Back Sunday invite Craigers to play during the show that Ellie's covering for her university paper.

Ellie puts Craig ahead of her journalism assignment and her relationship with Jesse. He repays her by not showing to group and breaking her heart before his show. She goes to confront him about his problem and threatens to tell his stepdad Joey about everything. If there's one thing Craig's always been good at, it's knowing how to manipulate girls. He kisses Ellie and then tells her that he loves her. Her joy quickly turns to pain as he murmurs that she won't make him quit if she loves him. Ass. Having irreparably damaged his closest friendship, Craig goes onstage to play his crappy drowning allegory song and bleed from the face. He looks horrified by the nosebleed and if this is supposed to be rock bottom, I suggest the writers rent Requiem for a Dream.

We next see Craig at the airport. Only instead of going back to Vancouver, he's headed to Joey's and then rehab. Ellie gives him his ticket and he guesses that she's there to make sure he gets on the plane. She says no, she's leaving; Mr. Simpson will make sure he gets on the plane. Craig tries to tell her that he's sorry and that he really does have feelings for her, but it's too late. Ellie's tough facade has melted into tears (nice work by Stacey Farber and Jake Epstein, by the way) and she tells him that he needs help. He tries to weasel a promise that after rehab, they have a shot, but she simply tells him goodbye and walks off with what's left of her dignity.

At this point I'm going to confess my deepest, darkest secret: I like fanvids. What's a fanvid? I'm glad you asked. It's the awesome combination of television clips, basic editing software, and obsessive fans. The following was made by an actual Degrassi-obsessed teenager (Twyst on YouTube). Enjoy.


In other Degrassi news, those Lake Hearst toughs who called TeenMom a whore are back to declare war on JT and the Afro Twins. One of the kids has the same soccer mom haircut as JT and is unsurprisingly TeenMom's ex. Toby gets caught in the melee and ends up with a neck brace. It's pretty lame. The most awesome thing is that Jimmy and Spinner try to tell the Degrassi nerds about the cyclical nature of violence (and they should know since their bullying led to a school shooting and now Jimmy's in a WHEELCHAIR, in case anyone forgot). Next week Emma and Manny are going to throw a party and someone's getting stabbed by one of the Lake Hearst douches. Since Toby’s already been injured, I’m guessing it won’t be him. Fingers crossed for JT or Peter.