OPINION: 90210 Smoked Turkey and Ravy (AKA Raj & Ivy's Last Holiday)

I watched 90210's Thanksgiving episode, "Smoked Turkey" last week and I wanted to make sure I had a moment to write a little something something about it before this week's episode airs.

I don't know if Ivy (Gillian Zinser) and Raj (Manish Dayal) have an official smoosh name.  Ivaj?  Ravy?  I don't know, but if Ravy is a thing, then I've made no secret that I'm a big fan of theirs.  That's why it's pretty sucky for me to watch them deteriorate as a couple.  (Though, I admit, the boy waiting in the wings for Ivy's heart is pretty cute too!)  At the start of this episode, it looks like Ivy basically hates Raj now that he's not going to die.  Not cool Ivy Sullivan, not cool at all.  And why didn't you take Raj's last name anyway?

With the news that Annie's (Shenae Grimes) fellow escorts are being busted, Annie is worried that if Dixon (Tristan Wilds) admits he's in rehab that people will become suspicious as to where the money came from and learn that she's started turning tricks (albeit with her ex-boyfriend).  Annie's in a pickle and she's forced to give her brother bad advice, telling him to lie about his addiction.  Adrianna (Jessica Lowndes) is totally disappointed that Dixon is lying and tells him that they can't be together while he's being dishonest.  He clearly has serious feelings for her, and he ultimately tells everyone that he is having substance abuse issues and is in rehab.  Silver (Jessica Stroup) asks Annie where the money came from and Annie lies through her pretty little teeth and tells Silver she finally got the inheritance from Marla's (Sally Kellerman) estate, but that her lawyer has advised her not to talk about it.  Oh Annie, what a tangled web we weave... But I'm thrilled that things are finally heating up for young Ms. Wilson!

Being that this is a Thanksgiving episode, you would think one of our young protagonists (at least one) would be spending the holiday with family.  While, none of them intended to do that, but Liam's (Matt Lanter) piece of trash mom did show up for dinner.  She told her son that she left his no good step daddy which she previously chose over her own son.  That lie was swiftly exposed and it became apparent that she was only there to get some of the dough that Liam has recently come into.  I have to say, of all the family that could have descended on the zip code for the holiday, Silver's sis Kelly (Jennie Garth) or brother and sister-in-law (ex-sister-in-law?) David and Donna (Brian Austin Green and Tori Spelling), the Wilson parents (Rob Estes and Lori Loughlin), or even Ivy's mom (Kelly Lynch, Lord knows that girl needs her mama right now!), I would not have chosen Liam's hum drum mom to show up on the scene.  I will concede however that I will take Liam's dummy mom any day over Naomi's sister Jen (Sara Foster) who made me threaten to quit the show altogether when she was on since she was probably the single most insipid character in the 90210 franchise's history.

Naomi (AnnaLynne McCord) caused a ruckus on Thanksgiving (are we surprised?) after Austin (Justin Deeley) didn't want to have sex with her, sending her brain into a tailspin.  She decided to make Austin feel like a man and had him show her how to ride a horse on mountain trail.  Of course Naomi Clark already was an expert horse rider and Austin could clearly tell.  He left her on the trail where she promptly got her foot stuck in a rock, 127 HOURS style.  Then she found a joint among Austin's things and decided to smoke it to relax.  Of course it blew out of her hands, down the cliff and started a brush fire.  D'oh!  I've always felt bad sex was a bad omen.

When Austin rescues Naomi later, he yells at her telling her that they never talk.  Naomi assures him she is in it for more than just sex.  "I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere," she reassures him, "and not just because my foot is stuck."

With the brush fire near Naomi's house (where half of the characters live... can I move in?), Raj was worried about Ivy.  When he learned she was ok, he told Dixon he realized how she felt when he was fighting cancer.  In Raj's mind, she was always forced to worry over him and he had been selfish.  It turns out that Ivy had to grab her wedding album before leaving the fire zone.  She tells Raj she loves him and wants to be with him.  Unfortunately, Raj just took a call from his doctor negating everything he said last week about Raj being cured of cancer...  Raj is still dying!  Not wanting to be a burden on Ivy any longer, Raj lies and tells her he only wanted to be with her when he was terminal.  He walks away leaving her with only her photos.  R.I.P. Ravy.

Liam and Annie also started to reconnect this week, which to me is a total yawn, but at least they are being drawn together within the context of their stories (both have continued to make messes of their lives solo) as opposed to being thrown together because the powers that be deem that they should be.

All in all it was a fine episode.  Not exceptional.  I'm bummed about Raj and Ivy, but the story is ripe with drama which is important.  It's not the first time we've seen a dying person lie to someone they love to spare them heartache, but it's not out of the blue either and it works here.  I definitely don't want to see Raj die, but even less would I want him to be written out only for Ivy to learn he died off screen.  I guess I'll have to tune it tomorrow!




Greg Turner contributes primetime reviews for We Love Soaps. Along with Brian Hewson, Greg is the creator, writer, and producer of the web soap, EMPIRE, which can be found atwww.empiretheseries.com. Greg loves soaps.