WHO'S WHO
Starring
Amanda Bynes (Holly Tyler)
Jennie Garth (Valerie Tyler)
Simon Rex (Jeff)
Wesley Jonathan (Gary Thorpe)
Guest Starring
Leslie Grossman (Lauren)
Joel Huggins (Ed)
Jayden Lund (Heavy Set Guy)
Written by
Hayes Jackson
Directed by
Shelley Jensen
SYNOPSIS
Picking up where "Valentine's Day" left off, Holly sees Val
return from her weekend in Vermont. Val tells Holly that she and Jeff
have decided to break up. The split affords Valerie more free time,
which she uses in a variety of interesting ways: she wakes Holly up the
next morning at 5AM to go jogging, she tosses all the junk food out in
favor of organic fare, and she impulsively goes on a cleaning spree. Holly senses that Val should be more open
with her feelings about the split, after all, it's a split! She encourages Val to truly
face her feelings instead of hiding them behind her gleeful romps. Gary
thinks it would be helpful to make Val cry, so Holly rents a batch of
tearjerker movies. Val seems to see through this little charade, so she
and Holly wind up having a little spat as Holly gets quite frustrated.
The next day, Holly visits Val at Harper and Diggs, and sees that Val is
going to have a "girls night out" with her old rival, Lauren.
After several Jell-O shots, a drunken Val and Lauren return to Apartment
34C at 2 AM, and Holly learns the two revelers are going to get tattoos.
Holly takes action, and brings Jeff to the tattoo parlor to try to talk
sense to Val. An argument follows, and Jeff and Val again cannot find
level ground, and they agree to start seeing others for awhile. Holly
and Lauren see Val is crying, and Val hugs Holly, thankful that she
brought her down to Earth.
SHOW NOTES
The impact of the storyline with Val and Jeff's relationship on the
rocks was blunted somewhat by the interruption of "Holly's First
Job".
This is the first episode with scenes set in
Holly's bedroom (as Val brashly wakes her sister up on one of her free
days). Leslie Grossman brings zip and spice to the episode with a return
engagement as Lauren.
NEXT LINE, PLEASE
GARY: Man! I can't believe they broke up!
HOLLY: I know!
GARY: I'm gonna miss that dude. I mean, there's a special bond that
forms between a best friend's older sister's boyfriend and her sister's
platonic friend's guy friend, you know what I mean!
HOLLY: Special bond? You guys watched sports and talked about boobs!
GARY: (sigh) The good times!
HOLLY: So how do I get her to cry?
GARY: For me, lately, it's been two things...seeing "Antwone
Fisher", and getting my business caught in my zipper!
OUR REVIEW
Unless you're a hard-core, watch-every-week fan of "What I Like
About You" or you aren't a regular visitor to this site, you might
be puzzled as to why the WB decided to roadblock its two-episode story
arc featuring the now-troubled relationship between Jeff and Val by
inserting "Holly's First Job", an earlier show with a higher
mayhem factor, into the middle if it. Perhaps it was just an opportunity
for the WB to give the post-production team a bit of a blow after the
one-week window of "Valentine's Day". Could be they wanted to
buttress the stronger episode up against the Frog's maiden airing of
"Grounded for Life". Less likely, maybe the network has no
idea what they're doing with their comedy scheduling and continuity.
Whatever the desired effect was, the facts are clear: ABC, NBC and CBS
seem to have found the magic combination that is keeping viewers away
from the WB Friday, as all four shows were near or at their season-low
Nielsen ratings ("Sabrina" and "WILAY" were at low
points), with even the once-mighty "Reba" having lost major
audience. Worse still, with Christopher Reeve on "Smallville",
"The Lone Ranger" movie, the "Grounded" premiere and
the "Sabrina" move to Thursdays, this potentially pivotal
episode got minimal promotion this week on the tube.
So did the WB save some face tonight with a
strong episode of "WILAY"? The task belonged to Hayes Jackson
("The Teddy Bear", "The Other Woman") to continue
the narrative and steer the course of true love -- or true hate. He
picked up the story just as Val returned from a weekend in Vermont,
where they saw deer, got souvenir bacon for Holly...and broke up. But
Holly is puzzled by Val's behavior. The very next day, she drags Holly
on a 5AM fun run (after which Holly asks Gary, "Do I have a groin?
Because I think I pulled mine!") and starts compulsively throwing
out all the junk food in the house and organizing the closets i in the
apartment -- even Holly's. Holly blows up at Val, asking her to at least
to try to acknowledge the breakup with some emotion rather than mask it
by wanting to do new things. Even a wild night of partying with onetime
office rival Lauren (Leslie Grossman, again impressive in her second
WILAY stint) doesn't make Val break down. In fact, when Val announces at
2AM that she and Lauren are going to get tattoos at a Village parlor,
Holly brings in the one person who can talk sense into her -- Jeff. Val
and Jeff have another heated dispute in the tattoo parlor, and they
agree to break it off and see other people for awhile. A crying Val at
the end has her tattoo all picked out, but at the end it's Holly, not
Lauren, she thanks for bringing her emotions about the split out -- and
for being such a good, responsible sister.
Whoa -- good, responsible sister? The same girl
who snuck out to see JC from *NSYNC? Woke Val up one night with a not
Gwen Stefani sighting? Fell out of a tree grabbing Lorenzo? It doesn't
seem too impossible to believe that this show has truly evolved from its former
past. Part of this is due to the character of Holly, who has winningly
been transformed into a character rather than a caricature. She's still
a typical teen who loves to chat on the phone and eat junk food, but
there are other facets to her, and we actually get to see how the things
around her impact and affect her. The character as portrayed by Amanda
Bynes can mix frivolous bits like the opening sequence, where she eats
chocolate covered potato chips, with scenes where she spiritedly debates
the merits of dealing with a broken heart vs. organized closets. The
scripts are also marking a change in dynamic in the relationship between
Val and Holly. Could Val have been able to weather this storm without
Holly being at arm's length? Maybe not. In the sisterly relationship we
now have the younger sister being the beacon for older, much like many
real families do. But there's still the Holly factor, that she can still
get into scrapes just like the old times (next week, with the new
episode "Dude, Where's Val's Car?"). Despite that, "What
I Like About You" has gone from being a show about sisters at odds
to one about sisters in arms, and the more we see Amanda Bynes and
Jennie Garth on their "A" games like tonight, the more we
wonder why more people aren't watching this show.
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EPISODE GALLERY
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When your sister has been away for the whole weekend, you
can get pretty daring with your food choices. |
Here, Holly experiments with chocolate syrup (sweet) and
potato chips (salty). |
Two great tastes that taste great together! |
Yummy! |
Suh-weet! |
Holly sees Val's returned from Vermont, where she and Jeff
have spent the weekend. |
But it's not a good weekend as Val announces that she and
her boyfriend of a year, Jeff, have split up. |
Val says it was a pretty amicable split...look at her
smiling about it. |
But Holly's instinct is to comfort her heartbroken big sis.
"C'mere!" |
No time for that now...Val's got souvenir bacon! |
And if you think this episode has anything to do with
bacon...well, stay tuned. |
An early morning for Holly as sister Val wakes her up at 5AM
to go jogging. |
Although bed is the place Holly would rather be.
|
Again, she wants to comfort Val. "C'mere!" |
But Holly's got high calorie breakfast
on her mind. |
Holly agrees to join her since she does all her best running
from the back of a taxicab. |
Holly tries to convince Gary that Val and Jeff are on the
outs. |
The breakup looks to her like it's going to be harder on
Gary than it is on Val...never a good sign. |
After her run, Holly's hurting in places
she doesn't even think she has! |
Hopefully the run will have gotten all that out of Val's
system. |
No such luck. Val's on a mini-health kick now. |
She's tossed all of Holly's favorites, including Twizzlers... |
...in favor of more substantial
fare from the health food market. |
Like new Meatella! Ask for it by name. |
Holly swears to help her sister through this... |
...maybe not if it means actually eating something called
Meatella. |
After a diet of health food meant to cleanse her system... |
...Holly begs Henry to talk, err, dirty
to her. |
Val comes into Holly's room, and wants to talk. |
She wants to talk about Holly, school, and boys. |
She wants to know if Holly needs to hear "the
talk" about her and Henry. |
All Holly needs is for her to stop talking. |
But saved by the bell, as Holly fields a call. |
She needs to shoo Val away, after all, it's an emergency! |
Talk later! See ya! |
It isn't every day someone calls you on the phone offering a
great deal on long distance service! |
At the restaurant, Holly has no idea what to do now. Val's
real emotions are bottled up so tightly they've turned into --
well, you see. |
Gary recommends that if Holly can coerce Val to just let it
all out, she'll be back to normal in no time. |
So she comes back with a big bag full of the saddest videos
she can find, but nobody expected what happened next. |
Val's been at work rearranging Holly's closet and getting
rid of all her objectionable clothes and garments suspected of
no longer fitting. |
Holly's so frustrated she just wants to eat anything. Even
if it's green and goopy. |
Holly thinks it's an invasion of privacy. |
Then Val accuses Holly of having problems with Henry. |
And she disavows any knowledge of having any personal
problem with herself...despite the fact that she just uncoupled
from a guy she's been seeing for a year. |
All Holly wants for Val is to show some emotion. |
Not quite the emotion she was looking for though. |
The next day at Harper and Diggs, Holly has a peace offering
for Val. |
It's an apology fueled by her lack of sugars and real food. |
Holly is told by Val that she's more in control of her
emotions every day, and things will be back to normal soon. |
Just after a night or two of wild carousing with her
supposedly hated rival, Lauren, who announces it's 50-cent
Jell-O Shot Night. |
She knows things are too far gone now when Val is
"girls'-night-outing" with her work foe. |
A drunk Lauren and Val call on Holly at 2AM, just to use the
restroom. |
Holly tries to find out from Lauren just what Val was up to
last night. |
According to Lauren, they kissed! (that is the liquor
talking) |
Holly knows Val is not over losing Jeff, and she's worried
about her current state. |
Even more so when Val announces they're off to an all-night
parlor to get tattoos! |
This calls for intervention. If Val won't listen to Holly,
Holly figures she might as well hear it from Jeff. |
Val knows she's fine, since even Jeff knows about her
late-night tattoo habit. |
After Lauren attempts to hit on Jeff, Holly points out some
of the more marriageable guys in the joint. |
Things only get worse for Jeff and Val from here. She's
standing firm on the fact that she wants to get married. |
And he's against it, all for the status quo, and she wants
him to tell her the truth -- or at least the truth she wants to
hear. |
The road's washed out now...Jeff and Val reinforce their
split, and it's not as amicable as she said it was. Vermont
probably ran along many of these same lines. |
C'mere. |
Not Lauren, not the fat guy in the tattoo parlor...Val hugs
her sister because she knows she did all she could to get her to
the point of realization. |
And Holly will also let Val do all the cleaning she likes to
help her get over it. |
"You're the best!" |
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