"90210" - September 16, 2008 episode

Annie is upset to hear from Harry that her drama teacher had to leave because of an emergency, so there's now a chance that the musical will be cancelled if he can't find someone to take over. His mother Tabitha takes that as a cue and volunteers to be the new director of the musical. You know that's going to be a bad idea. Tabitha ends up being a horrible director, and Annie pleads with her father to get someone else. Harry asks Kelly if she knows anyone, and after Kelly says she does, Harry later ends up introducing Brenda to Tabitha, telling his mother that Brenda will be her assistant, a development that doesn't please Tabitha in the least. Brenda praises Tabitha for a performance of "Hedda Gabler" that she'd seen her in and mentions that she's played the part herself. OK, I happen to really like "Hedda Gabler", and I'll agree that it's a fabulous part for a woman, but I think Brenda would have been entirely too young to play that role. During a rehearsal, Brenda sees that Tabitha is riding Annie entirely too much, and she was taping the rehearsal, so she shows Tabitha the tape under the pretense of showing her which girls need work in what areas. But in the process, Tabitha sees what a shrew she was being and makes up an excuse to bow out, but she tells Annie that Annie is very talented and that they're in good hands with Brenda.

Kelly and Brenda meet for breakfast at the school, and Brenda is reminded of old times. Kelly asks about Donna, and Brenda says she saw her recently and that she has an adorable baby. Nice nod to Tori Spelling. Speaking of which, I hadn't heard the updated story that despite earlier reports about Donna's inclusion in the new series, Tori won't be in the show after all. There is apparently some kind of dispute about salary, and Jennie Garth seems disappointed in Tori's non-return, but Shannen has a slightly different take. I was curious about Donna, but for my money, I'd rather have Kelly and Brenda.

Brenda wants to know what's going on with Kelly and Ryan, but Kelly isn't sure, and she's a little bothered that Ryan is 10 years younger than her. Brenda asks about Sam's father, but Kelly says he doesn't need to know anything about this. Later, Brenda and Ryan are talking about the musical, and Ryan asks Brenda about the father of Kelly's son. Brenda says she's not comfortable talking about Kelly's private life and that Ryan should talk to Kelly herself. When Ryan pushes, Brenda says there's a lot of history. Ryan then later tells Kelly that he's concerned about her unwillingness to talk about Sam's father and mentions that he talked to Brenda. Ummm, yeah, Ryan, wrong thing to say. Kelly catches up to Brenda to ask what she said to Ryan, and she says she didn't say much but that Kelly needs to get her story straight. Brenda says that Kelly is going to find it hard to move on with anyone else because she's still in love with Sam's father, Dylan. OK, I had it in my head that Brandon was the father, but now I'm second-guessing whether Kelly and Brandon had a thing. I thought they did. Am I mis-remembering? It's been too long.

Meanwhile, Naomi is having a difficult time adjusting to the facade of a family that she discovers she has. She doesn't see how her mother can be so non-chalant about her father's affair with Gail, but her mother says it's just a fling and doesn't mean anything. She's even more irritated when they have a photo shoot for their family Christmas picture, but her sister Jen isn't there and will be photo-shopped into the picture. (So they show the picture later, and it's just a picture of the three of them, perfectly centered in the frame. So where's the sister, and how would you photo-shop her in since it would throw off the balance of the picture? Did they use the wrong picture for that shot?) Naomi thanks Ethan for his support when she was freaking out, but Ethan tries to keep a distance between them to just be friends. Naomi had been told by her mother that Gail lives in another state, but Naomi discovers she's actually in town, and she goes over to Ethan's to talk to him about it. Ethan is giving his mother a break and minding his adult autistic brother Steven, who is a little disconcerted because the furniture had been moved by cleaners, but Naomi is able to calm him down, which impresses Ethan. Naomi wants to confront Gail and asks Ethan to accompany her for moral support, and Ethan agrees. Ethan waits in the car while Naomi goes into the boutique and tells Gail to leave her father and her family alone. Gail says she can't help herself because she's in love with him, and she has just moved to town to be closer to him. Naomi is appalled when she sees some of Gail's moving boxes and realizes that her father has moved Gail into the family beach house. She tells her mother, who realizes that it's not just a meaningless fling after all.

The triangle-plus-one is setting itself up quite well. Ethan asks Annie out on a date of sorts, to meet at the Peach Pit on Thursday afternoon, which Annie accepts. Immediately after, though, Ty asks her to go to a concert, but she has to turn him down and admit that she's meeting someone else, news that he doesn't take well. When Silver hears that Annie is meeting up with Ethan, she warns her against it. Annie claims that Ethan and Naomi are over, but Silver says they're never over, that they're an impenetrable bubble. Annie finds out that Silver knows exactly what she's talking about when she is stood up by Ethan (when he went with Naomi when Naomi confronted Gail), and she doesn't want to hear the explanation when Ethan sees her at school the next day. She realizes that she made a mistake in blowing off Ty (even though he did leave her at the bowling alley to go to the pier concert), but he's cold to her efforts when she apologizes. He is unimpressed with the snickerdoodles that she baked for him, but he reacts much better when she plants a kiss on him. Meanwhile, after having watched video of herself and Ethan in happier times, Naomi decides she wants to try again with Ethan, who is receptive to the idea.

Dixon has problems of his own when he's driving his father's car and accidentally breaks the side mirror of a fellow student's very expensive car when he makes a mistake in parking the car. Having overheard his parents discussing their difficulty in selling the house in Kansas, he doesn't want to further burden them, so he convinces the student to leave the insurance company out of it and agree to just let him pay cash to take care of the problem. Dixon gets a job at the Peach Pit to make the $500 that he needs, but he doesn't tell his parents why he has the job, using girls and having nice things as his reasons instead. Harry says he can keep the job as long as it doesn't interfere with school and lacrosse, but the hours spent at work take a toll on his schoolwork, and he gets an incomplete on a test in English class. Harry finds out about it and questions the number of hours that Dixon is working at his job, and Dixon finally admits why he needs the job. Harry says he'll take care of the money needed for the repair and Dixon can just pay him back gradually.

Naomi had previously pleaded with Silver not to mention her father's affair on Silver's video blog, but Silver said Naomi told everyone about her parents, so why shouldn't she do the same. Naomi apologized again for doing that, saying it was awful and that she understood now what Silver went through. In the end, Silver takes to heart Dixon's off-handed comment about boys not holding grudges because life was too short, and she tells Naomi that she won't mention her father's affair on the blog, for which Naomi thanks her. A cease fire to the war seems to have been declared.

Silver and Dixon seem headed for a relationship.