So, before I begin diving into the brand new, and sadly, last season of Greek, here is a brief recap of what happened on the finale of season 3. We left off at Spring break, where The Kappa Tau’s and Omega Chi’s entered into another fight. The Kappa Tau’s, who eventually helped Calvin become president, took down the Omega Chi’s. Ashleigh got an internship for Faith Flowers (the name is just annoyingly wrong) as a trend forecaster (I also can’t believe that job actually exists). Evan and Rebecca made up while Casey and Cappie broke up after Casey found out that she got in to George Washington Law School but not Cyprus Rhodes University Law school (fictional).
This season begins at graduation with everyone in their robes, ready to enter the real world. The president of the college (Alan Ruck from Ferris Bueller) delivers a speech that, well um, tries to make an impact on the graduates. Ashleigh, Casey and Evan are all in their robes, looking as classy as ever. Rusty and Dale are there with signs and video cameras in tow. Rebecca is there, supporting Evan (glad they are still together), and Heath and Calvin attend as a couple. The one person missing, that Casey keeps looking for, seems to be missing. Rest assured, Cappie is also at the graduation, hiding in the back since he’ll be spending an additional year at CRU.
The opening scene ends with Alan Ruck’s character delivering a not so funny joke, “You’ve learned a lot here at your time at Cyprus Rhodes one would hope. Just a reminder, there are no refunds.” No one laughs. Yeah, try joking about the 40 Grand we spend a year at school and see how many laughs you get.
However, a line that did strike me was when he tells the CRU graduates, “College may be over for you, but your education is just beginning.” I sure hope so, at least for these characters.
We all know that Ashleigh is moving to Manhattan for her job, and of course, Rusty being the thoughtful person he is, gives her a whistle to hail taxis. This scene doesn’t seem that important, but it seems to hint at the future and, might I, add random romance (as seen through previews) between Rusty and Ashleigh.
As Ashleigh goes to find her family, Casey looks around for Cappie – her brother encourages her to forget about him. Both of them also mention some unlikely events that happened on Cinco de Mayo, a reference made through out the episode that left the viewers wondering, what the hell happened on that day? Anyways, Cappie finally comes up to Casey, and all he can say is, “Nice hat,” leaving a surprised Casey wondering, what the hell just happened?
Cue Greek music and fast forward three months.
Dale, Calvin and Rusty are having their buddy-buddy moment, where Dale announces that he wants to be the ZBZ hasher for another year. That’s his place to find “Mrs. Dale Kettlewell.” For him, the second biggest thing college does is play matchmaker. Um, sure.
Now that Calvin is president of the Omega Chi’s, he wants to call a truce between them and the Kappa Tau’s by having a toga party. Cliché, I know, but according to Calvin, it’s thematic and who doesn’t love walking around togas?
Cappie, meanwhile, took a road trip during the summer, and has been missing in action. According to Rusty, Cappie equals drama, romance and procrastination. I couldn’t agree more.
Unlike Cappie, Ashleigh seems to be making good use of her time. When Casey asks her what the real world is like, Ashleigh answers, “Well, I make no money, I share a tiny apartment with four roommates and no air conditioning and everyone here [NYC] is always in such a hurry… and Faith keep’s texting me with X’s and O’s which are nothing but lies”. Shit, it’s a crazy world out there.
We also find out that Rebecca is now president of the ZBZ’s. She definitively has the bitchy attitude to be president, but I’m not so sure that she’s competent. In any case, she and the rest of the ZBZ’s attempt to find a house mother, as required by Nationals. Dale offers to help the girls find a housemother. Gotta love him.
The scene then switches to Casey and Evan, now apparently on good terms. Evan battles financial trouble (again the show is focusing on more real problems) and Casey worries about leaving CRU. Evan finds it weird that she didn’t get into CRU, since he did. He mentions how she had better LSAT scores than him, and she also adds that she had a higher GPA. Evan then convinces her to find out why she didn’t get in.
Casey finds out that it was Joel (her former boss who tried to make a move on her) that wrote her the bad recommendation. Casey wonders why he would do that. Rebecca offers her sound advice and tells her, “Your moving to Washington, let it go, and go.” Casey, however, still wants to dig deeper and find out why Joel would write her a bad letter.
According to Rebecca, by writing Casey a bad letter of recommendation, Joel altered her life and kept her apart from Cappie. Although Casey denies it, it is one of the reasons she wants to find out why Joel wrote her a bad letter. When Casey goes to meet Joel and ask him why he wrote her a bad letter, he tells her that she misled him and he questioned her integrity. He leaves her by saying that she’s “smart and pretty” and didn’t need his help getting in elsewhere. Joel seems like the typical douche, whom definitely let his personal feelings play a huge role in the recommendation he wrote for Casey.
At the same time, however, I was also so pissed at Casey. Why would you ask someone, who you had personal problems with, to write you a recommendation? Sometimes I ask myself, is she really cut out for law school?
Casey calls Ashleigh, and she mentions how she’s flattered that Joel still thinks she’s pretty but he is “so not cute anymore.” Ashleigh, thankfully, has problems of her own, and can’t listen to Casey whining around. However, Rusty is there to comfort her, and after hearing Casey’s situation, he pushes her to put Joel in his place because Casey doesn’t lack integrity.
Evan struggles financially. Financial aid won’t give him help because he is “Evan Chambers.” His parents have donated millions of dollars to the school, yet the office fails to understand that he is now on his own. It seems like Evan is still having a hard time establishing himself and running away from his family name. Honestly, I would just take the money and live with the limitations outlined by his trust fund, but that’s just me.
Casey holds a meeting with the admissions office. She invites Joel to explain what he meant by her lacking integrity. She lets him know that he mixed his personal life with his professional one. Either, he should explain that premise to the admissions committee or rescind the letter. Even though it won’t make a difference on her application, she wants things to be right. As it turns out, Casey had never actually set up a meeting, and she put on a show to get Joel to confess and let him know how much of an impact his mistake made. After she show him off, she also let’s Cappie know how fed up she is with his inability to have balls and just talk to her.
Casey leaves Cappie standing there, but before that, he and Rusty led the KT’s in their first elections in a long time. Rusty decides to also run for president, and after Cappie promises more fun, Rusty guarantees that under his rule, everyone will get laid. Wow, Cappie actually has competition.
At the toga party, Cappie and Rusty make rounds, trying to gather votes. Rusty points out that, anytime the brothers get laid, he automatically lives up to his promise since he never promised when exactly he would help them get laid. Cappie then shouts, “Oh yeah, then maybe I’ll go celibate to prove you a liar!”
Basically, he realizes that he might have lost since that’s not possible. Rusty lets Cappie know that he’s being a DICK-tator because he is scared of the future. It’s killing Rusty that Casey won’t be around, so how is it not killing Cappie? Cappie then has his “I screwed” up moment.
Rebecca and Dale attend the toga party, where Rebecca is frustrated that Dale keeps involving himself in ZBZ activities. She calls him fat, to which he points out, “You know what, I can diet but you’ll always be ugly on the inside.” Dale then yells that he is a part of the greek system since he knows how the KT’s helped Calvin become president of the Omega Chi’s. He says this loud enough for everyone at the party to hear, and puts Calvin in a lot of trouble – that’s the biggest “oh shit” moment of the episode.
The next morning, Cappie comes over to apologize to Rusty. They both are on good terms after Cappie confesses that he’s been a total dick to Rusty and Casey. Evan and Calvin, however, leave each other on less than perfect terms. As Calvin tries to explain how he used the KT’s, Evan just tells him that he’s an alum and wants nothing to do with the Omega Chi’s including Calvin.
The moment that most viewers have been waiting for is, probably, the great Cappie-Casey moment. Cappie does a last minute run to Casey, and tells her that he is willing to make the long distance relationship work. She, however, tells him that she got into CRU law (surprise!) and that she will be staying … but not for him. However, there is still a possibility that end up together, which is enough for Cappie.
What I liked: The show really focused time on all of the characters. I’ve always loved that all these characters are imperfect. They all have flaws, and at some point, you really love and hate them. The show focuses on the real problems of college students. Whether it’s Evan’s financial problems or Ashleigh real cruel world, the show lets us know that all is not perfect in the character’s lives.
Best Lines:
Ashleigh on Casey’s life: “I have no television, you like a reality show.”
Cappie on Beaver’s counting abilities: “Beaver keeps losing count. It’s worse than Florida in 2000.”
Rebecca to Dale (on why the Greek system focuses a lot on image): “The greek system? Please, try planet earth, and I didn’t make the rules – I just benefit from them”.
What I didn’t really enjoy:
For one thing, I really didn’t like Rusty or Casey this entire episode. To be honest, Rusty has become more annoying since last season. Even though he’s a good brother, he always seems to think he’s right. He’s no longer clueless Rusty, and I miss that.
Casey annoys me the most. Her character is going to Law school, and yet, she has some of the most annoying lines that really left me wondering, how on earth did she get in? She doesn’t make the best decisions. First, she asked Joel to write her a recommendation, and then tried to dig deeper to determine why he didn’t write her a good one. Anyone would know that she brought up his personal drama without talking to him. She also has this, “I’m better than you,” attitude throughout the entire episode, which really bugged me. Everyone else seemed semi-normal, except her. Also, she did stay in CRU for Cappie. True, she wanted to stay in CRU longer (which honestly, if you are trying to grow up, a new place would have been a better option), but she also wants it to work with her Cappie.
Rebecca is also crazy. I really couldn’t understand why she mistreated Dale. I feel like the fact that he doesn’t fit an “image” is too superficial. Maybe she felt her presidential powers were threatened? I hope that the future episodes explain the whole Cinco de Mayo situation, show a more mature Casey and reveal more development in all the characters. Is it also weird that I’m bored by the Casey-Cappie drama? Give us something more!
Original Author: Aishini Thiyagarajan