Popular - I can sweep these shadows away.

Popular: 1x10 Fall on Your Knees

One year ago, Nicole Julian was still the slightly awkward, bespectacled following then Queen-Bee Marley Jacob around like a humble servant, feeding off the scraps and enduring constant criticism for her looks and her weight. Then, on Christmas Day, Marley finally accomplished her goal of dying thin (“Maybe to avoid the funeral, you should eat something”, Nicole tries hours before, to no avail). With Marley gone, Nicole becomes what she is now: cynical, selfish, more concerned with social status than with everything else (the old Nicole Julian looked at the Christmas money the cheerleaders raised and saw opportunities to help people, the new-and-improved Nicole steals that money, just like Marley did, to support Prada and Gucci). 

As the world revels in the Christmas spirit – Carmen gives money to their charity not to get a place on the squad next year, but “because it’s Christmas”, Brooke and Sam overcome their differences and their radically different approach to Christmas (Brooke is all fake glittery, while Sam wants a “sloppy organic Christmas”), to organize a merged party with all their friends, even Bobbi Glass gives presents and better marks instead of the mid-term test (in Latin) – but Nicole grows more and more frustrated and aggressive, until she finally voices her opinion on Christmas in Bobbi’s class: 

Nicole: All year long you’ve been making our teen life difficult, with your insanely complicated tests and your hours of homework and now you expect my heart to expand for  you because you are passing  out these hideous flower tires that I’m gonna end up using as a door stop? Fat chance.
Bobbi: Ms Julian, AKA Satan’s Child. May I remind you, you are on the wrong holiday. See, Halloween was two months ago. You can put away your horns and your red scaly tail. You don’t know what Christmas is about, Miss, clearly.
Nicole: Oh I do. It’s the time of year when the suicide year is highest, when lonely deluded people pretend to feel comfort and joy and then crash two weeks later because all they are left with is credit car debt. Christmas is just a silly holiday kept alive to bolster the national economic index and relief a little guilt. That being said, I repeat: Bah, humbug.

And here’s the thing about Nicole, and this is probably one of the reasons why I already like her way too much before she has her catharsis – she is a cynic, but she isn’t really wrong. Lily might have made the same argument, but Lily, with the same insight, comes to different conclusions about how to live her life with that knowledge. She desperately tries to change this world, while Nicole turns into an opportunist, trying to profit from the flaws she perceives. I like that this scene leads right into one in which Sam, Carmen, Harrison and Lily watch the members of the Chess club (who sing beautiful Christmas carols) get harassed, and ponder why they aren’t friends with them. 

Lily: It’s true, isn’t it? I mean if we feel like outsiders, what do Freddy Gong, Emory Dick and the Tuna twins feel like?
Carmen: Yeah, we feel really bad for them but we never do anything about it.
Harrison: You know why that is? Because they represent to us everything we are afraid of being. Unliked and unpopular. It is just fear and ignorance that keep us from breaking bread with them in the cafeteria. 

Sam decides to bring them into the fold and invite them to their Christmas party, but ultimately, their status of outsiders is never going to change. They serve as a constant reminder that Sam’s group ISN’T the one comprised of social outcasts – they are still conventional enough to fit in (enough to be the heroes in a TV show about teenagers). 

In a similar gesture of reaching out to the less fortunate, Brooke decides that she wants to give Carmen a spot on the squad next semester, broken ankle or not, and everybody agrees with her – except Nicole (“Sure. I’ll put Carm on the squad and/or if Melissa Joan Hart wins an Oscar.) Nicole despises charity – she’s pointed out again and again that there are rules, rules that were there before she and Brooke ever came into the position of power they are in now (Marley’s rules), that can’t be broken. The rules weren’t bent for her, she had to change completely, physically and mentally, to get into the position she has now, and she doesn’t want to allow Carmen to cheat the system. Brooke doesn’t necessarily perceive that the rules themselves are flawed (that’s what Sam and Lily are for), but she is willing to make an exception for people she personally likes (and I guess you could argue that this approach would ultimately subvert the rules enough to change them). 

Nicole: What do you want from me? 

Marley Jacob’s Ghost: Much.

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol has been used before to lead an “evil” character towards an insight and humanity, but what I like about the episode is that Nicole doesn’t suddenly transform into Brooke. She still remains Nicole – perceptive about hypocrisy, conscious and protective of her social status – but she also gains an insight into the importance of friendship, of leaving a (positive) mark in other people’s life, because otherwise, the version of perfection she’s worked so hard to achieve is pointless, and she will be quietly forgotten. 

It’s not really surprising to see how Nicole became who she is now; the idea that the bully was previously bullied, and comes from a loveless household, isn’t exactly radically new – but the execution of this idea in the episode is beautiful, because Tammy Lynn Michaels plays Nicole as she slowly starts to crumble so well. The mother who wanted to be anything but (we don’t see her face, just the massive Martini glass), the grandmother who loved her and promised never to leave her, until she did (“other than Calvin Klein, she is the only person you ever loved”), the little girl that was taunted in school but never cried because than her bullies would have won (“You were pure once, and uncorrupted. Bad children aren’t born that way. Cruelty is a taught skill.") Her transformation seems almost inevitable. Brooke has the stable home, the loving father, Nicole has nothing. “With her out of the picture the trace of humanity that once pulsed in your veins was replaced by ice.” – and since then, Nicole has been walking the school hallway, making everybody else’s life as horrible as hers was before. The ghost of Bobbi Glass also points out to her that the person she tortures most is the one who resembles the old and real Nicole Julian, the person she buried so deep under the façade – Carmen Ferrara. 

The Ghost of Christmas Present (played to perfection by Mary Cherry) shows Nicole a version of the unfolding Christmas, in which Brooke and Sam give each other considerate presents (Radiohead tickets for Brooke, a photo of their awkward new family for Sam), and then spend a lovely evening with all their friends and the Chess club (Emory Dick brought “precautionary shrubbery”, just in case), and raise a toast to her in her absence that feels heartfelt, despite some of the horrible things that are previously said about her. Nicole is truly moved. This is her second insight: not only is some of her bullying internalized hatred, but she also realizes the importance of friendship. 

The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come (“I fear you most of all”, says Nicole), a faceless and speechless creature, shows her a horrible version of the future. Carmen Ferrara died (“Gangrene. A fast acting killer.”) and is mourned by everybody, while her own grave lies forgotten. Nicole realizes that being popular in school is meaningless if it ultimately makes her lonely. 

Nicole: Did I die alone? Did anyone ever love me? Did I ever love anyone? I did die alone, didn’t I? I had so much potential, and I wasted it all, and for what? I was never happy, I was never content, I was just mean and horrible. Spirit, I’m not that girl I once was, I’m someone new now, I’m someone entirely new. I promise, I’ll try to keep the spirit of Christmas alive all the days of the year, I can sweep these shadows away. Please, Spirit, tell me I can still change. Please.

The Nicole that emerges on Christmas Day is changed, to a certain extent, but she is still the same person. She joins Brooke and Sam’s Christmas party and has presents for everybody, but there is still some of the cheerful meanness that makes her who she is. Her present for Carmen is an ice pack – so she can join Cheerleader practice. 

Carmen: But I’m not a cheerleader.
Nicole: You are now. You are a really great dancer, Carmen, and it would be an honor to have you on the squad.

Nicole doesn’t let Carmen join out of a sense of charity. She does because Carmen is a good dancer and a valued addition to the team. 

Random notes: 

I’m not a fan making anorexia a joke and I think it would have served the episode better if Marley Jacobs had died in a horrible accident, or something along those lines, but this is one of my favourite episodes in the entire run of the show. 

I am always sort of arguing with myself if the ridiculous OTT elements of Popular subvert the sincerity of its emotional moments, but I think the balance works in this episode.  

I really like that sometimes, completely accidentally because it’s not like I am actually sticking to a schedule or something (sigh), both MSCL and Popular happen to deal with the same issues. Up next on MSCL: Everybody has low self-esteem and suffers from objectification (EXCEPT RAYANNE; SHE CARRIES THE LABELS ASSIGNED TO HER WITH PRIDE). 

Well, at least we know where Nicole got her “Hon” from. 

Bobbi: To me the meaning of the season can be conveyed in only one word. Give. Until it hurts.

I guess in Sam’s circle of friends it’s tradition to dress up as elves. OKAY. 

Take your pick: Nicole is a) a Slytherin, b) a Lannister, c) Lawful Evil (or Neutral Evil? Discuss)

Bobbi wants to give her sister a hairless pussy…..cat. (“She saw that Austin Powers Sequel sixteen times. She just loves Doctor Evil’s cat!”)

Brooke: LOOK, I told you I don’t need the Dramatically Different Moisturizer, capiche? 

Bobbi: I come not to hydrate, but to warn. I am the ghost of Christmas past. Get your ass outta bad, missy, you’re coming with me.

There’s a tiny hint that a good part of the conflict between Sam and Brooke was caused by Nicole, by subtly planting seeds of doubt with false rumours, which actually explains a lot. 

Mary Cherry is the ghost of Christmas Present(s)

Nicole Julian’s most valued possession is a jewel box her grandmother gave her. 

“Bob, get the gun.”

Obscure pop cultural reference: 

I guess the Melissa Joan Hart one counts? Sabrina the Teenage Witch was ALWAYS on Austrian afternoon TV when I grew up. I think she plays a mother now, thereby facilitating the communal “WHEN DID I GROW SO OLD” of everybody born between 1985 and 1990. 

Obligatory movie reference: 

Not being sufficiently educated in classical American Christmas songs, I assume this is a line from O Holy Night.