Sorry if this isn’t my best review, but I’ve busy. What have I been up to, you ask? Well, the title and the theme of this episode explains it all. I’ve been hesitant to say anything about it out of fear of jinxing it (like the last one), but I have a job. It’s only a temp position, but it’s better than nothing. So, if my next 2-3 reviews aren’t all that great you know why. But that’s enough about me, let’s start the episode.
We start the episode off with Sharon narrating about how high school is all about fitting in while she’s walking through the hallways trying to figure out what’s trendy. In English class, Sharon is reading a magazine marking off things she wants to get and the teacher closes the magazine.
Reading in class? Not on my watch!
But luckily for Sharon, the next day was allowance day. Is getting allowances something that only happens in TV? I don’t know anyone who got an allowance growing up. I mean, my parents would give me and my brother money as graduation and birthday gifts and when we lost a tooth (sorry kids the tooth fairy doesn’t exist) but that was it. Anyways, Helen gives the kids their allowance and Sharon doesn’t receive as much as her brothers. Helen said that she had to make a few “deductions”. We cut to a scene of Sharon telling Maria what her mom told her. She didn’t vacuum, forget to clean out the cat litter, and that she was passive-aggressive to Helen…twice! Hehe. Sharon, of course is upset over this and gets even madder when she sees that Nina has bought all of the things she wanted from the magazine.
Maria tells her to get over it and brings her attention to the school ski trip. Maria tells Sharon that the ski trip is a big deal and it’s a lot of fun. Sharon asks how much it costs and it cuts to Helen being shocked at the trip being $100. Idk if it’s just me, but I don’t think that’s too bad for a ski trip. But then again, Helen is a divorced mother raising three children on her own so she can’t spend money all willy nilly. Sharon promises to do a sh*t ton of chores in exchange for the money, but Helen refuses. Helen explains to Sharon that she doesn’t have that kind of money, but if she did she’d spent it on something that they need. Sharon gets upset and complains that since Helen is the parent, she gets to decide how “their money” is spent. I’m sorry, what? Helen rightfully tells Sharon that since she earns the money, she gets to decide what her money is spent on. Sharon decides that she’s going to earn her own money.
At Life Cycles, Sharon is reading the Help Wanted Ads posted on the bulletin board and she learns about the “Need a job to get experience; need experience to get a job” lesson sooner than most people. Connor cheers Sharon up by telling her that he’s not going either because skiing isn’t his thing. Maria tries to convince Connor to go on the trip by telling him that it’s going to be a huge party and offers to give him some ski lessons, but Connor refuses. Then, some guy asks Sharon for her order. Sharon is confused because he’s not Bill (ya know the dick manager from last season). The guy starts being a sarcastic twat towards Sharon and Maria asks where Bill is. The guy says he doesn’t know and that he bought the place from him. He also threatens to have Sharon and Co. arrested for loitering if they don’t order anything. This guy’s worse than Bill when he made his first appearance.
They order smoothies and then complain about how much of a dick this guy is. Then, Sharon gets the idea that he needs help. No, not that kind of help. Help at work. Sharon tries to convince the guy to hire her by telling him that he can’t do everything by herself. She even mentions her feeding her pets and being good with people, while he’s good at the blender. He asks Sharon if she can work a few weekends and evenings for minimum wage. Sharon tells him that she can do whatever shifts he needs except the 24 because that’s the day of the ski trip. He agrees to hire Sharon and tells her that she starts tomorrow. (sighs) If it were only that simple to get a job….
At dinner, Sharon tells everyone that she’ll be working at Life Cycles. Helen asks Sharon if she can juggle a job and school. This isn’t Sharon’s first time working. She had a job in “The Meat of the Matter”. Granted, she quit due to her newfound animal rights activism but still. Sharon makes sure to emphasize that since she’s earning money, she gets to decide how to spend it. It’s Sharon’s first day and she’s already off to a bad start by socializing instead of working. Her boss walks over to her with the Employee Handbook that he just put together and chastises Sharon for sitting around on the job.
He starts training Sharon and he’s yelling at her for making mistakes. This guy is just the worst. Sharon is cleaning the lint out of the dryers and Nina starts mocking her. Sharon is about to respond when her manager tells her to go clean the toilets.
The toilets aren’t going to clean themselves.
At school, one of the jocks (he’s a background character and was Nina’s mentor in the first episode of this season) and asks Sharon if she works at Life Cycles. Sharon tells him that she does and they have a relatable conversation about having sh*tty bosses. Back at Life Cycles, Sharon is talking with Connor and their conversation ends when her boss tells her to start giving everyone their orders. The jock guy from earlier asks Sharon if she’s going on the ski trip and Sharon tells him that she is. Sharon is giving Nina her order and Nina tells Sharon that the jock guy is only talking to her so he can get free smoothies. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Nina might actually be right. How often do you see popular, jock hanging around people like Sharon? Sharon brushes it off and checks Nina on her rich, white girl privilege. Nina shows off her ski equipment to make Sharon jealous and Sharon tells Nina that she could never handle the responsibilities of a job because she’s spoiled.
When Sharon’s shift is over, she is handed her first paycheck. Sharon clearly doesn’t understand how payrolls work because she’s surprised that her paycheck is only $72.31. The next day Sharon complains about not having enough money for the trip or ski gear. Maria tells Sharon that she can borrow some of hers and some of Sharon’s clothes will be fine. Alden and Brock walk over and Alden asks Sharon if she’s coming to the game. Sharon can’t since she has to work extra shifts. Sharon heads off to work and works harder than she’s ever worked before. Sharon missed out on a lot of fun things happening over the course of two weeks, but she knew it would be worth it.
Fast forward to the day before the ski trip and Sharon is as happy as can be. Her boss hears this and tells her that she’ll be working tomorrow. Sharon explains to him that when he hired her that she said that she need that day off. He fires back by saying he never agreed to it. He’s right though. He explains to Sharon that he’ll be attending a business seminar tomorrow. He also tells her that since he’s the boss that he has first dibs on getting off work. Boom!
Sharon is at Connor’s house complaining about her boss while she’s doing yoga. I like the call back to “Whose Life Is It, Anyway?” And Connor is getting rid of some of his belongings. The two go down memory lane and start talking about Connor’s original Halloween costumes as a kid. This prompts Connor to ask Sharon if she thinks she worries too much about what other people think. Sharon denies it and Connor asks her why she wants to go on this ski trip. Sharon fails to give Connor a good reason and tells him that she wants to be a part of something that’s cool. Connor tells Sharon that she won’t be uncool if she doesn’t go, but Sharon insists on going. They both get frustrated at each other for not seeing things from one another’s perspective.
We cut to Sharon trying on a ski suit complaining that it’s not as cool as Nina’s. Maria is painting her nails and gives Sharon some excuses to tell her boss. Maria comes up with the ‘ol sick excuse and uses her nail polish to paint dots on Sharon’s face. To make it seem more convincing, she also has Sharon smell onions to make her eyes water.
Now that’s a clever trick!
Maria rushes Sharon to go before the effect wears off. She heads towards Brett (we finally get the guy’s name) and he’s repulsed at what he sees. He refuses to let Sharon work like this out of fear of scaring off customers. He tells Sharon to go home and that he’ll be working. And Sharon and Maria are off to Sunny Peaks! Sharon is trying to snowboard, but is failing at it. The jock guy comes up and offers to give her some lessons. Back in Elkford, Connor heads over to Life Cycles and apparently he is the only one who didn’t go on the ski trip. I refuse to believe that the entire school went on a ski trip. We cut back to Sunny Peaks and the jock guy teaches Sharon how to snowboard and she’s got it. They’re about to go ride on the slopes when Nina and Allyson show up. Nina mocks Sharon’s outfit and shows off her snowboarding gear with all the flashy gimmicks. Sharon decides to leave with Maria and thanks Isaac (the jock guy) for the lesson. Nina laughs at Sharon needing snowboarding lessons and says she doesn’t need it because her snowboard does everything for her. Isaac tells her that you still need to know how to, but Nina brushes it off. Nina starts going down the slopes and her snowboard goes haywire.
She bumps into Sharon and they bump into a TV crew filming at Sunny Peaks and Brett and Connor just so happen to be watching. Sharon is on camera long enough for Brett to see and he damn near has a stroke.
We cut to Brett cursing Sharon out and firing her in front of everyone at Life Cycles. I kinda felt bad for Sharon here. And to make matters worse, Nina is throwing Sharon’s words back at her. She may be right that Sharon can’t handle the responsibility of a job, but I bet that Nina wouldn’t last a second if she had Sharon’s job. Connor comes over to Sharon’s house and tries to apologize, but Sharon ends up apologizing to Connor and commends him for being himself and not giving a damn about what people think. Connor and Sharon go to the park and rolling down the hills like children:
Not a bad episode, but I definitely wouldn’t put this in my top 5 favorite episodes. Of course, it introduced the responsibilities of getting a job as a teen. Most teens only think about the things they can buy and their independence and don’t get a sense of reality. One of my issues with this episode was rehashing a lesson from a previous episode. The lesson in the first episode of this season was being yourself and we see this come up again. It may not have been the main lesson in this episode, but it was still there. I wish the writers would have just stuck with the job responsibility lesson. It reminds me of “Miami Vices” where the episode’s lesson went from rules are important to a special episode about underage drinking. Obviously, I didn’t like Brett and I don’t recall seeing him in future episodes so I’m glad this is his first and last appearance in the show (don’t quote me on it). He was a straight up douche bag and made Bill look like a saint. I really liked Connor in this episode. He and Dion aren’t afraid to be themselves and the world needs more people like them. I’m glad that Isaac broke the stereotype of jocks being assholes (even though the writers have him being a basketball player because black people are good at sports) and I wish that he would have appeared in future episodes because I don’t recall seeing him in anymore episodes.
