This weeks episode picked on the Monday after Jenna’s big party which also happened to be her 16th birthday. Jenna is still feeling the effect of the party and wanted to avoid school and her friends at all costs. She is also still reeling from finding out that her best friend, Tamara, wrote the letter that set this years entire chain of events in motion. Jenna started her 16th birthday off wanting to stay in bed all day in hopes that she and everyone else would forget the day even came. In an obvious ode to the 80s John Hughes hit “Sixteen candles” instead of getting the birthday she thought she wanted, she instead gets the one that make the most sense and makes her happiest in the end.
Resident bully, Sadie, made a triumphant return to evil this week after being absent in last weeks episode. In her first scene, she corners Jenna only to let her know that she lost a bet because of her, she made a bet that Jenna would never make it to 16 (Sadie has continued to publicize Jenna’s fax-suicide attempt). Her second scene is paramount to the episode, she points of Jenna to the school counselor who delivered a birthday cake and proceeded to rap, an equally as embarrassing, birthday song. After the song, Jenna is more than ready to go home and repeatedly calls her mother in hopes that she will pick her up from school, her mother refuses with one flimsy excuse after another.
As a result of her mother’s refusal to pick her up from school, Jenna is forced to attend a school football game, something she normally does not do. Due to her friends not speaking to her, by process of elimination, she winds up sitting with Jake which infuriated Mattie even more. She is left uncomfortable sitting in between the two boys and tries again, in vain, to have her mother come pick her up. At Jakes insistence, Mattie drove Jenna home and they manage to mend fences by Mattie’s admitting he was never mad about Jenna kissing the other guys, he was actually mad that her opinion of him was correct, he does not have the courage to not care what others care about and date Jenna publicly. They enjoy a tense, sexually tense moment before Jenna finally exits the car feeling deflated because she realizes she just placed herself in the “friend zone”
Jenna’s 16th birthday ended up not being so bad after all, her mother was not just ignoring her for the entire day; she surprised Jenna with the most ridiculous bedroom makeover ever! It included mood lighting, a queen-sized bed and a mirror on the ceiling. As she takes in the reality of the room and her life and with the added viewing of “Sixteen Candles” for the first time (a birthday gift from the school counselor), she comes to the realization that she is not being accepted by others because she has yet to accept herself. And just when she thinks her day did not turn out too bad, she gets the best surprise yet…Mattie shows up at her door and admitted he wanted to be more than friends and the episode closed with Mattie and Jenna kissing underneath her mirrored ceiling.
Awkward airs every Tuesday at 11PM on MTV