Wow. I think I can say without a doubt that tonight’s episode of Greek, titled “Freshman Daze” was by far the best episode of the series to date. Through the excellent use of flashbacks, we got to see how the Cappie/Casey/Evan love triangle began and we also learned what “Bing” means, how Beaver got his nickname and that Frannie actually has a heart.
Before we get to that though, let’s deal with the now. Lizzie’s gone and the ZBZ’s are celebrating by gearing up to attend the all Greek ball. While Casey’s doing the meeting, in which she abolished the “snaps” rule and reverted back to good old-fashioned clapping, Frannie’s all “Go Casey! You rule!” She’s laying it on a little thick and this doesn’t go unnoticed by Casey. Casey announces that the house will be attending the ball and mentions that something happened at the ball two years ago but she doesn’t say what.
The mysterious ball incident comes up later when Cappie tells the Kappas that they wont be attending the ball. He too refuses to talk about what happened two years ago, which prompts Rusty to do his own research. We’ll get to more about that later though.
At the ZBZ house, Frannie asks if she can do her laundry at the house because rats gnawed through the hoses on the machines at her apartment complex. Casey’s not thrilled about it but she permits Frannie to use their house’s laundry facilities. When Casey expresses concern over what she perceives as Frannie’s fake niceness, Ashleigh tries to be positive about this new Saint Frannie act. The two girls are distracted by the fact that neither have dates for the ball. They decide to take each other . Meanwhile, after Rebecca rubs Casey’s datelessness in her face, Casey points out that Cappie doesn’t go to dances. Rebecca’s aware of this already and says they’ve made other plans.
As for the status of Dale and Calvin, Dale’s arranging a non-Greek alcohol free ball and Calvin’s dateless (though he does extend a joking open-invite to his brothers, who seem to be warming up to his gayness rather nicely).
Ok so the whole ball thing seems to put everyone into reminiscing mode. Through the flashbacks we learn that Casey and Ashleigh met freshman year and bonded over a few loads of laundry and a wad of hair. The two quickly learn (through a totally staged conversation between Frannie and another ZBZ sister) that ZBZ is the “it” house for girls. Everyone whose anyone (and by anyone I’m pretty sure they mean anyone whose beautiful and wears a size 4 or smaller) is in ZBZ. Obviously the girls rush the sorority and Casey manages to score points by refusing to take the “donut test” (something to do with which dessert they eat first determining whether or not they’re ZBZ material.)
Now on to Cappie and Evan. These two apparently knew each other from their days at summer camp and decided to room together in college. Evan shows up sporting a ridiculous looking goatee, in an attempt to shed his rich-boy look. He encourages Cappie to check out the fraternities and the two set off to do the same run we saw Calvin and Rusty do back during the pilot episode. They too saved the Kappa Taus for last and it is of course this house that convinces Cappie that Greek life is for him. Now here’s the shocker – Evan rushed Kappa Tau too! I guess I just assumed that these two went their separate ways from the beginning similar to how Calvin and Rusty did but this was not the case.
Unfortunately, despite his facial hair, the Kappas didn’t warm up to Evan as much as they did to Cappie. They gave Evan the nickname “Bing” because according to Joe, Evan was halfway between a bid and a ding (no bid). Joe goes on to say that Cappie and him were a package deal and that they couldn’t get Cappie to accept his bid unless they gave Evan a bid as well. Talk about cold, Joe. Did Evan really need to know that?
Now for some reason, I always assumed Casey left Cappie because she was attracted to Evan’s polished good looks and social status. This is not to say that I thought she was using him, just that I thought her taste in guys had matured a bit, which caused her to drop Cappie and “upgrade” to Evan. Well, I was wrong. It turns out, Casey left Cappie because he got so caught up with frat life that he let her down one too many times and Evan showed her what it was like to be appreciated.
The Casey/Cappie/Evan thing started at a rush party. Both guys hit on Casey and she chose Cappie. Evan was gracious though and the three seemed to have no problems hanging out together. But as time went on, Cappie started to choose partying and chilling with his brothers over spending time with Casey. This doesn’t make him a bad guy but you can’t deny that leaving her stranded at the bar while he performs one drunken karaoke song after another doesn’t exactly make him the best boyfriend.
Cappie and Casey were all set to go to the ball together but once again, Cappie flakes out. Casey heads off to Cappie’s dorm to see if he’s there. Evan tells her that he went to a pre-ball party at the ZBZ house and is probably still there. Casey’s upset and Evan agrees to escort her to the ball, as friends. Meanwhile Frannie, whom we learn was Casey’s “big sister” ignores her dates’ eagerness to get to the ball and heads off to the Kappa Tau house to find Cappie. When she does, she tears him a new one. She tells him off for letting Casey down and seems genuinely concerned for her little sis’ feelings. She then takes a few minutes to berate Beaver for his illiteracy after he failed to pick up on her “Of Mice and Men” reference and tell Joe off for being an old loser, “The war’s over hunny! No more hiding at college to dodge the draft and a miserable future of a minimum wage paying job.” Nice, Frannie!
Cappie rushed off to the dance to find Evan and Casey slowdancing on the dance floor. Evan and Casey end up getting into a fight that quickly escalates. In the end, Casey chooses to mop blood off of Evan’s head instead of Cappie’s and that’s how things ended for Casey/Cappie and began for Casey/Evan.
Back in the present, Rusty manages to find all of this out for himself through some clever searching on the internet. After chatting with Cappie about it, Cappie decides to man up and take his lady to the dance. When we see Cappie and Rebecca slow-dancing at the ball, it’s clear that Cappie’s grown up a quite a bit since his freshman year. Meanwhile, after learning that Frannie went and got Cappie to the ball two years ago, Casey finally decides to give her a chance and she and Ashleigh invite Frannie to the dance with them.
Dale heads off to his ball, leaving Rusty to watch skinemax all night. At the dance, Casey and Cappie make eye contact while he’s dancing with Rebecca. It seemed more like a friendly acknowledgement though as it seems fairly clear that Cappie’s totally into Rebecca and probably going to try to not make the same mistake with her that he did with Casey. Meanwhile, Casey and Evan both go to grab the same glass of champagne. They take minute to awkwardly look at each other but eventually Evan walks away.
And that’s the whole story. Oh right, Beaver’s nickname! Apparently he got that for drunkenly gnawing his way through the leg of a chair.
Loved tonight’s episode! Not only did it fill in the many blanks from some of the characters’ earlier days at Cyprus Rhodes but it also gave us a chance to see simpler times, clear up some false assumptions that some of us might have made about how things fell apart for Cappie and Casey and give us a reason to want to believe that Frannie’s attempt at redemption is legit. What do you think? Is Frannie just trying to make it through probation or is she really a decent person? And did tonight’s episode convince you that Evan and Casey need to get back together?
