Season 3 took off with an episode that passed the plot from character to character. Amidst the chaos of a possible breakup, we also got one serious broken nose!
Each of Jenna Hamilton’s surprise party guests, and even a not-invited Sadie Saxton, were piecing together the puzzle in order to figure out just what had gone down between Jenna and Matty post-”surprise!”. Who broke Collin’s nose? Who sprained Lissa’s neck… again?
Episode 12 opened with Jenna’s mom, Lacey, attempting to comfort Jenna from outside of a closet. Jenna, who’d trapped herself inside, following the infamous Collin kiss, refused to clue her mother in to any of the embarrassing details that followed the surprise party entrance to end all entrances. Not even the prospect of opening gifts purchased off of some cart in the mall was enough to coax Jenna out for a chat.
At school, Jake and Ming would kick off our storytelling extravaganza. Did they break up or make up? First, Ming would fuel her viewing of the epic brawl-to-be with store-bought guacamole (a fact that would shatter Jake’s vision of Mrs. Hamilton as the amazing cook he’d thought her to be.). Before she knew it, Collin was breezing in past Val’s attempts to wrangle the crowd in the living room, his nose dripping with blood. Had Matty McKibben slugged Collin in a fit of rage? Not according to Jake, who was absolutely disgusted to have been on the receiving end of Collin’s preposterous plea for empathy. Jake, having had to deal with Collin directly after the fact, managed to discover that it was actually Jenna who’d cracked him in the nose.
But was it? Tamara had been late to the party, but upon her arrival, she quickly became privy to what had transpired inside, as Jenna, Matty, and Collin shouted it out just outside the house. Tamara, like any good friend, coaxed Matty to the brink of clocking Collin, but McKibben was already too defeated to even make an attempt before leaving. Instead, Tamara was the one to punch Collin square in the nose.
Fred Wu would then add his piece of the story, chiming in with some info as to what had gone down in the backyard. All of the chaos indoors was too much, and Fred would inevitably walk straight into Val’s clutches. Val, still desperate to get the party back on track, enlisted Fred’s help, taking advantage of some quasi-racist assumptions to pressure Fred into helping her calculate the perfect means of arranging a piñata. Of course, Fred would then witness Matty hopping the fence back into Jenna’s yard, although his tips would end there.
Clark’s (Joseph Haro) back! Clark arrived at Jenna’s party a little late, missing the kiss entirely during a secret bathroom break and subsequent lotioning session. By the time he’d finished his trip to the powder room, he found himself caught off-guard by a sobbing Jenna in her bedroom. While Clark comforted his buddy, Matty arrived and began intensely pacing before grabbing his keys and bolting.
Lissa, who’d thought up the brilliant idea to film the ordeal, didn’t do much to add to the story, but the poor girl did manage to sprain her freshly healed neck again! After wandering outside following an unfortunate kitchen fire scare, Lissa’s face ended up on the receiving end of one of Val’s piñata test swings, knocking her flat on her back. Lissa, miraculously, was absolutely fine! That is, until the entire party stormed outside and trampled her in the process. Luckily, Lissa’s footage did make its way to Sadie, who knew very well where Matty had driven post-party… straight into her arms for a comforting hug between friends. Of course, Saxton would never inform “troll” Tamara of Matty’s private heartache, so she made sure to cover up his hurt within her side of the story as much as possible.
In the end, the group was unable to deduce whether or not Jenna and Matty had worked things out or called it quits. Well, that’s probably because nothing had happened yet. Episode 12 closed with Jenna and Matty finally talking outside of her home. In Matty’s car, a misty Matty optimistically admitted that he felt he could get over what had happened in good time, however hurt he might have been. Jenna, on the other hand, wasn’t ready to continue in the relationship knowing very well that the dynamic was shattered for good. In the end, Jenna didn’t dump Matty… the couple broke up with each other. Keep tuning in to find out what Jenna does next!