FTTV Reviews...Awkward 2.04 "Are You There God? It's Me, Jenna."


On the previous episode of Awkward "Three's A Crowd", Jenna's life as a middleman was brought into the spotlight: being in the middle of a secret tug of war between Jake and Matty and a not so secret one with her parents was not easy on her. In "Are You There God, It's Me, Jenna?", she takes matters into her own hands and decides to repent for the problems in her life she feels she's been causing by going to a church retreat with new friend Lissa. Everything goes fine and dandy until Sadie shows up to win Lissa back and embarace Jenna. Meanwhile on the other side of town, Tamara finds herself feuding with an unlikely person while Val and Lacey bond over being lonely...together.

The episode starts off with Jenna being down in the dumps about her current situation; she's so far in the gutter that she goes to church with her mother. who brings along some friends of her own...and by her friends I am clearly talking about her amazing rack. Lacey isn't exactly Mother Theresa and Jenna's not entirely happy about being in church either, but where else can she feel better about breaking up her parents or getting in the middle of Jake and Matty? While in church Jenna meets up with Lissa who invites to a bible thumper-filled weekend, which Jenna welcomes to get away from her current over dramatic life (even Kyle her stalker thinks she's a sell out!)

On the way to church camp she bumps into Sadie and in a hilarious display from Ashley Rickards she starts running toward the door only to have them close on her. Because thats how Jenna's life is: as soon as she realizes she's made a mistake the doors close on her and she's stuck. Not all is bad at camp; she hangs out with resident gay boy Clark who takes her on as his beard for the weekend and shows her a good time, and of course Lissa stands up for her after Sadie (dressed in Virgin Mary attire I might add) gives her a hard time for being herself.

I can't convey how outstanding Molly Tarlov's line delivery is in this episode, "I mean, He didn't judge that hooker with the burning bush?" which I think only made it on air because some censor didn't get the joke, which happens a lot apparently. I will always remember when Veronica Mars slipped "The Shocker" into an episode, not once, BUT TWICE. Eventually everything turns to hell for Jenna when Sadie outs her "suicide attempt" from last season and Jenna has no way out except to shout "I LOVE SATAN!" Amazing!

Ultimately though things turn around for good ol' Jenna Hamilton as she heads home to find her mother content for once, her mystery commenter tells her she's not alone, and the road with Matty looks like it might just be leading to friendship! But before Jenna can throw her hat in the air, she catches Matty doing his trademark arm pit sniff after he see's a cute new girl and Jenna is left looking mighty jealous. Uh oh! Looks like Matty might just have a shot yet, except this time he isn't even trying. 

Back home a grounded Tamara finds herself with a stalker, or so she thinks. She's convinced herself that Kyle, who gave up on Jenna, is now stalking her because of a new shirt he made with a dandy new slogan "Take It Outside" which if you've been watching, you'd know she said to Ricky Schwartz after one of their fights. She goes so far as to Skype chat with him and tell him to stop but Kyle insists Tamara is a nut job and that he's not actually stalking her. The stalker becomes the stalked! That's karmic justice for you, Kyle!

Eventually Tamara gives in and supplies Kyle with a guide book on her life, which totally included a picture from her 5th grade Myspace page (which in exchange makes me feel old...and I'm not that old).  Kyle has to let Tamara down easily that Take It Outside is a support group for people who spend too much time on the internet which he invites her to join. Tamara pouts and struts off, but I'm not buying it from Kyle. He told Jenna he wasn't stalking her either, and look how that turned out?

Also, I am really loving the chemistry between Jillian Rose Reed and Wesam Keesh who plays Kyle. It's too bad she's so absorbed with Ricky Schwartz because Kyle and Tamara would be PERFECT for each other. I loved it when she was yelling at him over Skype for whatever nonsense and he was actually indulging her for a while. I can't be alone on this ship right? Here's to hoping my dreams of Stalker Kyle and "Take it Outside" Tamara are fulfilled at some point in the series. I wish I could be her sassy gay friend and tell her to get rid of creep in hiding Ricky and get it together with even creepier but kind of sweet Kyle! 

I was thoroughly entertained by this episode. This season so far hasn't been a let down but it hasn't exactly kept up with last season's momentum either. It was great to have an episode that focused on Jenna trying to make it right rather than worrying about every little thing going wrong in her love life. Everyone was learning how to go through the motions this episode and go through whatever they needed to in order to get things done. Lacey and Val eating lunch "alone" while together was the most hilarious thing, especially since Lacey decides she feels empowered after eating lunch alone, when it was just hanging out with Val that made her feel better.  I vote for Val and Lacey to be BFF'S! Well until Val tries to get it on with Kevin of course, then she's gone.

Next week we get to see Matty sniff his arm pits while trying to mack it to the new girl, all meanwhile some kid is shooting up the school...with paint balls. I also hope we get more movement from the secret commenter mystery, as we got a big red herring in this episode with Clark and I would love for it to be him but I have this really weird feeling it might be Val or Lacey...heck even Matty. Awkward's been picking up on its stride as of late, lets hope it continues. 

What did you think of the latest episode? Let us know either in the comments below, or tweet us @FilmThrasher on Twitter!