'Awkward's Getting Anxious About Aging

It's been a truth in media since All About Eve: Aging has the power to bring out big anxieties in all of us. That's been a major theme of this season of Awkward since its first episode back, and so the show's been exploring this territory in different ways. The last few weeks it's been exploration of the ways out relationships may grow and change as you approach major crossroads in your life. Next week it's about what comes during college, when you often leave so much of your former life behind. This week, though, it really went back to those All About Eve themes: The fear that someone younger and more ready and willing might take your place in the game before you're ready to say goodbye.

Yes, Awkward painted this picture with the walking stereotypes of the "sophomore sluts" who wear different colored extensions in their hair based on what they're willing to do (pink for blowies, red for all the way, don't even ask about silver) and who're more forward that chain letter your great aunt keeps sending you. But that's the Awkward way, love it or hate it: Blow up the anxieties to be loud and obnoxious and walking around in front of you, and let the voice-over take it from there.

If you think about it, the idea of the younger girls taking the older boys from the older girls isn't something new to the show in the least: They went there in the latter half of last season, too, though Bailey was a much quieter, nicer version of the "harlots" grabbing Matty's ass this episode.

What grabbed me most this episode, though, wasn't the one dimensional sophomores trying to pry their way into Matty and Jake's pants: It was the senior girl (Jenna, natch) starting the episode with an accidental rant about the harlotry and boy-stealing nature of one girl, only to end the episode with said girl (Eva, my new fave) proclaiming that this had all been a big misunderstanding and that chicks come before dicks. And sure, Matty's still confiding in Eva instead of Jenna for now — but it seems like Eva's the type of girl who'd be the absolute best to confide in: She's open, she's honest, and she's heavily empathetic, probably because she's seen it all. Who wouldn't want to confide in the show's biggest example of unwavering support and strength? Jenna hasn't seen everything yet, but if there's one girl who marks the future of this show and a potential growth catalyst for Jenna, it's Eva. She's definitely my new favorite, and I hope they use her to her best and brightest potential.

Image: MTV