The second episode of MTV’s Sweet/Vicious follows our heroes as they scramble to cover up their accidental murder. Some team building seminars involve trust falls, our team bonds over destroying evidence. This episode continues to prove that Sweet/Vicious has no plans to water down any of the serious topics involved. This week adding racial profiling by the police to that list. Written by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson and directed by Joseph Kahn, here are some of the events of episode 2, “The Writing’s on the Wall”.
BURYING THE BODY | The episode begins with Jules (Eliza Bennett) and Ophelia (Taylor Dearden) in a dead sprint (no pun intended) through a graveyard with the blue and red flashing lights of the police hot on their tail. They hide behind a particularly large gravestone. The cops yell for them to come out with their hands up but before they move, we flash back to 24 hours earlier. They are back at the bar minus one car and one dead body. Jules points out that Ophelia parked in a loading zone so of course her car was towed. They are forced to walk back home and they use that time to bicker like an old married couple. Ophelia tries to bring up the fact that they guy they killed is Tyler’s (Nick Fink) half-brother but reads the room (errr street?) and decided maybe later is best. They call the tow company and get an address for where to pick up the car and an estimate of the insane amount of money it is going to cost. They go to the record store where Ophelia begins to pull wads of cash out of various nooks and records like a tiny green-haired hoarder. She also takes everything from the register. They are still $500 short so Jules suggests they raid the sorority’s petty cash (aka drug) fund.
They go to the police station to pick up Ophelia’s car and find out that Jules is on a first name basis with a good number of the officers here. She explains to Ophelia that her dad is a sheriff and asked these guys to keep an eye on her. Officer Ballard (James MacDonald) tells them they are short on what they owe but if Jules asks the boss personally, he’s sure he’ll let it slide so Jules leaves Ophelia in the waiting room while she handles it. While Ophelia is waiting, a girl comes in and sits next to her. She has been crying and is on the phone with her mother trying to tell her about being sexually assaulted. She notices Ophelia watching and hangs up. Ophelia introduces herself and the girl does as well; Hailey McMahon (Jessica Garza). She tells Ophelia that she has been there all morning but still hasn’t been able to file a complaint. They just keep making her wait in different areas. She becomes overwhelmed and leaves, asking Ophelia to tell the cops she changed her mind. Jules comes out and tells her they are bringing the car around.
Jules and Ophelia sit outside the sorority house and discuss how to get rid of the body. They settle on burying him in a cemetery even though dissolving him in a tub of acid a la Breaking Bad was Ophelia’s Christmas wish. Ophelia is ready to get back out there and pick up where Jules left off but Jules is a little more concerned with the dead, probably leaking, body in the trunk. She tells Ophelia she will see her later and begs her not to do anything stupid. Ophelia goes back to her apartment and does research on the girl from the police station. She finds out the guy who assaulted her is Damon Avery, a basketball player.
That night, Ophelia and Jules meet up to bury the body. They remove his teeth and hands because Jules watched that one episode of Criminal Minds that one time and knows that’s how you keep them from identifying a body. They roll his body into the hole but before they can fill it in, the cops show up. They run and hide behind a gravestone. When the cops yell for them to come out, they are just about to when one of Nate’s (Dylan McTee) frat bros jumps up from behind a different headstone, chanting some frat chant, and is tackled by the police. The girls quickly fill in the grave and after dealing with a few mistimed polaroids, take their leave. They have a falling out over whether or not they should keep doing this vigilante stuff after Ophelia brings up Hailey from the station. Ophelia follows Hailey herself and sees her go into a bathroom in the quad. She checks it out and sees something that she has to show Jules. It is a wall of names of guys who have raped or assaulted girls on campus along with messages of support for the victims. They reconcile and hit up their next target – the guy who assaulted Hailey.
DOUBLE LIFE | When Jules goes to the sorority house to ‘borrow’ the petty cash, Kennedy (Aisha Dee) is in the middle of getting frisky with Nate. Her ‘Jules Senses’ go off when she hears Jules’ door slam (how the…) and she races off to go catch her. Unfortunately by the time she reaches the stairs, Jules is already out the door again. Later, when Jules returns from picking up Ophelia’s car with her, she is confronted by a very angry Kennedy. Jules tells her that Ophelia is her tutor and they just got caught up and then she ran into Tyler. Kennedy stops her at “boy” and demands details. Jules decides to use seeing Tyler later as an excuse to get out of the house to meet up with Ophelia to bury the body. Tyler shows up later to pick her up and is also intercepted by Kennedy who introduces herself. Tyler asks Jules about her “green-haired friend” saying she seemed pretty bombed the night before. Once they leave Kennedy gets Ophelia’s number from one of the other girls and texts her under the guise of buying weed from her. Ophelia goes to the house she and Kennedy have a little one-on-one about Ophelia’s intentions with her friend. Meanwhile, Tyler and Jules walk around and bond over both having a dead parent. Jules gets a text from Ophelia telling her it’s time and she leaves a slightly confused Tyler. During Jules and Ophelia’s falling out, Jules daydreams about telling Kennedy and the other sisters everything about being raped and her vigilante justice but in reality, keeps putting on a fake smile. It is only after Ophelia shows her the wall in the bathroom that she goes up and writes Nate’s name, officially naming him (even if it’s just to Ophelia) as her rapist.
RIP PEANUT BUTTER FROYO | Harris (Brandon Mychal Smith) is prepping for his Law Journal interview and is writing his paper on the Darlington Slasher case to tie in a little school history. His interview goes really well and the interviewer is very impressed by him. She tells him she is excited to read his essay. He is about to pull it out of his bag when she continues with how many cookie cutter essays she has to read about the Darlington Slasher and back into the bag is essay goes. She asks him to send her is essay soon and he leaves to begin the writing sprint to end all writing sprints. Harris is panicking because he doesn’t think he has a topic for his essay but Ophelia tells him to put on some Kanye, get his peanut butter froyo, and believe in himself. On his way home with his froyo, he is stopped by Officer Ballard and his partner. He is shoved up against a wall and cuffed for matching a description of one of the frat boys they are looking for (hint, the description was African American…that’s it). His froyo falls to the ground in a slow motion shot befitting a fallen warrior. The dispatcher tells them to let him go as he is not wearing the insignia and they un-cuff him and leave without an apology or second look. Later Harris tells Ophelia he has come up with a topic for his paper; he is going to write about the race issues on campus.
OTHER THOUGHTS:
• What would Ophelia have done if someone had ACTUALLY bought that Kenny G album?
• Jules getting in an argument with Ophelia’s car door spoke to me on a spiritual level.
• Wedding Cake froyo is the best froyo and I will fight anyone on that.
So what did you think? Will Carter’s body stay buried? Will Jules be able to balance her personal life with her vigilante life? Will Harris get into the Law Review? How much did you want to punch Officer Ballard in the face? Let us know in the comments below!
Be sure to catch Sweet/Vicious Tuesdays at 10/9c on MTV!