Saved by the Bell Season 1, Episode 2 recap: Aisha challenges Jamie

Daisy and Mac disagree over an assignment in the Saved by the Bell reboot’s second episode.

Fitting in at Bayside High School proves to be trickier than Aisha, Daisy or Devante could have anticipated. In the second episode of Peacock TV’s Saved by the Bell reboot, Daisy switches into Honor’s English and immediately determined to prove herself to her classmates and teachers. The problem is that everyone is overcompensating to make her feel welcome and ensure they’re as inclusive as possible — mainly in the form of P.I.T.Y. a.k.a. Parents Integrating Teachers and Youth, led by Joyce Whitelady.

As you can imagine, the group might have good intentions, but they’re incredibly patronizing and succumb to thinking all the worst stereotypes about non-white students. Their initial welcoming package includes a toothbrush and a pregnancy test, and they’re sure to remind Daisy and Aisha if they don’t have someone at home to sign paperwork, they can ask a cool uncle or a neighbor who smokes out of her window.

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The committee makes Daisy feel like everyone undervalues her intelligence despite her recent ascent to student class president. They have zero expectations for her because they don’t think she can keep up, and she’s determined to prove them all wrong. Her first chance for that is in English when her teacher says she didn’t anticipate Daisy having completed the summer reading assignment for Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

Daisy immediately jumps at the opportunity to prove herself by promising to stay up all night to prove it. Unfortunately for Mac, who claimed he had seasonal dyslexia that flared up in the summer and kept him from completing it, that means he’ll also have to finish it. His teacher assumes if Daisy can do it, then so can he. The problem is, Mac obviously doesn’t want to despite Daisy trying to encourage him.

Doesn’t it bother him that everyone is so keen to let him off the hook for stuff since they don’t expect him to perform adequately? They even made a new grade for him! Daisy thinks Mac is actually pretty smart. It’s how he comes up with all of his wild schemes. He just doesn’t apply himself. Now is his chance.

The next day after having stayed up all night to finish Frankenstein, the P.I.T.Y. group arrives because of a “racial emergency.” They received a report from a “brave” anonymous student (Mac) that Frankenstein is a racist book and should be banned. How is it racist? In the book, a group of angry townspeople with torches chase a person of color out of town.

Read. Saved by the Bell Season 1, Episode 1 recap: Bayside High gets a big shake-up. light

As Daisy points out, he’s green. “We don’t care if he is white or black or green. We respect Frankenstein!” Honestly, I loved the joke so much I don’t even mind that they totally butchered the actual book since the actual Frankenstein is the doctor, and the Creature isn’t actually green. Frustrated at Mac for getting the assignment thrown out after she spent hours working on it, she confronts him about it. He’s pissed at her, too, for ruining his dyslexia plan that he apparently spent three weeks working on.

But hey, all might not be lost. Later, Daisy finds a scrap of paper tucked in Mac’s locker that shows he actually did start working on the assignment. Even if he didn’t finish it, it’s a start! She apologizes to him for snapping at him earlier, and it almost seems like they’re going to have a nice moment until Mac assumes Daisy is trying to date him.

Saved by the Bell Season 1, Episode 2 recap: Aisha challenges Jamie’s spot on the football team.

As this episode of Saved by the Bell is aptly titled “Clubs and Cliques,” we get to see the football tryouts results, which Aisha expects she dominated. She did, but Slater postpones sharing the team roster due to a “tough decision.” Seeing the posting, Jessie waits for him in his office to dramatically confront him over what she accurately guesses is his hesitance to put a girl on his team. Slater claims he’s being sexist for a good reason. He doesn’t want Aisha to get hurt on the field despite the fact she’s easily the best player.

Jessie makes him realize he should let the stats decide, which lands Aisha in the quarterback spot but puts Jessie’s son as the back-up QB. Jamie is shocked and disheartened as he laments through the “feeling helmet” with his teammates. After she sees the results, Jessie marches back to Slater’s office and asks if he’s doing this on purpose to get back at her. He says no, it’s just the stats speaking for themselves. Jamie is actually a terrible football player, and Jessie needs to make sure he knows that.

But she has a hard time doing so since she’s always praising her son, including that he’s a great chef, which has resulted in her eating raw spaghetti and water sauce every night. She can’t bring herself to break the news to Jamie and instead accidentally encourages him to try and get his spot as quarterback returned to him. Jamie challenges Aisha to a football “try-off” to see who the real best player is.

Aisha realizes to get through to Jamie, she needs to speak his language. So at the try-off, she brings out the feelings helmet to let him know how she feels about this whole thing. She feels like she’s earned her place and him going against her makes her feel small and like they can’t let her have anything. Jamie realizes she’s right, and they hug it out. Problem solved. Slater watches this from the sidelines, “what a weird little team I’ve got.”

Saved by the Bell Season 1, Episode 2 recap: Lexi tries to get through to Devante.

Cast as the respective co-leads in the fall musical, Lexi does her darndest to get Devante to become part of the theater troupe. She invites him to their special group chat and their outings at the Max, but Devante refuses to participate.

At one point, Lexi tries to get through to him by suggesting maybe he didn’t have friends in his old school and he doesn’t know how to be accepted into part of a group that genuinely likes him. Devante pretends to go along with it before exiting the group chat yet again. “Stop negging me, or I’m going to fall in love with you!”

Ultimately, Devante leaves the group chat a third time after mocking Lexi when he discovers their pajama party has been canceled. Needless to say, it doesn’t look like he’s ready to part of their group shenanigans just yet.

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What did you think about the rebooted Saved by the Bell Episode 2? Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below.

All ten episodes of the rebooted Saved by the Bell Season 1 are now streaming on Peacock TV.

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