Last updated: October 28, 2002.
Just Deal's season #3 cast:
The Cast:
Dylan Roberts -Brian Skala
Ashley Gordon -Erika Thormahlen
Jermaine Green -Shedrack Anderson III
with,
Mrs. Emily Gordon -Alison Matthews
Mrs. Coleen Roberts -Eileen Pedde
Mr. Mike Roberts, Sr. -Eric Keenleyside
Mike Roberts, Jr. -Will Sanderson
Naomi -Fiona Scott (just 2 episodes)
Kim -Kandyse McClure
Benny -Michael P. Northey
Mandy -Jennifer Anne
Carmichael
Laurel -Jewel Staite (most episodes)
Josh -Antonio Cupo (some episodes)
Both Dylan and Ashley return from their summer vacations with secrets. But Ashley's is more the serious one. Dylan spent part of his summer with his childhood friend (whom Dylan has no romantic interest in), Laurel (new cast regular, Jewel Staite), and Jermaine is surprised to find out that she's an attractive girl. So Dylan neglects to tell Ash the truth about his friend "Lucky". But Ashley not only spent the summer with Josh (Antonio Cupo) and didn't tell Dylan - she *kissed* Josh! twice! And Ashley is rightly worried that telling the truth will end her relationship with Dylan. So Ashley doesn't tell him, but their relationship is awkward, all the same.
Meanwhile, new student Mandy (new cast member, Jennifer Anne Carmichael) gets a job at Vinyl Frontier when Benny gets a new cappuccino machine, but only Mandy knows how to operate it.
[NOTE: Naomi appears in only one or two scenes in this episode. On the other hand, Hunter is neither seen, nor is he referred to.]
During sex education at school, Dylan grabs a handful of condoms with his mischief on his mind. Sure enough, Dylan and Ashley spend the good part of the day filling the condoms with water and throwing them at each other like water balloons. But when Mr. and Mrs. Roberts return from shopping, and find an empty condom wrapper at home, Mr. Roberts sends Ashley home, and accuses Dylan of having a sexual relationship with Ashley. Dylan is disgusted that his father doesn't believe him. Later, Ashley realizes that Dylan is against pre-marital sex, and Dylan realizes Ashley isn't.
At the store, Kim can't stand new coworker Mandy, and Jermaine is caught in the middle.
[NOTE: Naomi appears in a quick scene in this episode - this is the last time she is seen in an episode of "Just Deal".]
Ashley is obsessed with her studies, and getting good grades, and she starts staying up very late to do schoolwork. First she starts off by using copious amounts of coffee, and it's not long before both Dylan and Emily Gordon are concerned. Eventually Emily has to institute a pseudo-curfew, by Ashley ignores it, and then makes the mistake of taking 'No-Doze' pills with coffee. The combination causes her to end up in the hospital.
Kim asks Jermaine to be her dance partner, but she soon regrets it when Jermaine's perfectionism gets the best of him, and his demands of Kim turn her off, and ruin her desire to just have fun.
Laurel arrives in town as a new transfer student, and Dylan's dirty little secret is out. Despite the fact that both Dylan and Laurel refer to themselves as just "old friends", Ashley is convinced that either: a) Dylan and Laurel have something going on on the side, or b) at the very least Laurel is interested in Dylan (and Ash may be right about that, though Laurel does not appear to want to sabotage her friend Dylan's relationship with Ashley). And Dylan feels he and Ash are "even", after she lied about spending the summer with Josh. (Ash still hasn't told Dylan about the "kiss(es)".) In the end, Ashley decides to try and be friends with Laurel, after Laurel makes an overture, and insists that she has no interest in breaking Ash and Dylan up.
Jermaine wants to take his relationship with Kim to the "next level", and go out on more than an 'informal' date, but Kim continues to resist after having gotten out of her relationship relatively recently - she doesn't want to be "exclusive". But when Kim finally decides to agree to a "real" date, Jermaine shocks her by announcing her already has a date - with Mandy!
Mr. Roberts wants Dylan to improve himself, and get a job, and after helping a vet named Dr. Hillman (Bill Dow), Dylan is offered a job by Dr. Hillman, and he accepts. But Dylan is soon upon an ethical dilemma: he suspects that Dr. Hillman is fraudulently convincing his clients to agree to unnecessary treatment for their pets. Should Dylan report the doctor, quit and risk angering his father, or should he keep working there and keep his mouth shut?
Meanwhile, Mandy (unknowingly) goes out a blind date with Mike, Jr., and she finds him to be a jerk. So she goes to Ashley for advice on how to dump the guy. But when Ashley is over at the Roberts', she overhears Mike, Jr. getting the call, and he's rather heartbroken. Suddenly, Ash realizes how crude her 'dumping' advice to Mandy was, and she tries to fix things.
In biology class, Ashley refuses to dissect a dead frog, even though she risks getting an 'F'. (And strangely, her strong moral stance is getting no support from any of her friends!) So Ash seeks an alternative solution.
Dylan befriends a new student, Kevin Marshall (Paul Dzenki), but when Dylan invites Kevin home for dinner, Kevin and Mr. Roberts strangely seem to know each other. After Kevin leaves, Mike, Sr. orders Dylan that he can't be friends with Kevin anymore, and Dylan is furious. But when Dylan presses his father for an explanation, Mike, Sr. clams up. When Dylan asks around, he soon realizes that Kevin has been expelled from his previous schools for drug and alcohol abuse. Dylan then confronts his father, a recovering alcoholic himself, of the hypocrisy of his father's position.
Jermaine's birthday party is approaching, and he's dreading it - Jermaine's Mom, Anna (Kate Twa), is in town visiting from Washington, D.C., and Jermaine knows that his Mom and Dad (William Taylor) fight about everything. And his birthday party is a prime opportunity for them to fight. Sure enough, when his Dad gives Jermaine a new car for his birthday, his mother objects, and the fighting begins (in front of Kim, no less!). Kim, seeing how hurt Jermaine is, and how unreasonable his parents are being, takes Jermaine to Vinyl Frontier where she locks them both in a closet until Jermaine is ready to confront his parents.
Meanwhile, for Jermaine's birthday, Mandy drags the gang to a medium named Miss Rebecca (Anne Marie Loder). Once there, Rebecca tells Laurel that she's thinking about a boy, her soulmate! who she'll spend the rest of her life with (could she be talking about Dylan?...). And she tells Ashley that she's hiding a secret, and that "Bill" (Ash's dead father's name) sends "his love", upsetting Ashley.
Ashley's slumber party from Hell: Ash is having a slumber party, and she invites not only Kim and Mandy, but Laurel too. Things are going pretty well, until Mandy suggests that they play a game of "I Never". The girls discover some surprising things about each other while playing, but Ash starts to get jealous of Laurel's reminiscences of her friendship with Dylan. So Ashley starts to play dirty: "I never had a secret crush on someone else's boyfriend." Kim and Mandy raise their hands, as does Laurel, but Ashley accuses of Laurel of lying. So Laurel fights back: "I never hooked up with another guy while I was going steady with someone." Again, Kim and Mandy raise their hands, but Ashley can't. Laurel pounces on Ashley for this admission, and they have a huge fight - Laurel says she'll tell Dylan the truth if Ashley won't. Ashley refuses, and Laurel storms out.
Meanwhile, Dylan is staying with Jermaine for the night. But they forget a video game at Dylan's and they go to his house to retrieve the game, where Jermaine accidentally kicks Dylan's front door out of its hinges. The boys work frantically all night to repair the door before Mike, Sr. returns home and sees the damage.
Dylan, Ash, Jermaine and Kim attend a volleyball game that Laurel and Mandy are playing in, and they (and Laurel) all notice how hard Mandy's father is riding her from the stands. Indeed, Mandy wilts under the "encouragement" from her father. The next day, Mandy tells Laurel that she's "too busy" to continue with volleyball, but Laurel sees through this and encourages Mandy to stand up to her father.
Ashley is concerned that her mother never dates, so she pushes her mother into internet dating. On the date, Ashley and Emily (and Dylan) are shocked to see that Emily's internet date is Benny! Ashley is appalled, thinking Benny's not good enough, but Emily goes through with the date anyway.
Mr. and Mrs. Roberts, Dylan and Jermaine goes to Mike, Jr.'s college to visit him there, but they are shocked when they arrive and find a sickly Mandy in Mike, Jr.'s bed. Dylan and Jermaine are convinced that this is proof that Mike Jr. and Mandy are sleeping together, but Mike, Sr. and Colleen accept Mike, Jr.'s explanation that they aren't. Dylan is furious about the double-standard: Mike, Sr. and Colleen are tough on him, but lax with Mike, Jr. Dylan storms over to Mike, Jr.'s dorm room to talk it over, and Mike, Jr. assures Dylan that he and Mandy aren't sleeping together. But they agree to confront Mike, Sr. and Colleen about the double-standard about their two sons, and their parents agree to think it over.
Meanwhile, Ashley is determined to learn how to drive, but Ashley soon finds out that her mother is an overly nervous, overly critical, and generally terrible, driving teacher.
The Dance from Hell: Ashley is increasingly annoyed with Dylan - she wants him to formally ask her to a big dance, but Dylan just assumes that they're going. Ashley gets colder and colder with him, and Dylan confides to Jermaine that he can't do anything right anymore as far as Ash is concerned. Laurel is dateless, so she hooks up with the dance's band, and she ends up singing at the dance! At the dance, Ashley is treating Dylan like... well, dirt. In the bathroom, Ash complains to Kim who points out that maybe Dylan isn't the problem - maybe Ashley doesn't want Dylan anymore. Finally, during a slow dance, Ashley breaks down, tells Dylan that she doesn't want to be with him anymore, and that their relationship is over. She runs out of the dance. Dylan, and the rest of the gang, are shocked. Dylan is forced to catch a ride home with Laurel, who lends Dylan a sympathetic ear, while Ashley cries in her Mom's lap.
A retrospective episode: As Dylan and Ashley wallow in the depression of their break-up, Jermaine & Laurel, and Emily, try to cheer up Dylan and Ashley, respectively. They both remember the good times, and their lack of common ground. Ultimately, Dylan asks Laurel what changed with Ash over the summer in San Francisco. Laurel urges Dylan to ask Ashley about that (implying that Laurel knows something that Ashley isn't telling Dylan).
Dylan goes over to Ashley's and confronts her in her room. Finally, finally, Ashley admits that she and Josh kissed in San Francisco. Twice. Dylan is so disgusted, that he can't even look at or talk to Ashley. He storms out. She cries. The End.
Mandy and Jermaine are trying to film their classmates for a video yearbook project. While they are having some success getting their other classmates to talk to the camera, including Laurel and Kim, they are having little success getting Ashley or Dylan (still guilty and bitter, respectively, over their breakup) to talk.
Ultimately, Mandy turns to the camera on Jermaine, and asks him if he's ever been in love. He refuses to answer. She then asks Jermaine what his most fond memory of high school was. Jermaine answers his perfect PSAT score. Mandy presses for something more personal. Just as Ashley approaches, Jermaine volunteers that his fondest memory in high school was the day Ashley showed up, and he and Dylan and Ash became best friends. Ashley asks Jermaine if he still feels that way, and he assures her that they are still friends. Ashley then records her message for Mandy - she agrees with Jermaine that her most wonderful memory was meeting Dylan and Jermaine, and becoming such good friends with both of them, especially Dylan. Jermaine then gets a bright idea, and takes the tape from Mandy. On his way out the door, he admits to Mandy that he's only ever been "in love" once - with Kim.
Jermaine arrives at Dylan's to find him moping on the coach, and puts the videotape in Dylan's VCR, and plays it for Dylan. Dylan is moved by Ashley's words, and thanks Jermaine. Dylan leaves to go find Ashley.
Meanwhile, Jermaine goes to Vinyl Frontier to find Kim. He tells Kim that he's in love with her. She agrees to take their relationship to the "permanent" stage.
Dylan goes to Ashley's, and talks to her. He is still very hurt by what happened, but he's decided that, no matter what, he doesn't want to sacrifice his friendship with Ashley. Ashley is relieved, and they hug, their friendship restored. THE END.
[NOTE: "Yearbook" was the early working title for "Just Deal".]
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