MTV’s ‘Awkward’ season 3, episode 17 review: A Jake and Tamara shocker; plus, Jenna struggles

It’s been a long, dark season for “Awkward,” but Tuesday night provided the first real opportunity for Jenna Hamilton to really start to peek her head over the rainclouds, and to see the other side. The unfortunate thing for her is that in the process, she ended up realizing that not everyone is really going to be anywhere near as ready to embrace the future as she is.

The first important thing that she realized was that there was really nobody ready or willing to be her friend again just yet. Tamara still kept her at a distance, and she also shunned Collin finally once she realized that he never stopped dating his current girlfriend Angelique, and she just didn’t realize that he was not exclusive. Is it a technicality? We assume so, but it doesn’t make him any less of a jerk. The only real point that Jake made in here was that everything that happened with Jenna were decisions that she made, and not ones that he was involved with.

It’s funny that with an episode that should have been very focused on Jenna and her recovery, we could not help but cast the focus onto Jake and Tamara, who took their political debate to the next level so that Tamara could try to beat her boyfriend for the Class President title. Did it work for her? It did! But, the problem here was that she never really wanted to be President in the first place. She just got upset that Jake wasn’t doing what she wanted him to do, so she decided to show him that her way was the best. All “her way” really got her was a ticket to Splitsville.

So now that there are just three episodes left in the season, we’re in a position where Jake no longer has a girlfriend, Tamara has a new title, and Jenna is starting to figure out her life again. But, she has a huge problem courtesy of Valerie Marks: She publicly shamed her in an essay, and it led to her being suspended indefinitely from her job.

This was a pretty good episode for “Awkward” in terms of the story, but we have to admit, it did not do much to actually bring in any humor or make us laugh. Isn’t this supposed to be a comedy at times? We like to think so, and that’s where it let us down in the end. Grade: C+.

Photo: MTV