Awkward Season 2, Episode 5 Recap: “I Hate Skanks and Sentimentality”

It’s Valentine’s Day on Awkward in Season 2, Episode 5: “My Love Is a Black Heart”! And for the first time in Jenna’s life, her dad isn’t her only valentine. Unfortunately for her shirt, that means that the bitter ‘n’ lonelies will perform “love hate crimes” against her, and throw gross liquids at her happy face. And shirt.

So Jenna is in love (or is she?) on Valentine’s Day, and Jake will not only hold her hand in public, but kiss, hug, and pretty much do anything possible to her in public, like lift her up in his arms and swing her around to slow music. Matty gets one glimpse of that and seems to generate a pretty excellent plan (for Matty).

Suddenly he’s entirely focused on seducing a “freshman Barbie,” as Jenna puts it, named Courtney. And suddenly Matty is asking Jenna for advice on how to plan the perfect Valentine’s Day date. She advises him on the perfect restaurant, the perfect flowers to get, and pretty much everything she could ever want. In her head, Jake asked Matty to ask Jenna these things so he could plan their date. In Matty’s head, well, we don’t know for sure what’s in Matty’s head, but it’s safe to assume there are tons of boobs in there.

So when Jake brings Jenna a love bug at school and Jenna doesn’t get it (“a … beetle?”), Jenna’s confused. And so is Jake, since it’s clear he’s a nervous wreck about impressing Jenna and making sure she’s happy. In this episode, Jake really grew on us. All day and night, you could see in his eyes that all he wants is to make Jenna feel good, loved, and comfortable.

Tamara and Ming, on the other hand, have very uncomfortable plans to attend the Black Hearts Party, “only the singles event for the bitter and single.” Ming tells Tamara not to go since Ricky will be there and the Asian mafia says he’s in love with someone new. But Tamara being Tamara, she’s even more determined to go, stalk him, and prove just how much she doesn’t care about him by kissing every guy there.

Sadie, meanwhile, is bitching to Lissa: “I. Hate. Skanks. And sentimentality.” She makes fun of Lissa for being single, and Lissa proves her new, fearless attitude towards the former Queen Bee by saying, “You’re mean and single.” Sadie ditches their tradition of eating carbs and watching rom-coms, but as we later discover, her new plans are even more sinister than we could have imagined.

After failing to make Ricky jealous at the BHP, she stumbles across Ricky and Sadie making out on a toilet. Tamara is so stunned that she pees on the floor in front of everyone, and Sadie being Sadie, she laughs hysterically. It’s an all-around horrific night for Tamara, but a pretty perfect night for Ming, who meets Fred Woo and performs major make out surgery on the party couch.

Back to Jenna and her funny Valentine’s. Lo and behold, as soon as the nervous Jake finally gets Jenna alone at the perfect bistro for dinner, they’re the opposite of alone, sitting right next to Jake and Courtney. Throughout the dinner, Jenna can’t stop focusing on Matty, and his real motives. Jake just tries to focus on Jenna, but Matty even manages to distract him with a silly football debate.

The climax comes when Jenna is pushing around the food on her plate, and Matty points out that she’s allergic. Jake didn’t know that, and we all (including Matty and Jenna) squirm in our seats because that’s the kind of information you know about someone you used to really, really like. Jake doesn’t seem to notice or care, since all he really cares about, like we said, is Jenna’s comfort and happiness.

By the end, Jenna has thoroughly embarrassed herself only to come to the conclusion that Matty might actually be moving on. Finally. We can tell that she’s still bothered by this, and we think we can tell that Matty isn’t moving on at all, but just playing an amazing game of deception to get her back, but it doesn’t matter. Because nothing matters until they say “I love you,” right?

That’s exactly what Jake does at Jenna’s doorstep. And we have to admit, we got teary-eyed when he did. It was just so heartfelt and genuine! And Jenna teared up a little bit too, giving him a huge hug. But what she winds up saying, cluelessly, is “Awesome.” She’s completely oblivious to the devastated Jake, who walks away looking like a crumpled Ken doll.

Did Jenna not say she loved Jake back because she, well, doesn’t? Or is she just too fazed by the reality of a great guy actually loving her to even stop and evaluate her own feelings? Judging from the preview for next week, it looks like she’ll use sex to find the answer. Which could be really good, or irreparably bad.

Check out all of Wetpaint Entertainment’s Awkward coverage. 

Awkward airs on Thursdays at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT on MTV.

Molly Friedman is an editor at Wetpaint Entertainment. Follow her on Twitter @MollyFriedman.

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