Beverly Hills, 90210 - Season 9, Episode 26

Rapist Joe definitely needs killin'

"That's the Guy"
Original airdate: 5/19/1999

Episode summary: Noah dumps Donna for good when he learns that she hit the sheets with Wayne. David is heartbroken when he arrives home and finds Dylan and Gina in bed together. Kelly shoots Rapist Joe after he corners her in the boutique.

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Recap: Gina is being wheeled into the Emergency Room on a gurney, and she's bitching at the paramedics about how she's perfectly capable of walking and needs to return to the skating rink asap so she can perform at the audition. David reminds her that she just collapsed and looked pretty dead while she was unconscious...and when she lashes out at him in her usual snarly way, he tells her he's just trying to help.

Now Wear This. A female customer tries on one of the skimpier Donna Martin originals and asks Kelly how it looks on her, and Kelly contorts her face all judgey-like and tells her it looks great if she's trying to "put that message out there". Donna takes offence to the insult Kelly just lobbed at her skankwear and reminds her that rape is a crime of violence - not sex - and that it's irrelevant what a woman is wearing when she's assaulted. She urges Kelly to tell Matt what happened and points out that he's not going to understand it when she won't want to canoodle, smooch, or go to bed with him. Kelly mumbles that she's going to take a solitary walk along the beach...and just as she exits the store, ominous music tinkles in the background as Rapist Joe dashes upstairs for a client-attorney meeting with Matt. Eeeeeek!

Rapist Joe tells Matt he wants to sue the police department for the beating he was begging for - I mean received when he was being arrested under false pretences. He claims to suffer from terrible headaches ever since, then shoots Matt one of his obnoxious shit eating grins that makes me want to throw darts at his face.

Casa David. Gina informs David of the doctor's diagnosis: years of upchucking has caused her to have an electrolyte imbalance. She's pretty damn lucky that's all she's suffering from, considering the horrible damage that bulimia can do to the human body. She then admits she has full blown bulimia, and that it started during adolescence when she desperately tried to keep her blossoming figure scarily trim so she could remain competitive in figure skating. She says she's never told anyone about her eating disorder, and David thanks her for confiding in him.

Dylan is in the sketchy 'hood, stapling a bunch of signs offering a $100,000 reward for information that will result in the arrest and conviction of Kelly's rapist. A homeless woman reads one of the signs and tells Dylan she heard a girl screaming that night, but didn't actually see the assailant. OK, not helpful. Nearby, a twenty-something man reads one of Dylan's signs, looks intrigued, and rips it down.

The Beverly Beat. Janet tells Steve they got a positive mention in one of the mainstream newspapers, and that some clueless reporter referred to their writing as good and crisp. Janet somehow concludes that this must mean they finally have a valid profession, and credits Steve for striking the perfect balance between salacious garbage and...well, I dunno, 'cause I've been starting to tune out whenever Janet and Steve are the only two people on camera. 

Matt follows Kelly while she's on her solitary beach walk, and she snarls at him to go away. He refuses to be rebuffed and says that nothing will keep from continually pestering her until she finally spills the beans about what's been troubling her, so she blurts out, "I was raped." Matt's all, "Say wha-a?!", assures her that it changes nothing about his feelings for her, then urges her to tell him everything.

Now Wear This. Noah drops by and asks Donna where she was last night, and she evasively tells him she was busy and that, nope, she's still not remotely interested in moving in with him. Noah gets all pissy, says their relationship can't move forward if she continues to refuse to live under the same roof as him, then barks, "We're through!" Yippee! Hallelujah! Woot woot!

After Dark. Matt drops by the office to tell Dylan that Kelly finally told him about the attack...and that it happened while she was on her way to persuade him to not fall back into his heroin snorting addiction. He says he can't help but be bugged that Kelly told him (Dylan) about the assault before she got around to telling him (Matt) - and Dylan gets out of having to answer for that when he gets a call from the guy who was looking at Dylan's reward sign earlier. He claims to know the man who was bragging about committing the rape and tells Dylan he can ID him.

Casa David. Gina makes sandwiches for herself and David...and David asks her if he should worry about her purging the meal afterwards. Gina breezily promises not to do that, then explains that she became bulimic 'cause she's never felt good enough, pretty enough...or, with respect to Dylan, blonde enough. She tells him she always knew Dylan wanted to be with someone else, and David nods solemnly and says, "Dylan hurts people." Gina concurs, but at least has enough self awareness to admit that she too has been hurting herself by allowing herself to be in such a toxic relationship.

Beach house. Kelly is all dressed up for an evening out with Matt, and is waiting for him to pick her up. She tells Donna she told him about the rape, and that he handled it very well. The phone rings...and Donna asks Kelly to not answer so she can screen the call, and the two listen as Wayne leaves Donna a message, asking her out to dinner. Donna then tells Kelly that she and Noah finally broke up, and Kelly nods distractedly while she stares down at the gun that's inside her purse.

Casa David. Gina and David are having some good clean fun playing dominos when Dylan slouches in...and Gina lets out an anguished squeal and flees to David's room. ?? David smugly tells Dylan that Gina will be spending the night, then warns him to leave her alone. He saunters off to his room...and soon he and Gina are giggling while they chat. When Dylan slouches by to nosily peer inside, David bitchily shuts the door in his face. Haha!

After Dark. Kelly is giving Matt shit about his latest client, who she ironically calls "a violent criminal" after learning what he's been charged with. Steve and Janet arrive, and Janet is in a morose mood 'cause she suddenly re-remembered that she works for a shitty tabloid rag and says a dumb job like that should be a stepping stone, not something any self-respecting person would want to do permanently. Well duh. But yet here you still are, employed by Steve.

Beach house. Donna and Wayne are enjoying a romantic dinner, and Wayne lights up when Donna tells him that she and Noah broke up. The two enjoy some more flirty banter before heading to her bedroom, where candles are lit everywhere. Yikes. A room filled with unattended burning candles seems like a major fire hazard. The two strip off their clothes, flop atop her bed, and start going at it.  

After Dark. Some random guy asks Kelly if she'd like to dance, and she declines, then gets bumped into by another guy while carrying her drink. She freaks out and shrieks, "He's the rapist!" but when the guy turns around and goes, "Huh?" she realizes he's not actually Rapist Joe. Matt rushes over and envelopes her in a comforting hug while the rest of the 90210 gang looks on confusedly.

Casa David. Gina and David wake up spooning, and a shocked looking Gina says she hadn't intended to sleep with him in the same room all night. She asks him if she can stay over again tonight, and he happily tells her she can stay at his place for as long as she wishes.

Beach house. Donna is making breakfast when Wayne enters the kitchen wearing an unbuttoned shirt and canoodles her from behind. He coos about how amaaaazing last night's doink was, then reminds her again that he's about to head off to Acapulco for the summer to compete in a volleyball tournament. When Donna contorts her ginormous lips in a poutish frown, he says she's welcome to join him - but she declines and says she can't leave her boutique, home, and friends. There's a knock on the patio door, and it's Noah, who has dropped by unannounced to apologize for his bitchy behavior yesterday. Donna starts acting all skittish, clearly worried that he's going to see Wayne inside the apartment in his unbuttoned shirt. She tells Noah they can talk about this later...or maybe go to lunch right now - but then Wayne suddenly pokes his head out the door and goes, "Hey Donna! Oops!" and Noah's all, "Wha-a-a?!" and gets enraged at her for cheating on him (though technically they were broken up), then storms off. As Donna stares out at the ocean and weeps, Wayne re-enters the apartment smiling smugly to himself.

Bar. Dylan meets up with Sean, the guy who claimed he has information on Kelly's rapist. Dylan gives him $300 as a downpayment to start talking, so Sean smirkily tells him he heard the buy bragging about how hot the girl he attacked was. Dylan gets prickly and warns him not to disrespect his beloved Kelly.

Beach house. Steve drops by to get Kelly's input on which cover story he should feature in the next issue of the Beat. She makes her selection and thanks him for helping get her mind off the assault by focusing on something as stupid and pointless as the next Beat cover.

Bar. Sean tells Dylan that the rapist is in the alley outside, so Dylan exits the bar with him...but as soon as he's outside, he's jumped by Sean and another guy. The tables quickly turn on the hooligans, however, when Matt suddenly bursts into the alley and launches a well-coordinated counter-attack. After the asses of Sean and his friend have been adequately kicked, Dylan compliments his brilliant foresight in arranging for Matt to be his undercover back-up for this futile mission. The two then swagger off together, not looking as if they fully grasp that they just accomplished absolutely nothing.

Beach house. Kelly is having a nightmare about the attack and wakes up screaming. Donna runs in, gives her a comforting hug...and Kelly mutters about how she wants her attacker to pay for what he did.  

Casa David. Dylan enters the kitchen while Gina is eating breakfast. She tells him she's not hanging out with David to hurt him, but rather 'cause she needs a friend and David excels in the let's just be friends department. She then asks him how he's doing, and he grumbles about how hard things suck right now. She concurs, and then the two stare at each other longingly. Nooooooo!!!

After Dark. Donna apologizes to Noah for hooking up with Wayne, even though she shouldn't feel all that guilty considering that Noah had declared, "We're through!" prior to her hitting the sack with the dumb-faced jock. She tells Noah she loves him and wants to work through this, but he just sneers at her and says he's going to find a cute girl, take her home, and do the same thing she just did with Wayne. Donna cries, "Please don't do that!" but Noah just glares at her and snaps, "You did this" and storms out of the office.

Now Wear This. Kelly assures Donna that Noah won't really go through with a one night stand just to hurt her, but Donna doesn't look so sure 'bout that...and I'm pretty confident that Noah is full-on dickish enough to doink another woman purely out of spite. Wayne appears outside the store and waves at Donna, so she ambles over to see what he wants. He hands her a bottle of Tequila and says he decided to leave Mexico, give up his career as a professional volleyball player, and get a job in L.A. selling mountain bikes. That's...kind of a drastic life decision to make for someone he's known only a few weeks, but OK.

Casa David. David returns home clutching a bouquet of flowers for Gina. He calls out her name and pokes his head in various rooms looking for her...then - ack! - finds her in the sack with Dylan. He glares at the two of them in stunned bewilderment, then whips the flowers against the wall causing the poor petals to go flying in all directions, angrily kicks at furniture, then storms out of the apartment.

Matt's office. Rapist Joe wraps up his meeting with Matt and mentions that he needs to buy his girlfriend something nice...and Matt decides it's a good idea to send this creep down to the boutique to do his shopping, and tells him to ask for Kelly. A few seconds later, Rapist Joe enters the store and goes, "Kelly..?" so Kelly turns around and is all, "Aaaaaack!" when she recognizes him and shrieks at him to get away from her. Rapist Joe's like, "You..?" then creepily puts a finger to his lips and urges her to shush, locks the door, and pulls out his knife. While he's doing that, Kelly runs to where her purse is laying and pulls out her gun, aims it straight at him, and fires until she's out of bullets.

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