I’m a simple girl with simple pleasures. I put my snore-reducing guppies up my nose just like everyone else, one fish at a time (see Zoey 101 season 1, episode 2). So naturally, when I saw a @TeenNick tweet on Friday night about answering a 10-year-old Zoey 101 mystery, I snatched the remote from my mom and took control of the situation.
The mayhem began at 6:05 p.m. when @TeenNick tweeted “10 years ago today, Zoey buried her feelings for Chase in a time capsule. Find out what she said TONIGHT at 8:30PM. #WhatDidZoeySay #Zoey101.” For two excruciating hours, fans across the globe settled in front of their television screens and anxiously awaited the moment the reveal would be made. Many wondered what time zone was being referenced, and there was some confusion as the original Time Capsule episode aired and was followed by two others.
At 8:52 p.m., a collective gasp was heard as a much older Chase took over the screen, proposing to his blonde girlfriend in a restaurant by offering her a clam with a ring in it (Oh, Dan Schneider). Michael suddenly bursts on the scene, startling Chase who is ecstatic and disoriented by his former PCA BFF appearing out of the blue. Michael informs Chase he flew to California to dig up the time capsule from 10 years ago. In it is a DVD Zoey made 10 years prior expressing her feelings for Chase. His girlfriend is immediately forgotten as Chase frantically tries to find a DVD player in a restaurant. When that fails, Michael pulls out a transcript he wrote and asks Chase to sit down. He does, pulling a photo of Zoey from his backpack in the process. Michael continues to read what Zoey said, a confessed disorientation over how she feels and a sneaking suspicion they might be soul mates. Cue Chase running out the door to find Zoey as the screen faded to black and the words “To Be Continued…” filled the screen.
Floored, I took to Twitter to express my immediate reaction, a tweet that read something like this:
Eight seconds later, TeenNick’s official Twitter retweeted it and all hell broke loose. Let me tell you, there’s a lot of pent up aggression in the Zoey 101 fandom and I’d just painted a target on my back.
Some tweets read simple disagreement, such as
Others had fun inserting some memes and being trendy or getting some friends in on the discussion!
I couldn’t believe the negativity! I’d expected nothing more than a bonus feature video of Jamie Lynn Spears talking to a camera in her 2005 halter top and key necklace combo, a continuation of the footage that had been shown in the original episode. Instead, I was blessed with characters from my childhood returning, 10 years older, for a small reunion episode that uncovered a mystery that had haunted my dreams for 10 years! TeenNick had just handed us the Holy Grail and people had the gall to disrespect that?! What tomfoolery is this?!
The general consensus of the fandom was disappointment over the lack of an appearance from Jamie Lynn herself. Others hated the “To be continued…” and labeled it a cop out.
Maybe I’m just too easy to please or maybe it’s the fiction writer in me who is loving the conflict, but I’m all about the magic of what TeenNick gifted its viewers with. The deliberate act of corralling actors to create a reunion of sorts yet surprise dropping it on an audience while building tension toward a scene that ends in suspense and a promise for more? Sign me up!
One Twitter user allowed me to hash out my feelings on the subject as we engaged in a discussion of hypothetical outcomes.
What a lot of people are missing here is the potential for our favorite characters to learn and grow as we do in adulthood! Not everything is wrapped up so nicely, so to take something as iconic as Zoey 101 and bring it back 10 years later with plots that we can identify with at a different point in our lifetimes is sort of groundbreaking. And though I admit I doubt Dan Schneider and the team over at Nickelodeon will delve too far into emotional complexity or Happily Never After, a girl can dream. And honestly, fingers crossed for grown-up Logan Reese. Am I right, ladies?
Anyway, check out the video here if you missed it during the marathon!