Warning: This article contains descriptions of sexual assault.
In Grand Army’s pilot, there’s a bomb — that is, a literal one. An explosion from a few blocks over sends the students of Grand Army High School into lockdown, and if you think the show might get a little less intense from there on out, you’re going to be in for a shock. Netflix’s newest teen drama, Grand Army, is unflinching in its depiction of harsh, often unjust, and occasionally hopeful realities of contemporary high schoolers. But although there’s pain, there’s also hope, community, and an unforgettable lineup of students unafraid to fight back against the bullshit.
Like its genre predecessors Degrassi and Skins, Grand Army follows an ensemble cast of teenagers each dealing with their own trauma, issues, and fears. The characters are all students at the same competitive public high school in Brooklyn, but that’s about the only thing they have in common. There’s Sid (Amir Bageria), a star student-athlete with Harvard aspirations and a secret that could upend his reputation at school. Then there’s Dominique (Odley Jean), a focused and hardworking basketball star with dreams of becoming a psychologist and troubles at home. Rounding out the main cast is insecure freshman Leila (Amalia Yoo), talented musician Jayson (Maliq Johnson), and feminist provocateur Joey (Odessa A’zion).
Although there are a ton of characters, stories, and themes packed into just nine episodes, many of them start to overlap, especially as the show progresses — which is why this recap, tracing every turn, twist, and introduction, might come in handy. Ready to head back to high school? Let’s go.
Episode 1: “Brooklyn, 2020”
Grand Army’s first few images immediately set the mood for the show. A rusty trash can; a balled-up nest of hair. Vandalism on the locker room wall asks, “Ladies, what’s better: a good fuck or a good shit? VOTE!” (A good shit is winning.) Evident cool girl Joey Del Marco (Odessa A’zion) walks into a stall, gives her teary-eyed friend Gracie (Keara Graves) a quick pep talk, and proceeds to dislodge a condom from inside her vagina. The entire time, she’s completely unphased, as if this is just another weekday. Already, we can tell this is a no-holds-barred teen drama in the vein of Euphoria — but maybe without the glitter and the Southern California glamour.
As Joey and Grace do their thing, we’re introduced to three more members of Grand Army’s ensemble cast: Dominique, aka Dom (Odley Jean), and her friends Tamika (Brittany Adebumola) and Sonia (Naiya Ortiz). We learn several facts in succession: Dom’s friends pay her to do their hair, Dom has a crush who barely knows she exists, and, from the trio’s station outside the stall, it really sounds like Joey and Gracie are hooking up. Joey retrieves the condom, proudly flails it around the locker room, and tosses it… where it lands right by Leila Kwan Zimmer’s (Amalia Yoo) Doc Martens. Leila scuttles away, Joey threatens anyone who might want to “talk shit” about her friend, and Dom asks Gracie, who understandably begins to panic, if she took a Plan B.
As Dom and Joey walk into the gym side by side, it’s clear that they’re not at all friends but they do respect each other, somewhat. Joey also catches Dom eyeing John Ellis (Alphonso Romero Jones II) and suggests she approach him. This is the kind of thing Joey — and maybe Dom’s friends — would be bold enough to do, but Dom seems comfortable pining away. For now.
If I’ve learned anything from my favorite grittier teen dramas, it’s that I should downright fear the moment Grand Army pivots to its alpha male leads. My intuition is correct: instead of meeting Dom’s crush, we’re thrown into a squad of obnoxious swim team guys. They unapologetically walk right into Leila, causing her to drop her phone, and then leer at her as she walks away. As if to cement the fact that this is a Nate Jacobs kind of friend group, they then immediately turn on Sid Pakam (Amir Bageria) and start harassing him about whether he’s slept with his girlfriend yet.
After the boys, we move to Leila, who’s mid-presentation about Judaism in China. Some nearby Chinese students snicker; one calls her a “whore” in Mandarin. As she did after Joey tossed a condom in her direction, Leila copes by sending her friend some generic “I’m miserable here, wish we were watching The Walking Dead right now” texts. This moment, more than anything we’ve seen so far, reminds me of my own high school experience.
Still following? Good — because we have even more new characters. Friends Jayson (Maliq Johnson) and Owen (Jaden Jordan) are already a much nicer alternative to Sid’s circle of friends. They’re riding the high of a successful music audition, and after they grab some lunch from a nearby halal guy, they thank him by name. Maybe I’m making snap judgements, but I just know the swim team boys would never.
Cut to Jayson and Owen, now back at Grand Army. When a bomb goes off a few blocks away, the stories of all the students we’ve just met — from Jayson and Owen to Joey to Leila — begin to converge. A teacher snaps at Jayson and Owen for goofing around, and meanwhile, the swim team guys are hard at work on an Instagram account devoted to Grand Army girls with “bomb pussy.” (Did I mention I hate them?) They start pestering Sid, asking for him to fork over a name for the account, but he shakes them off, busy texting his sister and girlfriend and making sure they’re both okay. In response, they threaten to put his younger sister on the list.
Sid ditches his friends to go find his sister, but instead, he runs into Leila, who begins lamenting about how miserable both her day and overall freshman year have been. The main takeaway here is that Leila’s adopted, and although she loves her parents, she feels isolated and confused. The other takeaway is that Sid is a great listener and needs to be saved from the bastion of toxic masculinity that is his friend group. Unfortunately, just minutes later, swim team ringleader George (Anthony Ippolito) texts him again and demands a name. With a sigh, Sid sends Leila’s.
Back in the other room, Dom and her friends are chatting about whether or not to head to a massive party (for John-related purposes) later that night. Jayson interrupts to ask Sonia for money, and when she explains she already gave her cash to Dom earlier in the locker room, he swipes Dom’s bag. Owen, snickering next to Jayson, grabs the wallet, and Dom is pissed. Joey, who’s sitting nearby and fielding texts from her emotionally estranged dad, tries to step in, and Jayson and Owen toss the bag back and forth until Ms. Wilder — the same teacher from before — reprimands them, then chastises Joey for wearing gym shorts.
In the moments that follow, both Joey and Leila learn that they made it onto the Instagram account. Leila, for her part, is thrilled just to be noticed, but Joey finds out from her soft-spoken, clearly smitten friend Tim (Thelonius Serrell-Freed) and her bravado fades for a moment of genuine discomfort. Dom is upset for a completely different reason: Jayson dropped her wallet down the stairwell, and by the time she finds it, $200 is missing.
After all the drama and trauma of the day, almost all the students head to a party. Joey’s there with her posse: Tim, Tim’s wholesome sister Anna (Sydney Meyer), and swim team jerks Luke (Brian Altemus) and George. Leila’s mom drops her off out front. Sid’s making out with his girlfriend, Flora (Marcela Avelina), but he clearly has other things on his mind. The only student who’s nowhere to be found? Dom, who has to stay home and look after her siblings.
In a move that’s predictable but still upsetting to watch, Leila and George get together. But there’s a kicker. Remember Gracie, Joey’s friend from the show’s opening scene? Turns out, that condom mishap was the result of a hookup with George, and she’s not too happy to see him kiss Leila in front of hordes of people. Gracie promptly throws a drink at her, which sends her staggering backwards, knocking Luke down the stairs. It’s a fun, frothy sequence amid all the heavier issues and teases we’ve already seen in episode 1.
Speaking of heavy: “I’m going to teach you things you’ll never forget,” someone types. We can’t tell who it is, or what this means. But before that, a stunning closing shot shows Tim and Joey escaping the party and jumping on the back of a subway car. When Joey screams, Tim screams, too. And then, whether it’s because of her dad, her altercation with Ms. Wilder, the bomb, or just the day’s emotional ramifications, she cries.
Episode 2: See Me
Episode 2 starts right where episode 1 left off: with an ominous message that may or may not set the mood for the next 45 minutes. “This isn’t a cry for attention,” someone writes. Then, we cut to Jayson and Owen, busking at a subway stop in the hopes of raising the money Dom needs. We see Joey, getting dressed and texting Tim about her plans to get revenge on Mrs. Wilder while either a voiceover from either a podcast or news reporter discusses racial profiling. Joey’s dad warns her not to get into trouble; Joey retorts that he’s not in a place to police her actions. Then, we’re off to school.
Grand Army is about teenagers taking a stand, and it looks like the school’s sexist dress code is Joey’s first battle. “My body is not the problem,” she writes on Instagram. “My politics are not the problem… your thoughts are. Braless. Boundless. Blow up the patriarchy.” Using language like “blowing up” might too much after a bomb explosion, but I can get behind Joey’s overall message.
Joey’s message immediately reaches at least one person: Meera (Ashley Ganger), Sid’s younger sister, who’s oscillating between texting her friends about the no-bra protest, defending Sid from their overbearing parents at the breakfast table, and talking a mile a minute about her upcoming feminist art show. This opening vignette might not be as relevant, plot-wise, as Joey’s or Jayson and Owen’s, but Meera is already a stand-out character for more reasons than one. Plus, it’s interesting to see Sid’s parents’ concerns juxtaposed with Joey’s dad’s fears: while Joey was told to take an Uber and stay out of trouble, the Pakams warn their kids not to “talk back” if they’re stopped on the street.
At school, Joey’s protest is already making a splash. She even hands out custom-made “Free the Nipple” shirts to George, Luke, Tim, and Anna. “I love you guys! My woke boys,” she tells Tim, George, and Luke after they start discussing and debating the meaning of the protest. After that Instagram account, I’m not sure “woke” is the word I’d use to describe these dudes — especially apparent ringleader George — but Grand Army is definitely making a point with this one. We see this a few minutes later when Leila, after dubbing Joey’s protest pointless, is confronted by George, who asks her to hang out that night and pushes her to take her bra off in solidarity. At this point, I’m beginning to wonder how feminist can this protest really be if Joey’s creepy friends are roaming the halls to make sure the girls of Grand Army are all following suit.
Next, Grand Army teases two potential romances. First, there’s Joey and Tim in the bathroom, and although Tim’s choice in friends has me doubting his dateability, he seems to really have feelings for her. She pulls away before they kiss, though, citing her friendship with his sister. Meanwhile, Dom and John — the pairing I’m already loudly rooting for — are in calc. John volunteers to do a problem, and when he messes up, Dom raises her hand to correct him. “She’s Einstein,” he says, smiling. “Let her take over.” But before the Dom and John cuteness can commence, Jayson gestures for Dom to leave class. He and Owen want her to know that they’ve raised the full $200 she lost, and in exchange, they’re hoping she’ll go to the school’s office, let them know the entire debacle was just a prank, and explain she got her money back. Dom, still angry about the prank in the first place, makes no promises.
From here, we get a peek back into Sid’s story. He was deferred from Harvard, the school of his (and his parents’) dreams, and according to his college counselor, his personal statement isn’t exactly personal enough. He’s told to text Victor (August Blanco Rosenstein), a fellow student who apparently has a knack for college essays. And if there’s anything technical Grand Army excels at, it’s subtle transitions. As Victor’s phone buzzes, we see Joey behind him, taking off her sweatshirt and donning a “Free the Nipple” tee.
Joey’s shirt itself doesn’t elicit a reaction, so she begins drinking from a bottle and “accidentally” dousing herself in water. Mrs. Wilder, predictably, stops the class and suggests she head to the office. When Joey pushes back, her teacher adds, “This is a classroom, and you’re dressed like a hooker. You’re basically prostituting yourself for attention… I wish you had some self-respect.” As she did with the Instagram account, Joey looks horrified and, for a few moments, genuinely hurt.
But she has a plan. In the office, a disciplinary rep says that wearing a sheer white shirt without anything under it is a distraction, and right on cue, George, Luke, and Tim walk in, donning their matching “Free the Nipple” tees. “Mr. B., how can you regulate my body and not theirs?” Joey asks. She then points out that at least 100 other girls joined her protest, and if Mr. B. wants to punish her, he’ll have to kick all of them out of class, too. After a few breaths, he concedes that she’s right and lets her return to class. Ms. Wilder is even called in to apologize. Afterwards, Joey and Tim share a moment alone (and a kiss) and Tim calls Joey an inspiration.
With Joey’s protest out of the way, it’s time to meet Victor, now grabbing a coffee with Sid and offering some college essay insight. Sid wonders whether he should write about the bomber from Friday, and “how it feels when someone who looks like me blows himself and four other people apart just feet from my fucking school.” Victor praises the idea and tells him it will be okay, and Sid notably looks at Victor’s lips as he sips his cappuccino. Interesting.
Now, we’re back to Leila, now getting hot and heavy with George. Their hookup is, simply put, painful to watch, and essentially consists of George getting himself off while kissing Leila’s neck and half-heartedly petting her. Then, while Leila wipes off her shirt, George watches a video of Joey’s protest on Instagram and basically pretends Leila isn’t in the room. When he finally turns back to her, he calls her “Geisha girl” and comments on the color of her nipples. I’m still parsing through which part of this scene is most upsetting, but that probably takes the prize.
From here, Leila daydreams of an animated version of herself sitting next to an animated version of George, scrolling through an animated little version of Joey’s Instagram. Cartoon Leila breaks the phone, Cartoon Joey comes to life and eggs her on, and Cartoon George goes down on Leila. It’s hard to tell whether the sex act is really happening in tandem with the hyperbolic animated version or it’s just a fantasy, especially since we immediately pivot back to Joey, who’s getting a nipple piercing in celebration of her big win.
Away from all of this, Dom is at Target with her mom and siblings when she gets a phone call about Jayson’s and Owen’s potential disciplinary action. She’s asked to come to school the next morning to discuss what happened, but her mind is elsewhere: her mom and siblings keep loading items into their cart, despite her persistent arguments that they won’t be able to afford everything. When they get to the checkout, Dom learn that their total is over $200 — aka, much more than they have on their Target gift card and more than Dom has in cash.
At this point, John, dressed in a bright Target red, drops by and offers to hook her up with his employee discount. He also introduces himself to Dom’s mom and tells her all about how her daughter schooled him in calc. I’m not sure if I’m heartbroken on Dom’s behalf or swooning over the impending romance — and Dom seems to be in the same situation, smiling at John one second before looking away, slightly embarrassed over the whole ordeal.
Before we head back to Joey, Sid gets an important, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene. With a chair propped up in front of his door, he switches from a news website to Pornhub… and, though it’s unclear exactly what he searches, he’s clearly looking for guys, and he’s somewhat anxious about it. He’s interrupted by a call from his dad, asking how work is going, but this plot point will inevitably be revisited soon.
Joey meets up with George, fresh out of his hookup with Leila. In a devastating back-to-back, we see Leila tell her friend Rachel (Lola Blackman) that the night went well and that she had a lot of fun; meanwhile, George laughs to Joey that Leila couldn’t make him come. It’s horrible.
There’s something interesting about watching Joey in her small, private moments away from her chauvinistic male friends and outside of school. In her bedroom, she’s flipping through Instagram comments, many of which are praising her; however, a few notable ones call out her “white tears” and white feminism. Instead of ruminating on the latter, she takes a photo of her brand-new nipple piercing and sends it to her group text. Tim instantaneously texts her one-on-one (a quick “I’m dyin’ here and you’re responsible”), and Joey’s smile is notably more earnest than the confident, seductive one she wears so often at Grand Army.
Back at school, though, it’s starting to look like the white feminism accusations were a form of foreshadowing instead of just a self-aware sidenote. Joey and Dom, as the two witnesses to the bomb day prank, are exiting a meeting with Grand Army’s principal, but their demeanors couldn’t be more different. While Joey says she thinks people should be held responsible for their actions, Dom seems worried. “What’s going to happen?” she asks. “’Cause they paid me back, and I know I said that in there, but…”
With Joey out of the frame, Dom stares in through a window. Jayson and Owen apologize profusely, but Grand Army’s principal gives Jayson a seven-day suspension. Owen, who went into Dominique’s bag to retrieve her wallet, is even worse off: he’s granted a superintendent’s suspension, meaning he’ll face a hearing that will decide when he can return to school. “This is fucking crazy,” Joey says once they’re out the door. “I feel really bad.”
Dom looks her up and down. “Do you?” she asks.
Episode 3: Relationship Goals
Joey’s conversation with Dom seems heavy on her mind at the start of “Relationship Goals.” We’re in the Grand Army gym, where Dom’s about to play a basketball game and Joey’s on the sidelines with the rest of the dance team. As a student sings the national anthem, Dom and her friends take a knee; Joey follows suit. The subsequent montage of Joey dancing, Dom on the court, and Sid competing in a swim meet seems to hint that these are the three students we’ll be focusing on this episode.
After the basketball game, Joey’s in her room with Anna. They’re pushing each other around on the bed, talking about their dreams for next year. Anna will be at Syracuse, hopefully, and Joey will be at Cornell. They’ll study abroad together, maybe in Spain? Joey also asks Anna to skip babysitting and go to the movies with the rest of the group, and she says she’ll meet up with them afterwards. Then, Joey finally brings up the Tim issue: she likes him, but doesn’t want to mess up her relationship with Anna. Anna tells her that hooking up with Tim would probably threaten their friendship, points out that Joey and Tim are both flirts who would hurt each other, and makes her promise not to sleep with him. I applaud both girls for their honesty here, but I’m not convinced Grand Army won’t continue to drag this out.
Now, we’re at a Bat Mitzvah with Leila — it’s her friend Rachel’s sister’s ceremony. Leila is on edge because George hasn’t yet responded to a risqué photo she sent, but naturally, he’s commenting left and right on Joey’s Instagrams. Rachel, and also everyone watching, tells Leila to stop texting him. Leila trips walking back to her seat, a group of middle schoolers snicker, and she snaps at them to “go choke on each other’s cocks.” Again, this is happening at a Bat Mitzvah. It’s a lot.
Dom’s at the mall with Tamika, Sonia, and final friend group member Tor (Crystal Sha’re Nelson). Dom and Tamika are roleplaying a scenario in which Dom runs into John at the mall, and like every other scene centered around this squad, it is joyous. The mood is dampened somewhat when Jayson shows to pick up his homework from Sonia and approaches Dom to ask what she plans on saying at the hearing. “Dude, it’s fucking Saturday,” she says. “I’m not trying to be a dick, but I’m here with my girls.” Fair, but my heart breaks for Jayson. He looks exhausted.
Sonia, who may or may not have a thing with Jayson, challenges Dom as soon as he leaves. “You took a knee today,” she points out. “Are you really trying to act like you don’t see any similarities between what happened to Jay and Owen and the bullshit policing we’ve been protesting at games?”
Dom lets the question linger, and we cut to Joey, now at a movie theater with Tim, George, and Luke. Anna’s babysitting and meeting up with the crew later on, and her absence feels palpable. Tim’s in a mood because Joey opts to sit between the other guys and cuddle up with George. He jumps up to get popcorn, and Joey lasts about two minutes alone with George and Luke’s macho-bro banter before deciding to meet him outside. Tim’s chatting up the cashier, a girl around their age, and Joey hangs onto him for a moment before kissing him. It seems largely fueled by envy, but it’s also a reassurance of sorts.
Once they’re back in the theater, Joey communicates one of her concerns: she wants their friend group to stay normal. “You don’t have to be, like, throwing yourself at my friends to send me a message,” he says. Joey understandably does not react well to this, but what throws me here is Tim’s pronoun choice: “my friends.” On paper, George and Luke are Joey’s friends, too, but given how little George seems to respect women in general, Tim has a point. Half the time, these guys treat Joey more like a mascot than a friend. Exhibit A: that Instagram account.
Now at the Bat Mitzvah party, Leila is flagrantly ignoring Rachel’s advice and double-messaging George — who, as she sees on Instagram, is cuddling up with Joey. Leila tries to vent to Rachel, but Rachel’s dad is in the middle of toasting her sister. Rachel, the hero of this show, is appropriately annoyed by this and tells Leila to go home if she’s just going to make her sister’s big day all about “some douchebag guy.”
Sid’s at a diner working on his Harvard essay, which is starting to seem like maybe, possibly a coming out essay, too. He’s interrupted by Flora, who shortly soon after starts venting about how porn (specifically, lesbian porn) is made for the male gaze. I know this is just supposed to parallel Sid’s struggle with his sexuality, but it also makes me adore Flora and please, Grand Army, can she and Sid stay friends? Of course, just moments later, Sid abruptly breaks up with Flora and she leaves the booth, huffing and crying.
Back at the mall, Dom finally makes her move on John, but he hilariously has headphones in and walks right by her, forcing her to improvise (and sending her friends into a fit of laughter). They chat about work, Dom’s game, and their plans for the rest of the day, and a beat after they part ways, John calls out, asking about Dom’s plans for the rest of the day. She climbs up a down-moving escalator to meet him, and they make plans to hang out.
Dom’s night is looking up, but Joey’s is taking a turn. George and Luke give Tim whatever the opposite of a pep talk is while Joey approaches a random man carrying a suspicious suitcase. George points out that, yeah, Joey and Tim have kissed. But Joey also “pays attention” to him, and to Random Suitcase Man, et cetera. “That girl is down for whatever, man,” he says, snickering, and I wish Rachel would leave her sister’s Bat Mitzvah right about now and put this guy in his place. Joey hops back over, laughing. Apparently, Suitcase Man’s bag was full of sex toys, and he gave her a pink dildo. Luke and George find this hilarious, but Tim’s still brooding as they hail a taxi.
Tim lets Joey in first, and she snaps, accusing him of “acting all nice now.” She tells Luke, who’s still on crutches from his fall in episode 1, to take the front, and he makes an offensive jab about the driver. “That’s fucking so racist, for real, Luke,” Joey says. She’s drunk from the liquor she snuck into the theater, and it’s hard to tell if she’s genuinely calling Luke out or just surprised he went there. In any case, they all squeeze into the backseat, with Joey trying to move towards Tim and George and Luke pulling her back, laughing.
Things are not headed in a good direction. Joey’s messing around with the vibrator, throwing it in George’s face, and then, she climbs over him to get to Tim. She tries to talk to him, and he snaps. “You wanna give me a lap dance or some shit? You need more fucking attention, Jo?” he asks, and Joey, hurt, recoils. Then yells. She ends up on Luke’s lap, George calls Tim a homo, and Joey leans out the window, trying to get some air.
Outside the taxi, Sid writes about being gay and downloads Grindr. Leila bonds with the kind rabbi at the Bat Mitzvah, and apologizes to Rachel. Dom opens up to John: she wants to be the first person in her family to go to college, and she wants to study psych. She also talks to him about Jayson’s suspension, and says that she doesn’t feel guilty for her role in it — but thinks Joey should. John says he’s having a great night, and for a minute, he and Dom hold hands and smile at each other, and I never want to leave this perfect scene.
But back to Joey. She accuses Tim of a double standard: he can hook up with as many girls as he wants, but she flirts with guys, and she’s just seeking attention. Tim is checked out, staring straight ahead, clearly not ready to have this conversation until Joey sobers up. “You guys get to do whatever you want,” Joey says. “So can I.” With her eyes on Tim, Joey kisses Luke. George films it. She yells that she’s allowed to do whatever she wants, and somehow, she ends up kissing George. Luke grabs her, and she yelps. I’m not going to go into more detail from here, even though the show does: Luke and George assault Joey. The guys are out of the taxi as soon as it arrives, but Joey stays put, crying and traumatized.
Once inside, Joey goes to the bathroom. She wraps her underwear in toilet paper. She gets a text from Tim: “You okay?” She throws up.
More to come. Check back for the full season recap on Oct. 20.
If you have experienced sexual violence and are in need of crisis support, please call the RAINN Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
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