Darth Wiki / Gifted And Talented

Gifted And Talented is a long-running nonexistent TV show about the lives of 26 students at Ashriver High and the trials they face. The first season opens during the 2020-2021 school year and focuses on the impacts of COVID-19 on middle school students like the Ashriver kids. The show follows them through their six years at Ashriver for the first 6 seasons.

This work contains examples of:

• Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: While Josie is in jail, Ravi starts a relationship with Evelyn.
• A Degree in Useless: Maisie's dance major got her absolutely nothing.
• A Friend in Need: Kenji to Josie, by hiding her in his shed.
• All Abusers Are Male: Averted. There are 5 abusive characters on the show- 2 are male and 3 are female.
• Always in Class One: Averted. The original cast started out in class 707.
• Amicable Exes: Ravi and Evelyn.
• Angsty Surviving Twin: Double subverted with Ruomei. She is expected to be a highly angsty character due to being Renshu's twin sister, however, when we get to know her, she appears to be quite normal and mostly recovered. However, later in season 7, we find out that she is not okay at all and has in fact been cutting herself to deal with the pain.
• Asleep in Class: Malcolm.
• Berserk Button:
  • Do not say anything bad about Renshu in front of Jeremiah. He will go in on you. This goes double after Renshu's death.
  • In the earlier seasons, saying anything bad about anyone in 707 will have the same effect for the rest of the class.
• Best Friend:
  • Maddie and Evelyn.
  • Jeremiah and Jonathan.
  • Annie and Lienying.
• The B Grade: Many students, such as Xiodan, Evelyn, Maddie, Kasia and Annie, are known to freak out when they get a B.
• Bisexual Love Triangle: Jeremiah has to decide between Kenji and Maisie.
• Bleed 'Em and Weep: Shortly after Josie kills Renshu, when Kenji asks her about it, she starts crying.
• Book Smart: Lia is a genius at math and science, but very awkward socially.
• Bonding over Missing Parents: A variant. Lia and Peter, and later Renxiang, bond over the deaths of their older siblings.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Renxiang appears to be this at first, what with her constant snark and complaining, but as season 7 goes on it's revealed that she acts this way not because she's at "That Age" but because she genuinely hates her family and is unable to cope with Renshu's death.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Malcolm is shown to be very smart, but he could care a lot more about school.
• Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: Most of the cast, other than Darren, reacts this way when Malcolm is expelled.
• Cartwright Curse: Evelyn has this. Her love interests Winter and Tahmina both died, and it's implied that her first love, Indi, is also dead.
• Cast Full of Gay: In the main cast, Renshu, Winter, Jeremiah, Evelyn, Ravi, Josie, Kenji, Saskia, and Avery are all LGBTQ.
• Character Death: Five- Winter, Renshu, Tahmina, Xiaodan and Lienying.
• Child by Rape: Elijah came into the world through Ilana's rape of Jeremiah.
• Class Clown:
  • Malcolm and Darren.
  • Josie in seasons 1 and 2.
• Class Reunion: Double subverted. Despite the closeness of the students and their promises to keep in touch, they never meet up again during all of season 7. Then, in season 8, Lienying dies and invites all of the class to his funeral, leading to an unofficial reunion.
• Closet Gay: All the gay characters are this at the beginning. They all come out gradually over the course of the series. Justified, as when we first meet them they're 12 and just starting to figure out their sexualities.
• Closet Key: Renshu for Jeremiah.
• Cop Hater: Evelyn for most of season 5.
• Cycle of Revenge: Defied. When Josie is found in Kenji's shed, Jeremiah very nearly murders her, but then Ravi tells him that if he does, he'll be perpetrating this. He listens.

RAVI: Don't do this, Jeremiah. I don't ask this for Josie, or even for me, but for all of us. So Josie kills Renshu in revenge for Winter's death, and then you kill her in revenge for Renshu's death, and then what? Kenji or Jaylen or someone kills you in revenge? You can choose to stop it here. Please, put the knife down. Let me call the police.

• Dead Guy Junior: Downplayed. None of the children share a first name with a dead character, but Jeremiah does name his son Elijah Renshu.
• Death Is Dramatic: All the characters who die onscreen have highly dramatic deaths.
• Death Notification:
  • Ms. DeLeo has to notify Anuman of Winter's death.
  • In S5's "Stanford Will Be Beautiful" Ravi lets everyone in the original 707 know about Renshu's death.
  • It's also revealed in S7 that Ara told Ruomei and the rest of her family that Renshu died, given that Ravi was not in contact with said family.
• Death of a Child: All the characters who die are teenagers and young adults.
• Death Wail: The first sound heard after Xiaodan jumps off the roof is Kasia screaming.
• Deliberate Under-Performance: Ruomei's been getting Bs her entire academic career so her parents don't expect too much.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Downplayed- Jeremiah holds Renshu's hand as he dies.
• Does Not Like Men: Subverted. Maisie seems like this at first, but as we see more of her, we learn that she hates the idea of men, not the actual men in her life.
• A Dog Ate My Homework: Malcolm and Darren pull this frequently in the first few seasons, with variations including "A hydra ate my homework," "The entire genus Annelida ate my homework", and "A black hole ate my homework."
• Drama Club: Ashriver has one, which Ravi, Evelyn, Katy and some others are part of.
• Driven to Suicide: Xiaodan, by his survivor guilt, Anuman's treatment of him, and Kasia breaking up with him.
• Dysfunctional Family: The Zhangs are this. Both parents unfairly compare their daughters to each other, Huabo is rarely around, Liling is constantly worrying and moving the family around, Ruomei cuts herself and is dating Renshu's killer, Renxiang acts up in class and hates her parents and sister, and the sisters fight constantly.
• Eating Lunch Alone: Xiodan after Renshu's death.
• Education Mama:
  • Saskia's parents yell at her whenever she gets anything that looks like a bad grade.
  • Liling goes IN on Renxiang and Ruomei if they ever slack off. Ruomei doesn't much care, but it's shown to have had a deep effect on Renxiang.
• Education Through Pyrotechnics: In season 3, Malcolm accidentally makes a science experiment blow up.
• Elevator School: Ashriver has students from kindergarten to twelfth grade- however, all the main characters are in grades 7 through 12.
• Empty Chair Memorial: After each character death, their seat is left open out of respect. It's even invoked in season 5, when Zoey tries to sit down in Tahmina's seat after her death.

ZOEY: Hey, is this seat taken?

EVELYN: Yes. Yes, it is.

ZOEY: By who?

EVELYN: Tahmina.

ZOEY: But isn't she...

EVELYN: Yeah. You still can't sit here.

• Endearingly Dorky: Renshu to Jeremiah.
• Everybody Hates Mathematics: Most of the Ashriver kids hate math.
• Extracurricular Enthusiast:
  • Xiaodan in seasons 1 through 3. He never seems to be free, and he's signed up for everything with a signup sheet.
  • Evelyn in seasons 4 through 6, mainly because she wants to get into a good college.
  • Ravi the entire show.
  • Lia in the later seasons.
• F--: Discussed. Dr. Flynn tells Malcolm, "If this were a movie, I'd give you an F-minus-minus. That's how badly you did. But this isn't a movie, so instead you get an F and an expulsion. Goodbye, Malcolm."
• First Day of School Episode: One every season. Played with in season 1, as there's a remote first day episode (S 1 E 1: Screen Time) and a hybrid one (S 1 E 3: Are We Really Here)
• First Friend: Renshu for Xiaodan.
• Follow in My Footsteps: Saskia's parents want her to be an academic just like them.
• Fond Memories That Could Have Been: Jeremiah dreamed of going to Stanford with Renshu and having a great life there with him. That didn't exactly work out.
• Food Fight: In season 1, after Melanie and friends make fun of Winter, the rest of 707 starts throwing food at them.
• Girlfriend in Canada: Ravi makes up a boyfriend from China for a good 5 episodes.
• Girl Posse: Melanie, Kendall, Mariah, and Amalia- they're a group of girls and they're mean, although they are minor characters.
• Girls Like Musicians: Xiaodan's ability to play multiple instruments is part of the reason Kasia falls for him.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Renxiang and Ruomei, although they don't fit perfectly into the common archetypes- Ruomei is more beautiful and slightly book-dumber than Ren, but Ren can be more accurately described as the Troublesome Sister.
• Graduate from the Story: The original class of seventh graders graduate in season 6. However, the show continues to follow some of them through college.
• Grave-Marking Scene:
  • After Josie is found in Kenji's shed, she runs away. The police find her at Winter's grave.
  • Implied. Jonathan tells Jeremiah that he should move on and that Maisie is waiting for him. He responds with "It's too soon. The last batch of flowers I put on Renshu's grave haven't even wilted yet."
• Go-Getter Girl: Kasia. She's athletic, pretty, and smart, and she seems to have her entire life together.
• Gotta Pass the Class:
  • Parodied with Evelyn- she has one of these plots with science class in seventh grade, but it's an A she has to get, not just a passing grade. This highlights her overachiever nature.
  • Played straight with Winter in season 2 with math class and Malcolm in season 4 with English class.
• Hated Hometown: Kasia hates NYC.
• Hates Their Parent: Renxiang hates both of her parents.
• Held Back in School: Ruomei was held back a year in third grade because she couldn't pass her state exams.
• Her Heart Will Go On:
  • After Tahmina's death, Evelyn finds happiness again with Ravi, although she is reluctant.
  • Jeremiah does this as well with Maisie.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Deconstructed. Renshu steps in front of Xiaodan to protect him from Josie's bullet, meaning that he dies and Xiaodan lives. However, this turns out to be a total disaster- Xiaodan is left with survivor's guilt, Jeremiah is angry at Renshu for choosing to die and leave him behind, and Anuman thinks the wrong person died.
• He's Dead, Jim: When Jeremiah tells Ravi that he can no longer feel Renshu's pulse, Ravi immediately starts telling everyone he's dead.
• High-School Dance: One each year from season 3 to season 6.
• High-School Rejects:
  • After Anuman graduates, he starts working at a McDonald's.
  • Justified with Jonathan- he works in construction after high school, but only because he doesn't have the time to get a college degree.
• Hollywood Heart Attack: Averted with Winter- their heart-attack related death is offscreen and quick.
• Homophobic Hate Crime: Subverted. Anuman thinks that Xiaodan killed Winter for this reason, when in fact Winter had a heart condition and Xiaodan was only there because he wanted to apologize to them.
• Honorary Uncle: Because most of 707 helped to raise Paige, she refers to them as her aunts and uncles.
• How Dare You Die on Me!: Justified. Jeremiah is angry at Renshu for dying, but only because Renshu voluntarily gave up his life.
• Inconvenient Attraction:
  • Evelyn's crush on Tahmina, as Tahmina is straight and her friend.
  • Josie's attraction to Ruomei is this at first, seeming as Ruomei is the twin sister of the boy Josie killed.
• Interrupted Suicide: In season 2, Jonathan tries to kill himself but is interrupted and prevented by the entrance of Saskia.
• Ironic Last Words: Renshu's last word was "Jeremiah". Jeremiah's first spoken word on the show was "Renshu."
• It's All My Fault: Xiaodan comes to take this belief about Renshu's death.
• It's Always Sunny at Funerals: Justified. At Xiaodan's funeral, it was pleasant and sunny, mainly because it was June.
• Ivy League for Everyone: Ravi, Maddie, Evelyn, Jeremiah, Kenji, and Kasia all end up at Ivy League schools. Partially justified, as Ashriver is a school for the highly gifted.
• I Wished You Were Dead: Anuman told Xiaodan to go kill himself because the world would be better without him, then feels a lot of guilt when he actually does.
• Last Het Romance: Jonathan was this for Winter.
• Last-Minute Baby Naming: Justified. Jeremiah had to pick Elijah's name last minute, but only because he didn't even know there was a baby until Ilana dumped it on him.
• Last-Minute Project: It's implied that a few students did this for many projects in season 1.
• Late for School: Many students, such as Anuman, Kasia, Jonathan, and Malcolm, are shown being late for school.
• Like Brother and Sister: Lienying and Annie.
• Lipstick Lesbian: Ruomei.
• Lovable Jock: Jonathan. He loves football, but he's also kind to everyone, especially Maddie.
• Moment of Silence: After Lienying's death, the scene is silent for 30 seconds before Annie calls for Jingyi.
• Mistaken for Murderer: Anuman and a few others wrongly believe that Xiaodan murdered Winter.
• Monster Brother, Cutie Sister: Gender swapped. Josie is volatile and mentally unhinged, but her little brother, Jaylen, is a sweet kid who would never do any of the things she did in the first few seasons.
• Morning Sickness: Before one of Evelyn's morning protests, Maddie is shown puking.
• Murder by Mistake: In season 4, Josie tries to shoot Xiaodan, but Renshu jumps in the way, and so she ends up killing him instead.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Josie right after she shoots Renshu.
• My Secret Pregnancy: Kasia doesn't tell anyone that she's pregnant except for Ravi.
• New Baby Episode: "I'm Not Very Clear" focuses almost entirely on Maddie giving birth to Paige.
• Not Afraid to Die: Renshu is a well-adjusted person who wanted to live, but believed that Xiaodan's life would be much more productive and helpful than his.
• Obsessed with Perfect Attendance: Maddie. Nothing, including getting pregnant and the death of one of her best friends, will keep her out of school.
• Only Friend: Renshu to Xiaodan from S2 to S4.
• Pair the Suitors: At the show's beginning, Josie and Winter were both romantically attracted to Ravi. The two then get together in season 3. However, after Winter's death, Josie and Ravi get together.
• Panicky Expectant Father: Jonathan, even at his young age.
• Parental Favoritism: Zigzagged. Ruomei and Renxiang are both convinced that this is happening and that the other sister is the favorite- Renxiang thinks that Ruomei is the favorite because Liling and Huabo are always asking her why she can't be more like Ruomei, but Ruomei is convinced that Renxiang is the favorite because Liling will drop everything to help her. However, neither parent actually has a favorite.
• Parting-Words Regret:
  • Ruomei regrets never telling Renshu she loved him, her last words to him being "Go away".
  • Taken to the extremes with Anuman, as his last words to Xiaodan were "I hope you die."
• The Permanent Record: Malcolm's permanent record is brought up multiple times, most notably after he cheats on his math final:

(MALCOLM clutches his chest) Ouch. That hit me right in the permanent record.

• Platonic Life-Partners: Lienying and Annie.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: As Lienying is dying, he asks Annie not to go.
• Practically Different Generations:
  • Maddie and Emma- Emma is 12 years older than Maddie.
  • Lia and Winter's older sister, Grace, is 10 years older than Winter and 14 years older than Lia.
• Pregnancy Scare: Any time Kasia's period is late, she freaks out and takes a pregnancy test. Subverted later on in the series, when she's actually pregnant.
• Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Subverted. After the way Josie treats Ravi, it is expected that when Ravi breaks up with her, she'll become this- but instead, she completely forgets about it and moves on with Ruomei.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: When Josie describes her attraction to Ruomei, her dark hair and white skin is part of the reason.
• Relationship Revolving Door: Kasia and Xiaodan are on and off for most of seasons 4, 5, and 6.
• Romantic Wingman: During S3, Jeremiah and Jonathan do this for each other's crushes- Renshu and Maddie, respectively.
• Roommate Drama:
  • Exaggerated. Jeremiah's college roommate, Charlie, falsely imprisons and rapes him.
  • Maisie and Avery being roommates does not go too well.
• Science Fair: All Ashriver seventh graders must participate in a science fair to pass.
• School Newspaper News Hound: Ravi is this with the Ashriver Eye, investigating every story she notices and acting like a journalist. However, when Josie becomes the story, she is reluctant to do any of this.
• Secretly Dying: Winter's heart condition was slowly killing them for a few months in S3, but no one knew until S4.
• Senseless Sacrifice: Renshu's can be thought of as this, as Xiaodan kills himself later anyway.
• Sex Miseducation Class: When the kids take sex ed in eighth grade, it's absolutely awful, featuring such lessons as "sex between anyone but a man and a woman causes STDs" and "contraception kills babies." Played for laughs, as Josie interrupts class every five seconds to correct the teacher.
• Shoot Him, He Has a Wallet!: In season 5, as Evelyn and Tahmina are walking to the bus, Tahmina takes out her phone- and is shot by police officers who think it's a gun.
• Skipping School:
  • Xiaodan skips for a week after Renshu's death.
  • After Winter is bullied by Xiaodan, they skip school for a couple of days.
• Snow Means Death: Justified. Tahmina dies in the snow, mainly because it's February.
• Someone to Remember Him By: After Xiaodan's death, Kasia realizes she's pregnant with his baby. She panics and has an abortion.
• Successful Sibling Syndrome:
  • Avery and Ravi both have this regarding each other, because Ravi is more successful academically- she got into Harvard, while Avery ended up at a local school- and Avery is more socially successful and confident in herself.
  • The Zhang family has a chain of this- Ruomei feels inferior to Renshu, and Renxiang feels inferior to Ruomei.
• Students Playing Matchmaker: In season 2, Ravi and Renshu try to get Mr. Grant and TA Julie together.
• Stupid Sexy Flanders: Malcolm, despite being heterosexual, finds Jonathan hot.
• Survivor Guilt: Xiaodan feels this regarding Renshu's death, believing that he should have died instead.
• Talking Down the Suicidal: Saskia does this for Jonathan in S2.
• Talking to the Dead: Josie often talks to Winter in moments of extreme sadness, grief, anger or insanity.
• Teen Pregnancy:
  • Maddie gets pregnant at age 16. Slightly different from most teen pregnancy plots, as the father sticks around and helps her raise the baby.
  • Kasia gets pregnant when she's 17 and has an abortion.
• They Died Because of You: In the final episode of S6, Kasia tells Anuman, "It's your fault Xiaodan died. Did you really think after all the things you said he'd be okay? That's like pouring gasoline all over a house, throwing a lit cigarette at it, and expecting that it won't burn." This sends Anuman into a grief spiral.
• Tragic Bromance: Anuman and Renshu, or Renshu and Xiaodan, as a matter of fact.
• Tragic Keepsake: Tahmina gives Evelyn a bracelet in season 4. After Tahmina's death, Evelyn is never seen without it.
• Valentine's Day Vitriol: Evelyn absolutely hates Valentine's Day because of all her bad romantic luck.
• Wanted a Gender-Conforming Child: When Winter comes out to Auden, she expresses this. She regrets it later, after Winter's death.
• Why Can't I Hate You?: Josie killed Ruomei's brother, and Ruomei has every reason to hate her, but she ends up falling in love with her instead.
• Writing Lines: Ms. Lavoie made Maddie write "I will not have sex before marriage" on the board 40 times, "one for each week you'll be pregnant."
• Your Days Are Numbered: Lienying knew he was going to die soon since he got cancer, and for all of season 8, he knew for sure that he was going to die. In addition, one of the plots of "Show Not Tell" is about him working up the courage to tell Annie this.
• You Should Have Died Instead: What Anuman says to Xiaodan regarding Renshu's death.

ANUMAN: You should have died, not Renshu.

XIAODAN: You think I haven't told myself that every day?

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