Degrassi Junior High Season 1, Episode 11: It's Late
- Original Airdate: March 29, 1987
Written by: Yan Moore
Directed by: Kit Hood
The Wham Shot.
Summary:
Shane has sex with Spike at Lucy's party. In what could be assumed as being weeks or months later, Spike shows up at school fighting with her mom and in a bad mood, and later confides in Erica and Heather that her period is late. They help her get a pregnancy test, which Spike tries to hide from her mom to no avail. Later, she goes to the clinic to get officially tested, where it is confirmed that she is pregnant. Meanwhile, Yick likes Melanie and, with Arthur's help, tries to get her attention, to constantly bad results.Tropes specific to this episode:
- Ascended Extra: Spike's first major focus episode and ascension into the Degrassi canon.
- Backing Away Slowly: Shane does this when Spike tells him that she might be pregnant.
- Establishing Character Moment: While Spike played a minor role just a few episodes prior, this is the episode that truly establishes her as a character...and it's the episode where she becomes pregnant.
- Flowers of Romance: In one of his failed attempts to help Yick get Melanie, Arthur takes a vase of flowers from Ms. Avery's desk for Yick to present to Melanie. He doesn't know that she is allergic to them.
- Foreshadowing: Erica and Heather being the ones to help get Spike a pregnancy test. This same fate befalls them.
- Miss Conception: Type II. Heather claims you can't get pregnant the first time but Erica disagrees. Likewise, when Spike asks her mother about it, her mom laughs it off.
- Pregnancy Test Plot: Spike secretly buys a test but is caught out by her mother.
- Teen Pregnancy: The first ever depicted in a teen drama, and probably the first depicted in public television at all anywhere.
- Wham Episode: While "The Cover-Up" was the first to show that Degrassi had no qualms tackling real issues, "It's Late" for all intents and purposes not only began the first big Degrassi story arc, but influenced the direction the entire franchise would take going forward.
