(Series 6, Ep.16) You thought Kyle Stack was a little toe rag? Ladies and gentlemen, please meet Wayne Bodley (an impressively slimy Qasim Akhtar). Actually, ladies, you may not want to bother, since Wayne is a snivelling sexist pig. And the gentlemen may not want to bother either, for the same reason, and because Wayne is unlikely to be seen again as he seems to be this week’s one-episode wonder.
Wayne’s presence at Waterloo Road was mainly so what Bex got up to during her “lost weekend” could be spectacularly revealed. Part of Wayne’s activities as a snivelling sexist pig involve him having lots of unsuitable material on his phone, and this included a video of Bex. The bits we saw were obviously fairly innocuous, but we were given to believe that it was certainly not the sort of thing you’d want your mum, sister, little brother and the rest of the school seeing. And of course that’s exactly what happened.
Every cloud has a silver lining, though, and at least the truth coming out meant that Karen could stand by her daughter (after emoting a bit over 
Tom Clarkson), and Bex’s empowering speech at the Head Pupil hustings got her duly elected. To be fair the competition was poor: Ronan Burley, standing on a manifesto of bribery (with torches that didn’t work), stepped out of the contest early to give Jonah Kirby a better chance. He even printed out some leaflets with Jonah looking all buff. But Jonah was too distracted by the double burden of being in love with Ms Montoya, and having to wear a double-breasted cardigan.
Sadly Bex won’t be taking up her post, as she’s gone off with that nasty Hodge again. This is because Hodge, having slept with Bex’s sister Jess last week, now has compromising footage of Jess, which he was prepared to put on the internet if Bex didn’t go back to him. But Hodge reckoned without the cunning of Jess, who has finally worked out that the nice man who takes her to hotels and refuses to meet her family (alarm bells ringing, anyone?) is none other than the Hodge who has been threatening her sister. Hodge can expect the combined wrath of a whole load of Fisher folk descending on him… eventually.
It was a better week for Sambuca Kelly. According to PLA Jr, Sambuca is officially the luckiest girl on Waterloo Road, because she’s previously snogged Bolton Smiley, and this week got to snog Finn Sharkey. Finn has swerved from bad boy to being quite the gentleman since Kyle Stack arrived, but it took Sam a little while to notice this. Her mates had spotted that Sam had a love/hate attitude to Finn, and they proved that Tom Clarkson’s educational efforts have not been in vain by using Shakespeare to illustrate their point. “Beatrice always gurs on about how much she hates Benedict,” said Lauren.
Next time: Who’s the daddy? Is it that lad in the double-breasted cardigan? Uh-oh.
Posted by PLA (more Waterloo Road here)
Hmm… This episode confirmed what a mixed-up and unappetising mess Waterloo Road is. Yes, the sexism story – with the one-week-wonder character Qasim – laid on the moralising thicker than an after-school special. If it was a kids’ show, in the first years of television, maybe that would be OK . But this is for grown-ups, right? Or, at least, grown-ups and kids. Then there was the abusive relationships angle with the story about Bex’s naughty video. But at the same time, there’s Miss Montoya with impossibly buff sexy-teen Jonah. It’s all very confused, very trashy: a show that wants to have its cake, and eat it (or perv over it).
I might be reading too much into this, but I think that we are meant to be gradually seeing connections between scary, child-abusing Hodge and selfish Ms Montoya – both of whom put their own desires before the well-being of the young people they supposedly love. Over the course of this series we’ve seen Sensible Jonah become So Silly with Love and Hormones that he REALLY doesn’t seem to be doing his Spanish coursework. Like Jess last term, and Ros before, he is also making most of the advances. Unlike Mr Mead and Ms Lipsett, Ms Montoya isn’t putting a stop to it. Juxtaposed with this are Unfortunate Josh and Even More Unfortunate Nate who never even got to kiss. Although they did win the Enterprise Prize after including Finn and concentrating on homework, which is better than nothing!
I think we’re supposed to think that Unfortunate Josh and Even More Unfortunate Nate are up to all sorts in the comfort of Tom Clarkson’s back bedroom, so what with that and the Enterprise Prize, they’re actually quite fortunate!
I think you’re right about the parallels between Hodge and Ms Montoya. While Cesca’s crime would seem to be lesser than Hodge’s, in the sense that Jonah is more than consenting, it’s still an abuse of power because she’s his teacher. I think Cesca is supposed to be too inexperienced and naive to have fully worked that out.
From the interviews I have read, it seems to be that we’re meant to find Cesca and Jonah endearing
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