Summary
Some personal relationships develop swiftly as the overarching mystery still remains frustratingly far away.
This recap of Heartbreak High (2022) season 1, episode 3, “Eetsway”, contains spoilers.
READ: Our spoiler-free season review.
“Eetsway” wastes no time in letting us know why Ca$h — and his friends, Chook and Jayden — stole Dusty’s dad’s car. They use it to rob a store, but the police interrupt them, so they’re forced to make off with the bag of stolen goods. This will become important later.
Heartbreak High (2022) season 1, episode 3 recap
Anyway, Harper finally returns home to her father after having spent time with a woman named Meredith. In the previous episode she had mentioned staying with “an aunt”, and while that doesn’t seem to be the case, the exact nature of Harper’s relationship with this Meredith remains mysterious. Harper is also difficult to parse. She hooked up with Dusty but when he asks her out she says no, and she still can’t seem to commit to what she wants her relationship with Amerie to be.
Speaking of Amerie, she spends most of this episode trying — and failing — to keep her mind off boys and d*cks after being embarrassed by Dusty. She tries joining extra-curricular clubs and slapping herself in the face, but nothing seems to work.
Things are looking up romantically for others, though, especially Sasha and Quinni, who’re in a relationship now. Sasha also shows a nice level of understanding by doing things like asking Jojo if they can work in a quieter space outside. It’s a little patronizing, I suppose, but Quinni appreciates the effort and it’s a sweet gesture, but you can kind of see where this is heading.
Anyway, “Eetsway” begins to crack a bit of a window into Ca$h, who lives with his no-nonsense nana and cooks her dinner like a good boy, but is also clearly in way over his head with some unsavory types. He also has undeniable sexual chemistry with Darren. He tries to stash the stolen goods at his place, but Darren’s dad forces him to remove them, so Darren and Ca$h hide the bag on one of the school rooftops. It’s mostly a bonding experience.
We also begin to get a sense of the history between Amerie and Spider. After he was particularly awful about the wristbands in the previous episode, here he’s awful again, especially with Malakai, whom Amerie tries earnestly to stop lusting after and fails miserably to ignore. Spider seems to have some kind of history with Amerie — and perhaps he’s related to whatever led to her falling out with Harper. Either way, he and Malakai are both competing for a spot on the district’s basketball team, which is as good a reason to compete as any. Malakai’s focus, though, remains Amerie. We also learn how he ended up in the SLTs despite being totally new to the school — the receptionist mistook him for another black kid named Malcolm who was on the incest map.
The big catalyzing moment comes at the end of the episode. Earlier, Dusty asked Amerie for advice on how to woo Harper, and her deliberately terrible advice goes down much better than she expected. But Harper also spends the entire episode trying to talk to Amerie and getting brushed off, so eventually, when Amerie returns home, she finds Harper in her bedroom braiding her sister’s hair. But Harper doesn’t want to be friends again, just to explain that what happened with Dusty wasn’t intentional. We’re reminded that something crucial happened at the festival that Amerie can’t remember and Harper can’t get over, but the truth remains elusive for now.
After the stress of that conversation, Harper goes to seek solace in Dusty, while Amerie goes to hook up with Malakai. She loses her virginity to him — he doesn’t seem to be all that experienced either, to be fair, despite his claims to the contrary — which causes him to miss out on the district team trials.
You can stream Heartbreak High (2022) season 1, episode 3, “Eetsway”, exclusively on Netflix.
