Summary
The show’s midpoint produces major drama as some decisions are made that there will surely be no turning back from.
This recap of Heartbreak High (2022) season 1, episode 4, “Rack Off”, contains spoilers.
READ: Our spoiler-free season review.
After the end of the previous episode, Amerie and Malakai are together — or at least he’d like them to be. Amerie is quite keen on the idea of a casual fling, but Malakai shows up the next day with flowers and a balloon. That means there’s no secrecy about what happened, and little time for Amerie to even consider it.
Love is in the air, then, even with Quinni and Sasha and, it seems, Darren and Ca$h. What we’re building towards is an obligatory teen drama staple — a big party, which in this case is the Mardi Gras Slay Ball, a queer-themed shindig that means the school is adorned with all kinds of rainbow accouterments that only make Darren roll his eyes in frustration.
Heartbreak High (2022) season 1, episode 4 recap
As guys tend to, Malakai can’t help but spill the beans about his sexual conquest in the locker room, which comes up later in SLTs thanks to Spider, of all people. But the lesson in this episode has some additional significance. Two cops split the group by gender — Darren goes with the girls — and teach drills about physical fitness and self-defense. The boys do press-ups, but the girls are taught how to defend themselves against potential attackers. Harper is made to volunteer, and the experience clearly brings back painful memories for her. I think it’s clear at this point that she has been sexually assaulted. But by whom?
Oh, and Spider, in revealing that Malakai told the boys about their night (and morning) together, only highlights that he’s still very bitter about Amerie. Why?
Anyway, the bag of stolen goods that Ca$h and Darren hid on the roof has gone missing, which means he now owes a lot of money to Chook, who strikes him outside Darren’s place of work. But Ca$h still attends pre-drinks at Darren’s place, where Quinni cutely guides Malakai through an apology to Amerie and everyone gets dressed and drugged up ready for the ball.
Naturally, there are a lot of drugs at the ball and no shortage of drama. The big moments include Darren performing on stage, Quinni and Sasha having another very emotionally mature argument about the latter standing the former up and trying to mother her, and Darren and Ca$h share a kiss. Aww!
But there’s bigger drama after the party. A very drunk Malakai is needlessly assaulted by one of the cops trying to move the revelers on, and it’s pretty clearly an instance of racial profiling. He runs away, and when everyone catches up to him, Amerie volunteers to share a video of the incident on social media so people can see what happened. Malakai is insistent it will only make things worse, but Amerie jumps the gun and does so anyway, which causes Malakai to berate her and run away again. Harper insists that Amerie goes after her and doesn’t leave him alone (is that what happened at the festival?), but Amerie leaves them to it. Instead, Dusty and Harper take Malakai home and then lead him into a threesome while Amerie cries on the roadside.
You can stream Heartbreak High (2022) season 1, episode 4, “Rack Off”, exclusively on Netflix.
