The Mega-Blog

‘No Boys Dorm’ Episode Six Recap (Season Finale)

Well, we all knew the time would come eventually, but after six weeks it’s finally time for me to sit down and recap the season finale of No Boys Dorm. Like always, if you haven’t watched the sixth episode yet, you should do that unless you enjoy having everything spoiled for you.

If you do enjoy reading spoilers… um… welcome to the recap? Make sure you still watch the show afterwards?

Anywho, we need to summarize where we are as quickly as possible (and pretty much the entire first season of the show leading up to this episode). Before the series started:

  • Lara No used to live a life of crime, and had a boyfriend named Dresden.
  • Lara No gave up her life of crime, and her boyfriend named Dresden.
  • Lara No’s Apartment burned to the ground.

And during the series:

  • Lara No went to crash with her brother Leon at his Dorm (at the illustrious and exclusive “Academy”)
  • To stay there, she had to pretend to be both a student and the girlfriend of ‘elite’ student Takashi
  • Takashi hasn’t ever told her why he’s helping
  • Takashi barely speaks, and looks constantly bored. Sexy-bored.
  • Elite student Teela Tether had her eyes set on Takashi, and has decided she must destroy Lara
  • Teela has employed the ‘Shadow Order’ to get Lara
  • The ‘Shadow Order’ includes a guy named Cyrus, who totally wants to get with Lara’s friend Alba
  • Alba is better than you.
  • Moe is moe.
  • Isaac is a sociopath but handy to have around.
  • Jason is more attractive than you, but forgets it when Maron walks in the room
  • Alice likes Jason, but Jason is super gay.
  • Martin (the RA) likes yelling at people, and has an assistant Janet… which is weird right? Since when did RAs have assistants? That’s not in the housing budget.
  • Molly Anne needs better friends.
  • People fall on each other a lot.

Wow, that got super long and I left a bunch of stuff out. On to this week though!

Episode 6: Soiree

We open up with everyone hanging out in the dorm, which I assume will be the most normal thing that happens this episode. Martin then knocks at the door with mail.

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“I am disappointed that this does not give me the opportunity to yell at you. But as I’m sure you’re still doing something wrong, I’m going to continue to glare at you.”
Martin does notice that there are girls in the room, but Isaac closes the door in his face before Martin gets the chance to do anything about it. After dealing with the RA the best way possible, Isaac finally looks down at the piece of mail he was just handed… and it’s shocking.

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Isaac hasn’t looked this surprised since someone changed the color settings on his telnet client
Apparently everyone in the room (including not-even-pretending-to-be-a-student Alba) has been invited to the Royal Soiree, the most exclusive event at the super-exclusive Academy. How did these non-elites get in? Well, the answer is Moe. She was told she could invite guests, so of course she invited her friends.

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What? You expected her to give a crap about class structure? What show have you been watching?
Cue Theme Song.

We return to find Teela yelling at Molly Anne over the phone. Teela is angry that Molly Anne is skipping a ‘Royal Meet and Greet.’ Molly Anne says she’s skipping because she’s sick. Writing this as I watch the episode for the first time, I think Molly Anne is skipping it because she finally wants some time away from Teela.

Because I’m pretty sure everyone wants some time away from Teela.

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“One Zebra is NOT enough, I MUST have two!”
To further Teela’s frustration, not only is she wing-woman-less at the Royal thing-a-majig, but guess who just walked in?

If you guessed “Steve Buscemi,” you’d be super wrong.

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“Yep, ready to die. Please kill me.”
Yep, the gang’s all here. Jason asks Leon why he’s just in his school uniform, to which Leon again explains that it’s the only nice thing he owns. HE’S A SUPER POOR ORPHAN, LAY OFF THE GUY, JASON.

Leon walks off and runs into Alice (who we met last episode), walking in with the “Earl of Ravenscroft.”

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“If you cut me, I literally bleed money… and die — because years of inbreeding have led to my hemophilia.”
The Earl of Ravenscroft/Ravensloft/Forgotten Realms points out that he gets invited to all sorts of Academy events because of money. Leon points out that Jason is also present.

Alice seems far more excited about the latter, and gets rid of the Earl. She’s all “Rich guy? What rich guy?”

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(What’s not pictured: The Earl landing on the man/woman of his dreams off camera)
Lara and Moe go to enter the actual soiree itself (we’ve apparently just been in the lobby outside the event this whole time), when they run into Isaac working the event.

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Isaac is like the this place’s version of Kirk Gleason.
Isaac is apparently the one actually running the event staff (and is very confused as to how Moe invited him without him actually knowing it). Also, I’m like 90% sure the security guy next to Isaac here is Jeff Stone from (My) Immortal.

Alba then enters, which gets an “Oh Wow” from Isaac and an “Oh what?” from Lara.

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Alba is as weirded out by her wearing a dress as everyone else is.
As they prepare to go in, Isaac warns Alba, Lara and Moe that certain parts of the event are restricted to “Royals Only.” He tells them not to trespass into said forbidden zones. Lara feigns offense at the idea that she’d trespass, but it’s not super convincing.

Not even the second time.

As they enter the party, much to Lara and Alba’s confusion, Moe starts to look around for “a boy she knew when she was young.”

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What, you thought we could get through the whole season WITHOUT invoking that trope?
The ladies then split up, leaving Lara on her own.

At that moment, Lara’s spotted by Takashi. Takashi suggests they do a walk-around of the party together. Lara agrees, as keeping up appearances is kind of important for her whole living situation.

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This is literally the most amount of effort either of these two has ever put into their entire fake relationship.
While walking around Lara suggests that they should flesh our their back story. Takashi says he’s awful with making up stories, and Lara says it should be something tragic and gory. Lara looks waaaay to excited when she mentions gore.

Takashi says he won’t stay long, and laments how exhausting being “Elite” is. Maybe he hasn’t been “sexy-bored” this whole time? Maybe he’s just been “sexy-exhausted?” I’m not sure if I could tell the difference.

As they approach the dance floor, Takashi suggests they join the other dancers. Lara agrees saying they should “keep up the appearance.”

Her words, not Takashi’s.

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Not sure if costuming on this series is super-progressive, or if it’s just a complicated prank on the cast…
Takashi tells Lara it was nice what she did for Jason the other day, even if it didn’t work out. Takashi then says he wants to ask Lara something. As the two of them gaze deeply into each other’s eyes…

…Teela shows up and interrupts them.

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Interrupting Jackass says what?
Teela, being her ever less-than-charming self, is bemoaning her alone-ness at the party, and drags off Takashi. Takashi, displaying his complete and total lack of a spine, lets Teela.

Lara is left giving Ms. Tether the side-eye, as we cut to Jason… and Alice weirdly trying to flirt with him.

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Alice, this would LITERALLY be more effective with ANY OTHER CHARACTER.
Alice is talking about how compatible they are, but Jason is very much not paying attention (as he looks longingly at Maron passing by).

Leon inserts himself between Alice and Jason, much to Alice’s anger. The Earl of Ravenscroft/Ravensloft/Forgotten Realms/Dragonlance comes over with a drink for Alice, and Leon intercepts that too.

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Alice has a new arch-nemesis.
The Earl tried to make small talk with Jason and Leon by asking them what their families do. Jason gives the boring answer.

Leon points out that his parents are super dead.

We cut to Alba, who is drinking alone in a corner, appearing disinterested in everything. So, y’know, what she normally does. She is then joined by Cyrus. Cyrus says he’s “off duty” and that Alba should consider him a “friendly distraction.”

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I honestly can’t tell if Alba is into him or if she’s considering dismembering him right now.
We don’t have time to contemplate whether Alba would rather mack on or murder Cyrus though, because Moe and Lara run over and insert themselves between the pair. Moe then immediately notices him! It’s the boy who she knew from so long ago! But then they drifted apart! And now they might see each other again!

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I POINT FOR GREAT JUSTICE
Of course, the fur-coated guy she’s pointing at (whose face we have yet to see), appears to be very important. And Royal. And has a jerk of a bodyguard.

Moe’s too embarrassed to go over, but Lara drags her anyways. The “boy” though appears to be entering the “Royal’s Only” section that Isaac warned Lara about earlier though.

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Oh look, it’s No Boys Dorm and (My) Immortal writer and director Brian McLellan.
Cyrus points out that it’s too late to do anything about it, but Alba says that Cyrus is totally going to help them break in.

And since we all know that Cyrus has the hots for Alba, it’s pretty clear he’s going to do it too.

We cut to Teela, on her phone with Molly Anne.

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“Did I say four giraffes? If I wanted four giraffes, I would have said four giraffes. How hard is it for you to secure two f***ing zebras?!”
Teela is loudly bemoaning how she doesn’t actually want to go to the ball with her current spite-date Maron, but actually instead wants to go with Takashi. Molly Anne seems confused by this over the phone, but I’m not sure why. Teela’s been super clear about her Machiavellian dating strategies.

Teela’s doing all this yelling just a few feet from the shadow-order lady we met last episode (who I apparently forgot to credit as Kimberley Wells — sorry), but since the Shadow Order works for her… I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, right?

We cut back to Moe, Lara, Alba and Cyrus. As they’re trying to figure out how to get past the guards to the “Royal’s Only” section, Cyrus says that their scheme will take “delicacy.” He then proceeds to walk up to the guards, ask them if they “want to see something cool.”

The guards walk off with him because, apparently, this totally works.

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Worst. Security. Ever.
Unfortunately, just walking into the “forbidden” Royal’s Only area in the middle of a party isn’t super inconspicuous. Shadow Order girl notices it, and points out Moe and Lara entering the door to Teela.

Teela is very excited by this.

We follow Lara and Moe into a courtyard, with Moe being a tad bit apprehensive about this whole thing. Moe’s afraid the “boy” won’t remember her, since they were only kids when they last saw each other. Lara says Moe still needs to try, and keep pushing. No reward without risk, losing is better than never knowing… you get the gist. Standard good-friend-advice stuff.

Sadly, this is the point that Teela decides to interrupt.

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THIS IS MY BEST ACCUSING FINGER!
Teela yells that Lara and Moe have been trespassing on Royal ground. Security-guy leaps into action, while Isaac apologizes. The music swells, we finally see the face of the “boy” (who is the Prince mentioned earlier in the episode) looking on from upstairs, and all seems lost… until Moe yells stop.

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I’m a Producer… I MEAN PRINCESS!
Yep, Moe is a princess. Which is not surprising in the slightest, honestly. She’s been doing magical girl stuff all series, so it kind of goes with that. Lara’s surprised, but relieved.

This is all too much for Teela Tether though. As Takashi enters, Teela just snaps, grabs a rake and decides to straight up murder Lara No.

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She’s rich, pretty and white. She’d get away with it.
Takashi gets between the two though, and takes a blow to the arm. For a moment the show made me think Teela had straight up killed Takashi, but thankfully this isn’t that kind of a show. I mean, Takashi’s still bleeding, but it’s not that bad of a wound.

This show doesn’t have the budget for a massively terrible wound anyway.

Teela keeps blathering on about how it wasn’t supposed to be this way, and how she and Takashi were meant to be together. Takashi and Lara aren’t really paying attention, as they’re both just trying to make sure the other’s okay.

Takashi eventually acknowledges Teela’s existence, saying he’s sorry if he’s hurt her feelings. He then takes Lara’s hand, and (with Moe) begin to leave.

Teela’s not done yet though.

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One more (bitchy) thing!
Teela’s parting shot is that since she’s club committee president, she’s going to kick Takashi off of all of his extra-curriculars and ruin his career prospects.

Takashi and Lara (and Moe) walk off. From upstairs the “boy”/Prince looks longingly and simply says Moe’s name.

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I feel like I should be more important than I currently am.
The season ends with a single end scene of a young woman walking outside at night. She meets up with Dresden (finally not in Flashback form), and tells him that Lara is back in town.

He seems pretty pleased with this.

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Okay, I get the girl being outside to find Dresden, but why was he just randomly standing there in the first place? Just to look cool? You’re a weirdo, Dresden.

Final Thoughts on the Season:

No Boys Dorm, like (My) Immortal before it, proves that with a good script and a solid cast, microbudget webshows can be pretty awesome. While imperfect in production values, McLellan and Meeks continue to show they’ve learned from their previous projects and continue to improve. I’m not going to pretend that everything stuck the landing across the six episode season, but so much of it did that it’s pretty easy to forgive the show’s rougher edges.

I mean, obviously I liked it, or else it wouldn’t have dedicated 2000+ words to this fourteen minute episode alone.

I’m very curious as to how the plot lines will continue to develop (assuming Mediajunkie decides to do a second season), especially with the appearance of Nick Newcastle’s Dresden.

That should be fun.

With (My) Immortal, MediaJunkie showed it could transform a legendarily bad fanfic into something wonderful. Now, with No Boys Dorm they proved they could do something great with an original property.

I want to know what they do next.

Trae Dorn

Trae Dorn has been staffing conventions for over twenty-five years. They also wrote and drew the now completed webcomic UnCONventional, and produce the podcasts BS-Free Witchcraft, On This Day With Trae, Stormwood & Associates, The Meatgrinder, and The Nerd & Tie Podcast. This leads many to ask how the heck they have the time to get it all done. Trae says they have the time because they “do it all quite poorly.”

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