Beverly Hills, 90210 isn’t the best show to ever air on television, but it sure felt like it was when it debuted in 1990. There was nothing else like it on TV, an aspirational teen drama that got soapier as it went on. And it was Shannen Doherty’s Brenda Walsh who would turn out to be the charismatic heart of the show, an innocent Every Girl who evolves into the kind of unruly heroine who is equal parts charming and self-destructive. Her mood swings would ultimately go on to rival those of her primary love interest, resident bad boy Dylan McKay. You couldn’t keep your eyes off of either them.
If Doherty was accused of being “difficult” to work with in later seasons (that very gendered criticism), then it was fun to watch Brenda Walsh’s personality change in tandem. Doherty was too much of a force for her character to remain insecure. 90210 was never the same after Doherty was written off after season four, due to conflicts on the set (she later explained that she was having all-consuming personal problems and didn’t handle it well at work). Still, as Brenda, Doherty was a little bit drama queen, and a little bit Mean Girl (see: Doherty’s role in Heathers), and always, always captivating. Here are Doherty’s most essential episodes of 90210.
“Higher Education” (Season 1, Episode 6)
When we first meet Brenda in the pilot, she is an ingénue from the Midwest, insecure and desperate to fit in at her new school in tony Beverly Hills. When Brenda hears that her twin brother Brandon’s cute, brooding friend, Dylan (a character who was only supposed to be a guest star), might prefer blondes to brunettes, she dyes her lustrous brown hair to disastrous results. It doesn’t matter. When Dylan shows up at Casa Walsh to hang out with Brandon, he can’t help checking her out, orange hair and all. What follows is a seminal scene that also tops the list of essential Dylan episodes, which sadly ran when Luke Perry died in 2019.
“I like your butt,” she says. “I mean, your bike.”
“Hop on,” he replies.
And we’re off.
“Spring Dance” (Season 1, Episode 21)
Over the course of the first season, Brenda’s bangs grow out, and she becomes more confident, more self-possessed. It helped that season one of 90210 contained 22 episodes, enough television hours to allow for actual character development over the course of a single season. It’s when she and Kelly show up to spring-dance photos wearing the same dress, a black midi-length number with dramatic white puff sleeves, that we see how far she’s come.
“I’m the spring princess,” Kelly pouts, expecting Brenda to understand the enormity of the occasion. Had this happened 15 episodes previously, Brenda would have apologized profusely and run to her bedroom to change.
But now Brenda gives her a death stare, a stare that Doherty would use to great effect again and again in the series: “Kelly, I don’t give a damn.”
Still, both girls manage to have fun at the dance, and Brenda ends up doing the most defiant thing a teenager in a nighttime soap in the 1990s could do: She has sex with Dylan, and she enjoys every moment of it.
“Mexican Standoff” (Season 2, Episode 27)
Over the course of season two, we see Brenda develop her rebellious side. When her father forbids her from going away with Dylan, Brenda goes anyway but tells her parents that she’s spending the night at Kelly’s house. What could go wrong? Besides, Dylan obviously has a spiritual connection to Baja, where he goes whenever he needs to clear his head. Brenda must see for herself. Things go south when they check into a motel where Dylan is friendly with the staff (he speaks fluent Spanish, of course) and the front-desk clerk asks after a girl he brought to Baja last time. You can see the smoke coming out of Brenda’s ears.
No one sulked like Shannen Doherty: Her Brenda stews, she whines, she glares. But when Dylan takes her to a cantina where they’re serenaded with a Spanish version of “Feelings,” Brenda lets herself get swept off her feet. The Brenda-Dylan chemistry is electric. Kelly could never.
“Moving Targets” (Season 4, Episode 7)
Season four isn’t very kind to Brenda, who becomes increasingly isolated from the rest of the gang even as they all make their way at California University. But there’s one moment that’s a delightful return to form: When she returns home very late after a night out with her new love interest, the dashing Stuart Carson, to find a beleaguered Jim and Cindy Walsh sitting on the stairs in their robes, waiting for her. Brenda has no time for their scolding. “Consider yourselves lucky I came home at all,” she snaps as she brushes past them. Here’s our Brenda.
In the following scene, in which Brenda tells Brandon all about Stuart, we get another classic 90210 tableau: Brenda and Brandon doing some classic twin repartee.
Brenda: “There’s never been anyone in my life, including Dylan McKay, who knows how to woo.”
Brandon: “Stuart gives good woo?”
Brenda: “The best.”
“Beach Blanket Brandon” (Season 2, Episode 1)
Here’s where Brenda is made to face the consequences of having joyful, responsible teenage sex at the spring dance in season one. Nineties network TV could not stand to let her or us enjoy it anymore. After a pregnancy scare, Brenda is all regret and remorse. “It all feels too much,” she cries to Dylan as they sit in his Porsche at the beach. You could almost hear the preteens screaming in horror at their TVs when Brenda tells Dylan she needs to pause their relationship. Both are devastated (and so is the audience) as the ’90s angst anthem “Losing My Religion” begins to play.
“Too Little, Too Late” (Season 3, Episode 3)
Many of the best Brenda moments occur when she’s not stewing over some dude, when Doherty gets to do some comedy. When Brenda and Donna spend a summer in a French immersion program in Paris, they may come off as Ugly Americans, but Brenda vows to be a strong and independent woman who can speak French and try new things. Donna and Brenda eat dinner at a very sophisticated brasserie called, well, Brasserie. As Brenda orders in French, Donna pulls out a translation guide and sloppily orders the veal.
“Garçon, make that two,” Brenda says with a truly ridiculous French accent.
The veal is served and it looks weird and tastes weird, and Brenda reaches for the translation guide. She spits her food out into her napkin and tells Donna, “It’s brains.” Donna spits out the brains. The Parisian high jinks continue when Brenda pretends to be French when she meets a nice American boy named Rick, or as she calls him, “Reeek.”
“Back in the High Life Again” (Season 3, Episode 19)
This is the one where the show’s most notorious love triangle crumbles into pieces. When Kelly and Dylan show up at Casa Walsh to speak to her, Brenda already knows the news is going to be bad. Dylan has chosen Kelly over her. What Brenda doesn’t expect is for Dylan and Kelly to confess that they were together the previous summer, as well. You might say this is Brenda’s Peak Bitch moment, but also, her boyfriend and her best friend lied to her, so why wouldn’t she be mad as hell?
“Don’t touch me,” she says with all of the bitterness in her very bitter heart. “Why are you doing this to me? Look, I hate you both, never talk to me again!” Who can blame her?
“Fame Is Where You Find It” (Season 1, Episode 16)
What a joy it is to watch Shannen Doherty show off. When Brandon lands a part on a big TV show, he asks Brenda to cover for him as a server at the Peach Pit. Brenda is steamed that Brandon is the one who gets to act when she’s the one with the chops. So after a disastrous first shift, Brenda decides to give the Peach Pit a bit of a show, adopting the persona of a cheeky vintage-1950s diner waitress named Laverne. She’s dedicated to the bit, with cat-eye glasses and a hairnet and loud gum chewing, taking orders and flirting with the customers in a voice that sounds as though Betty Boop inhaled helium. Is Brenda good at accents? No. But is she utterly charming? For sure. By the time Brandon shows up at the Peach Pit after his shoot (“Hey, sailor, when did you blow into town?” she greets him), Brenda has fully won over the crowd. If Brenda (and Doherty, for that matter) didn’t always seem like a “yes, and” type, it’s delightful to watch her lower her inhibitions and be silly as heck.
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