Review: ‘Rooster Season 1, Episode 10 “Songs for Raisa”

Katie meets her parents for breakfast, and things are very awkward between the three of them. Greg apologizes to Katie while Beth gets up two minutes into breakfast to meet with Graham, the president of the Board of Trustees. Before Beth leaves, she tells Greg that she ultimately pulled some strings for Katie out of love. Greg isn’t having any of it. Greg then makes a promise to Katie that he will allow her to make her own decisions moving forward, no matter what they are. 

Christmas break is nearly upon the students and faculty members of Ludlow. Archie is visibly upset in his classes and his students are picking up on it. Mo and Sunny pick  up on it too, as Archie is oddly kind to the both of them and asking about their lives. Sunny is planning on going to Wisconsin for the holiday break and plans to  take Archie with her. Mo and Sunny share a beautiful moment together as they have been friends and roommates for quite some time now, and are going to miss seeing one another everyday. 

Dylan meets Greg in the library and they share their own moment. Dylan brings up how she’s glad that she and Greg remained friends despite their awkward first encounter. This is because Dylan has a tendency to shut romantic interests out. She also brings up how much she’s going to miss him and that some of his students basically worship him. Greg gives her a copy of his new book. While it has  its flaws, Greg would want to stay another semester, and  teach off of this book.    

Archie goes to Katie’s office and tells her that he’s in! They embrace getting back together with a kiss. When Katie announces this,  her students do not approve at all, and neither does Greg, but Beth advises him to stay out of it as he just promised her at breakfast to live her own life. It takes Greg every ounce of concentration to not text or call Katie and tell her that she’s making a huge mistake. Beth proposes that they just drink a lot of alcohol and forget about their worries. Beth then notices  that Greg is actually getting over her, and she clearly wants to play the dictator in the relationship, but Greg isn’t having any of it.

Archie calls Sunny into his office and tells her  that they’re done. She is incredibly shocked and hurt, telling  Archie that he is choosing the wrong path. She announces that she’s leaving for Wisconsin in the morning. Katie and Archie then go get lunch, and Katie gets a sudden ick from Archie. She explains how bad  of a person he is, full of himself and can’t commit to anything, let alone a second chance at their marriage. Katie asks for a divorce and leaves him. Later, Archie runs back to Sunny, only to find out that she left for break early. He’s all alone now. 

Tommy and Greg have a one-on-one meeting about his schoolwork, and Tommy is on the right academic track as he’s passing his classes! Tommy then invites Greg out to dinner at the local diner later that night. Before Greg leaves his house, he drops off his bike at Dylan’s place with a bow on it. When Greg enters the diner, everyone is there! They threw Greg a surprise going away party. Greg says his emotional goodbyes to everyone there and gives a speech. He says that he really felt like he belonged there, and that he will never forget them. He really wouldn’t be where he is without them. Katie then tells him that her and Archie are over, for real this time. Greg is over the moon. 

As Greg is packing his things, he calls Walt and asks him, hypothetically, if he wanted to stay an extra semester, what that would look like. Walt explains how it would be both of their last semesters. Greg is confused as Walt tells him how Beth is going to take his job after next year. Greg is shocked. Cut to black. 

Rooster season 1 has officially come to an end! It’s very bittersweet, and a lot has happened to all of our characters. Greg has, of course, loved his time at Ludlow, and while it was predictable that he was going to stay and teach, the setup was done perfectly as he was able to truly learn that he really was the best version of himself due to the people around him. Archie is a terrible boyfriend to Sunny, and him immediately running back to her after Katie dumped him was just awful. We are rooting for Sunny to finally get away from Archie, but she declined the job offer. We can only hope she’ll get a second chance. Katie on the other hand, had somewhat of a good development as she was able to make that mistake on her own and immediately know how big of a mistake it was. We now understand that Beth is the villain in some way! She took Walt’s job! Was this her plan the entire time? Such a great cliffhanger and end to an impactful season!   

8/10