Watercooler: A New Emily Terrorizes 90210

Fact: There will never be another Emily Valentine.

Then again, we also said there would never been another Beverly Hills, 90210, yet here we are, three seasons into Nu-0210 and pretty much loving how much better it is than that tragic opening season. It's still no Peach Pit Revisited, but honestly, could anyone deal with that much fabulous again?

Anyway, the West Bev crew came back last night after a long winter break and it was so nice to have them home. Naomi and Silver were able to one-up creepy-rapey Mr. Cannon (with a nod to Extremities), Adrianna was forced to face the music for stealing dead Javier's song, Teddy sort of came out to Dixon, and Annie was finally able to get herself some Liam. It was all sorts of drama! And while the writers totally missed the opportunity to rid the zip code of Ivy with that surfing wipeout, they made up for not axing an annoying character by introducing an even more annoying one, Wilson cousin Emily, and making her work.

Perky, blonde and probably deranged in some way, Emily (Abbie Cobb) arrived halfway through the episode and brought some major weirdness with her. The Kansas transplant moved in with Debbie and her kids "for the next five months" while her mom dries out, and we started to see that she wasn't just some celebrity-obsessed yokel with a slight physical resemblance to a pre-diet pill collapse Kelly Taylor. From her immediate adoption of Annie's wardrobe to that cell-phone shot of Liam, there was no shortage of hints that this was indeed a Lil Miss Crazy in the making. Whether or not she can achieve the awesome of her classic-series namesake remains to be seen and will likely require more than just a parade float, a lighter and a gift-wrapped sports jersey. But if she can give us the kind of damaged anti-heroine the original 90210 served up, there is no doubt fans will be writing Valentines to this Emily in no time.

What do you think? Is Emily trouble, or are they just trying too hard?

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