Gay TV Recap: Greek's Calvin gets a little closer

First off, how much do I love that in these post-Brokeback days, a gay character on a teen dramedy is named Heath? Ennis, your legacy reaches further than you ever imagined. All the way to the food court, in fact.

Following last week's "coming out" episode (where we learned that gay Calvin is happily out at home but -- due to changes in how he was viewed as an athlete after coming out in high school -- is leery of being out at college), we dive head-first into the gay relationship that has been to this point but a wispy tease.

We catch up with Calvin (Paul James) and his mystery fella when the two are in bed (likely a direct result of the hockey game foreplay from earlier) and Heath (Zack Lively, pictured above) is asking Calvin if he'd like to, you know, get some food or something. Their relationship to this point has consisted entirely of "hit-it-and-quit," and Calvin isn't jumping at the idea. Actually, he reveals himself to be about as romantic as a mink at the height of rut when he poo-poos the idea of going on a date with the cutie-pie.

More Bratz Doll Dynasty Playset shenanigans as Casey and Rebecca fight for the attentions of Little Lord Fratleroy. Blah blah blah ... oh, and Rusty has to fix the frat's volcano for a big party.

Later on we catch up as Calvin is meeting Heath for coffee and Ashleigh suddenly appears seemingly out of nowhere: it seems that she's been recruited as a wing-man (wing-chick?) for the date between the two guys, even though she doesn't know that it's a date. Heath picks up right away that Calvin isn't comfortable being alone with him in a non-dirty-touchin' kind of way. They head out and Heath tells Calvin that he's pretty pathetic, and leaves him on the sidewalk.

Meanwhile, Rusty is trying to steal a weather controller from the physics department while ignoring the obvious advances of lonelygirl15 (nice to see her working -- and alive!), and Casey is drunk.

Later on, Calvin comes to Heath's room to apologize, saying that he felt pressured to take things to the next level. Heath notes that he was just asking for a date, and Calvin admits that however uncomfortable he felt being asked to take the relationship outside the bedroom, he felt even more uncomfortable when Heath walked away from him. The two consider going to the party and realize they'll have to dodge Ashleigh the whole time, and decide to go get coffee instead. Remember the days of going to get coffee in the middle of the night? Oh to be young again...

The neat thing about the way things are developing is that the relationship is being given equal time and is at its core about intimacy -- something that's a problem for gay and straight couples alike. The added barriers to happiness that these two face is beautifully and simply communicated in the scene where the two try to connect while their dormmates go in and out of their doors around them, forcing them to pause every few seconds. This moment and others in the episode really felt authentic -- my first boyfriend lived two doors down and it was months before we were comfortable in letting anyone know that we were dating, which led to a lot of frustration, miscommunication, and hurt feelings. (I'm not looking forward to seeing what happens when Ashleigh gets hip to the situation and feels betrayed by the two guys.)

Up to this point Calvin has been set up as an uncommonly exemplary and balanced gay teen, and last night we learn that he's got a lot ahead of him when we see how much more sensible his new guy is. Nice work. Now if we can just continue to focus on these two guys and less on making it rain beer, we'll be golden!