"Greek" Greecaplet (1.20): A tale of two kisses

Last night while many of us were in the backyard grilling hamburgers or passing out from one too many brown-bagged wine coolers in the park, one of our few primetime gay characters was enjoying his first on-screen kiss.

Though he has had frustratingly little to do this season, Greek's gay pledge, Calvin (Paul James), enjoyed a public kiss on last night's "Tale of Two Parties" episode. Honestly, though I've been a fan of the show and of Calvin's storyline since the beginning, his lack of screen time this season had me a bit worried that the much-anticipated gay kiss (on an ABC Family show, lest we forget) might be mishandled. But though Calvin was back-burnered overall in the episode, the kiss itself was handled perfectly.

The episode picks up with the newly-liberated Greeks (the Dean has just lifted the restrictions on the houses, remember) planning big parties to reclaim their frathouse glory and what-not. It's mostly a Cappie/Evan one-upsmanship plot, with Cappie looking to undermine Evan's big bash, for which he has secured the attendance of the ZBZ ladies. But Evan isn't giving up easy, and when Casey shows up at his party, he enlists Calvin (his "little brother" pledge) to help him keep the guys away from her.

Calvin is less-than thrilled about this job, because he has invited new love interest Michael (Max Greenfield) to the party and would like to, you know, actually get to speak to him instead of playing gay human shield for his big brother. And when Michael arrives it looks as though Calvin was right to be nervous, because he's like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs, for some reason...

Read the rest after the jump, plus you can see the whole clip!

Calvin seems to think that Michael is uneasy about being on a gay date in a frat house, and assures him that there's nothing to be nervous about. But Michael isn't worried about the gay thing (as evidenced by his choice of outfits for the evening ... how homo baroque!), but is uncomfortable being the oldest guy in a room full of students that he's taught, including Evan (Michael's a French T.A., remember ... and apparently has been for a number of years?).

Paul James, Max Greenfield

But before they realize this we get lots of wackiness with Calvin, at his big brother's request, ambushing every guy who tries to talk to Casey. Casey's of course a bit put off that her younger brother's supposed best friend (we haven't seen Calvin and Rusty actually speak to one another much this season, so I guess we'll take their word for it) suddenly wants to spend so much time with her, and when she calls him on it he does an unconvincing queen-out on her for "stealing all the hot mens" and walks away, mortified at his own tired drag act.

Meanwhile, Michael is drowning his nerves with red wine, probably because he can spill it on his shirt and no one would notice. Calvin finally apologizes for spending so much time running away and says that Michael really shouldn't be nervous about being a gay guy in a frathouse. Michael's like, "who's nervous about being gay? I'm nervous because I'm twice the age of everyone in here" and Calvin realizes that he's projecting his own neuroses on Michael, who's been there/done that already.

In the middle of the partying crowd, the two lean in to one another and kiss. They smile at each other, and then kiss again, while around them everyone dances and parties and couldn't care less. It's actually a relatively romantic moment for a frat party, and the point seems to be (both in regards to the characters and to the fact that this is the show's first gay kiss) "People, it's no big deal. We're adult enough to handle this."

So it's great that Calvin's first on-screen kiss wasn't a cause for scandal or a homophobic outburst or anything like that, and it doesn't hurt that it was shared with cutiepants Max Greenfield. So now will Calvin actually get something to do for the rest of the season? We'd initially only heard that Greenfield had signed on for a two-episode arc, which doesn't bode well for this particular romance ... but given that the series lead, Rusty, ended up getting crabs at the end of the ep, it's safe to say that the show's resignation to the ups and downs of college romance applies to all of its characters, regardless of their sexuality.

Meanwhile, the show's "climactic" kiss (for Casey, as she finally hooks up with a new guy she's hot after) ends up being one of the worst (and most hilarious) kisses ever. Finally, a show that goes out of its way to horrify its audience with a straight kiss, not a gay one!

Anyone else catch the episode? Thoughts?