IMHO "Greek" Finale (2.22): "At World's End"

This week's Greek season finale finally let Calvin and Grant get together, setting them up for a romance next season. More importantly, however, we also got some more of the odd friendship between Calvin and the born-again, purity-pledged Dale.

So, for now, Greek has my hopes up for the upcoming season (starting August 31) with an episode that showed how the boundary-pushing ABC Family hit doesn't get lazy with its supporting cast. Watch out for SPOILERS if you venture any further...

This week we got back to Calvin's (Paul James) attempts to resist his attraction to his Omega Chi roommate, Grant (Gregory Michael). Calvin's still avoiding Grant by sleeping on Rusty and Dale's floor and Dale is getting tired of the situation.

Since Dale has also been trying to resist Sheila's (UPDATE: sorry, apparently it's Kristen O'Meara not Miriam Shor, aka Janet from Swingtown as I thought) attempts at seducing Dale and Dale's purity brothers Brian and Sanjay are now sharing a "single queen" while on vacation at Fire Island, Dale suggests he and Calvin might be able to help each other.

"Oh, look, Sheila's wasting food with her 9½ Weeks recreation, again."

Calvin is left cringing, however, when it turns out that Dale's way of helping him to resist temptation involves faking a relationship ... with him. Calvin smiles tensely at Grant through the charade but I'm intensely amused by the sight of Dale calling Calvin "honey" and pretending to be anxious to get a good seat for a screening of Showgirls.

Calvin quickly tires of the charade at the Kappa Tau "End of the World" party when he sees Grant chatting up another guy. When Grant points out that Dale is "cheating" on Calvin with Sheila, Calvin admits to the fake relationship, leading to a big kiss between the two and, presumably, romance next season.

Calvin, OTOH, did not seem to enjoy hearing Dale call him "Honey" the way I did

First off, how cool was it to see Grant and Calvin kissing in the middle of a big Kappa Tau party without hesitation? Considering Grant's previous reluctance to be out to his Omega Chi brothers, I'm curious as to what was going on in Grant's head (perhaps the idea of Calvin seeming unavailable got him thinking about the things he's missing by being closeted?) but it's pretty cool that Greek is presenting a Kappa Tau party as a place where two guys kissing won't turn any heads.

(Admittedly, it would have been cooler if a couple of ZBZ girls stopped and swooned at the sight, as a call back to the ways boys would react to Rebecca and Robin kissing.)

While I would have liked to have delved into Calvin and Grant's relationship more, I really enjoyed getting another chance to watch Calvin and Dale's unlikely friendship. Greek has managed a challenging balancing act with Dale. He hasn't been a cartoonish Bible-thumper, but the show has also avoided making him "complex" by having it turn out that he's a conservative who turns out not to really have any conservative positions. We've seen Dale make a slow transition thanks to knowing an openly gay man and Dale is beginning to respect Calvin as a friend, even if it creates a cognitive dissonance with his religious views.

Kissing in the middle of a big Kappa Tau party

On that note, I've got my fingers crossed that seemingly-throwaway line about Brian and Sanjay spending their vacation together at a gay destination will turn out to be more than just a gag. It's a cute joke, but in true Greek style, it would be amazing to see Dale realize that two of his purity pledge brothers are gay.

What did you think? Did this season finale have you anticipating the next step for Grant and Calvin? Is Dale convincing as a character with two incongruous aspects?

Also, which former Swingtown cast member will show up on the Cypress-Rhodes campus next? I'm keeping my fingers crossed to see Josh Hopkins (Janet's uptight husband Roger) as the stuffy administrator who gets in between Calvin and Grant ... or Shanna Collins (the Millers' independent-minded daughter) as the head of a rival sorority to ZBZ (now that Frannie is out of the picture).