Breaker High, Episode 16: The Caber Guy

Welcome back to Teeny Bopper TV Breakdown! Today we recap Breaker High, episode 16: “The Caber Guy.” If I’d known a caber was something to be thrown in the Highland Games, I would’ve gotten the pun and been able to guess where they are. Though they did come from Dublin last episode, so this makes sense.

The episode begins with Tamira playing the bagpipes and her friends attempting to be polite but all grimacing at the noise. Jimmy comes in dressed as William Wallace from Braveheart, quoting the film’s epic line and everything. Alex needles him for looking like a girl in his kilt, which I don’t love (must remember the era, must remember the era…); Ashley does say she thinks kilts are kinda sexy on anyone other than Jimmy, but still has trouble convincing Alex to attend the Highland Games with her once it’s revealed the last night involves Scottish dancing in traditional clothes.

Cassidy and Max may have just broken up?! At least that’s what Cassidy says to Tamira as she tells a story of losing a friendship the previous year over a guy and not wanting that to happen again. Max is nowhere to be found, though, so I wonder what he has to say about all this.

Alex has accompanied Ashley to the Highland Games after all, but is still skeptical and derisive. So when an attractive Scottish teen named Ian, dressed in a white tank top and a kilt, successfully uses a pick-up line on Ashley, Alex is…affronted, shall we say, that no one seems to like his insults of Scotland and instead like the country a lot more than he does.

Denise is unsure that Cassidy will really be able to set her feelings for Max aside, which only makes Cassidy more determined to prove her wrong. So when Max comes up and excitedly shares that he found a tour guide to take them on a hike at Ben Nevis (I somehow don’t think he knows about the change in his relationship status), Cassidy is excited at first but then declines by making up an illness.

There is technically a C plot to this episode, where Sean and Jimmy go to Loch Ness, Jimmy is mistaken for baby Nessie as he swims in the lake, and Sean briefly tries to profit off of it, but that’s about all it is, so no need to expound further.

Max definitely didn’t know about Cassidy’s decision - when he realizes she’s been avoiding him, he tells her they need to talk and asks what’s going on, only for Cassidy to say she can’t see him anymore.

Later on deck, Max can’t believe Cassidy is blowing him off. Alex is convinced she was just in it for the chase - once she got him, she was on to her next challenge. He even says, “Trust me dude, I know women,” and if this were in the first few episodes and what he’d said earlier in this episode hadn’t happened, I might have believed him, but not anymore. Cassidy is moping in her room, and it doesn’t take much for Tamira to realize it’s about Max. We’ll see if they get it together by the end of the episode or if it takes a little while.

Alex tries to forbid Ashley from going to the Highland Games with Ian, and she essentially laughs in his face. She reminds him she asked him to the dance first; “When opportunity knocks, you open the door, and when the opportunity looks like me, invite it in and make it comfortable. You forbid me? You really don’t know women, do you?” And given what Alex just boasted to Max about, his mind is a little bit blown.

Tamira actually tells Cassidy she thinks Cassidy and Max should be together. She knows Cassidy has been staying away from Max for her sake and it’s really sweet, but it’s obviously making Cassidy miserable. Cassidy doesn’t know how else to be a good friend and keep her promise to Tamira, but Tamira insists - she can see now that Max wasn’t just a fling, he was more than that, so what kind of friend would she be if she tried to keep them apart? All Cassidy can do at that point is give Tamira a hug and thank her - now to give Max a little whiplash.

At the Highland Games, Tamira joins the bagpipe troupe, and Alex makes his appearance in a kilt! He comes up to Ashley and Ian to ask Ashley for the next dance, and Ian is gracious in his exit - turns out off-camera Alex apologized to Ian for his behavior and explained how much Ashley means to him, but also told the Scotsman he only had six months to live (yikes). But he heard opportunity knocking ;p.

Cassidy comes up to Max with what is maybe the wrong approach, saying “I was thinking we’d hit the north face first - it’s got some killer rises. What do you think?” I don’t know, maybe start with an explanation? That way Max doesn’t need to say, “I think the chase is back on; this may have just been a game to you but it was more than that to me,” all while smoothing back her hair. She tries to smooth things over with, “I’m sorry I couldn’t be with you before, but I’ve worked everything out and now I can,” but Max isn’t having it, saying, “No, Cassidy, you can’t.” Can the lesson from this