‘Undercover High’ Season 1, Episode 8 ‘Undercover In Trouble’ Recap: Adulting 101 [SPOILERS]

The pretend teens of “Undercover High” Season 1 are back. There are four weeks left before graduation. The one big question hanging over everyone is “What next?” But Highland Park students have to think of their commitment to their classes first. After all, in many of these kids’ lives, school isn’t the only priority.   
In episode 8, titled “Undercover in Trouble,” the undercover adults had to be “adults” without being the actual adults. They all had to guide and mentor without blowing their covers. As they discovered, this isn’t the most natural thing to do. An adult’s world and a teen’s world are two entirely different dimensions.

Commitment Issues

Gloria, an undercover teacher, became best friends with an 11th-grade student named Nae. Nae is the epitome of growing maturity. Before, she got attention by being the bad kid. She repeated the 9th and 10th grade because of it. Now, she is aiming to grace California as a nurse. “School is my greatest priority right now. My biggest dream that I want to accomplish is just to walk across the stage and make my grandma and my mom happy,” Nae said.
Gloria observed that Highland Park kids have a lot going on in their lives. They deal with it differently. Gloria said that some of them get lost while some of them, like Nae, see themselves somewhere greater.
But, as they were crossing the hallway, that glorious moment of shining hope seemed to shrink. The hall monitor called to Nae and told her to look outside. Her sister was right outside the school’s front doors. No matter what Nae said, she wouldn’t come back in. According to Nae, she did it every day. Their family was going through a rough patch. “Right now, we’re kinda falling apart,” Nae said. With only their mother and her two sisters, Nae took the responsibility to be the role model for her siblings.
Dr. New admitted that there is a considerable portion of the student body that quickly show up to school. But, they quickly walk out the doors before the class is over too. Violence, addiction, poverty, and crime are a few of the factors that aid this commitment issue. 
Ms. Watson, the assistant principal, said, “A lot of the time, I’m trying to get them college or to the workforce whereas the streets are pulling them towards the streets.” They are hoping that in the last four weeks of the experiment, the participants would be able to help refocus the student’s goals. They’re also waiting to see what needs fixing or improved upon in the system.

Acceleration of the big fat F

Loving Physics is tough. But Daniel has to if he wants to graduate. In his efforts to further blend in, he has taken to joining Tyree and Armond’s group. These kids were hilarious but, they were laughing their way to the D’s and F’s of Mr. Bailey’s physics class.
At one point, Tyree seriously claimed that he could breathe underwater. Daniel watched as he put a bottle of water on top of his head. The kid CAN breathe under water. It was funny but, Daniel knew they had responsibilities. He wanted to set them straight but, he didn’t want to seem like an adult. So, to do his adult duty, he joined them.
A few days later, the principal’s office called on Daniel. Dr. New told him that he was failing physics. The principal reminded him that students were looking up to him without realizing it. She advised him that maybe if he showed that he could combine fun and studies, the students could see that it IS cool to be smart. Who knew that it’s possible to leave the principal’s office in a better mood after hearing about failing grades?

Future Announcement

Shane, the radio man, is back. He was impressed to see that his plan was now running on the tracks. There were some little mishaps but, what’s impressive without those pesky things? Shane initially planned to pass the works to Haley and Aiden gently. But, when his grandfather died, both sides of the radio team had to pick up their bags. Haley precisely set up the system. Now, things are going more smoothly than they had hoped. As Shane said, “Go, team.”
Lina, on the other hand, was having a hard time turning over Vanessa’s indifference to college. After a few cheerleading tumbles, Lina and the girls sat on the grass to have some heart to heart. Lina asked Vanessa again if she was going to college. Vanessa answered that she doesn’t know what to do.
Vanessa still has no career that she wants to do in mind. On top of that, she said it was difficult building a future and being the first in her family to go to college. Lina related to this because she knew how hard it was to be undocumented and to have no future. For her, it left her unmotivated. But, she learned how much it didn’t matter. She said that there are people with so much potential. They just had to set their mind to it and make the right choices. Itzelt added that some people don’t think that they have to do better when they’re struggling. They merely go “whatever” and get wrapped up in that empty midline. Lina said it was her mom one who told her to keep going. Breaking up the tension, Itzelt joked that she’d go to Lina’s mom for advice. “She’ll be here for you all T. Just a call away,” Lina answered. 
Lina thought that it was time for her mom and friends to meet each other. On a side note, she’s also hoping her mom could do Vanessa the magic she did to her. “I want Vanessa to move towards her future instead of being overwhelmed by it,” she said.

Can You Keep A Secret?

In the last episode, Nikki was alarmed by a suicide threat post. Nikki realized that having someone to talk to without being judged is a sacred need for most girls in the school. She found Ms. Pryor, her art teacher, to be a kindred soul who could help her with building an all-girls club. After a couple of sentences, Ms. Pryor didn’t hesitate in saying “I’d love to help you.”
On another girl case, Erin was still trying to make Michelle rethink her decision to join the military. Michelle lost a close friend in the recent shooting in their neighborhood, and her dad had lung cancer. She admitted that spending just one night away from him was terrible. But, Michelle doubted that he was going to improve. Erin believed that this was part of the reason Michelle struggled with being deployed to the military. With everything going on, Erin didn’t think it was the best choice for Michelle.
In another household, Nae brought Gloria over to their house to hang out. Gloria just discovered how difficult Nae’s home life was. On top of her siblings, Nae was taking care of her brother’s son. Her brother was in prison still waiting for trial. Being the oldest of the girls, Nae admitted to having to do more than everybody else. “All the cleaning goes to me,” She jokingly said. Gloria also discovered that the lack of a father in the house was because of a tragic incident. In 2014, Nae’s father was shot and killed in their front yard. Despite all this, Nae realized that she had to be a role model to her siblings. She said this is what made her think of changing her ways.
“Highland Park has a challenging role ahead of them,” said Gloria. She saw that a lot of kids like Nae were experiencing trauma outside of school. This fact, to her, is something that Highland Park needs to figure out.  

Grades ‘n Tats

Erin accompanied Michelle on her quest to get a tattoo of an arrow saying “Be Brave.” On the car ride, Michelle shared how her mom would kick her out if she knew. “My mom, she was like, in the book of Leviticus, you’re not supposed to mar your body,” Michelle said. “Ok I understand that, but in the book of Michelle, it says that I get to do whatever I want to do with my body when I want to do it.”
Michelle admitted that she was angry with her mom and that her enlistment to the army was an impulsive decision. Erin saw this as her way to get out of her home situation. She also saw Michelle’s pattern in making rash decisions. As for the tattoo, Erin advised Michelle to wait it out. “But I’m the straight arrow of the two of us,” she added. Erin parked the car and waited for Michelle’s verdict. After a few seconds, Michelle said, “I guess we could just go to the mall and look for shoes.”
Daniel too was on his journey to be a straight arrow. He said that Dr. New’s office call helped him understand that he became a part of the problem. After gym class, Daniel managed to convince Tyree to join him in a tutoring session. Tyree has a high potential for getting scholarships if he only put some effort into his classes as well.
Mr. Bailey had a one on one with the two boys. They were doing well when Tyree asked, “what if I really tried in school?” Tyree said that when he was a freshman, he used to look down on his seniors who repeated classes. But, now he saw that he was in the same predicament as them. He was only scraping by to avoid repeating a grade. Mr. Bailey took this opportunity to give him some adulting choices. He advised Tyree to lessen his hanging out and add a bit more studying.
Daniel believes that there are a lot of kids like Tyree. These kids are smart, but they’re afraid of failure, so they stop trying. Daniel said this showed him how important one on ones are.

Mama Knows Best

Shane was helping a co-adult when he read the announcement for Nikki’s all-girls club. In that short meeting, Shane thought that Nikki would be a great leader and make an impact. He said, ”I don’t know much about her…but she seems almost more like an adult.” Unknowingly, he hit it right on.
Bringing out the mom in her, Nikki fidgeted with the chairs as she waited for the girls to come to their first club meeting. The turnout was great. Nikki explained that she wanted to focus on opening up, communicating and respecting each other. She started by sharing her experience with having a child at an early age. This honesty encouraged the other girls to show that vulnerability as well.
One of the girls shared her struggles of having multiple eating disorders. She’d been struggling with them most of her life. “With that comes the thought I’m fat and ugly. Fat and ugly are not interchangeable. You can still be fat and still be beautiful. Fat just describe the stuff that’s on your body.”
Ca’ttia, one of the girls, shared that kids used to throw rocks at her as they chased her home from school because of her race. No matter where she went, she experienced the same type of bullying. She said that she got to the point where making it to senior year seemed impossible.
“The only thing I could think of was, this is needed. Girls need this,” Nikki said. She believes that this can shape the bad experiences of these girls into something right for one another.
Another supermom who hit the spotlight was Lina and Jorge’s mom. The trio joined Vanessa and Itzelt’s families on a picnic. After the mouth-watering picnic, Lisa and Jorge’s mom sat down with the girls to talk about college. Vanessa’s mom joked that Vanessa was going to study sleep psychology. “I started when I was a kid,” Vanessa quipped.
Lisa and Jorge’s mom tenderly took back the conversation to the issue. “Maybe it was what my father instilled in me,” she said. Lina and Jorge’s grandfather didn’t believe in leaving a great inheritance to his children. For him, the best inheritance they could leave their children is education.  Lina and Jorge’s mom said, “No one can take it away from you. No one. No matter where you go, no one can take away what you’ve learned. Because you carry education with you–inside you.”
Lina took the cue to mention an upcoming field trip for Hispanic students. She said the field trip aims to show them what help they can receive. To the group’s delight and surprise, Vanessa said, “I’m going.” Vanessa said that meeting Lina’s mom gave her hope again. She believes that she could do it and she could keep going. Mom knows best after all.
In next week’s episode, Michelle will quit the army, but Erin is worried that she doesn’t have any plan to back up that decision. Daniel is still helping Antonio figure out what would bring back the kid’s confidence and will for the upcoming court date. Will a rap battle do the trick? To top things off, Lina and Jorge will be facing a battle of their own. Rumors are spreading about their real identities or is it actual ages? They would have to crush it all before it can squash them out of the project.
“Undercover High” continues on Tuesday, March 6th, with “Busted” at 10/9c on A&E.