[Warning: Some spoilers ahead for season three.]
Jenna Hamilton's life is about to implode.
Awkward returns for the remainder of its third season, with Jenna (Ashley Rickards) attempting to end her affair with new kid Collin (Nolan Funk) before her boyfriend Matty (Beau Mirchoff) finds out. From the fall trailer MTV released more than a month ago, everyone -- including Matty -- is about to discover Jenna's infidelity.
But there is one person has always remained suspicious of Jenna: Sadie. Actress Molly Tarlov, who plays Palos Verdes High's "mean girl" and Jenna's archnemesis, says that Jenna's downward spiral isn't much of a surprise.
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"Jenna's going down a bit of a dark hole, a dark path. She's been teetering on the edge for maybe a season and a half," Tarlov tells The Hollywood Reporter. "We see her confidence building every season. Matty's not the untouchable anymore. She's going to take it a little too far."
It has been well-established the disdain Sadie has for Jenna, but as Tarlov explains it, what may have started as petty high school drama between the two schoolmates has become far more serious. "She always hated Jenna without any reason but now she has a legitimate one because the one person Sadie cares about is Matty, and when Jenna is messing with Matty, Sadie actually has a reason to be as awful and terrible as she is," Tarlov says.
From Sadie's perspective, Matty is "the only person who actually sees her as a real person," Tarlov says. "They're kind of like family in a certain way. They've known each other for so long. As we all know, Matty is the perfect guy."
And while Sadie and Matty may be revisiting their friendship in the remainder of the season, Sadie has a boy, Austin (Shane Harper), on the side who may be socially inept.
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"He doesn't know how to pick up social cues so as mean as she is to him, he doesn't really get it so he keeps coming back, which is perfect for Sadie because all she does is send out awful social cues and to someone who doesn't get it, doesn't see how awful she is," Tarlov says with a laugh.
Exploring the Austin arc illuminates a new side of Sadie and for that, Tarlov is grateful. "Now we get to see her as a girl, which is exciting for me. As an audience member, I would want to see her be pursued by a boy and not just have Ricky [Schwartz] as a love interest," she says. "It's a real love story going on buried amidst the hijinks."
As for the hijinks that Sadie gets into this season, expect her to pay homage to Jenna in a not-so-subtle way.
"In one episode, Sadie has a side-braid and a hoodie, which is a little familiar, and looks a lot like Jenna," Tarlov hints. "It's a throwback to things we used to see and Sadie gets everyone together to orchestrate this staging that nobody knows -- besides her -- is about Jenna. It's like art reflecting life reflecting art."
Other moments to look for: Sadie's mother returns (she was last seen in the first season), revisiting the Sadie/Aunt Ally and Sadie/Val pairings, more parties and an action-packed season finale.
Awkward premieres Oct. 22 at 10:30 p.m. on MTV. Check back on The Live Feed following the East Coast airing for a postmortem on the rest of season.
E-mail: Philiana.Ng@THR.com
Twitter: @insidethetube
