The Rose That Grew From Concrete

**The Rose That Grew From Concrete** is the fifth episode of *The Savages'* second season and the thirteenth episode overall. It premiered on June 20, 2016.

A depressed, pregnant Rose De Vil is offered redemption when Lily, Sena, and Iesha look for a new cheerleading coach. Carl and Trae team up to seek information on Eli. Meanwhile, Joe and Nate face power struggles in The Glamouflage when they make room for new members. Sydney joins the student council, but her presence is challenged by the club president.

## Plot

Rose De Vil has been unemployed for two months, living in her apartment in poor condition and in deep depression after resigning from her principal duties at James A. Masters High School. Realizing that she's pregnant by Coach Radnor (who hasn't reached out to her since her resignation), she realizes her mistakes and knows that she is in dire need of a job.

In a flashback, an innocent Rose purchased a myriad of pregnancy tests and shares banter with a cashier who recognizes her from her viral tirade before her resignation. When she drives off, she passes a vehicle that Alex, Gina, and Sydney are in. Presumably, they have escaped from hiding Felix's dead body in the woods. Despite the three clarifying that they didn't kill him, they hesitantly agree not to tell Trae after he returns back to school.

During the present, students return back to James A. Masters High School after winter break; however, they are immediately dissatisfied with Principal Gordon's new metal detectors and security guards. Sydney becomes frustrated with it during her entrance, while Alex, Carl, Gina and Lily express anger towards it. Sydney decides to take the initiative of going to a JAM Student Council meeting after school to possibly discuss it.

Meanwhile, Carl asks Trae for help with tracking down information on Eli Hawk after Trae recognizes him at the end of *The Roman Holiday*, but Trae tries to back out until Carl convinces him to help for the sake of his tarnished relationship with The Savages. Simultaneously, Carl receives a scarlet letter with his name on it, and he holds on to it. After school, Trae and Carl discuss Eli's possible identity, and Trae appoints Carl to bonding with him to get information worth searching for.

Beforehand, The Red Hot Cheer Peppers perform for the Welcome Back pep rally in the auditorium. Despite a successful performance, Sena feels rather deprived of her abilities as a captain and feels like the squad is at the top, but below The Jocks. She convinces Iesha that Rose should return as a cheerleading coach, as she was one before they joined; Lily, eavesdropping, agrees to help them both in exchange for efforts of taking down Principal Gordon.

That same day, Lily tracks down Rose's location, after telling Sena and Iesha that she used to force the cheerleaders to do routines at her place. When they discover her outside of apartment complex throwing a man's things out of her place, Rose notices them and Lily bribes her with a lie that they are selling Girl Scout cookies.

However, the girls realize that Rose is depressed and overweight, and her apartment is in poor condition. They realize that she is also pregnant and Sena assumes it's Coach Radnor's child. Lily proposes that she should return back to James A. Masters High School to be reinstated as a cheerleading coach and gym teacher, but Rose believes the plan will fail because Principal Gordon despises her. They make a deal that if she goes, they will clean her house and sell Girl Scout cookies to her if things do not go as planned.

The next day, Rose gives it a try and returns with shocking faces all around. When she tries to convince Principal Gordon, she immediately declines and claims that she isn't mentally, emotionally or physically capable of coming back and it would ruin their school's reputation prior to her tirade.

Sydney's first two meetings, meanwhile, with the JAM Student Council prove to be unworthy for her when she is introduced to president Gabe Weston, secretary Sis Davenport and public relations chair Maya Hastings, and reunited with former ally and vice president Kyler. Based on a rough entry, Gabe notices Sydney's lack of participation and questions her true purpose of joining, knowing Sydney's reputation. At first, Sydney plays it off, until Gabe tries to resonate with her anger, and this creates a potential bond between them.

Joe, Nate, Claudia, and Alyssa continue their journey creating The Glamouflage; Joe, however, sets his sights on former Moneybag Cass and jocks Rufus and Vik and tries to recruit them. However, they do not give in easily until Joe convinces them that their reputations are damaged because of their own cliques.

When Nate tries to elaborate, Joe cuts him off, and this makes Nate feel outcasted and deprived of his leadership with Joe, who calls him a visionary and not a persuasive person. However, this would discourage Nate even further when Joe forgets to communicate to him, after Cass and Rufus decide to join forces, about going to the mall to give the new recruits a makeover. Nate feels rather ignored and out of place with everyone, similar to how he felt with The Savages, and it makes him question whether his bond with Joe is genuine at all.

Vik, meanwhile, decides to join The Glamouflage shortly after confronting Trae about being responsible for the video scandal (thanks to Joe telling him the truth). He follows the group to the mall and despite his dissatisfaction with the game plan, he gives in and find shimself enjoying the adventure when the group shoplifts clothes from the store.

Meanwhile, Trae, who tries to clear up any evidence of his wrongdoings with partner Kalleb, invites Carl over to give them Eli's information he found in his wallet. Despite having his ID, no background information of Eli Hawk's name shows up. The conversation about Eli turns into an argument when Carl confronts Trae for leaving The Savages when they truly needed him; Trae, who feels like a burden is off of his back, angrily tries to change the subject, until Carl calls him selfish for leaving The Savages behind for his own guilt.

Shortly after his argument, Carl returns home and rediscovers the scarlet letter he was given at school. Inside the scarlet letter asked if his family was worth saving based on a name written in the letter: Scott Deegan. When he searched the name, Carl discovered that Scott Deegan, in fact, is Eli, who is a fugitive and drug lord with charges on sexual assault on a minor. While discovering this, Eli ends up entering his room calling him for dinner, and this makes him uncomfortable.

Later that day, Lily, Iesha and Sena keep their word and helps Rose clean up her dirty apartment. Lily, however, refuses to give up and hopes to find a way to bring Rose back; when Sena and Lily discover a picture of Rose with children in Haiti, they realize that Rose is human after all. Lily develops sympathy for Rose when she explains how much she learned in Haiti, why she's keeping her child, and how much she cared for the kids at James A. Masters High School despite Principal Gordon's control. To help, Lily gives Rose a piece of bait to use against Principal Gordon to get her job back.

Meanwhile, Joe revels in the potential success of The Glamouflage, while noticing passive-aggressive behavior from Nate while at his place. Joe confronts Nate for his attitude, while Nate confronts him for treating him wrongly and accuses Joe of using him just to get back at Trae. When confronted, Joe pulls him in for a violently passionate kiss and when Nate reciprocates, he isn't aware that Joe kissed him and imagined that it was Trae, revealing Joe's romantic interest in Trae. In the end, Joe kicks him out and shuns him about the situation the day after, leaving Nate feeling more used.

Rose returns back to the school, with Lily, Iesha and Sena accompanying her and eavesdropping. When Gordon once again refuses to allow her to return, Rose blackmails Gordon by displaying Gordon's adult film as Roxanne Reynolds, which Lily found in her father's closet in *The Conflict of Interest*. Baffled nad rather disturbed by this discovery and assuming the videos were removed from all stores, she decides to reinstate her. Rose exits and thanks Lily for her help.

Trae confides in Zachary for advice when he asks if he's selfish for abandoning The Savages; Zachary admits that the clique hasn't been anything without him and everyone seems to be doing their own things. Meanwhile, Carl gives Trae the information he discovered on Eli, and breaks down and admits that he's scared. Trae, consoling him, tells him that he is brave and he'll get through the situation. At the same time, he admits that Carl was right, that he truly misses the Savages and he made a mistake. The two discover that there is a wave of scarlet letters terrorizing The Savages, when Trae realizes Sydney recieved one, he received one, and Carl did also.

Coach Radnor confronts Principal Gordon at a jazz bar for reinstating Rose, revealing that Radnor had a part in her firing to avoid blackmail from Gordon, who was well aware of his sexual affair with Rose. She ends up blackmailing him again by convincing him to deal with her return or resign. Once Radnor leaves, Principal Gordon is introduced to Stacey, Trae's mother and immediately bonds with her.

Finally, Carl calls all of The Savages to the Burger Shack, where Trae reunites with them and makes his return back to the clique. Despite Sydney's resentment, she realizes how much she missed Trae, who apologizes to everyone for what he did and gives heartwarming praise to everyone. In the end, the clique reconciles, despite Carl's fear of Eli and the news they received.

In a flashback, a scene from *The Beast Unleashed, Carl has dinner with his family, and eventually Eli, 4 hours before Felix's murder. A few hours later, everyone is presumably sleep, and Carl receives a text that urges him to exit the house and into his father's van. A radio station also hints that Eli Hawk was on the run, as Scott Deegan. He picks out a pocket knife that he threatened to use on Felix after an altercation he had with The Moneybags, and drives off in the night.*

## Songs

### Background Songs

* **Roxanne's Revenge**by *Roxanne Shante.*Plays during Rose's reinstatement and return to James A. Masters High, after leaving Jennifer Gordon's office.
* **Roxanne, Roxanne**by *UTFO.*Plays after Rose leaves Coach Radnor with a bombshell.

## Trivia

* This episode, according to the writer, was the most difficult to write due to the numerous storylines and the length of the episode.
* The episode title *The Rose That Grew From Concrete* is named after the 1996 poetry novel of the same name by rapper Tupac Shakur.
* Joe's *Heavy Metal & Reflective* performance and scene is a nod to Trae's *Hard* performance in the Season 1 episode, *The Mafia*.
* *Paper Planes*was initially meant to be performed in this episode by Trae and Carl, but was removed as a part of the writing.
* This episode includes the first vocal performances of Cass, Sis, and Vik.
* This episode introduces *Wind It Up/Lose My Breath* , the first mash-up of the season and the fourth in the series.
* This episode marks Rose's major appearance since *The Beast Unleashed.*
	+ This episode also marks Rose's first two solos of the season, and the series since the Season 1 episode, *The School For Scandal*.
	+ Rose is also the third character, after Carl and Sena to have more than 1 solo in an episode.
* This episode includes Joe's first solo of the season, and the series since the Season 1 episode, *The Mafia*.
* This episode includes Nate's first solo of the season, and in the series since his solo in the Season 1 episode *The Psychological Warfare*.

## Guest Stars

Guest Stars
* Paula Patton as Detective Jacqui Sinclair
* Joseph Sikora as Eli Hawk
* Jean-Luc Bilodeau as Gabe Weston
* Luke Bilyk as Rufus King
* Dave Franco as Viktor Nichols
* Ryan Kelley as Kyler Chase
* Hayley Kiyoko as Claudia Wu
* Brittany O'Grady as Maya Hastings
* Sasha Pieterse as Sis Davenport
* Addison Riecke as Alyssa Tanner
* Rita Volk as Cass Everett
* with Patrick Warburton as Coach Jarrett Radnor
* and Michael Michele as Stacey Ventura