‘Off Campus’ Season 2: How the ‘Call Dean’ Scene Can Still Work Without Sean
Off Campus just threw fans a major curveball. (Is there an equivalent in hockey terms?) It isn’t news that Stephen Kalyn and Mika Abdalla are leading as Dean and Allie in the hockey romance adaptations’s second season, but one of the major characters involved in their book, Elle Kennedy’s The Score, has been benched. Allie’s ex, Sean (Riley Davis), won’t be in Season 2.
When Prime Video confirmed Davis’ exit, our minds immediately went to the best moment in The Score, in which Sean plays a major role. The “Call Dean” scene is a key turning point in Dean and Allie’s romance, essentially forcing them both into admitting how deeply they feel for each other. With Sean’s absence, we know that “Call Dean” won’t play out exactly like it does in the book, but I still think there’s a way for it to happen in Season 2. (Warning: The Score spoilers ahead!)
First, allow me to give you a quick rundown of the “Call Dean” scene: Allie and Dean are just starting to realize that they’re more to each other than a secret, casual hookup after spending Thanksgiving in New York together. When Sean finds out about Allie’s involvement with Dean, he confronts her at her dorm and shames her for having a fling, particularly with someone of Dean’s reputation.
Garrett, who’s visiting Hannah, throws Sean out, but the damage is already done. Allie has an emotional breakdown in the aftermath, but she also comes to the realization that what she has with Dean isn’t casual. Allie shocks Hannah when she asks her to call Dean and get him to come over, revealing their relationship for the first time. The shoulder that she wants to cry on is his. Dean answers the call literally and figuratively, and they decide to be together for real.
Prime Video
I’ve seen some people theorizing that Sean will be replaced by Hunter (Charlie Evans), Allie’s one-time hookup from Season 1 who has some mysterious beef with Dean over his sister Summer (Shay Rudolph), but I don’t think that works. After all, Hunter goes on to lead his own book in the Briar U spinoff series. They won’t reduce a potential future leading man to saying what Sean does during the “Call Dean” scene!
The core of the “Call Dean” scene isn’t the shaming — and Sean already kind of did that in his last scene in Season 1, when he knocks at Allie’s door and realizes she just hooked up with someone. Remember him saying, “You really can’t be alone, can you?” Plus, at this stage in the show, it seems like Allie really couldn’t care less what Sean thinks. It’s been so long since their breakup! Bringing him back in Season 2 wouldn’t make sense.
The point of “Call Dean” is that, in a time of intense emotional distress, Allie realizes that the one person she needs is Dean. She can’t ignore the depth of her feelings for him anymore. So, essentially any situation of distress will do. It could be the show finds a way to make something happen with Allie’s dad. In the book, his health is declining due to secondary-progressive multiple sclerosis. He could have a health scare, and Allie’s phone dies, and she asks Hannah to call Dean.
There are plenty more routes the show can take with “Call Dean,” so we wouldn’t panic quite yet. Though, we may not get Garrett kicking Sean to the curb, which admittedly is a tragedy, at least it lives on in The Score!
Off Campus, Season 2, April 28, Prime Video
