Degrassi/WMG

Wheels' penchant for oddball sports jerseys is a Homage to <>.
Roch Carrier's story is very well known in Canada and while a full-on B Plot would likely have been looked at as plagiarism rather than a Shout Out back in The Eighties, something more subtle...

The 1979 amateur film contest in Ida Makes a Movie is the same one in Super 8.
Either Ida won an age group prize or the judges really liked it better than The Case.

Glen Simpson died of AIDS sometime between 1992 and 2001.
This explains why Snake's never mentioned or contacted him in The Next Generation.

Claude still haunts the downstairs boys' washroom, a la Moaning Myrtle.
He was, of course, an unhappy person ("Happy people don't become ghosts"), and as Executive Meddling forced them to show consequences for negative behavior, this would be the ultimate consequence for the ultimate negative behavior.

.

When Rick Murray died, he was reincarnated as Severus Snape.
Snape seems to react to bullies in a worse way then most bully victims, holding strong grudges well into adulthood and openly projecting it onto others who are not at fault for, or even related to, his bullying. Rick was an emotionally unstable boy who was bullied, it seems, for the sadistic pleasure of others. There is also his little spat with Lily, who was clearly only trying to help him. The offending groups are also similar.

Spinner is like James because, aside from being the most recognized of the group, he seems to be the mastermind of the pranks. Spinner can also be compared to Peter in that he framed Jimmy for the worst prank, though to his credit, he had no idea that Rick had come back seeking revenge and that he'd put Jimmy in danger. Jay more fits Peter's character in that he appears pretty shifty and seems to hold not sense of loyalty or remorse. When Rick dies and Jimmy is sent to the emergency room, Jay coldly reacts with complete apathy and lack of concern or guilt. Jimmy seems to be a composite for Remus, Sirius and possibly Lily. Like both Remus and Sirius, he appears to be very loyal to Spinner, more or less, and was Rick's friend for a time.

Also, Spinner seems to inherit the role of Snape when Jimmy finds out that he, Spinner, is the reason Rick shot and nearly killed him, Jimmy and Spinner's friendship becomes comparable to Snape and Lily's, though a bit harsher with, at one point, Spinner attempting suicide and Jimmy icily telling him that it wouldn't matter because he's already dead to him.

Also, look at the resemblance! If they're not the same soul, they're probably related.

Rick

Teenage Snape

Anya is a Yaoi Fangirl.
Anya is already pretty geeky with liking LAR Ping, it wouldn't be surprising if she likes anime or manga. Since she was excited when Riley came out to her and was eager to pair him out with Zane (who has anime hair, btw)she might like yaoi. If they're setting her up to be a Fag Hag, why not?
 * Kendra is also a Yaoi Fangirl. She likes anime, and before season 2 gave us Marco and "Run away to BC with me!", JT/Toby were the most homoerotic male friendship on the show.
 * Could the person who just posted above me translate that into English? Kendra's a yaoi fan girl because Marco... and ... what?
 * Anya was obviously attracted to Riley early on but it didn't work out because she realized something wasn't right and that she she wasn't over Sav. Maybe she figured that the next best thing to being with Riley was seeing him with another hot guy.
 * Or... it could just be that she wants to be supportive towards one of her close friends?

Adam's family's acceptance of him will vary inversely to his difficulty with continuing into the physical aspects of his transition.
The known fixed points are 1) Degrassi as a franchise won't want to Not Do The Research on this one, and 2) Jordan Todosey is a straight female and at most what they could get her to agree to, or ethically ask of her is a more masculine hairstyle to replace the androgynous one that has Adam always wearing a hat and maybe a little pumping iron.

Thus, explanation is needed for the lack of hormone replacement drugs and/or gender reassignment surgery, if those things are possible for a minor under Canadian/Ontario law at all. If not, they're off the hook. If it's possible at one's own expense, that will be the issue. If it's covered by the provincial health plan and a matter of a standard permission slip, then it's entirely on Adam's family to explain (to the audience) why he's still not shaving by senior year.
 * Alternately, they'll recast him with a male actor, going from an aversion to a full-on inversion of Dawson Casting so he can be seen developing male secondary sex characteristics as the replacement hormones/replacement actor's natural ones take effect.
 * Adam's grade is in question, the Teen Nick site lists him as Grade 10, the Much Music site lists him as Grade 11 (as does the official Twitter for Adam). But both with Adam as only 15. If Adam graduates at 17 I'm pretty sure that is before its legally allowed to do the reassignment surgery (basically he'd be off series before its an actual issue, or that he leaves to get the surgery). As to hormone suppressants... I got nothing.
 * In the post-Boiling Point eps he's wearing a purple (Grade 10) uniform shirt. Whether Much (who runs the character Twitters) got it wrong in the first place or that's a Sure Why Not Retcon for keeping what's already become both a popular and timely character on the show longer is practically a WMG in itself.
 * Not to mention that in the first half of season 10 he is in Eli and Clare's Grade 11 English class but seems to be missing from it in the second half of the season.
 * Don't forget that NOT ALL Transgender people decide to get the surgery or the hormone treatment.

Simpson's post-Vegas Night new rules won't last past the end of Season 10.

 * He's just not a stern disciplinarian, and won't be running the school the way he wants to, but the way he feels he has to.
 * A lot of the parents will be displeased with the new uniform coming two, maybe three months into the school year, after they just did their back to school shopping. OTOH if it was meant to be permanent they'd have gone for something more dressed-up and fanservice-y than polos and khakis.
 * Mrs. Torres especially will dislike the fact that Adam's gotten his hair cut shorter (probably an indirect result of no longer being allowed a hat in school), destroying one of the last remaining vestiges of Gracie.
 * Degrassi hasn't performed its' out-of-universe function as the setting of a Teen Drama as well as it did in The Boiling Point for years.
 * Remember, the school's had a zero-tolerance bullying policy since Jimmy's shooting. Apparently the writers find even this too restrictive, as the policy's been ignored so much as to become a Running Gag in the fandom.
 * It all adds up to - once the storylines driven by the crackdown are over, the crackdown itself will soon follow. In fact, the whole season will be about Simpson having let things out of hand, at first overreacting and then backing off as he finds his feet in the new job and finds the happy medium where things are controlled enough that there won't be any Jimmys or JTs on his watch, but students feel free to learn and discover themselves without an oppressive authoritarian presence. You have to hand it to Degrassi; what other Teen Drama would give a season-spanning Character Development Story Arc to the principal?

Everything that comes after season five is a Fix Fic for one of the characters.
That would explain the Character Derailment, sudden genre shift from "edgy teen drama" into full-on "teen soap opera", incidents from the past repeating themselves, sudden new character dump, and the more head-scratch worthy couplings. For example, the Character Derailment can be chalked up to the author not knowing the entire cast well enough and therefore writing their own perception on the others (teenagers have been known to have a skewered perception towards their peers, after all). The author's identity?
 * Liberty. She dealt with her post-partum depression by writing a series of melodramatic short stories for each person at Degrassi. Mia is her Author Avatar for whom she wishes she could be and how her pregnancy could’ve turned out, which is why Mia has little struggle with her own child despite the usual complications that come with being a young teenage mother. The reason she killed off JT was because, while part of her still held feelings for him, another part was still angry at him for becoming a drug dealer; she was also releasing pent-up anger at herself for letting go of someone who was there for her when most guys would’ve left. That way, she could let go of her anger towards JT and be able to move on. Also, part of her is secretly disgusted with Emma’s hypocrisy in season four, and expands on this by creating a Double Standard she perceives to be true: If anyone else cheats on their boyfriend or girlfriend, or otherwise cheats with someone else’s boyfriend or girlfriend, they’re an ass; if Emma does it, she’s just confused and doesn’t know what she wants. Wouldn’t it make sense for her to think this way after the incidents with Chris and Jay?
 * Emma. She missed Sean and knew he wasn’t coming back, and also harboured a crush towards Spinner, but couldn’t bring herself to break up with Peter as he had been willing to put his bad boy ways behind him to support her. Thus, she wrote a melodramatic story wherein Sean returns because he suddenly realized he still loves Emma, and made Peter out to be even worse than he actually is in real life so that she could justify her reasons in-story for choosing Sean. And let's not forget Emma's tendencies to lean towards hypocrisy. Eventually, she realized how silly it was for her to hold on to a seventh-grade crush and sent him off to Afghanistan. She almost wrote in a storyline where she got pregnant, but realized after talking to Manny and Liberty that such an experience would actually be horrible in real life, and instead wrote in that she had a false alarm. She saw no use for JT in her story, so she killed him off. The story where she protests Purple Dragon’s sexism by ripping off her dress in front of the entire school comes from what she secretly wants to do, but knows that objectifying herself would be sexist and thus go against her beliefs. Same goes for the time she smoked pot in college; she herself is curious about pot, but knows better than to actually take it. And finally, the whole deal with her marrying Spinner, as mentioned, came from her crush on him, and her dream of a Las Vegas wedding.
 * Manny. She secretly had a crush on Jay the entire time but was too shy to admit it, so she wrote an overly-complicated soap opera that lead up to a chain reaction of events that ultimately resulted in her and Jay getting together. And similar to Liberty, Mia may have been Manny’s Author Avatar because a part of her regretted the abortion and thus wrote an overly idealistic take of what her life might have been like if she had kept the baby.
 * Sean. He only knows what happened through various letters sent to him in the mail from friends, and he wonders what his life might be like if he were to go back even though he knows in his heart he must stay in Wasaga; however, he hates Peter for being Emma’s boyfriend, so he wrote a soap opera that casts himself as the heroic love interest, Emma as the woman torn between two lovers, and Peter as the dastardly villain. Eventually, he got tired of this and sent himself to Afghanistan in favour of focusing on the others as by that point, the process just became too fun.
 * Spinner. He’s hoping to become a best-selling author if he can’t graduate from high school, so he’s writing a serialized soap opera starring him and his friends from Degrassi which he plans on submitting to a local publishing agency some day. Eventually, his stories are accepted, but he is conditioned to change the names and avoid getting sued, thus explaining the various Expys of other characters later on.
 * Alex. She hopes to become the best-selling author. The incident with her stripping is an allegory for her internal struggles over the years and how she longs to cast aside her worries like clothes to finally be free with herself.
 * Paige. She’s coping with her worries of university by writing escapist fiction, and writes out the worst possible thing that could happen to her university career and to her relationship with Alex. The storyline with Darcy’s rape comes from her wonders about how she would’ve dealt with her rape experience if she had been drugged and thus didn’t get to see her rapist’s face.
 * Darcy. She's coping with the loss of her virginity through rape and her inability to stay "pure" afterwards. Clare is her Author Avatar who manages to date the cheating KC (who stands in for Spinner) without compromising her morals or feeling sexually conflicted. Despite being virginal and uninterested in easy hookups, Clare still gets better relationship plot lines than most girls on currently on the show.
 * Ashley. She's depressed that things didn't work out with either Jimmy OR Craig so she creates Ellie as her Author Avatar who temporarily gains the love and admiration of Jimmy and later is able to win Craig's heart and loyalty with patience and determination.
 * JT. He killed "himself" off because the Jerkass Woobie Author Avatar was getting a little too "woobie" and not enough "jerkass" and as the storyline became more dramatic he realized he didn't need an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist after all.
 * All of the above. They all collaborated to write a soap opera about their lives together, not realizing it would turn into something more...

Snake wasn't mad, or in a hurry, at all when he drove up to the videogame store in Tears Dry On Their Own.
It's just that his Mini Cooper is the first car he's owned in fifteen years that he didn't buy from Joey Jeremiah, and he's still not used to brakes that actually work.

The next band to form...
...will consist of Eli, Clare and Adam and be called Too Skinny for Man-Boobs. Thanks for the idea, Bianca!

Rick is Nagisa Kaworu!
Okay, this is an old one, going back to when JibertyManiac and Maibe_Josie on TV.com debated what anime Toby would watch, and someone suggested NGE, so don't think this is just another "link everything to Eva" post, but think about it. Rick put Terri in a coma because it's more kind to put her on a bus then keep her in this cursed school. Then, through conspiratorial meddling, he came back to Degrassi, just like they conveniently found the Fifth Child. Rick fell in love with Emma and, possibly, Toby. Toby and Rick understood each other more than anyone. And Rick was talking to Sean about how it was too late for him, much like Kaworu talking about how for him, life and death were the same thing. See also "I should just end it. Toby doesn't deserve this. No one does."

The whole series takes place within Shane's mind.
Of course he would make his daughter the main character. And he feels like she needs him, so of course, she faces a father's worst fears about his daughter: She almost gets molested, almost gets shot, blows a guy for a bracelet, and dates a guy who filmed her best friend stripping and used it as blackmail. In a weird, incestuous twist, he named her boyfriend after himself. Shane, Sean, sound similar?
 * Then why would he keep making up stories about the school as it goes on without her after she graduates, rather than continuing to "follow" her into adulthood?
 * Alternately, it takes place within Spike's mind, as she talks with customers at the hair salon. That's why it continues without Emma - Spike's still married to the principal of the place - and explains the "Degrassi black hole"; she hears only of the kids who've gotten Simpson's attention and those who themselves or their parents use her salon (along with Emma and her friends back in the day). This explains why, for instance, Toby remained prominent without doing anything much - Emma still considered him a friend and both she and Spike were still grateful for his role in getting help to that hotel room in time; and Adam being a major presence from day one - Snake would have been informed of his arrival and tried to coordinate to avoid Pronoun Trouble and so on.

Emma is a Strawman Political and the writers are actually conservatives.
Zero Approval Gambit, everyone. They deliberately made her The Scrappy. That is the only explanation I can think of for Emma's tendency to tilt windmills, and pretty much everything she does from season 4 onward.
 * She is, however, strongly anti-abortion. This, one of the few "conservative" beliefs she holds, is deeply rooted in having been the result of a Teen Pregnancy and therefore solidly justified...

There will be another character in a wheelchair.
The powers-that-be are fond of Expies of earlier characters, teens with mobility issues aren't that uncommon in Real Life, and introducing a character who was born with a disability or acquired it in early childhood allows them to deal with the issues it brings up from a different perspective than Jimmy had. They're reasonably likely to cast someone with a real disability as a Take That to certain other teen dramas (having gotten a pass with Jimmy since he was 1) introduced as nondisabled, and 2) not miraculously cured).

Toby eventually figured out the fourth wall.
Toby seems to have his screen time and plot lines drop pretty sharply after the first two seasons. At some point he suspected that he was stuck in a teen drama that had its characters going through as much angst as possible and basically did what he could to lie low and avoid most of it, with his few appearances involving him showing up briefly tossing off a one liner or being a comedy Butt Monkey.

He's rarely ever the main character in episodes and most of the issues he deals with are due to his proximity to other characters (Rick, JT). Notice has no romantic relationships after Kendra either. His only post graduation appearance was hosting a robot competition, which he figured he'd be be safe at, given that Degrassi's a teenage drama and not a science fiction horror film.

The writers will pair Jenna with Fitz
Epileptic Trees? Yes, but still...

1)Jenna has a weakness for bad boys.

2)No Degrassi "bad boy" is safe from Badass Decay. So it's plausible that the writers would try to soften Fitz up by having him fall for Jenna, what with that whole pregnancy thing.

Darcy will return in season 10 for a Last Minute Hookup with Peter
Degrassi seems to have become quite fond of Last Minute Hookups to the point of doing at least one per season/movie.

Season 8: Manny and Jay (with a side of "Crellie" closure)

Season 9: Spinner and Emma

Noticing a pattern?

It actually makes sense. Think about it...
 * This is supposedly Peter's final season, so he'll be needing a proper send-off.
 * He and Darcy are somewhat of a Fan Preferred Couple (at least compared to "Pia" anyway.) If the writers are willing to pair Spinner with Emma to please certain fans (and yes, there is a fanbase) then this is certainly plausable.
 * It's been hinted at in quite a few episodes (along with the Degrassi Mini "Good Times") that Peter still loves Darcy and might even be in contact with her.
 * According to some sources "someone will unexpectedly return"
 * It's been said that Darcy and Clare's parents will be splitting up, so it would make much more sense for the "someone" to be Darcy as opposed to oh... say... Mia? (oh dear lord...)
 * Peter was in the Boiling Point opening credits with almost no screen time. If they still reshoot them it's hard to imagine him still being allowed on school property under the new regime. If he disappears from the credits AND THEN comes back into a major role...
 * It certainly didn't stop them from focusing a whole movie on Paige, Marco, Ellie, and Craig. So anything is possible. If it doesn't happen then it would be kind of a waste with a side of Idiot Ball on the writers' part considering all the other things they've been willing to do. ...Assuming they even get a chance to do it of course. If Shenae isn't up for it than what can you do?

Random Asian Guy is Yick Yu.
Random Asian Guy (a grown man in suit and tie) has a tendency to be in the background when there's a near-miss physical confrontation or bullying, look on with a sort of curious disapproval, and walk away. Yick was never one of the kids who got into the really heavy stuff - his plotlines tended to hinge around his messy desk and awkwardness around girls - so he doesn't assume the worst and intervene.
 * Separately but possibly overlapping, Random Asian Guy is not a member of the faculty. He's a computer tech, a supervisor for an outsourced foodservice or janitorial contractor, or a vendor rep for Beatrice dairy or Pizza Pizza pizza. He's in there once every couple weeks, does his job and gets out, and it might be the only school on his route; altercations between students are Somebody Elses Problem. Besides, if he is Yick, maybe he doesn't remember Simpson's real name and doesn't want to yell SNAKE! across a crowded hallway(!)
 * If Random Asian Guy is the guy in When Doves Cry and the guy on the cover of Elimination Round 3, then yes, that is Yick Yu.

Adam and Fiona will get together.

 * In season 9, it was clearly established that Fiona is open-minded to the idea of LGBTQ people with the Beat It plot lines.
 * Consider the guys she has to choose from. Given her distaste for "Neanderthals" she isn't going to bother with Owen or Fitz. Sav is dating Holly J, KC is two grades below her (and probably too angry for her), Eli is forever enamored with Clare, Declan is her brother (which might not have stopped some fanservice but will likely prevent an actual relationship), and the only plausible guy left is Peter. Fan speculation is that Peter, like most characters seeing their last season, will be paired with some returning flame like Darcy or Mia, thus making Adam one of the only eligible bachelors.
 * In the episode where Fiona starts dealing with the Bobby trial, Adam has a subplot where he joins "fight club" and ends up saying that he couldn't hit a girl. Coincidence?
 * It would also be a reason to keep Fiona on the show after she graduates.
 * Almost confirmed?
 * Confirmed. Big time.

Bianca will be the next bisexual character.

 * In Degrassi history, Alex made fun of Marco's homosexuality and later turned out to be a lesbian herself.
 * Some fans consider Bianca to be the Expy of Alex. During season 10, Bianca gets defensive of her heterosexuality to the point of getting Adam beaten up.
 * It would be an easy way to give her Badass Decay.
 * She's disgusted with that dude she's with now.

Degrassi takes place in an Alternate Universe where sociopathy and anti-social behavior is the default setting.
Given that a "normal" society would be in a state of collapse if the situation was allowed to occur,it is only possible that this is happening in an alternate universe from this one.
 * Think about it: the levels of immature and self-serving behavior far exceeds what is the norm for a normal Earth setting and would result in arrests,imprisonments and even institutionalization in a mental facility.There are also very few responsible adults, not many social workers and almost no mental health professionals.
 * Alternately, the incessant Badass Decay means that Degrassi does at least a fair-to-middling job of making solid citizens out of these kids.

Kendra dumped Toby because she caught him watching something by 4kids
Makes about as much sense as anything else.

Stefan Brogren is being prepared to take over as Executive Producer.
Both Stephen Stohn and Linda Schuyler are in their early 60s and are probobly considering retirement in the next few years; the show shows no signs of running out of steam after The Boiling Point broke it out of the Season 8 slump. Brogren's been with the franchise as long as everyone else but them, and the regular episodes written and/or directed by him are among the most popular. On a related note, look for Mr. Simpson to be Kicked Upstairs into a position that'll involve teaching the occasional class at Degrassi (maybe even one period daily), to give Brogren more time for the off-camera stuff without taking Snake out of the show entirely.
 * After years as only an actor, he seems to be taking turns as the show's media spokesperson as well as writing and directing. Rotating someone through every job they'll be expected to supervise is exactly what's done to management trainees.

The Declan/Holly J date rape plot is NOT over.
Holly J's gotten into Yale. At this point, she wants to go as much for herself as for Declan, but how is she going to pay for it? Her parents' financial situation has gotten steadily worse and they now have NO money, the financial aid available to her as a Canadian citizen is probably based on the (much lower) tuition charged by Canadian universities... But. The Coynes have money. They're public figures. Holly J could threaten them with a very messy, very public trial with a distinct possibility of Declan doing hard prison time. Or they could put three kids through the Ivy League instead of two. Their call
 * Very doubtful. Holly J is not NEARLY that much of a bitch anymore.

Jenna is a lesbian.
It definitely explains a lot of her behavior. Either she hasn't realized it yet, or she's in denial about her sexuality and to convince herself that she's straight, she steals other girls' boyfriends. In the first episode she appeared in, she BRAGGED about being a "boyfriend stealer" - that's not exactly something to be proud of. Also, she spends the majority of the episode Breakaway obsessed with Clare's boobs.

Fitz has an abusive home life.
Makes sense. It would explain why he is the way he is.


 * Confirmed

The Radish Song had been kicking around the writers' room for a while.
It may even predate the franchise and Mr. Raditch was given that name for the sole reason of using the nickname. Either way, using it at the end of Season 4 was a now-or-never moment since Dan Woods was leaving the show.
 * But Mr. Raditch was the English teacher on Degrassi Junior High...
 * Exactly. Maybe the song was something Linda Schuyler thought up herself and the other writers resisted for that long. Notice it doesn't ever sung all the way through.

The TDSB bought Degrassi's lockers and the ones in the school Jude and Jamie went to as a bulk purchase.
The simplest in-universe explanation for them being the same.

Fiona already knows that Adam is transgender.
It was all over school so how could she not?

So when she and Drew talked, she was either pretending not to know anything or for some reason thought that he was talking about something else when he said that "Adam is not like most guys".


 * Confirmed.

Eli will die because the "Eclare" ship is Too Happy to Live.
The writers aren't stupid, they knew they were creating what would eventually become one of the most popular power couples in Degrassi history. Why would they do that unless they had something big planned?

They are also easily bored. They can't just let two characters stay in a (semi)stable relationship throughout the rest of the series. The only way for a Degrassi couple to be safe from a breakup is if A) They get Put On a Bus or B) One of them dies.

Knowing the fans, they would most likely get more upset over an Eclare breakup than a death anyway.

Holly J and Fiona will become the next Palex, leaving Adam free to eventually end up with Bianca.
The Bianca/Adam plot line doesn't feel over. The two of them seemed to have chemistry before Bianca decided she could not date an FTM. Drew is unlikely to be an option for her anymore because he seems to be moving towards a relationship with Jess. Unless Bianca is moving towards a relationship with Owen or Fitz, Adam is the only guy who isn't taken who she could get with at this point. Meanwhile, Fiona has always had extremely high standards for guys (as well as excellent gaydar) and has never wanted anything physical or "too serious" (except presumably with Bobby who she may have dated primarily to get back on her family's good side). So...Degrassi will make Fiona the "real" lesbian, while allowing Holly J (possibly an Expy of Paige to enter the relationship because love is "about the person" and not the gender.
 * Well, look at the end of the most recent episode. Fiona just kissed Holly J.

Eli and Clare will temporarily break up, leading Eli into a brief fan-angering relationship with Bianca that ends badly and leads him back to Clare.
This usually seems to happen when Troubled but Cute male characters date Hollywood Nerd girls on Degrassi.

Alli is at risk for Honor Related Abuse.
The "bad things keep happening to me" line from the In Too Deep promo reveals that the all-girls' school hasn't been as helpful as she'd hoped and her parents were nearing the end of their rope. It would be as much Sav's storyline as hers; depending on when he finds out he could face the need to report his own father to the police, or be investigated as a suspect himself after the fact.
 * This could easily lead to a storyline about Adam grappling with whether to come forward as a character witness ("if Sav was some kind of Taliban, why would he hang out and talk music with a transboy?") and thus come out in a very public forum.

At the Coyne/Beckonridge trial, Holly J will tell off Bobby during a recess or after the verdict.
You know it would pretty much be amazing. And it's something that's been coming for a while. It may even be the catalyst to get Bobby arrested. IE: He is acquitted, Holly J pulls him aside, calls him out, he strikes her, and someone catches him and he is punished properly.

The next character to die will be Sean.
Depending on the depth of the Retcon he graduated High School last year, or no more than two years ago, so there are plenty of students still at Degrassi who remember him, and having a recent graduate killed in combat offers plenty of storyline potential without losing any of the characters currently in the show.
 * This would be an interesting storyline, and they could be bring back lots of people. ( Drake Aubrey Graham Cameo, anyone!?!!?) At the very least, it would greatly effect Snake.

Degrassi will decide to break new ground and realistically handle a non-depraved male bisexual on a teen show.
Bonus points if he's a Twofer/Threefer Token Minority. Anybody want to guess who it could be? I think the safest bet would be Eli, but you never know....
 * No longer thinking Eli. Owen, maybe?

The episode "Weird Science" was actually the set up for Spinner and Emma's eventual marriage. (Theory #1)
It was pretty much the only episode where they came into (positive) contact with each other (aside from a couple encounters at the Dot, since Spinner worked there). I hypothesize that what happened was this: When Emma approached Spinner in the episode, she saw his enormous irresistible erection and immediately new she had found the love of her life (not to mention desperately wanted some of that shit inside of her). However, she also knew the odds of them getting together at that point in time were very low, so in turn she set up a massive Xanatos Gambit that would eventually lead to their marriage in Degrassi Takes Manhattan, and one that would also allow her to have the most fun possible along the way. Granted it got derailed a few times (see: Jimmy getting shot, her getting an STD,, Lakehurst merging with Degrassi, Spinner getting cancer, etc...), but in the end her ingenious master plan worked. All those times she acted like a bitch? It was really all an act that would eventually lead her into Spinner's muscular arms and allow her to get her hands on his gigantic slab of man meat. And he was dumb enough to fall for it. Well, either that or....

The episode "Weird Science" was actually the set up for Spinner and Emma's eventual marriage. (Theory #2)
As said before, this was basically the only episode where they interacted, so my second hypothesis surmises that this may have been what happened: Just like before, the moment Emma saw Spinner's "beast within", as he so lovingly called it, she fell in love. But you see, Spinner fell in love too. Let's face it, those braces and elephant ears Emma had when she was younger were HAWT. Anyway; some time shortly after this, they both confessed their love for each other, but knew that this cruel world would not accept their romance at this current stage in their lives. So, like before, a huge Xanatos Gambit was set up. While to all appearances they barely interacted, in actuality they were having a carefully planned secret tryst (up until Degrassi Takes Manhattan). But the big difference in this theory is this: all that bad stuff that happened? They made it happen. You see, they are both actually sociopaths and derive pleasure (and in this case, sexual pleasure that could fuel the fire of their affair until it could be made public) from seeing the physical and emotional pain of others. All that remorse Spinner felt after Jimmy got shot? All that sadness Emma had after ? LIES. Manipulative sociopathic lies! Spinner chose Jimmy as the one who would get shot! He was jealous. Emma bribed that guy to stab JT, so as to bring misery to Liberty and Toby, two people who have constantly outsmarted her over the years. But those times where they acted like major assholes? That was actually their real personalities seeping through the facade. Hell, they even loved screwing with each other! You see; Emma got Manny in on the plot, and had her screw (literally and figuratively) with Spinner. As revenge, Spinner told Jay to have sex with a girl he knew had STD's, then recommended Emma have sex with Jay once he knew Jay he had become infected. And to worsen the blow? He told Sean he should join the army, making Emma lose her second best sex buddy. Not to worry, though; Emma got back at him. She secretly exposed his testicles to radiation while he was sleeping, causing him to get testicular cancer. Even worse, though: they killed Kendra! Kendra found out about their relationship (and their sociopathy) and threatened to tell their parents. But before she could tell her mom or dad, the vast conspiracy consumed her and her father. You see, Spinner's mom was in on the plot too. Why? She is where Spinner got his sociopathy, and she was tired of her horrible marriage. So, all three of them (the three being Emma, Spinner, and Spinner's mom) teamed up and killed Kendra and her Dad, hacking their bodies to pieces and consuming the flesh like the depraved freaks they are. Oh, and Emma made Darcy and Mia leave as revenge against Peter.

So, to summarize: They were basically Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka 2.0.


 * And even after graduating, they haven't stopped! They are both The Unseen characters now, but they're still behind the scenes manipulating everything that happens to the students at Degrassi. Spinner convinced K.C. to become a serial adulterer, thus wrecking his relationship with Clare and more recently with Jenna (in fact, Spinner is the one who arranged for Jenna's transfer to Degrassi for the sole purpose of breaking up KC/Clare, and then in Season 11 he secretly encouraged Marisol to seduce K.C.). Meanwhile, Emma convinced poor Riley that the students of Degrassi would never accept his homosexuality (when she knew this to be false, since Marco had been a fairly popular student just a few years earlier). This has lead to years of Gayngst and misery for Riley, much to Emma's satisfaction. Then when he'd finally gotten over his fear of his classmates not accepting him, Emma convinced poor Riley that his father would never accept him, thus forcing Riley back into the closet and ruining his relationship with Zane.

Meanwhile in S9, Spinner secretly convinced Mr. and Mrs. Bandhari (while they were having dinner at the Dot) to go ahead with their plans for Sav's arranged marriage, which is why the Bandharis suddenly tried to force Farrah on Sav. Also, to screw with their heads even more, he was the one who convinced Alli to date Johnny Di Marco, which led to more misery.

And in Season 10, the reason why Eli went insane was because Emma was secretly pumping toxic fumes into his bedroom while he was sleeping, causing him brain damage that's still affecting him as of Season 11. Oh, and the car that killed Eli's first girlfriend and then drove off? Emma was driving it!!!!

The Eclare romance will end in tragedy, à la Romeo & Juliet
So here's what I think will happen: As the date of Julia's death approaches, Eli becomes overprotective and borderline abusive toward Clare, to the point that he hits her. However, horrified with himself, he runs off and attempts suicide. Clare discovers his body, and finds that he is dead/almost dead (they might possibly have a reprise of their Romeo and Juliet skit from earlier in the season). Grief and Guilt stricken over this (as well as her parent's now dead marriage) she commits suicide in the heat of passion. However, it turns out, Eli failed his suicide. And this is where things could go one of two ways: Eli then kills himself for real, or wakes up in the hospital and learns that Clare is dead, but cannot commit suicide himself as he is being closely watched. Ultimately, he is forced to live with the deaths of both his lovers, and perhaps finds solace in a man (Fitz? Riley?) rather than a woman this time around. (Ok ok, that's just wishing; he'd probably end up with another girl or nobody) Anyway, as a result of Clare's death, Darcy comes back, and her story is given closure (as well as Peter's most likely). Perhaps Spinner may even return (one would assume he would return for the funeral of his ex girlfriend's little sister). The reason I say all this is that it feels like the writers have been dropping hints all season. Let me count the ways:
 * 1) They said an "unexpected character will return"- this would be Darcy.
 * 2) Romeo and Juliet. Eli's ex's name was Julia
 * 3) Speaking of Julia, Craig's mom's name was Julia. She died. And so did Craig's abusive father.
 * 4) The whole Romeo and Juliet skit itself.
 * 5) The name dropping of Sylvia Plath.
 * 6) The episode "Drop the World, Pt. 2" is going to air on the anniversary of Julia's death.
 * Ok, so maybe that didn't really make sense, but think about it. Somebody has GOT TO DIE!
 * also in the "In Too Deep" promos there's a picture of her where her eyes seem dead. People on the message boards are saying it's just a really bad picture, but what if...
 * Maybe this is what will happen: With Fitz's new found faith (if it's for real, that is) Eli is going to grow increasingly possessive of Clare, and as the date of Julia's death approaches, either Fitz and/or Clare will insult Julia and Eli's obsession with her. This will put him in a blind fury and he will, as a result, kill Clare or Fitz (or both, if the Degrassi writers want to go really crazy and have a double homicide). This may or may not end in Eli committing suicide after he realizes what he's done. UPDATE: "Jesus, Etc. Part 2" is only adding credence to this..... it seems possible Eli's story is a Foreshadowing... or maybe, it's a Red Herring (along with Holly J's mysterious illness seen in the promos for upcoming episodes), and somebody will die completely unexpectedly.

Rick was the second coming
This is a theory that Boycott the Caf came up with. As You Know, Terri is a godless devil worshiper who used Ouija boards, tarot cards, and incantations to foretell doom and bring forth vain glory to her name, and enticing other girls in the school to join her heathen ways when giving a presentation on the subject in season 1. Rick was brought down from heaven to cleanse the world of her wickedness. Good triumphed over evil, and Terri was sent to a private catholic school to be redeemed. But just like Christ, Rick was hated and mocked by his peers. They tortured and beat their savior and yes, eventually killed him. He died so that Degrassi's students may live. But he will return one day.

Holly J will end up with Toby
And it will turn out that their one episode fling was actually a foreshadowing/ChekhovsGun; At the last minute during season 10, or maybe season(s) 11/12 (or whenever Charlotte Arnold decides she's had enough), Toby will turn up and have somehow Cleaned Up Nicely/Taken a Level in Badass, thus causing Holly J's romance with him to reignite itself. This time, however, Toby reciprocates the love, and they live Happily Ever After. That is, unless the writers decide to have Toby still be a Butt Monkey, in that case; one day, while Toby is hosting Ultimate Robot Fighting Canada, one of the robots goes psycho and murders Holly J, therefore leaving Toby without romance and having somebody close to him die. Again.

Eli literally killed Julia.
Maybe it was an accident, or maybe he lost his temper.

Fiona's diary entry was about Holly J, not Adam.
Think about it. Both times Adam was at her house, Fiona was drunk. She wouldn't be coherent enough to write something like that. Also, the promos for "In Too Deep" suggests she might be into girls.
 * Plus there aren't really "a million reasons" why Fiona and Adam shouldn't work. Maybe there are a few depending on who you ask but... it just doesn't seem to fit.
 * Quite possibly. Lookit the kiss scene between the two of them.

Fitz is lying about his new-found "faith" in order to turn Clare against Eli
The whole "Eli is a Yandere" thing in the promos is just a set up for a big twist where he was right about Fitz all along.

It's also possible that Fitz is a Yandere himself and that he will try to harm Clare or Eli.

Eli and Clare will break up at the end of season 10, but not in the way that the promos are leading us to believe.
Fitz somehow convinces Clare that she and Eli aren't meant for each other, causing her to break it off with him at a time when he needs her the most. This causes Eli to (try to?) hurt himself. (Either that or Fitz hurts him). Then Clare realizes that she was wrong and asks for Eli's forgiveness but at this point he is too angry and hurt to take her back.

Giving the writers a chance to drag this out as long as possible...

Johnny and Alli will get back together by the end of season 10
Evidence?
 * 1) The Johnny/Alli plot in season 9 was never quite resolved.
 * 2) It is said that someone will unexpectedly return this season.
 * 3) In one of the promos Sav is shown at Johnny's dorm. Probably looking for Alli (this also implies that Johnny goes to college somewhere nearby).

So either...
 * A) After Alli runs away (and probably gets mugged; as shown in the promos) she tracks Johnny down because she has nowhere else to go and no one to turn to. or...
 * B) Johnny becomes concerned after Sav shows up looking for Alli and goes out to find her himself; possibly even coming to her rescue when she's being mugged.
 * or C) After she leaves home, Alli unexpectedly runs into Johnny. She ends up staying with him for a little while and they reconnect. But then Johnny calls Sav behind Alli's back (after she refuses to do it herself) and tells him where she is. This causes her to become angry with him for "betraying" her... until later when he explains that he only did what he did because he cared about her. Then they make up.

Eli is abusive, and he will kill Clare, just like he killed Julia
In the season finale, Clare will get tired of Eli's abusive behavior and try to leave him for Fitz. Eli will knock Clare out, tie her up, and put her in the back of the hearse. He will then drive her to the site where he murdered Julia, kill Clare, and drink her blood, just like the ending to his short story.
 * Haha, he did seem like a rather... extreme Yandere at the end of that episode, didn't he?
 * Exactly, he looks subtly towards the camera and gives it a Psychotic Smirk. That combined with the look of uncertainty on Clare's face is a ridiculous amount of foreshadowing, and it's, what, a three second clip? Degrassi never does something like that unless it means something huge is coming.

Fiona/Holly J's Almost Kiss from the promo will be All Just a Dream
The setting seems a bit surreal. The lighting is odd, and there are a lot of warm colors in the background, much like Wesley's dream. Plus in one of the promos, Fiona is shown lying in bed and crying (right after a clip of Holly J no less). It's likely that that'll be the scene where she wakes up.

And let's face it. Degrassi has pulled stuff like this before.


 * Hell, they would probably make it Holly J's dream.


 * Confirmed (but not Holly J's dream)

Making Simpson the principal was an In Universe Authors Saving Throw by the school board.
Back in the day Degrassi's Media Immersion program was a highly innovative and intensive program - a relic of this is how everyone seems to take MI every year. Even if not making it a full-on magnet school, it was at least a model for possible future deployment citywide. Then Executive Meddling fell on the school in the form of a poorly handled expansion to 7-12. Then there was the shooting, the stabbing and the Lakehurst merger. What better way to try and get back to the school they had envisioned back in 2001 than to put the man at the center of that state-of-the-art media immersion program in charge of the whole school? Sub-guesses by the OP:
 * The uniforms were supposed to be part of the above-mentioned rebranding. Either they had been ordered and delivered over the summer and Simpson didn't want them, or they had not been delivered in time for the school year and that gave Simpson an excuse to tell the school board "wait till next year" with his idea being not to implement them ever. Either way, the events of Vegas Night caused him to change his mind. There's really no way to order, deliver and distribute custom-embroidered polo shirts in sufficient numbers for 1000-1500 people to each have multiples, from scratch in two weeks, especially if they're the Christmas-New Year's holiday. They had to already exist and be in the school system's hands.
 * Snake probably has PTSD from having discovered Claude's body in the bathroom. He probably thinks that if he had needed to take a leak just a few seconds earlier, he could've saved Claude. When Jimmy was shot, Snake unloaded on Raditch hard. Now he's the one on the hot seat...

Katie from the new season 11 cast will be Fiona's first girlfriend.

 * Katie's character description states that she has a very hard time talking to guys or opening up about matters of the heart. Granted, being shy around guys in high school hardly makes one a lesbian, but Degrassi has done this before, introducing Fiona as a "straight" girl who was awkward around guys. Because Katie will be grade 11 at the end of this school year, she'll have one more year at Degrassi, giving the writers a reason to keep Fiona on the show for another year.

Mrs. Torres is not completely over her issues with Gracie becoming Adam.

 * She is okay with him dressing and living as a male for now, but what happens the next time Adam's grandmother visits? Moreover, what happens when Adam falls in love and has a serious girlfriend?

Fiona had crushes on heterosexual female friends before Holly J.

 * In Degrassi Takes Manhattan, Declan's ex-girlfriends inform Holly J that Fiona constantly comes between Declan and his girlfriends. Though in some cases this is simply because she wants Declan to pay attention to her and take care of her, it is also revealed that Declan mostly has a habit of dating friends of Fiona's. In all likelihood, Fiona had crushes on some of these girls before Declan started dating them, especially because Fiona asserts (after coming out) that Declan "won't be surprised."

Holly J. is Bi

 * She's never really had a lasting relationship with a guy and she even joked about "switching teams" in one episode. Plus, she is a little close with Fiona, and is always telling her how pretty she is and saying "I love you". Her snottiness when she first appeared on the show could also be explained by this, she already has a dominant personality and desire to be her best. discovering an attraction to women may have made her feel imperfect and caused her to constantly try to one-up her peers.
 * Not to mention the fact that the first thing she thought of when she heard "the L word" was "lesbian"
 * which indicates that she is a fan of The L Word.
 * She is also paired with females more frequently than any other currently active character besides Fiona in femslash fics partially because she has a history of heated Foe Yay with female characters (see Anya, Mia, Fiona in DTM, etc).

Anya is Bi.

 * Anya doesn't bat an eye at any sexuality of anyone she meets. Her platonic relationships with guys and girls seem to play out much the same when she talks to them. There was the whole weird matching outfits thing she did with Holly J in season 7. She could instantly spot Fiona was in love with Holly J and nobody else could. Her meekness and willingness to follow Holly J everywhere could easily be seen as her uncertainty about herself and she didn't bring up her feelings because she knew it would alienate her from her peers.
 * I actually thought she had a huge ladycrush on Holly J when they were introduced.

Mr. Simpson really is an ephebophile.

 * This would explain why he was so embarrassed after Darcy accused him of molesting her, and why he was so reluctant to return to the school.

Next person to die? Look no futher than Grade 11.

 * Stephen Stohn's fondness for Star Trek references is so well-known that those Red Shirts can't be a coincidence. Eli would be too obvious at this point and Owen hasn't been seen or heard from since the Boiling Point. That leaves Drew, Fitz and Bianca among the characters important enough to have entries on the Character Sheet.
 * My bet's on Drew. He'll be shot by the creepy guy from the promo.
 * I also bet it's Drew as well, since he has no likeable, interesting, or relatable qualities and really has no reason to exist as a protagonist anyways.
 * Having no redeemable qualities isn't enough of an incentive to kill off a character (after all, Emma was never killed off). Furthermore, the writers might decide to go the likeable character being killed off route, which might resonate more with viewers.
 * Emma at the very least was still somewhat interesting, and they gave her actual issues to deal with so her character was justified as being important. Also Luke is one of the worst actors on the show by far, and that the writers have clearly lost their balls as far as "going there," so it's much more likely at this point that they'll kill off a useless character rather than one that's good/well liked.
 * YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY. Quite a few people think Bilyk is a very good actor, and that even without that, Drew has still gotten loads of character development this season.
 * Not that many are impressed by him. I still think he's more likely to die, since he's still not anymore likeable than he was before.

Fiona had crushes on Declan's ex-girlfriends long before she met Holly J.

 * It was stated in DTM that Declan had a habit of dating Fiona's friends and Fiona had a habit of becoming extremely jealous.

Bianca is the love child of Jay and Alex, but has Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome.

 * Before they appeared on the show, Alex got pregnant by Jay. She gave the baby up for adoption and never spoke of it again. That child is Bianca even though she should technically only be the same age as Jack Simpson. The show has become more and more of a soap opera so who says they haven't started rapidly aging kids too?

Derek is Wheels' biological brother.

 * On Degrassi Junior High, a few months after Emma was born, Derek "Wheels" Wheeler went to see his birth father Mike and found out that his girlfriend was pregnant. They were planning to keep it even though they were barely supporting themselves. Then Wheels left and Mike was never mentioned again. What if Mike and his girlfriend named their son after the other son he gave up but soon found that they were unable to provide for a child and gave him up too? Derek is adopted and would be the right age.

A giant monster lives under Degrassi, and must be appeased by a sacrifice every one in a while.

 * This would explain why characters constantly disappear without any explanation. And it goes all the way back to Degrassi Junior High, too. I mean, yeah that was a different school and all, but who's to say a giant monster cant move to a new location? It's first victim was Rick Munro, which gave it a craving for human flesh. He wondered down into the basement and was eaten. Flash forward (I haven't seen Degrassi High yet) to Season 1 of TNG. It's desire for the succulent taste of human has become too large, so finally an offering is given by Raditch (who discovered Rick's bones and the beast, but escaped unscathed): that kid who ate lunch with Spinner and Jimmy in "The Mating Game" was fed to it. Season 2 Wheelchair Girl and Muslim girl were sacrificed. Season 3 it was Kendra and Sully. Season 4 it was Chris, Amy, and Chester. Season 5 was Linus and Tim. Season 6 and 7 were.... I don't know. Season 8 was Jimmy. Season 9 was Derek. Season 10 was Leia, and most likely Fitz. It looks like Wesley is lined up to be the next victim in Season 11. When will its insatiable appetite finally be appeased!??!
 * Jimmy wasn't fed to the monster. He's in New York, at Hudson University.
 * "When will its insatiable appetite finally be appeased!??!" Apparently not anytime soon. As of the end of Season 10, the Degrassi administration seems to have fed Declan and Fitz to the monster.
 * Not Declan. He's in New York.

Chante ages in Comic Book Time

 * She was attending classes at Degrassi in Season 4...and is still a student at Degrassi 8 years later. None of the students or teachers seem to bat an eyelash or even notice the fact that as they get older, Chante stays the same age. We can only assume that Chante is "aging" in Comic Book Time (the same way Clark Kent has remained roughly in his late 20's/early 30's since 1938) while the other characters are all aging in Real Time.

Between Seasons 7 and 8 there was a Crisis On Infinite Earths type of event

 * This would explain the Retcon of character ages. It would also explain why many of the new characters are Expys of the original cast: they ARE the original characters, just reincarnated/retconnned into new identities once the universe resettled into its current form after the Crisis.
 * Also, only Snake remembers the universe's original form and is aware that the Crisis occurred, because he's the legacy character on the show.

Liberty is actually some advanced form of Artificial Intelligence

 * Mia flatly stated that Liberty is a computer shaped in human form. And she may have been on to something. Liberty is capable of computing advanced mathematics and scientific problems at an incredible rate but is completely unable to figure out everyday emotional human dilemmas. She also is extremely driven, as though she literally feels compelled to execute whatever tasks she was programmed to perform.
 * This is also why she hung out with Toby so much, since he would be able to repair her whenever her circuits got damaged or whenever she needed to download a new software patch.
 * In fact, Toby is such a computer expert that it's possible that he's the one who built the Liberty-Bot in the first place (right before Season 1; even at a young age he was already a boy genius). Eventually, he decided to help out his best friend by programming the Liberty-Bot to develop a crush on JT.

JT's death was arranged by Liberty's father
Liberty's parents seemed to utterly despise JT. Even moreso when they learned that he had gotten their precious Liberty pregnant. They clearly felt that the wild, free-spirited JT was a bad influence on their formerly-straitlaced daughter and were terrified that he was going to derail her future. Around the time JT died, he and Liberty had broken up, but Liberty's father knew it was only a matter of time before JT and Liberty got back together (and he was right, the night of the stabbing it looked like they would reunite very soon).

So Mr. Van Zandt took matters into his own hands. He's a high-powered lawyer so he probably has all kinds of underworld contacts by now, after so many years of interacting with criminals. He got in touch with that punk from Lakehurst (or met with a middleman who then hired the Lakehurst punk) and put out a hit on JT.

The murder went down exactly as planned, removing JT from the equation.

The Degrassi Mobile Game takes place in an alternate universe where Claude is alive.
Notice that Simpson has a full head of hair and the students reference events up to the end of season 10 but aren't wearing uniforms. The theory I posit as to why is that either Claude never attempted suicide or was stopped in time to prevent him.
 * Alternately, Claude could never have existed in the first place, not attended Degrassi or have been discovered in the bathroom by someone else. Any of the above would've removed a major traumatic event from Snake's past.

The upcoming death with be a suicide and Snake will find the dead body ala Claude.
And the name of episode will be Adam's Song. His death will lead to his mother going absolutely nuts and Degrassi closing altogether, ending the series FOREVER.
 * Alternately, Connor will be the one to commit suicide. This means that getting a weapon past security won't be an issue - Simpson's responsible for Connor at home too - and Snake'll get an "A" plot over the course of the rest of the season, demonstrating to teens contemplating suicide just how devastated the people around them are from their loss. It would of course depend on not only Amanda Stepto and Miriam McDonald being available, but also Shane Kippel because of Spemma and Pat Mastroianni since Joey's back in Toronto (see below), though.
 * There may actually be some evidence to support this. Just look at this.

Angela Jeremiah will be returning to Degrassi in the second half of season 11.
Alex Steele has been itching to get back on Degrassi for years. She's at the right age both in and out of universe to play a Degrassi character. To make things even more convincing, Stephen Stohn said on Twitter that everyone at the premier party would be getting to see the new niners, including one we already know. And Alex Steele was at the party.
 * And she will end up becoming involved with Eli, as he is *clearly* a remake of Craig, and she knows first hand what unstable looks like.
 * Jossed. Alex is coming back as a new character, named Tori.

The Degrassi Bermuda Triangle is in Kenya.
We all know Darcy never came back from Kenya. Now Dr. Criss is off to Kenya as well. With the exception of Mia, we don't know where anyone else disappeared to. Why wouldn't it be in Kenya?
 * This. Glad I'm not the only one who noticed that Dr. Criss's excuse for becoming Brother Chuck was that he's going to Kenya just like Darcy. My theory: the writers did this as a subtle joke about the fact that Darcy is apparently still in Kenya.

The Degrassi Bermuda Triangle is on the CW.
Darcy? Beverly Hills. Mia? Vampire Diaries. Clearly, this cannot be a coincidence.
 * This makes it likely that Dr. Criss will be getting a show on the CW also.

The only reason Anya's with Owen is because he's good in bed.
What? I can not be the only person who was thinking this when they got together.
 * Well, he certainly has no other good qualities...
 * Initial gropey misunderstandings aside, he's not bad, he's more of a Jerk With a Heart of Gold. He kept trying to keep her off the cocaine (albeit in a somewhat dickish manner), and he was the one who gave some serious physical training without expecting anything in return.

The first half of Season 11 will end with someone shooting up the prom.
It's been heavily implied that there will be a gun. We all know that Drew's storyline is far from over, and if something big is going to happen, it'll be during prom. Just like The Boiling Point ended with the vegas dance, Breaking Point ended with Adam's party, and In Too Deep ended with Alli's dance. Not to mention the endings of season two, season three, season four (well, second to last episode), season five (where the dance was present, but not the main focus), season six (where the dance was more of a celebration after the main plots were resolved), season seven (prom and graduation), season 8 (which had a gun AND a dance, just not together), and, arguably, season one (house party, not a dance). Wow... come to think of it, Degrassi is really fond of this.
 * And the death will be Chantay. And there will be happiness.

Heather Sinclair will finally be revealed at Holly J's graduation.
During the early seasons of Degrassi, Heather Sinclair was almost a character like any other character on Degrassi; introducing Holly J as her sister makes Holly J an abstract connection to the "old school" Degrassi. However, as the previous actors left and the "new school" characters came in, Heather became forgotten. She was mentioned only once during Season 8, and once more in the season 9 Christmas mini Ghost of Degrassi. Considering season 11 might be Charlotte Arnold's last season on the show, the producers will want to bring back why Holly J was introduced in the first place.
 * Jossed. It didn't even seem like Holly J's parents were there.

Imogen will drive Eli completely off the deep end into insanity
She encouraged Eli to dump his meds and to indulge his psychotic anger at Clare. As we saw in Season 10, Eli's rage knows no bounds (as Fitz discovered). The longer he stays with Imogen, the more she will convince him to give into whatever wild emotion he's feeling at the moment.

The reason? Imogen herself is insane, and she wants company. She's seen that Eli clearly has "potential" to join her on the crazy train (she knew all about last season's debacles with Fitz, Julia's memory, Clare, etc.) and that's why she's so fixated on Eli. So now she's doing everything she can to pull him into her crazy world so she can have a boyfriend who's just as nutty as she is, and she certainly doesn't mind getting dragged along on his crazy missions of vengeance against his "enemies."

In other words, Imogen wants to be the Harley Quinn to Eli's Joker.

Combining two theories above this: There will be a shooting at prom: Eli will be the shooter...and Clare and/or Jake will be the victim(s)
Eli is nuts and only getting worse. It's not hard to imagine that he'll eventually decide that writing a Hate Fic about Clare and using it as the school play isn't enough revenge, and decide to physically eliminate Clare (his twisted justification will be that this will allow him to "move on" from her). Imogen, of course, will be cheering him on. Then when he goes after Clare, Jake will attempt to interfere to save her. In the process, either he, Clare, or both, will be shot by Eli.


 * Either that or...

Imogen herself will shoot up the prom and either Eli or Clare will be the target.

 * This theory is now looking a lot more likely, now that Eli has rejected Imogen to her face and says that he'd rather be with Clare. If "Extraordinary Medicine, Pt. 2" proved anything, it's how utterly twisted and insane they both are. So in Imogen's twisted mind it won't matter if Clare doesn't reciprocate Eli's Stalker With a Crush feelings. All Imogen will think is that Clare is standing in her way. She already tried to get Clare expelled and brought up on drug charges tonight, with Clare only being saved narrowly. It's not a stretch to imagine that Imogen will try to kill Clare.

The reason so many horrible things have happened to the kids at this school is because there is a Hellmouth under Degrassi
It's been there for quite some time, at least since The Eighties but probably longer, subtly wreaking havoc in the school because of its very presence. This is also why both  were able to return to Degrassi in ghost form in the online extra features.

Throughout the past decade, there have always been Slayers secretly attempting to avert complete catastrophe. Mr. Simpson is the Watcher assigned to guard over the school, while the original Slayer at Degrassi was Emma. Then Darcy joined Emma as local Slayer (since Buffy had activated all the potential Slayers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer...at roughly the same time Darcy showed up at Degrassi). After both Emma and Darcy were gone, Clare became the new Slayer at Degrassi. Alli might also be a Slayer, but just hasn't realized it yet.
 * If that's true, then Live To Tell just got WAY creepier.
 * Also, this means that Boycott the Caf was right: the reason why Marco held up his crucifix in Linus's face in "I Against I" is because he literally thought Linus was a vampire, because Marco is Genre Savvy and knows that there are indeed vampires lurking around Degrassi.
 * And the events of the "Degrassi of the Dead" Zombie Apocalypse episode really are in continuity. The reason why things were back to normal by the next episode was because Mr. Simpson, in his role as the Watcher, was hiding out in an undisclosed location with some spellbooks, working around the clock on a spell that would Set Right What Once Went Wrong. And he succeeded! Simpson performed a spell/ritual that pressed the Reset Button and undid the Zombie Apocalypse, bringing the population of Degrassi back to life. However the unforeseen side effect of messing around with the fabric of time and reality was that everyone's ages/birth year got screwed around. This is how the Age Retcons happened.
 * It would be really amusing to learn that Paige has a cousin down in California named Cordelia Chase.

Jenna will develop Post-Partum Depression.
It's one of the few teen pregnancy-related tropes Degrassi hasn't tackled yet.
 * And it'll lead to her not paying attention to Tyson, thus endangering him and causing child services to pay them a visit (the latter of which is confirmed for this week).

Tessa Campinelli is Holly J's birth mother.

 * What if she DIDN'T have an abortion? And we know Angie and (presumably) Joey are coming back for the second half of season 11. Is it to reconnect with his long lost daughter?
 * Jossed by U Don't Know. Holly J's mother is a woman named Dawn.
 * Are you suggesting that Tessa Campinelli WOULDN'T change her name to Dawn to fool the folks at Degrassi?

Holly J will die at the end of Now Or Never

 * She's having a lot of trouble finding a kidney for a transplant, what, with being adopted and needing to find her birth mother, and all. What if she can't get one and ends up dying from the complications? The show hasn't done death from illness yet (illness, yes, but not death), and it's arguably as big a death issue as suicide. Plus, she's not supposed to be back after Now Or Never anyway, so it's not like her dying will be a huge loss for the series.
 * Dead and Gone part 1 seems to be subtly foreshadowing this. My theory is that her death will probably occur off-screen and the news will be delivered via Wham Line after all of the shooting drama is over and the viewers are led to believe that everyone is okay. ...Plus, it's the most effective way sink the Folly J ship, which the writers have been desperately trying to do since Drop the World.

Joey will be killed off.

 * Alex Steele is apparently coming back, but Pat Mastroianni has previously claimed that he wouldn't play his role on the show anymore. Assuming he doesn't change his mind, they don't give Alex a different character, Joey doesn't become a Heather Sinclair-esque figure, and they don't have Angie live away from her dad for some contrived reason, then they'll probably have to kill him off.
 * Jossed. Alex is playing a different character, not Angie. Of course the announcement has been accompanied by the usual cries of Ruined FOREVER.

Katie will get shot at the end of Now Or Never

 * Watch this and tell me you think otherwise.

The only reason Imogen is after Eli is because he's easily manipulated and it's easy for her to string him along.

 * It's not like there's any other reason she would be interested in him.

Going on the above theory about Anya and Owen, Drew only likes Bianca because of sex, and vice versa.

 * First, Bianca certainly has no other good qualities. Secondly, it was made pretty obvious that the girls at school finally learned better than to even touch him, and why it was so easy for him to dump her.
 * This is one is admittedly weaker, but, it was made clear that almost no one likes her because of her personality, and possibly other reasons, so Drew's the only one who would give her the time of day. Also, like her, he has no other positive qualities besides looks.
 * Oh and before anyone else says anything, yes Drew stopped her from being raped, but just because he's a selfish, arrogant, lazy, spoiled, useless asshole doesn't mean he's bad enough to allow his friend with benefits to be raped.

Tyson'll get an open adoption, possibly by a lesbian couple.
This would create a scenario where KC continues to be in Tyson's life without the day-to-day parenting role he isn't/never was ready for. It also sets up ideal conditions for Tyson's upbringing so that if the show's still on in fourteen years he can come in as an earnest, idealistic, somewhat sheltered "cause boy". In other words, the new Emma.
 * This troper would much rather see JT and Liberty's son's family move back to Toronto as a teenager and HE could be the new Emma, only without the Jerk Sue qualities. He already has an interesting back-story, he's the product of one of the fandom's most popular ships (and two of the originals of the next generation to boot), plus it would be an excuse for Liberty to appear again (since she never got a send-off or anything). I don't watch the show anymore, but I don't think that KC and Jenna will actually go through with the adoption. The show has lacked a realistic portrayal of teen parents (Mia the model, anyone?) and adoption has already been covered anyways.
 * As of tonight, this has been Jossed: Ty has indeed been adopted, but by the heterosexual couple from last episode, not a lesbian couple. That being said, if the show is still going circa 2020, this troper would love for JT and Liberty's kid to move back to Toronto.

Degrassi isn't a school...it's a mental asylum
It's real name is the Degrassi Community Asylum.

The kids there are all dealing with various mental disorders so their parents sent them there to be cured. Mr. Simpson is basically the chief psychiatrist. This is ironic because he himself was a patient at the Degrassi Community Asylum back in The Eighties but was cured and grew up to be a psychiatrist, so now he's literally Running the Asylum.

The parents and "teachers" (they're really doctors) just tell the patients that they're at a "school" in order to keep them calm. Any events that happen outside of the "school" are actually just hallucinations taking place inside the patients' deluded minds.

The reason why some patients have apparently graduated is because they really were cured of their disorders and were allowed to re-enter the world.

Going along with this, JT didn't die. He's still alive. He was simply declared cured and was allowed to reintegrate with society. Liberty and Toby, who were still patients, couldn't deal with their friend's sudden disappearance from the asylum, and hallucinated a story about JT being stabbed by imaginary hooligans (who were really just mental personifications of Liberty's and Toby's anxieties and fears).

Mo has a Matchmaker Crush
Mo has a rather unhealthy obsession with getting Sav and Miss Oh together. He goes to extreme lengths to facilitate it.

It's possible that he has a crush on Miss Oh and wants to live vicariously through Sav.....OR he has a crush on Sav and wants to live vicariously through Miss Oh!
 * He has a crush on both of them.

Due to overwhelming Fan Pressure, the Degrassi writers will bring Angie back....
In Season 12, it will be revealed that Tori is Angie- she just ran away from home and took on a new moniker. Eventually, Snake will find out and call up Joey, who will come rushing from Alberta to see his daughter again. She'll persuade him to move back to Toronto because she likes it at Degrassi, and he comes back on the show and he and Caitlin's story will finally be wrapped up once and for all.

Ok, probably not.... but we can dream, right?
 * Yeah, probably not. As Boycott the Caf pointed out, the actor who played Joey will not be returning to the show due to him selling Degrassi paraphernalia without permission.
 * Too be fair, that was 5 years ago. The producers might've gotten over it and would be willing to give him a second chance. Maybe (read: only in my dreams)
 * They stopped caring about what the fans wanted when they married off Emma and Spinner.
 * It could still turn out to be Angela...if Craig is her onscreen guardian instead of Joey. Since Craig is supposedly a rich singer now, he could be allowing Angela to use his apartment in Toronto (one of many apartments he now owns). And the reason why Angela is there under an assumed name is because she doesn't want anyone to know that she's Angela Jeremiah, sister of the famous Craig Manning, because she doesn't want to be hounded by obsessed Craig fans who want autographs.

Someone's getting kickbacks from the uniform shirt supplier.
The dress code has loosened significantly since the post-Vegas Night lockdown as the school community - parents, administrators and teachers as well as students - find the new normal. In this light all the S11 personalization makes sense - Fiona got away with adding accessories, now people like Liam are doing it. Parents probably complained about their kids' entire wardrobe becoming obsolete for school just a few months into the school year, hence the administration relented on non-regulation jackets and pants/skirts/shorts so long as the latter are more or less khaki-colored.

The one hard and fast rule is, no matter what's over or under it everyone still has to wear the school polo shirts. And the pictures seen of the second part of the season show the original color code holds next year, with all promoted students required to replace their shirts with the new class color. It would make more sense for everyone to keep their old color next year with blue rotated to the new niners.

Unless...someone wants to sell as many school shirts as possible. Say, they're getting kickbacks. But who? If Simpson were to be caught accepting cash for patronage, that'd be the end of his career - and Stefan Brogren's chances of wanting off the show can be described using the words "snowball" and "hell". Besides, principals wouldn't normally get to award such a big contract. Mrs. Torres is on the School Board, but they're trying very hard to rescue her from the Scrappy Heap not write her off the show in shame. Still a possibility, though, given how an accusation of public corruption would affect Drew and Adam. But a nameless mook is more likely.
 * Alternately, they've been using the 12=blue, 11=red, 10=purple, 9=yellow color code for years on things the viewers wouldn't see, like class schedules and the old carried-in-pockets ID cards. Keeping it on the shirts by making everyone replace them annually just hasn't been thought through to the point of parental complaints about expense.

Simpson is Medium Aware.
In the student council elections, he stood by while Katie and Marisol traded barbs. With microphones. Not the first time this sort of thing's happened, either. "Not a strict disciplinarian" doesn't cover it anymore, he's rocketed past "lousy principal" too; clearly he's aware that his real job is to step back and let the Teen Drama happen, that's the real reason they're there.

Drake got his name from the character who killed JT
He just hates Degrassi that much.
 * Jossed by the fact that Drake is Aubrey Graham's middle name, and who would use Aubrey as a stage name for a rapper?

Riley and Zane will have a Last Minute Hookup.
Riley is out of the closet. They're being forced to sit together at prom. I think we all know where this is going...
 * Confirmed... sort of. While they didn't actually get back together, the writers definitely left it open for their relationship, considering it was revealed that Zane would be attending the same university as Riley.

Eli has been in a coma the whole time
Tonight's episode will end with Adam getting shot. Eli is crying for help and then he looks down and his shirt has blood on it and he realizes he's been shot, not Adam. Then he wakes up in the hospital. BUT he wakes up from a dream that he had after crashing his hearse. Then it turns out all of "Now or Never" and the season finale of last season were All Just a Dream. He's been in a coma since then and missed the last semester and all the things that really happened.

Tristan ("Big Red") is straight but will be bullied for "being gay".
Remember when the Florida Family Association complained about how "unlikely" a gay QB1 or a transgender person openly living as their preferred gender would be in high school? Well, according to the National Youth Association and the It Gets Better Project, 3/4 of teens bullied due to being percieved as gay, are straight. They won't be able to make that complaint about this storyline. This has never been seriously addressed by a Teen Drama; usually it's played for Cringe Comedy. Perhaps Degrassi'll start out that way too, and it'll get more serious over the course of season 11b.
 * Jossed, Tristan is confirmed to be gay.

Imogen has workaholic parents.
This is why she latched onto Eli, and then Bianca, and why she's so into drama and being weird. She wants attention, and because she doesn't get it at home, she tries to get it at school.

Katie's twisted knee at the end of Nowhere to Run will become a plot point later.
One of her plotlines will probably revolve around whether or not she'll be able to play soccer again.
 * Possibly confirmed. One of the episodes in the near-future is about her

The weed in Nowhere to Run was a Chekhov's Gun.
Not only did Marisol (and Katie) get away with it, it was a pretty full bag. And it was in Jake's family's cabin. Maybe it's his, or maybe it's his dad's (they haven't done illegal drug use by a parent yet...)

In Maya's second season The Glasses Gotta Go
While she hasn't been introduced yet, I guarantee once we get a season or so with her, she'll be switching to contacts.

Imogen will discover she's bisexual and start a relationship with Fiona.
Several interviews show them together and/or hint at the idea that both of them will end up in a relationship by the end of season 11. Fiona is allegedly going to be with someone who is already a member of the Degrassi cast, but doesn't realize she likes girls yet. So far it seems like Imogen will spend the most time with Fiona this semester out of all the female characters.

Tori is Tessa Campinelli and Joey's child
It was never confirmed Tessa got an abortion, and for years the fandom has been suggesting the theory that she decided not to get one at the last minute and instead gave the child up for adoption, and he/she will later show up in the show. Plus, it would explain why Tori and Angie "look so much alike". Also, I just can't think of any real reason the show decided to bring Alex Steele back but not just keep her as Angie.

The characters' Twitters are a Media Immersion class assignment.
They all follow the same template with the Degrassi logo on it, they're wearing their school uniforms in more of their main pictures than not, the security settings are set so they only interact with each other and even then "expand conversation" doesn't really work. It's the simplest In Universe explanation for all those things.