The Silver Storyline
I began watching Silver in 2008, almost from the beginning of 90210. What initially drew me to her was the fact that she was a television character created for another series, redeveloped, many years later, as a teenager in a spin-off, apparently in the hope that she would help the ratings of the series.
Being one of the main stars, she was in for a hard time as all the favorable conditions for a dramatic development of her life were there (she was a child from a broken home with a substance-abusing mother and a manic-depressive brother) and possibilities abounded. In the first season of the series, she decides to present a film of her and her boyfriend having sex as a school project. The explanation for this is that she suffers from manic depression. In season two, having gained total awareness about her situation and set to make a new start, she learns that her estranged mother is dying from cancer. As a reward, she gets the series’ hottie, breaking up with him in season three because he’s gay. Shortly after, she develops romantic feelings for a childhood friend, who also happens to be the boyfriend of her best friend, and, despite the fact that it was wrong, has a secret affair with him (the Kelly Taylor gene apparently plays a part here). Naturally, her best friend finds out, and a vicious cycle of revenge begins, which involves a nude picture of Silver that is emailed to the entire school, a tap water poisoning in Mexico, and, as a coup de grace of sorts, a switching of Silver’s bipolar medication with unknown pills. Silver, however, survives and even manages to get the upper hand (after all, the whole pill switching thing was a bit too much).
In season four, the now adult Silver, having been rejected from her dream college (manic episode during her interview with the guy from NYU), decides to stay in Los Angeles so that she can be close to her friends and move in with her boyfriend (the one she stole from her friend), who happens to have serious family and legal troubles. Unsurprisingly, her relationship with her fiancé enters a downward spiral when his mobster uncle threatens her life.
Still, she doesn’t stay single for long. Totally out of the blue, she meets a wonderful guy who makes her feel that she can have a life far from all this drama. But only for a brief spell, because a few episodes later we find out that her new beau happens to have adopted the daughter of her ex-best friend (the girl that tried to do her in), and so she ditches him.
Towards the end of the season, Silver finds out that she has the BRCA gene – that is, a genetic tendency towards developing breast or ovarian cancer. Before undergoing a preventive cancer treatment, she asks her gay best friend to donate his sperm so that she can become a mother. He accepts, but then things get complicated again because he wants joint custody. In the end, they only speak through lawyers and hire a surrogate mother, who unfortunately miscarries later on.
This story had massive development potential, and could have continued in season six, but the network decided to cancel the show before the end of season five. In the last episode to be filmed, Silver is single (in contrast to the other cast members who are in relationships) and, having lost her chance of becoming a mother, has just found out that she has cancer.
