It’s only been out for a couple of weeks, but Off Campus, Prime Video’s latest book-to-screen adaptation, has taken the world by storm — and for good reason. The show is based on Elle Kennedy‘s sports romance series, and this first season largely follows the first book, The Deal, which tells the love story of college students Hannah Wells and Garrett Graham.
However, one of Off Campus’ more impressive feats is its ability to balance multiple ongoing narratives. While Season 1 focuses on music major Hannah and hockey star Garrett, development is also happening for several other characters from Kennedy’s books, and for none more prominently than Allie Hayes and Dean Di Laurentis, the leads of the third book, The Score.
Allie and Dean are respective friends of Hannah and Garrett, so their involvement in this first season is not unsurprising. They do share a charged moment dancing to JLo’s “On The Floor” at Dean’s birthday party in the second episode, “The Practice,” but we don’t see too much of them onscreen together besides this first notable interaction.
However, as the end of the fifth episode, “The Cold Turkey,” reveals, these two have actually been engaging in clandestine hookups for the better part of the season.
This secret is explored in the subsequent episode, “The Breakaway,” during which we rewind the clock and revisit several prominent set pieces from the first five episodes, this time through the Dean and Allie lens. Through these reframed moments, we come to understand how this pair got to the point of “hooking up all over campus,” texting constantly, and using flirty nicknames, but make no mistake — these two are not dating.
Amongst these flashbacks is a key Dean and Allie moment that comes in the aftermath of Allie’s inebriated karaoke performance of “Take Me or Leave Me” and her oversharing about her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Sean, in the bar’s women’s washroom (which Dean happens to overhear, in this “sacred space” while he’s hooking up with someone else).
At the end of the night, a drunken Allie is sleeping peacefully on the couch in Garrett and Dean’s house (an off-campus residence shared with two other hockey teammates who also happen to be leads of Kennedy’s other books) when she’s rudely awoken by Dean returning home with his bathroom hookups (yes, hookups, plural). Dean’s a player, in case that wasn’t already clear.
Allie is highly unimpressed to see Dean again (“Are you seriously hooking up on top of me?” she accuses him), but it’s already clear from this interaction that Dean doesn’t share Allie’s animosity. He exists in a perpetual state of fascinated amusement whenever he’s around her, and the barbs she sends his way here only serve to endear him further.
While these sparks are flying between them, Dean’s hookups come to the conclusion that they can just keep going without him, and they promptly leave the house, much to Dean’s chagrin — and Allie’s smug satisfaction. Accepting defeat, Dean grabs a joint and a lighter and heads out to the fire pit, and it’s revealed in the immediate next scene that Allie, despite her unsavory opinion of Dean thus far, has opted to join him.
Their ensuing fireside chat is underscored by Mod Kiddo’s “Nowhere,” and this becomes the very first time these two actually have the opportunity to see beneath the surface and experience a taste of each other’s true selves.
Joint in hand, Dean rather bluntly opens with a question for Allie: “So you’re breaking up with your boyfriend?” Allie immediately objects to this, but Dean counters with, “You want to, though.” When Allie doesn’t respond, Dean takes the opportunity to reiterate what a drunken Allie said to anyone at the bar who would listen earlier that night.
“You guys have been together since your freshman year, on and off, but now you’re not sure about your future because the dude’s gonna move to Vermont and be a boring insurance salesman, and you, you wanna act.” He punctuates this recap by offering Allie the joint, which she accepts amidst the embarrassing reminder of just how unfiltered she was tonight.
Dean chuckles, but then asks her seriously, “Okay, so, what are you gonna do?” Allie says she doesn’t know. She has the example of her parents’ “beautiful” relationship, and she admits that she wants this for herself, too. “But you don’t wanna move to Vermont,” Dean correctly deduces. “No,” Allie agrees. “Okay, so, what do you want, Allie?” Dean asks her then, and it was at this precise moment on my first watch that I was completely sold on this ship. Dean taking the time to inquire about Allie’s opinion on the situation — and, crucially, actually give her space to express it — is something that her actual boyfriend has repeatedly failed to do, and the contrast here is staggering.
Dean’s question (and perhaps the weed) is enough to make Allie feel comfortable responding truthfully. “I guess…I want to be in love,” she confesses. “But I don’t want that to make it impossible for me to, like, move to LA, or take a show to Edinburgh, work my ass off on Broadway, you know? I wanna be able to do it all. Even though I know it’s more likely I’ll succeed at none of it. It’s dumb.”
Dean immediately responds with a “Hell no. That’s not dumb. If that’s what you want, go after it.” He goes on to point out to Allie, “People who care about you will understand. And if they don’t, they’re not your people.” And the thing is, Allie may not realize it yet, but this comment alone is enough to prove that it’s Dean who will become “her people.” He inherently understands what she’s all about within the span of one single conversation.
Dean’s words catch Allie off guard. “Okay, which one of your exes taught you to be so insightful?” she asks him, and now it’s Dean’s turn to be truthful tonight. “I don’t have any exes,” he admits. “It’s…the weed.” This new detail doesn’t compute for Allie: “Wait. Dean Di Laurentis has never had a girlfriend?” she asks him in disbelief. “I like being the casual sex guy,” Dean replies. “It’s easy.” Allie, well aware of his playboy ways, jokes with Dean, “I have heard you’re easy.”
“I’m Six Flags, baby,” he tells her. “Everybody wants a ride. They come for a good time, not a long time, and that’s fine by me.” Dean may appear unbothered by this reputation he possesses, but Allie sees right through the facade. “Is it?” she wonders, a question Dean has clearly never been asked before, if his expression is anything to go by.
Dean and Allie share a look here, and it feels different. Dangerous. Like this thing between them has the potential to become something real.
They don’t get to explore this moment further, however, because they’re interrupted by a drunken update from one of Allie’s friends, which reveals the face of Sean as Allie’s lockscreen. Dean reminds her, “Looking at it won’t make him text,” to which Allie concedes, “No. No, you’re so right.” She hands Dean her phone. “Here, save me from myself.”
Dean, of course, doesn’t hesitate to capitalize on this by saving his number in Allie’s phone, much to her objection. His reasoning? “When you break up with this guy, which you will, you’re gonna want a fun ride to distract you. Call me.” Allie attempts to stop Dean in his tracks, telling him, “Sorry, dude. I don’t do roller coasters,” and then proceeds to hammer the point home by changing his contact name to “🚨DO NOT CALL🚨.”
It’s partly thanks to this detail that the show was able to successfully keep Dean and Allie’s hookups a secret from the audience up until now. Back in the fourth episode, “The Breakup,” when we see Allie debating calling this number, we assume this is her new identifier for Sean, given that they just broke up again.
It’s only here in “The Breakaway” that we learn the truth — just like Dean predicted, after breaking up with Sean, Allie is choosing to call Dean. “You lied,” Dean points out during this call. “About what?” Allie asks, feigning innocence, and Dean tells her, “You like roller coasters.” Allie’s response? “No.” She hangs up the call, now face-to-face with Dean. “I f***ing love roller coasters.”
This, of course, kickstarts the addition of a sexual dimension to Dean and Allie’s friendship, but what’s so interesting about their aforementioned fireside chat is how it appears to challenge a claim made by Season 1’s male lead, Garrett, elsewhere in the show. In “The Breakup,” when Garrett and Hannah are about to share their first intimate encounter — something Garrett actually sought Dean’s advice on — Garrett at one point tells Hannah, “Nothing is more vulnerable than sex.”
However, for Dean and Allie, it’s as if the opposite is true. Hooking up is the easy part for these two — as we see later in the season, it’s the deep, emotionally intimate conversations, the closer examination of what they might mean to each other, that they both struggle with, and in Allie’s case, outright avoid.
This makes their fireside chat all the more significant because it’s a demonstration of how, when the stakes were not yet established, and their guards were down, they were able to be their truest selves. Dean and Allie may have been completely clothed that night around the fire, but in this scene, they’re both laid bare.
What are your thoughts on Dean and Allie’s fireside chat in Off Campus? Let us know in the comments below.
First Featured Image Credit: ©Prime