next week’s eclare-heavy degrassi episode is titled “love lockdown part 1,” which will make it the second kanye west song pun used within three episodes! ‘the boiling point’s’ two-part finale being the other, titled ‘all falls down.’

Although I’m sure all of you know this already, Degrassi isn’t the first time Aislinn Paul (“Clare”) and Munro Chambers (“Eli”) have acted together. They appeared in a 2005 made-for-TV movie, Murder in the Hamptons, as twins! See for yourself:

In this video interview, Munro attributes their on-screen chemistry to having worked together before.

bonus fun fact! munro has a twin brother in real life — thomas.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never looked so forward to a new season of Degrassi: The Next Generation, and Degrassi: The Boiling Point has everything to do with it. (Well, Eli Goldsworthy does too, but we’ll get to that in a moment.)

The programing experiment known as Degrassi: The Boiling Point began (in the United States) on July 19th with the special Degrassi Takes Manhattan: The Heat Is On The next six weeks brought new half-hour episodes of Degrassi every Monday through Thursday night through August 26th. The Manhattan special certainly set up the expectation that the mid-season episodes would be, well, explosive. It did include an unexpected wedding, and the final frontier of American taboo — incest — after all. What followed were break-ups, hook-ups, and the addition of exciting new characters. Sure, the Boiling Point episodes “borrowed” plots from every show from Friday Night Lights to Gossip Girl, but thankfully those are two of my favorite shows.

As it was left, Degrassi (the school and the show) will never be the same. Mr. Simpson is in, er, hot water, over the mid-season finale’s events, and things are going to change. But, how did it get to that point? Let me take this opportunity to break down the 10 things you need to know before the Fall premiere.:

1. As much as I liked to think Ali would end up with Johnny, a new stud is in town, and his name is Drew, and he’s, well, hot. Although we leave the couple in shambles as Drew has already cheated on Ali, I doubt they’re over. You see, Drew’s hot, but he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed, and has a serious inferiority complex when it comes to Ali’s intelligence. I think he’s a good guy at heart, so I hope these two kids can work it out. It looks like Drew’s mom is going to be an obstacle, however, as she already thinks the worst of Ali, and everyone else. And who did Drew cheat with? A new character, Bianca, who so far is just a bitchy nuisance. I hope this doesn’t last long.

2. Despite the fact that they look like they couldn’t be any more unrelated, Drew has a brother named Adam. Adam (née Grace) was born a girl, and no one at Degrassi knew. Well, they do now. Although he had a rough time at first, he’s found his niche with Eli and Clare, and hopefully won’t be a third wheel for long. (The fact that we were to believe that no one even suspected she was a girl was a little far-fetched, but whatevsies.)

3. Although this would be a nice segue into Eli’s arrival, I’m saving him, the best, for last.)

4. Declan and Holly J. are kaput as Holly J. realized she couldn’t just live off of Declan’s money forever and needed to be her own woman. Declan used to be my favorite character, so hopefully he’ll return, but for now it seems Sav is keeping Holly J. warm. I don’t know that I buy this match-up, but I’ll let it go for now as Sav is obviously just a rebound, and that fact is written all over Holly J.’s face during the Blair/Chuck-inspired striptease in “All Falls Down (Part 2).” Also, Sav doesn’t move anything but his mouth when he speaks, so that bugs me. I thiiink I saw Declan in the Fall preview trailer, but I honestly can’t tell.

5. While Declan is off in New York, his sister Fiona is driving me nuts in Canada. She moved back to Canada after experiencing abuse with her New York boyfriend, Bobby. Then she paid Holly J. to be friends with her. Then she bought a pig. Then she drank a lot of champagne. And now? Well, she’s gone for now.

6. Oh, Jenna is pregnant with K.C.’s child, and he doesn’t want any part of it. I guess we’re supposed to hate him because he’s not being a man, right? But, he’s not a man. The fact that they’re even having sex is still disconcerting to me, but I find it interesting how flippantly the characters on this show handle pregnancy. First, Anya lies to Sav about being on the pill. Then Anya and Sav lie about being pregnant to win a school election. Then Anya lies about having a miscarriage, one of the most painful experiences in a woman’s life. Now, Jenna finds out she’s pregnant, but she’s not just a “little” pregnant, she’s almost FIVE MONTHS PREGNANT! I hate to say it, but when K.C. yelled at Jenna for taking away their options, I agreed with him. I know, I’m a horrible person. She also took diet pills because she was gaining weight and hadn’t been getting her period. Yeah, why would she put two and two together? (Rolls eyes.)

7. Riley has come out. Gotta say even the actor who plays Riley looks uncomfortable playing a gay guy, but I love Zane, his boyfriend, so I wish them the best. Now that Riley’s out, I’m not quite sure where their storyline will go, but guess we’ll find out.! Honestly, I’m just happy Riley has stopped taking his self-loathing out on others. It was getting old.

8. The dorky boy characters Connor, Dave, and Wesley are still around, but not doing much of anything. Well, Connor had an online girlfriend who was maybe the grossest woman I’ve ever seen. Hopefully they’ll get storylines soon. I’m not sure if we’re supposed to want Dave and Ali to end up together, but I like her with Drew, so I’ll just forget he exists for now. Oh, also, Wesley plays the flute.

9. OK, finally that brings me to Clare and Eli. Sigh. Elijah “Eli” Goldsworthy (yes, he’s Jewish) is the new emo boy in town, driving to school in a hearse and quickly gets on Clare’s radar, as the two are paired up as writing partners. They have chemistry almost immediately, and why wouldn’t they? Clare’s new haircut is great. Anyway, just as things start getting close between the two, Eli pulls away. Why? Because he feels responsible for his ex-girlfriend’s death. So, they decide to take it slow. For one episode. Now, he and Clare are official. However, there’s a bully at school, Fitz, who’s been messing with Eli, and Eli cant let it go. Eli plays pranks on Fitz, ultimately resulting in Fitz coming to school with a knife, and pulling it on Eli. Don’t worry — Eli’s OK, and Fitz is taken away by the police. But Clare’s not happy with how Eli handled the whole thing, so their relationship is in flux when we leave them. Hopfeully they’re together when the show returns cause Eli is the best thing to happen to this show in a long time. He and his smirks, that is. Without getting too pervy, if I were still in high school, Eli is exactly the kid I would like … if I could get past all the black he wears. I mean, the kid says “l’chaim” in the final episode. What’s not to love?

10. Did I mention Eli? I did? Whoops.

Hm, I’m sure I’ve missed some things. I’m not even going to touch what happened to the older characters in Degrassi Takes Manhattan because, I hate to admit it, but I still haven’t watched the whole thing, and also, who cares about those people anymore?! We’ve got Eli! It never ceases to amaze me how seamlessly Degrassi ditches and adds new characters.

I don’t know who to thank at Teen Nick for the gift that was The Boiling Point. It was a big risk, and as much as I know better than anyone that Nick Cannon probably isn’t responsible, he just might be. The network really has done somewhat of a 180 since he arrived there, and I think all the changes have been for the better. So, Mr. Mariah Carey, I salute you. And for those of you that missed the Fall preview, check it out.

Oh, and before I forget, big news! I’ll be recapping every episode of Degrassi when it returns in the fall, so until then, keep “going there.” Degrassi: The Boiling Point sure did.