Original Air Date: October 10, 2008

Everything comes out in the open during this episode of The Game as the three main characters gather for an afternoon swim. As a result, they all learn that Kelly is divorcing Jason, Melanie’s man Derwin has a baby on the way with Janay, and Tasha is sleeping with Rick Fox (couldn’t they have given him a fictional name? — I feel weird writing that).

In fact, it’s Tasha who speaks up and refuses to go along with Melanie’s immature plan to sabotage Janay by dragging her name through the mud. A single black mother herself, she knows that’s no way to do another woman when life is hard enough for unmarried mothers and black women as it is. Amen.

Yet, after that opening nonsense and Tasha’s voice of reason, childish Melanie remains determined to pick a fight with Janay. While Janay is nowhere near my favorite character on the show, I thank the writers for her response to Melanie’s silliness, which is basically, “I’m pregnant, the baby is Derwin’s, get over it and get on with it already.” Amen again.

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Original Air Date: October 3, 2008

Yes, there is definitely a baby in the oven during the third-season premiere of The Game. Unfortunately for Melanie, who decided at the end of last season that she still loves Derwin, that baby belongs to her former fiancé and his former girlfriend Janay (Gabrielle Dennis).

As the episode opens and Derwin delivers the shocking news to Melanie, neither can believe it. In fact, Melanie is so suspicious, she makes Derwin suspicious that Janay might be fooling with him to get her hands on some of his money. Never mind that Janay is independently wealthy, thanks to her father’s successful coffee-cup lid business (who chose that?!).

The doubts get to Derwin eventually, and he visits Janay at her job to have her pee on another one of those sticks. Actually, he brings a whole bag of sticks, just to make sure.

Of course, the results confirm that Janay isn’t lying, and Derwin won’t even bother with Melanie’s follow-up protests that maybe he’s not the father. Janay doesn’t have any reason to lie about that either. Forced to put on her happy face for Derwin, Melanie breaks down the second she leaves his apartment, giving the episode one of those familiar dramatic closing moments that make The Game so much better than a mere sitcom.

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Original Air Date: April 27, 2008

DERWIN, still on crutches, drops by MELANIE’s waitress job to give her some mail and also tell her that after what happened the last time they were together, he wants to make sure they can get past it and still be friends.

Melanie agrees they should try, before asking Derwin why he’s not at the Sabers’ championship victory parade. Derwin doesn’t plan to go because he feels he messed up getting injured and doesn’t deserve to. Melanie convinces him he’ll regret not going for the rest of his life, especially since he has every right to be happy about the team’s win; he contributed to it, too.

When Melanie and Derwin arrive, the team members are glad to see them both. JASON and the guys even try to convince Melanie to come along, but she declines because she has to get to school. Unbeknownst to everyone, JANAY, carrying a rose for Derwin, is standing nearby, and she overhears everything. She leaves with a sad look on her face as Melanie drives away.

After the team returns, Janay finally approaches Derwin and asks him how he got there, knowing full well Melanie drove him. Derwin doesn’t lie exactly, but he doesn’t tell the straight truth either, simply saying he hitched a ride with a friend to be green and help the planet.

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The Game is really delivering some top-notch guest stars this season, and the May 4 episode will continue that nice trend with no less than star football players Jared Allen, Bradie James, and Kellen Winslow appearing, as well as actress Robin Givens.

Givens plays a new love interest for Malik on “The Lord Givens and the Lord Taketh Away.” A parallel subplot involves Jason, who will turn to his marriage therapist for help with another problem that’s not Kelly.

The Game airs Sundays on The CW at 9pm EST.

Whereas Melanie had to sort out her feelings for Derwin and another romantic interest on the previous episode of The Game, Derwin has to do the same regarding Melanie and a new significant other of his own on the April 27 episode, “Before the Parade Passes By.”

Rick Fox also makes another guest appearance as himself, while Tasha is forced to prove herself at her latest job.

The Game airs Sundays on The CW at 9pm EST.

Original Air Date: April 20, 2008

DERWIN gets hurt during the game leading to the championships when a competitor slams into his knee, and he can’t get out of his funk in order to attend the championship meet in Miami. The trip is all that’s on his girlfriend JANAY’s (Guest Star Gabrielle Dennis) mind, though, to the extent that Derwin ends up telling her to just go without him.

Meanwhile, MELANIE learns of the news as she and JEROME (Guest Star Mehcad Brooks) watch the Sabers game on TV. Jerome seems sympathetic and understanding of why she would/should be worried, but Melanie dismisses his suggestion that she call a friend to find out how Derwin is doing.

She doesn’t need to anyway. When the salsa runs out at a party Jerome is hosting at home for his boss and some colleagues, Melanie bumps into Derwin, who’s on crutches, at the store when she goes to buy some more. Jerome is anal about pleasing his boss so he can move up on the job, and after haranguing Melanie into making more Margaritas faster during the Sabers party, he insists she go get more salsa, too.

Maybe it’s seeing her ex-fiancé injured or maybe it’s the pain in the ass that Jerome has been throughout the party. Either way, Melanie ends up at Derwin’s apartment, where it gets hot and heavy before he can even close the front door.

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Recurring cast member Lee Majors and occasional guest star Mehcad Brooks both return on the April 20 episode of The Game.

It’s Super Bowl time on “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” and, unfortunately, one of the players gets injured at exactly the wrong time. If that weren’t enough drama, Melanie also has to cope with her feelings for her old significant other Derwin and her new significant other Jerome.

The Game airs Sundays on The CW at 9pm EST.

Original Air Date: April 6, 2008

Heads-Up: This episode is 100% Melanie free.

While out drinking at a club with RICK FOX (playing himself) and a few men, two white and one Asian, from her new job at Irv Smif Management, TASHA gets into a discussion about stereotypes involving different kinds of men and the size of their penis. She proclaims to one of her colleagues, a white man named Lev, that unless he can prove they’re not true, she’s sticking with the stereotypes. So, he flashes her and the stereotypes go “poof!”

The next morning, when all of the booze has left their system, Lev stops by Tasha’s office to apologize for doing anything that might have made her uncomfortable. Apparently, he’s new like her, and both agree they feel under pressure to fit in. Tasha, nursing a huge hangover, genuinely seems to not be offended by what happened the previous night.

At the San Diego Sabers clubhouse, JASON anoints DERWIN temporary captain so he can step it up for the ritual everyone’s looking forward to now that it’s playoff time. Unfortunately, the other players prefer MALIK’s suggestion to get matching tattoos over Derwin’s suggestion that they ride every roller coaster at Six Flags repeatedly and then eat funnel cakes. Derwin is opposed to Malik’s idea because “tattoos hurt” and they aren’t sanitary, but the other players are all for it because matching tattoos will show their commitment.

Jason and his wife KELLY attend a marriage therapy session with a DR. PARKER next, and Kelly can’t get a word in edgewise while Jason repeatedly interrupts her and talks over her. The player ultimately tries to end the session early after he states it’s clear he and his wife aren’t having communication problems.

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If you followed the sitcom Sister, Sister back in the mid to late 1990s, you might sympathize with the experience I have every time I watch the current CW hit The Game. For those who don’t know, the earlier show starred Tia Mowry and her identical twin sister Tamera as reunited identical twins who were separated at birth and raised by different people.

Having watched Tia and Tamera act side by side for so long, it’s no wonder that I can’t help expecting Tamera to show up onscreen at any moment while The Game is on. People magazine recently published a nice article that shows the two sisters remain close, though, despite their busy entertainment careers and Tia’s upcoming April 20 marriage to fellow actor Cory Hardrict, her boyfriend of six years.

On March 14, family and friends held a cozy bridal shower for Tia in Los Angeles that her sister attended. You can read more details about that special occasion and other wedding-related news, including interesting tidbits on Tia’s costars Wendy Raquel Robinson and Brittany Daniel, in the article “Tia Mowry Counts On Her Sister as Wedding Approaches.”

Both Melanie and Derwin move forward with their love lives, but at different speeds, on the April 13 episode of The Game.

Guest stars Mehcad Brooks (Desperate Housewives, Boston Public) and Megalyn Echinkunwoke (The 4400, That ’70s Show) return on “The Commitments” to play the romantic interests of Melanie and Derwin, respectively, and the members of each couple face their own hurdles. Melanie makes a surprising discovery, while Derwin makes a big decision.

The Game airs Sundays on The CW at 9pm EST.