Marathon Man

Marathon Man is the 10th episode of Season 9 of Beverly Hills, 90210.

Synopsis
Dylan takes Kelly to breakfast --- in Mexico; Sonia's "friends" hurt Donna's business; the Brian Setzer Orchestra performs at an AIDS benefit, and Steve overextends himself when he pledges money toward the cause.

Recap
 As the Christmas holiday approaches, Noah is readying two big events: a dance marathon to benefit AIDS research and the celebration of Donna's birthday. Meanwhile, Kelly is surprised--and Matt distinctly unhappy--when Dylan whisks his former love over the border to have a gourmet breakfast in Mexico. Matt and Kelly both lack information that would be useful, Matt that Kelly deflected Dylan's clear romantic intentions, and Kelly that Dylan actually bought a large amount of heroin and smuggled it back into the U.S. While Dylan is able to use Gina Kincaid's attraction to him to get his drugs back after they are briefly locked inside Donna and Kelly's store, Gina is completely disgusted by his drug use and hates herself for sleeping with him. Gina's day isn't any better around those margins: Noah assigns her to order a special vanilla cake for Donna's party, then gets angry because the store made a chocolate cake and Donna is allergic to that.

Furious that he blamed her for not knowing something that obscure and didn't seem mad that the order was bungled, Gina screams that she doesn't exist to be Donna's fucking servant, and when a hurt Donna says she didn't know Gina felt that way, Gina pours on the bitter sarcasm and says it's been wonderful living off the charitable crumbs that the wealthy Martins have seen fit to toss to her. At night's end, Donna and Noah do enjoy a slow dance to celebrate her birthday. Donna earlier faced a crisis involving Sonia, the gang girl who showed up seeking to make amends after her cohorts trashed some of the store's fashions. A series of break-ins around the promenade has a security guard named Stuart looking for suspects and everyone but Donna convinced Sonia is behind the crimes. Eventually, Sonia finds out Stuart committed the robberies himself and Donna turns the information over to the police. Sonia then tells Donna she completed a "jump out" where the other gang members beat her savagely but let her leave the gang alive afterwards, and gives Donna a huge hug for being the only person who believed in her.

Steve decides that he should put the revamped "Beverly Beat" up as a sponsor for the AIDS benefit, but mistakenly pledges a tally of $1,000 PER HOUR instead of a flat rate. He then comes up with a brainstorm: he'll ask his portly former frat brother Muntz to dance with his wife! Alas, the Muntzes have become fit and strong via dieting and daily workouts, and Steve quickly sees the financial future of his paper being torn asunder. But Janet later comes to him with kisses and praise, both of which surprise him, and lets him know that the other sponsors were so overwhelmed by his generosity that they bought massive amounts of advertising and the paper's financial footing is now sound for the foreseeable future. Matt charms Kelly with cheap local Mexican food, and the Brian Setzer Orchestra plays at the benefit.

Starring

 * Jennie Garth as Kelly Taylor
 * Ian Ziering as Steve Sanders
 * Brian Austin Green as David Silver
 * Tori Spelling as Donna Martin
 * Vincent Young as Noah Hunter
 * Vanessa Marcil as Gina Kincaid
 * Lindsay Price as Janet Sosna
 * Daniel Cosgrove as Matt Durning
 * Joe E. Tata as Nat Bussichio
 * special guest star
 * Luke Perry as Dylan McKay


 * SPECIAL APPEARANCE BY
 * Brian Setzer Orchestra


 * Guest starring
 * Ryan Brown as Morton Muntz
 * Mariam Parris as Sonia
 * Lauren Hodges as Lucy