'Real World' actually gets real

But for all his self-absorption, and even though he has often been the root cause of problems in the house, he has also notably been the mediator in several conflicts. And when his roommates get mad at him, as they do in almost every episode, his condescension acts as a buffer; he won't let himself get frazzled. He frustrates the housemates to the point where he gains the moral high ground. Given their increasingly bizarre behavior, they have to cede it to him. Even when Will makes insinuations about his sexuality and cruelly mentions Greg's recently deceased father, Greg is a rock. Brianna compliments him on holding his feelings back, even though in the previous episode she'd scolded him for the same, warning, "You will be alone for the rest of your life."

At the height of house tensions, Greg addressed the camera: "Why am I happy right now? Because I am on bad terms with every single roommate. I'm not gonna crack. I am a [expletive] diamond. Diamond does not crack -- it cuts."

In this week's episode, Greg will suffer extreme consequences for his general indifference to the work that is expected of him with the rest of the cast. Forced to call the trickster Reva to pick him up from the house, he registers the faintest of flinches, but he's not truly derailed. After all, here is someone intimate with the big picture, arriving with a purpose and getting scarce when it becomes clear his presence serves everyone's interests but his own.

It's a throwback to the show's early days, when it seemed like "The Real World" was mere intrusion into lives already in progress.