Manny Santos - Season 7

Season 7

Manny learns that Peter and Darcy have become an item. Manny lets Darcy know that she is fine with the fact that her friend is dating one of her past enemies. When Manny convinces Darcy to go on a snowboarding trip with her, Darcy invites Peter. While at the resort, Jane tells Darcy and Manny about a party that is going to be held. Manny and Darcy decide to go. After Darcy insults Manny, by telling her that she has no morals or self-respect, Manny leaves Darcy at the party where she gets raped. Manny, thinking that her and Peter willingly had sex, tells Darcy that every girl is entitled to a secret. Soon, word gets out through the school. Then, the Friendship Club finds out and takes Darcy's abstinence ring away. After a bit, Darcy tells Manny that she did not have sex with Peter, but someone else at the party, whom she could not remember, raped her and that she had contracted chlamydia. Manny then tells Darcy she has to tell somebody.

After Manny learns that Darcy was raped, Manny is there to help her and comfort her. One day during Spirit Squad practice, Manny notices Darcy isn't there. She decides to check the showers for her and finds Darcy fully clothed in the shower with her wrist cut open. Manny grabs a towel and tells Darcy to put pressure on it while she dials 911. At the hospital, Peter and Manny talk about how Peter wants to tell Darcy's parents, but Manny tells him not to because rape victims need to heal at their own pace. When Darcy's mother comes up to her and asks why her perfect daughter would try to kill herself, Manny keeps it a secret, knowing that Darcy needs to tell them in her own time. At the end of the premiere, Manny and Peter get Darcy's abstinence ring back for her and Manny tells her that her rape did not count as sex.

When Degrassi and Lakehurst merged schools, Manny and Damien were reunited. The two haven't spoken much since the falling out at the cheer competitions and Manny decides to give their relationship another shot. That is until her personal beliefs begin to conflict with Damien's. She believed that it was best to combine the school clubs, while he thought it was better to keep the schools separate. Their relationship doesn't hold up, and they agree to be friends. Damien jokes that it's just because he's black, which Holly J. happens to overhear. Rumors begin to spread that Manny is a racist, but she has Damien clear up the confusion.

In We Got the Beat, Manny is turning 18 and her parents are throwing her a traditional Filipino party to celebrate her becoming an adult. Manny is angry that her parents, especially her father Joseph, won't let her make her own choices, such as an acting career. When she accidentally causes some minor damage to her father's car — only the passenger's side headlight — she goes to Jay for help, and he comes through. With that, she enlists Jay's help in trying to make her parents call off the party. This backfires when Manny's parents love Jay despite that he was expelled from school and is 2 or 3 years older than Manny. This is because Jay is doing well as a mechanic, and his boss is teaching him to run a business. At her debut, she decides to prove to her parents she is a good actress and pretends that she and Jay are dating and that she is going to become a maid instead of going to University. Her father gets mad at her, but Manny tells him she was acting which makes him realize she has a gift and decides to let her become an actress, but insists that she pursue an education. They both compromise when she proposes going on to college with a major in Theater but keeping science as a minor. Manny is happy and the episode ends with her and her father dancing. Her mother winds up dancing with Jay. Interestingly enough, Manny never said anything about her relationship with Jay being an act.

After beginning a relationship with Manny, Jay kisses Manny in front of her door after a date and her father catches them. As an excuse, Manny tells her father they were celebrating their engagement. The next day, Jay gives her a fake diamond ring, as if it were her engagement ring.

Jay helps Manny for an upcoming audition at Smithdale, but after a fight, he gives her a DVD of them making out instead. When Manny realizes Jay switched the tapes, she tries to audition without it, but she stumbles when she sees Jay sitting in the back row of the auditorium, causing her to not get accepted into the university. She then tells Jay the ring and the fake engagement means nothing to her and throws the ring on the floor. Soon after she is given another chance and is accepted into the university. She then suggests to Jay that they give the engagement another shot "for real" when she is told of everything Jay did in order to help her get another chance. They meet up at a Purple Dragon concert, where Craig played. Manny seemed to have realized her relationship with Craig had been a 'puppy love', since Craig only took her as a 'substitute' every time Ashley left.

When Manny decides she wants to meet Jay's parents, Jay tells Manny his parents had been deported to Malta and that, since he was born in Canada, he decided to stay behind. Manny then realizes that Jay is taking their engagement seriously upon learning that her ring has a real diamond. At a school dance, Manny shows Jay tickets to Malta and tells him she really wants to meet his parents... until she finds out Jay lied about his parents living there. They start to argue and Manny wonders why he lied. Jay then discovers Manny doesn't have her ring on and he realizes she sold the ring to get plane tickets for Malta. He then tells Manny the ring was really special to him because it belonged to his mother, who died when he was little.

The day after, they run into each other while attempting to call the other. They decide to tell each other the truth, so Jay tells Manny what happened with his parents. After his dad got with a third wife, Jay felt like he chose her over him, so he made a scene at his dad's wedding and then lost touch. Manny and Jay decide they would always tell each other the truth and reconcile.

While Jay is upset with Manny for selling his mother's ring, Manny attends an auction to try to sell the Malta tickets, but they end up buying them back. After Jay and Manny have a fight, Jay breaks into the pawn shop and steals back the ring. He then gives it to Manny the following day. While Manny is happy about this, she later learns that Jay stole the ring from the pawn shop. Manny later confronts Jay about this, and after an argument and the exchange of words, the couple separates.

Near graduation Manny receives a call from her agent offering her to play a starring role in Westdrive. Excited to finally have a chance in stardom she accepts the role. After realizing that the time of the shooting will take at least 6 months, conflicting with her school time she is forced to choose whether to pursue the role or start school. After a few encouraging words from her father knowing she'll make the right decision, she tears up her contract with Emma and is able to go to Smithdale after all.

After hearing that Liberty and Damien hook up during Senior Prom, Manny tells off Liberty not to tell anyone especially Emma until after graduation. When Toby finds out, everyone shortly does leaving Liberty friendless until she delivered her valedictorian speech. Her speech reminded everyone the importance of friendship and how all these years meant to her, making her reconcile with her friends. She finally graduates with her class at the end of season 7, with Emma, Liberty, Toby, Jimmy, Spinner, and Damien. Then Manny, Emma, Liberty, and Toby go to J.T.'s Memorial at school and put his graduation hat next to his picture.