In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.
They open with the studio kids dancing to "Oh So Quiet” (known to many as the "Bjork shh song”), so that's a very good sign. Michelle joins in with the girls, though it pains her. She's old and doesn't understand why any of these people want to dance, but she kids. Except, they're not doing this live. Fanny is watching a tape of the dance happening. She looks begrudgingly pleased but sad at the same time. Her revery is interrupted by Truly, who apparently had some vision of what Fanny's kitchen remodel should look like. She made a just shy of life-size diorama of the kitchen she imagined. It's kind of amazing. Fanny expresses unhappiness with her life. She's had a crappy year and she's unsure of her direction.
Poor Ginny and Boo are not having a great time. Ginny is having to work her mom's real estate listings because her dad is finally marrying his lady friend and mama ain't taking it well. Boo's mom is having another kid and is on bed rest, which means Boo is being shouldered with a lot more responsibility. Melanie is babysitting her grandpa who is in a wheel chair. The girls are doing their respective sad things instead of dancing because Fanny has closed the studio.
Meanwhile, Michelle is a magician's assistant in Henderson, Nevada. It's sad and all but she kinda kills it. She is living with Talia who has an old suitor. Ginny and Melanie are at the Oyster Bar when Fanny shows up. She talks to the girls but they are very uneasy because they ordered a ton of crap to eat. They tell her that Sasha still has a few more weeks at the Joffrey. They ask about Michelle and she says that she's fine. Then, she takes their junk away. Boo rushes in with news. First of all she has some package and it's fine, though we don't know what it is. She doesn't want to say what it is, but Jeffrey the waiter comes by and makes a crack about her being a superstar.
A video mash-up of Michelle macing the Nutcrackers has gone viral. They made a song out of an interview that Boo gave to the local news. At Boo's place, Sasha is hiding. She apparently blew off Joffrey and has just been hiding at places. Michelle is kind of a real jerk to her magician boss. Truly is helping Fanny redecorate her whole house, not just the kitchen. She seems like she's very good at it. Fanny watches the video of Michelle and Hubell getting married all drunk in Vegas. The night, she goes to the magic show. Michelle leaves the stage in the middle because she's such a professional. Fanny tries to bring her home, but Michelle resists. She says that Fanny doesn't want her there. Fanny says that she's trying to honor Hubell by honoring their marriage.
Sasha is SOL because all of the girls are otherwise occupied and can't house her. Michelle watches the wedding video and it conveniently features Hubell candidly saying a lot of really beautiful stuff about her. Sasha breaks into Fanny's guest house and is visited by the cute boy that she met in the ER. They are about to kiss (nothing too heavy) when Michelle arrives. She is about to scold her for having a boy there when Sasha runs into her arms. The day class is in session and Michelle comes in. She tells Fanny that she is back but may move back to New York. Truly goes blonde. To conclude, Fanny presents a dance that the kids do to the mash-up of the macing. It's pretty darn catchy.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!The last time we saw these guys, Michelle had maced all of the dancers at The Nutcracker. She left in disgrace. But things are looking up. Here she is overseeing the kids dancing to "It's Oh So Quiet." I'd like to point out that we have a dancer of color on the premises, so that's nice. Sasha and Boo are performing a combination with two other girls when Ginny and Melanie pop up beside Michelle (who is watching the dance with her face really close to the mirror -- it's a nice effect) and tell her that they need her to show them the step. She's like, "Fine." She doesn't get as much joy from dancing as you would hope, this Michelle. Still, she performs the chorus jazz stuff expertly. Then, when it's back to the quiet verse, she stumbles around in pain as the four girls return with a ballet combination. Suddenly, the camera backs up and we see that Madame Fanny is watching this performance on TV. It was taped. I wondered about Sasha. Isn't she at the Joffrey? The dance ends with a grimacing Michelle in the middle of all of the jazz handing dancers.
Fanny is watching the dance with a mix of sadness and admiration when she hears something break. It's Truly. Also, her house is a mess. Truly has tangled herself up in plastic tarp and tape accidentally because she is very excited about the design of Fanny's kitchen. She had a vision involving gerbils and she woke up in the middle of night and feverishly put together a miniature version of her vision kitchen in a cardboard box. So, Truly seems to suffer from some sort of manic pathology. I mean, there's electricity in this box. Fanny doesn't know what she wants though. She tells Truly that she feels like everything in her life should change, especially after this helluva year. I hear ya. 2012 was the PITS. Anyway, Truly hugs her and Fanny asks if she has ever been blonde.
Ginny is wearing her mom's real estate uniform and is showing a young couple around an open house. Ginny is gangbusters. She suggests that it is best to have the crappiest house on a nice street and the couple is lucky because they are definitely in the crappiest house. Boo phones her while she's making English muffin pizzas and watching after screaming children. Apparently, her mother is pregnant again. Boo's life is going to get considerably harder. She has to babysit, her mom is on bed rest, her dad is canceling the movie channels on cable and she's going to have to reduce her hours at The Oyster Bar. Ginny agrees, Boo's life sucks. Ginny is working the open house because her dad is getting remarried and her mother is handling it poorly. Boo's mom comes out and is tone deaf about how wretched Boo's life is about to get. She's so psyched about bed rest. She says she's finally going to get to see the finale of Friends. She's going to be let down by that.
Melanie and Ginny are at The Oyster Bar together lamenting that they have had no ballet all summer. They're worried that they are going to have to take gym at school in the fall because they won't have notes from Madame Fanny to get out. Speak of the devil, she walks in and says hello to the girls. They are very... tight-lipped? It's like they are afraid to talk to her. She asks about Boo and Sasha, who has a couple of weeks left at the Joffrey.
Suddenly, Jeff brings a giant platter of fried apps. Everything looks like it's the same color. Fanny tells them to relax. She knows it's the summer and time to eat junk food. When she's leaving, the girls ask about Michelle. She says that Michelle left a forwarding address and she's fine. Boo storms in with something important to say. Melanie asks her about the package and Boo says, "Screw the package!" Ginny scolds her and she apologizes. She is afraid to mention what it is that is upsetting her when Jeff comes by and calls her superstar and asks for her autograph, facetiously.
Meanwhile, Talia is watching something on her computer mouth agape. Michelle walks in and Talia quickly turns off what it is that she's watching. Michelle asks her what's going on. She watches plenty of Law & Order and knows suspicious behavior when she sees it. Finally, she shows her. There's a video mash-up of Boo giving an interview about The Nutcracker macing called "It's Time To Dance." A million people have viewed it! FYI, I hope everyone is checking their atomizer before administering these days.
At Boo's house, Boo and Melanie are sitting around as Ginny is digging into a chocolate cake. She didn't order more food after Fanny left because she feels like she would have known. Apparently, chocolate cake is not in her ESP purview. Boo's mom forlornly stumbles in and grabs something from the fridge. When she's gone, Boo goes to the closet and brings out... Sasha! She says that Boo has the worst smelling broom closet ever. Is she the package? They're about to watch the video when Boo's mom comes back. She thinks maybe she'll read a book? She's about to go insane from her bed rest. She leaves and Sasha is back out. The video has two million hits! Sasha has been there for a week. She doesn't want to go home because things are weird between her parents. So, she went to the Joffrey? She just doesn't want to spend time with her folks. Boo's mom is back AGAIN and Boo's little brother has made a mess.
At the magic show, Michelle gets reprimanded for bringing a really large dude into the disappearing box. She explains that he was the only person in the audience who wasn't claustrophobic. The magician says that she has had a little bit of attitude but he gives her some latitude because they are both artists. She tells him that his "Do Want To See Something?" catchphrase is redundant because people are already attending the show. Also, he says "Do you wanna see something?" so he's not even saying what's on the sign. Well, Michelle, you're not really helping yourself. The magician is offended and tells her that he doesn't want her to hold the bird in the show anymore. He's actually pretty sweet and doing the best he can. Michelle shouldn't be so rude to him. He does this really funny bit where he says that he's gonna put some speakers in the car, then some other speakers, then some other stuff... then change. Then, he's gonna take his wife (the other assistant) out to dinner because she does what she's supposed to like a champ. Sounds fair to me.
Later, she storms into Talia's and starts eating hummus. It's Rick's. She forgot that it was going to be their special night. She rants about her fight at work and Talia just grabs Rick and takes him back to her bedroom. Michelle sits with a beer and a bottle of wine and hears from outside the wafting strains of her viral video hit.
Truly is finished hanging curtains and Fanny says that she likes them, though she's not looking at them. She finds the wedding video of Hubbell and Michelle. Damn, she's drunk. It's pretty funny, she's knocking crap over and interrupting the wedding to go to the bathroom while he's talking to the cameraman about how special she is. Fanny seems almost convinced.
The thing we see is Michelle at work. She looks into the audience and sees Fanny. She leaves the stage and goes directly over. She says it's fine since she's no longer holding the bird. She found her by going to Talia's and talking to Rick. She suggests that she bring hummus home. Also, they apparently talked about Michelle's "hoo ha" and I don't know why that would ever come up in conversation with a stranger. Fanny keeps sending her martini back. Apparently, the mixology in Paradise just spoils you. Michelle is really angry with Fanny, but Fanny tells her that she should come home. Michelle says that there's nothing holding them together. Fanny insists that they are family and are permanently connected. Fanny admits to being angry with Michelle for the macing and Michael leaving, but Hubbell loved her and she wants to honor his feelings. She leaves Michelle, who now seems a little humbled and pensive.
At The Oyster Bar, Melanie is with her sleeping grandpa again. She has another argument with Jeff and it's actually kind of cute. Sasha shows up in disguise. Melanie says that she can't stay at her grandpa's because they have installed a chair lift and he'll be sleeping where she was. She can't stay at Boo's because her mother has gone to a very dark place. She can't stay at Ginny's mom's real estate listing because it's now in escrow. Go Ginny! Where will she stay?
Michelle watches a copy of the wedding video that Fanny left for her. He says that he predicts that Fanny will one day love Michelle more than he loves her. He says that she has no idea how great she is. Hmm. That's probably true. Michelle returns, still super drunk, in the video and moves to the altar with Hubbell. She says, "Hi pal!" and hugs him, which is very sweet.
Sasha has decided that Michelle's place at Fanny's is where she should stay. Who should show up shortly after she gets there? That cute boy who she met at the ER. This would not be met with approval by anyone. They're really cute together though. She says that she learned a lot at the Joffrey. The girls were a little competitive but she had read The Art of War. Damn. She says that she learned things, which is appropriately vague as that first meeting with the adult world can be. It's funny too, you can be in the arts when you are a kid and it can seem like a perfect complement to childhood. Like Fanny's studio -- what could be a better place to practice a little rigor and learn to be a better person? But what can seem like an intuitive move to the level can bring you face to face with stuff that is so completely worlds apart from what you've known. I guess that is just life but I feel like that can be a little more intense in the dance world sometimes.
Anyway, she and this cute boy talk some more. He jokes about taking a bath because he is standing to the bathtub, but he didn't really mean it. Her black hoodie disguise makes him ask if she's going to rob him. She says that she's just keeping a low profile. She tells him that it's good to see him as she moves closer to him. That's good he says, or all of the emails that she sent would seem weird.
They are about to kiss when, yep -- you guessed right, Michelle walks in. There's a frozen look between her and Sasha -- it looks like somebody's about to get a good scolding. Then, Sasha runs to her and embraces her. Michelle melts and says, "Hey, kid." Then, she motions for the cute boy to get the hell out of there.
The day, class is in session and it's full. That was fast. Fanny is leading and Michelle walks in. She tells Fanny that she may move to NYC and go back to performing. Fanny may want to take more time off. Fine. Michelle is staying. Fanny says that she'll just tell the parents that they can get over the macing. Truly walks by and she's blonde. Fanny wants Michelle's opinion on a little dance she has put together. It, um, is a dance to the mash-up "It's Time To Dance." Cruel. The dance is good though. When Boo comes out, she mouths "I'm sorry" to Michelle, who gives her the slit throat sign but is fine. Fanny tells her that the final performance will be in Nutcracker costumes, of course.
Jeff Long is a writer/performer in Brooklyn. He can be reached at jeff.long75@gmail.com and followed on Twitter at @jblong. He believes that it is indeed time to dance.