Bunheads - Season 1 Episode 14 - Recap and Review - The Astronaut and the Ballerina

Recap and review of Bunheads - Season 1 Episode 14 - The Astronaut and the Ballerina:

This was kind of a strange episode of Bunheads. It wasn't bad by any means. It was simply an episode that was peculiar in its complete lack of one centralized, overarching storyline. The episode played out as a series of vignettes, and I was surprised at how well that approached worked. Well, maybe not surprised. Bunheads is a show that doesn't really require much in the way of traditional serialization. It's a series that trades on the audiences' desire to just hang out with these characters every week. And that's not such a bad stock-in-trade when you've got characters like these. "The Astronaut and the Ballerina" is an episode that bucks the traditional structure of an episodic narrative, and the result is one of the best episodes of the season, if for no other reason than the variety of stories being told, and how these separate stories contribute to the larger sense of community and activity in the world of Paradise, CA.

The plots each follow their own internalized structure and arc:

-Michelle (Sutton Foster) is visited by her brother Scotty (Foster's real-life brother Hunter), who has just bailed on his latest near-marriage and is looking for a couch to crash on. His presence is initially an invigorating influence on Michelle, as she finally has a drinking buddy, of sorts. They share nostalgic reflections about their childhood, and about Michelle's affinity for the ukulele. But then things start to take a turn when Michelle brings Scotty to the dance studio, and he tells a story about Michelle's childhood obsession with "The Unfinished Dream", a Margaret O'Brien movie in which a young ballerina idolizes an older, more experienced colleague, and plots a sabotage that backfires. Michelle interprets Scotty's story as an attempt to undermine her in front of the girls, an argument which spirals out of control when she discovers that Scotty didn't just find her long lost, beloved ukulele, he'd had it all along. Old hurts come to the surface, in an absolutely dynamite scene between the Foster siblings, as their natural comfort with one another imbues their performance with a lived-in feeling of sibling rivalry.

Credit: ABC Family

Michelle resents Scotty for never taking responsibility, only to then turn around and blame Scotty for not better preparing her for life. Scotty then rails against Michelle for not speaking to their mother in twelve years, leaving him to deal with her on his own. It's an authentic scene of two siblings working through their issues the only way they know how - by ripping open old wounds and hoping they scab over. The coda to this scene, in which Michelle plays classic American standard "Tonight You Belong to Me" (covered by Eddie Vedder, in a callback to Scotty's glib dismissal of the ukulele, citing that Vedder had done an entire album of songs on the instrument because he was out of ideas). As Michelle sings the song to herself, Scotty sits alongside her and joins in. It's remarkably restrained, simply focusing on the two Fosters singing a simple song, all the pain of Michelle and Scotty's shared resentments playing across their faces as the episode comes to a close. The storyline is relatable to just about anyone who's ever had a contentious relationship with a sibling. It's as elegant and devastating in its simplicity as anything the show has ever done, and I hope it becomes an ongoing arc (although if the storyline must end here, it will have said all, or most, of what needed to be said. But I would love to see it continue).

Credit: ABC Family

-Ginny (Bailey Buntain) is losing her mind, as her father's wedding draws closer, and her new stepmother has picked out a particularly horrific bridesmaid outfit, and scheduled a photoshoot that can't possibly end well for anyone involved. Ginny is leaning entirely on her friendship with Mel (Emma Dumont) to get her through, due to the absence of Sasha (Julia Goldani Telles), who's gone apartment hunting for a new place in Paradise, because that makes all the sense in the world, I guess. Unfortunately for Ginny, Mel is going through some problems of her own, primarily her father's relentless pressure to meticulously plan her future. Mel is taking out her frustrations on the roller derby rink, having taken Cozette (Jeanine Mason) up on her offer to join the squad. As "Cleosmacktra", Mel seems to find a better fit with the derby girls than with her fellow bunheads, a development that causes Ginny to flip out once Mel misses the photoshoot, leaving her alone to endure the humiliation of being splashed with punch, in her future stepmother's insipid idea of a clever photo op. Bailey Buntain did some excellent work this week, portraying a teenage girl lost in her own problems, but to such a manic degree that she's completely consumed by her own neuroses. It's a great comedic performance, particularly her long, unbroken rant about how she's gradually becoming her mother, which is followed up by her climactic scene, chewing out Cozette for screwing with her group dynamic. Ginny and Mel will more than likely be fine, but these kinds of conflicts help make their friendship feel more authentic, to say nothing of how it piles on the development for the underdeveloped Mel.

Credit: ABC Family

-Boo (Kaitlyn Jenkins) and Carl (Casey J. Adler) are swamped, taking care of Carl's nephews, and the strain is transforming them into a withered, old married couple. The premature maturation of teenagers is always a solid ground to mine for comedy, particularly when you have two characters who already are kind of adults, at least in their sensibilities. Carl becomes the resentful husband/father, angry that he's being forced to watch the kids and miss out on hitting up the gym, while Boo becomes the exasperated mother/wife, who starts treating everyone like children, since she's been so consumed with the kids that she's forgotten how to interact with people her own age. Her takedown of the ruthless, cocky, totalitarian instructor Jordan (Kent Boyd) is one of the best moments of the entire episode. Jordan has been abusing bunheads, both big and small, throughout the entire episode, accusing them of "killing Baryshnikov", and asking them to perform tasks better suited to the Bolshoi Ballet than to a ballet academy for juveniles. It's a great scene for Kaitlyn Jenkins, made all the better by Boo's development into a character with authority. The tag at the end of the episode, in which Jordan, now broken by Boo's motherly chiding, is unable to perform his Baryshnikov moves, is a fitting cap to one of the more amusing comedic subplots in recent weeks.

"The Astronaut and the Ballerina" is among the best episodes since the series returned from break, and illustrates a confidence in its storytelling that exemplifies the excellent series this is maturing into.