Bunheads - Season 1 Episode 15 - Recap and Review - Take the Vicuna

Recap and review of Bunheads - Season 1 Episode 15 - Take the Vicuna:

This week's Bunheads is an episode that deals, in abstract terms, with motherhood. It isn't simply that "Take the Vicuna" draws parallels to Michelle (Sutton Foster) and Sasha (Julia Goldani Telles) in their tumultuous relationships with their own mothers, but also in how Fanny (Kelly Bishop) redeclares her position as clan mother while also welcoming the dominant Millie (Liza Weil) into the fold. It's a reflective episode, in a lot of ways, encouraging us to examine how mothers shape their daughters into the people they eventually become, and how daughters need mothers whether they'll admit as much or not. The episode is a much more carefully constructed episode than last week's series of vignettes, telling a story that builds as the hour progresses, only to finally implode close to the end. The approach works remarkably well, in that regard, as the comedy draws our attention away from the tense drama at the heart of it all. It's one of my favorite episodes of the series thus far. It also has what I feel is the most impressive sequence of the series so far, as the opening is an astonishingly excellent dance sequence in which the bunheads perform a complicated dance routine, weaving in and out of different formations, all while trading quippy dialogue nonchalantly, as if their minds weren't being taxed by two completely separate activities at the same time. It's incredible that they got that all in one continuous take. I can't imagine how many takes they had to do just to get that one - seriously, it's really something to behold. But I'm burying the lede, as the episode has a lot more going on than the considerable dancing talents of its cast.

Credit: ABC Family

Sasha is holding a housewarming party at her new apartment (weird, I know), and though she puts up a facade of excitement, there's a stirring underneath it all that can't be ignored with quips, like how her friends' childishness is reminiscent of the last third of Benjamin Button. She holds the party but it all goes pear-shaped once Roman (Garrett Coffey) hears about the party and shows up, clearly hurt to have not been invited. He confronts Sasha about why he was left off the guests' list, and she explains that she didn't want him to get the wrong idea about what they were to each other. She assumes that Roman would have misinterpreted her apartment as a "sex palace", where he could just come and have her any time he wants, thanks to the privacy and freedom of her circumstances. But it's not really freedom for Sasha, as she explains that the stress is killing her. She doesn't know how to set up utilities with a credit card, her parents have functionally abandoned her, and she's gripped by her own youthful fears and doubts about her adequacy in life. Roman, for his part, is angry that Sasha seems to think so little of him. He doesn't even know what a "sex palace" would be, and while it doesn't sound like a bad thing, he's offended that she would think he so desperately wants to experience one. He concludes that whatever exists between them clearly isn't going to happen, to which Sasha takes offense. The argument leads to both shouting out their desire to go on a date, and plans are made to continue their courtship. It's a wonderful scene that, while not entirely naturalistic in its depiction of how teens might talk to one another (in terms of the verbiage being bandied about), still feels authentic. Sasha is slowly being made into a little adult, with a refrigerator full of tupperware containers crammed with leftovers, and tables of fresh-baked cookies and modest mood lighting by the doorway. Yet for all the adult trappings, Sasha is still a kid, which is why it's poignant, though not surprising, that she seeks refuge at Michelle's house, so as to delay the tiresome business of adulthood for just one more night. And Michelle is more than willing to accommodate her. As a surrogate mother-daughter relationship, I adore the Michelle/Sasha dynamic.

It's honestly not that far removed from the mother-daughter dynamic of Michelle and Fanny, although Fanny has issues of her own this week when Millie, who has invested in the amphitheater idea (earning her the de facto title of "producer", in the showbiz sense), requests to sit in on a rehearsal to see where her money is going. She gives a bunch of really petty, uninformed notes about the early, little-rehearsed performance she sees, leading to a blowup between Fanny and Millie over the latter's sense of entitlement to criticize the performance, since it's her money on the line, while Fanny feels Millie has no right to give her girls a hard time when Millie clearly knows nothing about ballet. Millie, in a huff, demands her investment money back, but Fanny has already put it towards the show, so Millie threatens to sue. Forced to swallow her pride, Fanny takes the mature route and offers a truce: she'll educate Millie about ballet, turning her into a connoisseur of the arts, if she'll leave the creative decisions to herself and Michelle. It's a sweet dynamic, and charming in its own right, since Millie is clearly someone who has a hard time relating to people, and is simply looking for someone to give her some sort of chance. It's as if she's thrown by Fanny's offer, and the implication that she's worth the bother. I was impressed with how simple and touching the arc was.

Credit: ABC Family

Yet none of these respective arcs carried the impact of Michelle's confrontation with her mother (Lolita Davidovich). Scotty (Hunter Foster) drags Michelle out to Sacramento on the pretense of a social gathering. He allows Michelle to fall asleep in the car so he can go inside a roadside diner and meet with his mystery date, but Michelle wakes up and walks in to find that the mysterious rendezvous is with their mother. What follows is a confrontation that's disquieting, in many respects. Michelle is ambivalent about her mother, having gone out of her way to avoid seeing her for the past twelve-and-a-half years, yet her mother seems to share that ambivalence, a sense of resigned exasperation with her daughter, to the point where there's absolutely no warmth between either of them. Worse still, though Michelle's mother is still fit and youthful-looking, she's one of the saddest characters we've met so far, in terms of how she lies to herself to avoid the realities of her situation. She purchased an expensive condo with her boyfriend, but they broke up, and the only way to get out of paying for the house was for her to be declared incompetent, with Scotty taking over as her legal guardian. Thus, Scotty is meeting with her because she needs his signature to purchase a new property with her new boyfriend. She's convinced that everything will work out this time, without a trace of irony. Even stranger, Michelle's mother is determined to record a country album, and doesn't seem to think that this is in any way a bad idea. Michelle can only scoff at her mother's certainty, sitting in the next booth, mother and daughter back-to-back as they toss passive-aggressive assertions at one another. It becomes too much to bear, and Scotty signs the release, gives it to their mother, and gets Michelle the hell out of there...but not before her mother calls out to her. Michelle stops for a moment, and her mother says, "I just wanted to see your face," before Michelle turns and leaves.

Credit: ABC Family

It's easy to see how Michelle could come from this woman, all aglow with ambition and youthful vigor, and the same rapid-fire quipping. She's clearly a woman with dreams, and this could be part of why Michelle doesn't want to confront her, as she serves as a dark mirror for all the potential that Michelle herself failed to realize. There's a brokenness to both mother and daughter, despite the fact that Michelle is in a much better place these days. While this is only one piece in a larger puzzle we've been given about how Michelle has come to be the person she is, it seems clear that her mother had a very large role in her development into the sarcastic, sassy woman she is today. Who knows, maybe even the talent came from her mother too? Either way, I can't wait to see where they take this story, as it's rich with a variety of possibilities that could tell us more about Michelle's character, and bring out some of her inner conflict more overtly.

"Take the Vicuna" distills the narrative down to a motherly theme, and this absolutely works, as we see the bunheads in relation to their teachers, and the teachers in relation to those responsible for where they are right now. It's a cycle of comfort, and the refuges people take to escape adulthood, if even for a moment. It's a beautiful episode, and one of the show's strongest.