Bunheads - Season 1 Episode 17 - Recap and Review - It's Not a Mint
Recap and review of Bunheads - Season 1 Episode 17 - It's Not a Mint:
Bunheads is down to the wire, as tonight's episode marks the penultimate hour of the show's season. "It's Not a Mint" leaves next week's finale with a tall order to fill, as the episode succeeded in telling both an independently-contained story, yet a story that also is of a piece with the rest of the season, contributing to the various character arcs that have been flowering throughout the series thus far. A forest fire in the area leads to the east side of town and the west side of town having to take shelter in designated evacuation centers, of which the dance studio is one. This confined space leads to characters have to confront their issues, while others develop issues they didn't even know were there. It's a well-structured hour of television, and anchored by yet another wonderful dance setpiece, this one from Fanny's old production of "Billy Elliot" that centered on the boy's coal miner father. The dance sequence, which the girls perform to entertain the beleaguered evacuation center crowd, sees the girls engaging in some fairly modern choreography. The lights are out, and the girls are illuminated by nothing else but the lights on their coal miners' helmets, and this proves to be a terrific bit of staging that has the benefit of also being visually striking. It really bears repeating that these girls are pretty remarkable talents, not only as actresses (comedic actresses, at that), but as dancers. "It's Not a Mint" is an episode that succeeds about as well as any episode of a show can succeed.
Credit: ABC Family
The lion's share of the episode sees Michelle (Sutton Foster) serving alongside Bass (Sean Gunn) as the co-captain of the evacuation center, while also serving as unrecognized co-maid of honor with Truly (Stacey Oristano) for the wedding of Talia (Angelina McCoy). Michelle is also divided in her loyalties when she discovers a condom under one of the girls' lockers, and must confront the possibility that she doesn't know these girls as well as she thinks. It's a storyline development that is somewhat mirrored in Michelle's conflict with Talia. After spending much of the episode watching mishap after mishap prevent Talia's wedding from happening, Michelle confronts Talia with the possibility that maybe things just aren't meant to be with Rick. Talia recognizes that Michelle never wanted her to marry Rick, since Michelle is somewhat living vicariously through her, wanting her to take the shows she's being offered in New York, the parts that she's giving up to be with a man nearly twice her age. Michelle's lingering disappointment about her own failure to make it in the industry blinds her to the authenticity of Talia's love for Rick - and also to her friend's big surprise: Talia is pregnant. It's apparent that Michelle hadn't considered the possibility of there being any other reason for Talia to settle down but her own willingness to settle. Though the argument is a stormy bit of business, it's a blow-up that is eventually resolved by the end of the episode, with Talia heading off to marry Rick and Michelle possibly getting things started up again with Godot. It's a tightly-plotted arc but one that resonates remarkably well since, regardless of the initial motives behind her objection to the marriage, Michelle really is compelled by a desire to protect her best friend, and to shield her from making the kinds of mistakes that she herself has made.
Credit: ABC Family
"It's Not a Mint" is a very busy episode, beyond this central arc. Truly is obsessed with being a maid of honor, as she feels she'll never have the opportunity to be one again, since no one will ever ask her. Millie (Liza Weil) recognizes her sister's heartbreak when it becomes apparent that circumstances will not allow for the wedding to proceed as planned, so Millie uses the one helicopter she has on standby to deliver the groom to the ceremony so that her sister can have her big day. It's a lovely little moment, made all the more resonant by Liza Weil's performance, as she allows us to really get underneath Millie's skin. This is a woman who adopted upon realizing that she wouldn't be married before her biological clock stopped ticking, and that's something remarkably poignant to address on a show as lighthearted as this. That's not to say that real issues aren't addressed, but simply that the weighty nature of such topics as these tend to be jarring when we've spent much of the last few weeks dallying in Sasha (Julia Goldani Telles) and Roman's (Garrett Coffey) relationship. Then again, this isn't a complaint. In fact, I mean it as a huge compliment, as the show really makes the most of its heavy emotional arcs, since they are so rarely deployed in such an overt fashion. More often than not, the show deals subtly with its drama, from Michelle's relationship with her family to Sasha's broken home. Sure, there's a larger sense of heartbreak, if not outright tragedy, but much of it is beneath the surface, left for the viewer to suss out from the performances of the actors, without direct comment from the characters themselves, except for fleeting outbursts of emotion. Thinking on it, I guess that isn't really what you'd call "subtle". But it is what I'd call "effective". This really is among the best shows on TV, in terms of carefully measuring when, and in what doses, to dole out its dramatic developments.
Credit: ABC Family
The other storylines of the episode are relatively light fare. Carl (Casey J. Adler) and Jeff (Antony Del Rio) bond over a mutual love of the movie "Hope Springs" and, particularly, Tommy Lee Jones. The two boys trade terrible impressions of the actor, but eventually come to blows when it becomes apparent that Jeff is flirting with Boo (Kaitlyn Jenkins), whom we learn is on the pill (though she's not actually having sex with Carl - they're saving the moment for senior prom). There's also the continuation of Ginny's (Bailey Buntain) infatuation with Frankie (Niko Pepaj) and the cooling of her rivalry with Cozette (Jeanine Mason), as the latter sibling sets things in motion for the romance to blossom, telling her brother that Ginny was looking for someone to give her drawing lessons. Meanwhile, Mel (Emma Dumont) develops a flirtation with Dez (Paul James Jordan), her brother's thick-headed friend, who turns out to be a lot deeper than he initially appeared. There's even a pretty amusing bit at the start of the episode, as Sasha suspects there's an intruder in her house, leading to an extended comedic sequence where Roman does a sweep of her apartment, nearly collapsing in terror at the sight of a giant spider, before Boo and her family come to the rescue...only for Boo's father to be rendered mortified by the spider as well. It's a much better bit in execution than I could ever make it sound by describing it, and it's really the kind of escalating comedy that the show does exceedingly well.
Credit: ABC Family
"It's Not a Mint" brings all these disparate comedic and dramatic influences together into a cohesive whole, and I couldn't be more impressed. Bunheads continues to be a show of considerable depth that rarely, if ever, overplays its hand. Next week's finale has a tall order to fill, but if it sticks the landing, so to speak, it will really cement this as one of the strongest first seasons of a series that I can recall.
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