Bunheads

Bunheads

Episode 9: No One Takes Khaleesi's Dragons

By: Carlos Uribe

Bunheads is about a dancer who moves to a sleepy coastal town and becomes a ballet teacher.

Spoilers Ahoy!

This episode begins with Michelle being happy that Paradise's coffee shop has reopened. The barista had been out-of-town to be in competitions. This is a barista who is just as quirky as most of the people in this town. He views all of his coffees as works of art and is very proud at having beaten the French and Italian in competitions. He's an award-winning coffee maker and he takes it all very seriously. This causes him to take a long time to make a single cup of coffee, which usually causes lines and Michelle to get impatient. Michelle and the barista do not get along at all. When Michelle learns that a supermarket is planning to open, she's happy that she won't have to deal with the barista anymore. That is until the supermarket is closed due to a technical zoning error. This upsets Michelle and she tries her best to save the supermarket but finds her efforts to be impeded. This leaves her with no place to get coffee but Godot gives her a coffee machine. He seems to be interested in courting her but she's not interested back yet. You would think that because Michelle had her own storyline that had nothing to do with the dance school that she would remain separate from the lives of her students. The good news is that she does interact with them.

It's from Boo that she learns that the supermarket is going to close. It's Boo that she claims to be trying to save the supermarket for. That's because Boo realizes that she likes Carl. Now that the supermarket isn't opening, the dance has been canceled. This means spending less time rehearsing and more time apart. Carl isn't very happy with Boo since she had failed to stand up for him with her friends. He seems to be moving on. He also appears to be played by an older actor in this episode than the last one, for some odd reason. Boo is eventually able to admit her feelings with Carl and this leads to them kissing. Sadly for Carl, this is just when Melanie and Ginny happen to walk in. Ginny, who likes Charlie, thinks it's okay for her to date Charlie. Boo claims that she still has feelings for Carl and this only serves to drive him away from her. I like Boo but I have to agree with her assertion that she was stupid this episode. It's a good story for Boo and Michelle does manage to interact with it some. Michelle is the first one to learn that Boo likes Carl and she gives Boo the privacy she needs. It's nice to see Michelle being a role model.

While most of the girls are dealing with relationship problems, Sasha is in her own separate cheer-leading world. She may share scenes with her friends, but it's obvious that there's now a disconnect between them. When her friends show up to see her cheer, Sasha is embarrassed and goes from willing cheerleader to sabotaging her own team. Sasha is too stubborn to apologize to Fanny and she's acting out the best way she can: by doing something that isn't right for her. Fanny is paying for Sasha's mistake as she can't seem to find the perfect female lead dancer in her production of The Nutcracker. Fanny isn't going to be the mature one and talk to Sasha. This leaves only one person who can breach the divide and bring Sasha back into the fold. That person is Michelle. Michelle has a scene with Sasha and it appears that she might have gotten through to her. It's not going to fix Sasha's problems but she should at least be going back to being a ballet student. Considering that this is a show that's about ballet students, this is required if Sasha is to realistically remain as a series regular. This means that Sasha will be returning to ballet whether in the finale or in next season's (if there is one) premiere.

Bunheads had a pretty good episode and all of the dialogue was spot-on as usual except for one line. It's ironic but it's the line where the episode title comes from. Actually it seems more likely that they came up with the name first and then fit the line into the episode to make it relevant to the actual episode. The line felt a little bit forced in and inorganic with the rest of the script. Despite that line, this episode was top-notch. Even better is that it showed that it can give Michelle her own storyline and yet influence the lives of the girls. That Fanny was in this episode was even better. Overall a great sign from the show.