The TV Chick

Last night’s episode of Make It Or Break It was one of the best of the entire series so far. And whew, it was crazy intense! The girls are going to Paris (Lauren as an alternate) and each are dealing with their own obstacles. Emily is under pressure to perform, while also still love stricken with Damon and unsure if she should try to go visit him in Paris while she is close by. Kaylie is understandably still mad at Lauren, but has devoted herself solely to gymnastics and sworn off boys. Lauren is up to her instigating ways (as always) and just wants to plant toxic ideas in everyone’s heads (more on this later). And Payson, despite her coach’s best effort to stop her, goes to France to try and petition onto the National team.

When they get to Paris, The Rock girls hope to do a bit of sightseeing but Ellen Beals has them under lock and key. In addition, Marty is on leave pending review, so Beals will be supervising their assistant coaches. I’d love to know a bit more of her back story — and for someone to knock her off her high horse. We also get to meet a new boy — Austin Tucker — who is a rogue gymnast himself. He often parties and gets drunk but manages to pull off big wins in competition. It’s so nice to see a new boy added into the picture. I hope to see more of him, as he was very pleasant to look at. At the hotel, Kaylie is mobbed for autographs but Lauren is hilariously ignored.

Back in Colorado at The Rock, Steve is scheming to become President of the Parents Board. He invites all the “contenders” parents over for a viewing party of the France competition. He wants to keep his relationship with Chloe a secret and claims it’s all in the name of politics. When Kim Keeler shows up to Steve’s viewing party for him to sign something, she is rudely told (in not so many words) that she wasn’t invited because Payson isn’t a contender. Kim and Steve go head to head. Go Kim! She announces that she is running too.

The real intensity wasn’t necessarily at the competition though. Lauren convinces Emily to go to Paris to visit Damon and of course takes her return ticket. Classy, Lauren! Emily and Damon reunite and kiss and it’s all beautiful until they finally sit down and talk. Emily explains why she didn’t say goodbye. Damon wants to be there for her and support her. She wants them both to have their dreams, which means they have to say goodbye. She asks him to say it first, they are both teary eyed (whew boy! Tears coming for me). I want to stop for a moment and just talk about how this episode was Chelsea Hobbs’ moment to shine. She is a wonderful actress and I have the utmost respect for her. In the past however, she hasn’t necessarily been the focal point. All of the girls deserve their time, so I have no problem with that fact, but I just think this episode really showed how fantastic an actress Chelsea Hobbs is. You could see Emily’s heartbreak, and you could see the shattered dreams. The old Emily might have crawled into a ball when she couldn’t find her return ticket. Instead, the new Emily does flips in the subway to earn money (good thinking Em!) Austin finds her, she explains her situation, he gives her a euro, asks her to do a full twist for a ticket. Austin was seeing the Green Day concert, Damon was talking about Emily the entire time. Emily explains to Austin why she can’t have a boyfriend, he says all those things make his gymnastics better. Of course, on their way back into the hotel, they run into Ellen Beals.

Lauren of course told on Emily to Beals (unbeknownst to Emily, but Kaylie does catch on). Emily understandably is upset and throws things. Again, we really see the maturity of Emily’s character. When she started off, she was a shy gymnast who was unaware of her own talent. She now has much more confidence in her dreams. I absolutely loved seeing this more emotional side to Emily. Damon shows up and gives a very encouraging speech. Seriously, I wish someone would give this speech to me when I’m having a terrible day. He has an idea: in two years (after the Olympics), they meet in Paris under the Eiffel Tower. They meet there and decide if it’s goodbye. She says yes. They hug. My goodness, what a wonderful moment. Damon refuses to say goodbye. I’m so glad they have been reunited, even if it’s only temporary.

I talked all about this episode without even mentioning that Nastia Liukin makes a great guest appearance. Nastia Liukin, for those who don’t know, won the all-around Olympic gold medal in the 2008 Olympics. She encourages the girls and also appears later on as a commentator. I love real gymnasts crossing over to the Make It Or Break It world. Please do more of this! Shawn Johnson (all around silver medalist in the last Olympic games) has been on The Secret Life of the American Teenager–perhaps she can make an appearance here, too?

At the end of the important meet in France, Kaylie wins the all around gold, with Lauren taking the bronze medal. She manages to overcome a doubtful Beals (who told her to lose a few pounds which caused me to gasp) and a super competitive non-friend in Lauren. Payson’s petition isn’t granted and her dreams of making the National team are shattered. Her bar routine was top notch, but it seems that whatever we didn’t see (her other 3 routines) was not so great. I like that we were left to imagine what happened. Ellen Beals comments that Sasha Belov insisted she be allowed to compete which isn’t the truth, so perhaps there will be some sort of fight between them.

The girls return home to various different levels of successes and failures. Emily will get to prove herself, but Payson won’t — at least not for a while. While the level of intensity of the episode was slightly hard to watch at times, it was fantastic. I was very pleased that Kaylie proved herself once again. It wouldn’t have been at all satisfying if Lauren somehow beat her. However, I like that Lauren is back in competitive form as well (at the pushing and encouragement of her father). I don’t like her bitchy-ness but every drama needs that, right? It speaks well to Cassie Scerbo’s acting abilities because I’ve chatted with her before and she is not at all like her character. I’m sure there will be consequences for her actions. Was I the only one secretly hoping she’d fall off the beam and Emily would get to fill in at the last minute? Whatever the repercussions of the France meet are, I will definitely be tuning in. I’d also love to get my hands on one of on the National Team jackets, because they are top-notch.

Make It Or Break It moves to a new time and day next week. Be sure to tune in next Tuesday at 9 pm to ABC Family for an all new episode.