The TV Chick

Last night’s episode was the penultimate for this mid-season of Make It Or Break It, and my Mondays are going to be lacking in drama after next week. This week’s episode titled “The Only Thing We Have To Fear…” centered around the preparation for The Rock’s meet with China. Sasha puts the girls on lock down for a week, where they have to sleep in the gym in order to live like the Chinese do and bond as a team. Lauren explains how horrible the China meet went, and how she choked in the biggest way. She explains that she needs her teammates, and that they have all been there for each other since they were kids. Kaylie and Lauren seem to be on the road to repairing their friendship, as they promise never to let a guy interfere with their relationship again.

Meanwhile, in Emily Kmetko world, she is struggling to land her Yurchenko vault that has a blind landing. Sasha has told her that failure is not an option and she needs to land the vault in order to be competitive with the Chinese. Damon tells Emily he wants to be there for her in every way and they finally say I love you (in the Pizza Shack no less).

However, not all is good at The Rock. The National Team Committee wants to shut down the meet and continues to make threats against Sasha and his team, calling them rogue on several occasions. The Coordinator speaks to Emily, and threatens her scholarship. She also gets MJ involved. MJ tells Kaylie she could lose her endorsement money as well as her National Champion title because of this meet and encourages her to back out. After all they have gone through as a team, Kaylie is incredibly conflicted and goes to Lauren for help. (more on this later).

Sasha finds out from Kim Keeler that Payson got the go-ahead to do gymnastics 2 weeks ago but didn’t tell anyone. Sasha asks Kim if he can take a shot at getting her to overcome the fear. Sasha asks Payson to help Emily land her vault, and explains that fear can be crippling to a gymnast. Payson and Emily work together, but Emily still can’t nail her vault. She and Payson butt heads and Emily tells Payson she has a perfect life where she can always focus on gymnastics and two parents who are still together. Payson spills to Emily that she is allowed to do gymnastics but she’s too scared. Emily tells her if she can do it, Payson has to do it. With Sasha and Kim watching secretly on the sidelines, Emily lands her Yurchencko blind landing, and Payson does a front handspring vault perfectly. It was such a great moment to actually see Payson back in the gym (and not just doing conditioning or motivating the other girls). I think she will be a champion again, it will just be a long process.

Despite the triumph of landing her vault, Emily’s future in gymnastics is not looking too great. The National Team Coordinator tells Sasha that Emily has been breaking the rules of her scholarship by working and gives a non-believing Sasha the address of the Pizza Shack. He stops by and tells Emily (who is already upset because Damon quit and she has no idea why) that she is in big trouble. If she competes in the China meet, she will lose her scholarship. If she keeps working at the Pizza Shack (which she needs to do), she will most likely lose her scholarship. She has to choose between adhering to the National Team rules (and not competing) and competing with her team against China. She chooses not to back down to the threats and to compete. Sasha explains that if she had only been honest, he could have helped her figure out something. He helps her bus tables, in a very sweet moment between the two of them.

Later, Damon calls Emily at the Pizza Shack and tries to explain that he won a huge music contest but she won’t have it. She tells him through tears that she has already broken the rules too much and she doesn’t know why she put her dreams in jeopardy. She tells him not to come to the Invitational meet and not to contact her again. Something tells me this won’t be the last we see of Damon though. He is definitely a fan favorite and I’d be surprised if he just listened to Emily and never contacted her again. I am curious to see what this means for Emily working at the Pizza Shack and what will happen with her scholarship. When she tells her mom what happened, Chloe says she is proud of Emily for making the right decision and that they will figure out something. Judging from a hint earlier in the episode, brought to us by a snarky Lauren comment about how Emily’s mom won’t stay away from her dad for long because of the money, I have a feeling Chloe might be going back to Steve sooner than I thought.

Earlier in the episode, Carter had told Lauren that he and Kaylie got back together (even if all they shared was a kiss). Lauren basically drags that information out of Kaylie and it seems to put a little dent in their new found (old) friendship. Kaylie’s life however, seems to be in shambles. She finds out her dad is divorcing her mom and goes to visit him. He seems unsympathetic and unwilling to help or advise Kaylie. He admits he’s been a terrible father and she storms out. She misses the last practice before China because of this and it is still unclear whether she is going to compete. While she is freaking out, she tries to reach Lauren but can’t and tells her she is coming over. Lauren is with Carter in their garage apartment. She tells him that she loves him but she knows he loves Kaylie and that they should be friends. They share a platonic hug right as Kaylie walks in on them.

I really enjoyed this episode. I would have liked to see more Summer and Sasha (they shared a small moment at the beginning when the girls were on lock down), but I’m sure there will be more of that in the finale. I assume that all of the girls will be competing in the meet against China, and true to ABC Family goodness, they will most likely win. (I don’t have any insider info, I’m just guessing). But the show always has some curve balls thrown at us–Payson’s injury at the end of last season, Kaylie’s mom cheating on her dad — so I am sure there is something that I can’t see coming. I hope the season ends on a big cliffhanger (perhaps we won’t even know if the US beat China?) The next episode is titled “Are We Family” which could apply to any number of things. My hope is to see Payson overcome her fear on bars before the season ends, and to see Sasha’s team prove the National Team Committee wrong. Whatever happens, I am so glad this show is going to have a 2nd season (and hopefully many more), and I can’t wait to see what happens in the finale.

Make It Or Break It airs Monday nights at 9 pm on ABC Family.