Fade In On a Star…

Last week, Bombshell bombed in previews. Julia and Tom were charged with coming up with a new ending but Julia was too mad at Tom for being a professional. Karen and Dev reconcile and get engaged. But he left the ring in Ivy’s room after their night of drunken sex. Rebecca ended up drinking a smoothie laced with peanuts and was rushed to the hospital. Bombshell is stuck in hell as they await news of their leading lady. So they go to church where Sam and Karen sing gospel and Julia and Tom make up. Rebecca recovers but decides this was a sign she shouldn’t do Bombshell and quits. That leaves one question: Who is Marilyn?


This week, we start fifteen minutes before the curtain goes up. Tom and Julia work on something and rush to give the changes to Linda. They ask her to give it to Marilyn. We then see the camera go through the hallways as people wish the camera good luck…in theater terms, of course. The camera hits its mark and the curtain rises.


12 Hours Earlier


Derek, Eileen, Tom and Julia argue about Rebecca’s departure on stage while the company waits outside in the lobby. Ellis is their spy. On stage, they realize that they can’t afford to cancel another performance. The vultures in New York are already circling overhead. But who is going to play Marilyn? Karen is the understudy, but hasn’t learned the entire show. Ivy knows most of the show. No one mentions her escapades at “Heaven on Earth” or the fact she’s still drinking and taking pills, though. They give no real reason to doubt Ivy could be Marilyn.


Bernadette Peters is back! She talks to her on-screen daughter, telling her she’s a shoe-in to play Marilyn. Ivy demurs, trying not to jinx anything.


Derek storms off, asking to see Marilyn’s costumes. He goes through them and we see images of both Ivy and Karen as Marilyn. The purple dress he hallucinated Karen wearing as Marilyn singing him “Our Day Will Come” is the last one. He turns and the hallucination has returned! I’m surprised he still hasn’t gotten that checked out. There’s a difference between “creativity” and “tumor.” As a writer, I can “hear” and “see” my characters, but were I to start hearing and seeing them outside my own head—I’d go get a CAT scan ASAP.


Anyway, hallucination!Marilyn!Karen is a sign to Derek that Karen is Marilyn. He goes and gets her, telling her she is going on tonight! She looks like a deer caught in headlights. Ivy looks like she just got punched in the gut.


Everyone is in panic mode. The costumes don’t fit Karen. She has to learn the entire show. Tom and Julia haven’t finished the new ending. They are tending to their confused leading lady, though Tom isn’t helping by preferring Ivy take the role. Julia gives Karen a pep talk, saying they believe in her. As Karen hugs Julia, her look to Tom says otherwise. She asks Karen if she needs anything and Karen asks to call her fiancé. Derek calls for her as Julia screams that Karen needs to make a phone call like a mother telling someone to back off their baby. Karen tells Dev she’s going on as Marilyn and she wants him to come watch her rehearse. He agrees.


And the rehearsing begins. We see Karen and Michael doing “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.” Karen walks away from Michael and Derek yells at her to stop. He tells Michael to grab her and hold her if necessary to prevent her from doing that during a performance. Michael agrees as Derek moves on to Karen’s costume. Karen says wardrobe is doing the best to alter the dresses. Derek asks them to reset.


Meanwhile, Julia rushes the stage to correct Karen’s lyrics. She didn’t get the new ones Julia wrote. Karen goes off to learn them while Michael catches Julia. He tells her that Michelle Federer left him and took their son to Seattle after he confessed his affair with Julia to him. Julia tells him she is sorry but she’s sticking with Frank. Who happens to be watching. Julia follows him out of the theater and swears nothing happened. He says he believes her but he can’t trust her due to issues. Instead of suggesting marriage counseling, Julia throws out a whole bunch of platitudes. This ends when Leo shows up with their lunch. I never thought I’d be so happy to see him in my life.


Eileen is busy spinning Rebecca’s departure and Karen’s elevation to the New York press. She’s giving the plot of “42nd Street” pretty much as Ellis storms out. He says that Marilyn is Ivy’s role. And he demands—as a producer—that she go on. Anjelica thanks him for his input in a a way that says “You’re treading on thin ice” and suggests he go on a coffee run. Because Lord knows this company is going to need caffeine. Ellis refuses and reveals that he didn’t get rid of Rebecca for nothing. Oh, that’s right. Ellis put peanuts in Rebecca’s smoothie to get rid of the deadweight that he actively pursued! For his…initiative?…he wants to be treated as an equal. Anjelica fires him and the audience lets out a cheer. He vows that we will hear from him again. Given recent news, I highly doubt this. (See post script for more)


But Julia wasn’t finished with her platitudes. Instead, she uses them as inspiration for the final song. Which Tom wants to be turned into a Gospel number. Julia dismisses this, saying he only wants to do that because of Sam and not because it makes sense for the show. So it’s back to the drawing board for Tom.
Inside, Karen is busy practicing her quick change for “I Never Met a Wolf Who Didn’t Like to Howl.” She has difficulty getting into it and Derek yells for her. Karen comes out in her skirt, holding up her dress. “We are trying,” she says. Derek accepts this as Ivy slinks up. She asks why she wasn’t chosen to be Marilyn. He tells her the truth…kinda. He tells her the part about seeing Karen in the role. He just leaves out the part that they’re hallucinations. And that’s it. Nothing about her antics at Heaven on Earth.


Okay, it may seem like I’m harping on it. But it’s a legitimate reason to not want to put Ivy in as Marilyn. It’s never been brought up since Derek asked for her to come back into the show. And we’ve never seen if Ivy has learnt a lesson. That’s character development. Remember that, writers?


Sorry. Ivy slinks back into the darkness as Dev comes across her. He asks her if she found his ring yet. She tells him she hasn’t, but in private, we see she has the ring in her purse. And while it isn’t in a blue box, so it’s not Tiffany’s (show, I’m disappointed. Didn’t Marilyn sing “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend”? With the line: “But stiff back or stiff knees, you stand straight at Tiffany’s!”?), it is a nice ring. She stares at it before looking behind her at Karen’s vanity. There are the obligatory pictures of Marilyn. But she also has pictures of her friends from Iowa, picture of Dev, etc.


And it just hit me. I know a lot of viewers question if Karen has any friends in New York City. But at least we see pictures of her Iowa friends, of her fiancé, etc. Ivy doesn’t have any of that. Not that we would expect her to have a picture of her mother. Nor does Derek seem the type to pose for pictures. (Unless they are on the red carpet at his show’s premieres, I gather). But surely Ivy has some pictures of her and Sam she could put up? Her and the Chorus Buddies? Just her shrine to Marilyn? Okay…


Karen manages the change and begins to sing “Wolf.” As you know, I’ve been on Team Karen. But during the number, they flashed back to Megan Hilty performing the song as Ivy—during Lyle’s welcome home party at Derek’s loft. And the truth is that Hilty’s version is stronger than McPhee’s. But McPhee now has the full choreography working on her side and her performance level almost masks her vocal inadequacy. (And I like McPhee’s voice). It’s a high energy number that would get any audience buzzing.


Derek and Eileen like the number as Derek calls for them to reset. Eileen comes over and says that Karen was wonderful in it but it was the only song she had gotten right all day. Eileen is understandably worried. And Derek ignores her, focusing on technical things. She gets upset and demands that her director have a conversation with her. Derek whirls and gives a speech about doing his art alone and for Eileen to thank him when its done. Clearly, it’s a speech of artists who prefer to work alone and theater is not the place to do so! Theater is a collaborative art form.


Eileen storms out, surprised to find Nick Jonas waiting for her. He’s come to the see show! And to return her Degas painting! Eileen thanks him but says “Bombshell” is on shaky ground. Lyle says he heard about Rebecca and asks about that blonde who sang at his party (Ivy). He says that she was amazing, which gets Eileen thinking.


Meanwhile, Karen comes up to her vanity to spot her engagement ring. Ivy is there, brushing her hair in a way that she’s trying to look innocent and failing miserably. Karen asks her if Dev popped in and Ivy’s like “Nope.” So our Midwestern star acts all confused until the blonde lays it out for her. Karen goes to confront Dev, who admits to sleeping with her rival. And in this state, Karen says she has to go do her show and leaves him in the alley behind the theater.


But she can’t go out to do “Howl” again. She rips off her wig and runs out. Linda is like “What new hell is this?” as Derek yells for Karen after she misses her cue. Linda comes out to tell the cranky Brit his star ran off. Derek barks at Linda to find her and she goes around asking people if they’ve seen Karen, including Tom and Julia.


Derek also searches for Karen as well, checking the dressing room. The Chorus Buddies say that Ivy would never run away and she sits like their queen as she agrees. I just figured the Chorus Buddies out. They are like Gretchen Weiner from “Mean Girls,” who gravitates to the closest Queen Bee. They gravitate to whoever isn’t falling apart that week. This week, for now, it’s Ivy.


Derek’s quest continues. He goes outside and finds Dev, who admits the fight. Derek’s like “I don’t have time for this” and declares to Dev that Karen is his. He storms back into the theater where he finds parts of Marilyn’s costume on the floor. Derek follows them to a changing room where Karen is curled on the floor, crying. He sits next to her and asks her what is wrong. She asks him if it really matters to which Derek replies it doesn’t. He blathers on about knowing about love and Marilyn and yada yada ya. Somehow Karen gets the courage to go back out there.


Meanwhile, Ivy is all dolled up as Marilyn and looking like she won the Miss American pageant. Eileen, Julia and Tom are thanking her for taking the role when Derek comes out. He’s surprised to see everything as Karen is also dressed as Marilyn. She apologizes for running out but promises that she’s ready to work. Ivy realizes the crown’s been taken away again.


Just in time for Bernadette Peters to show up again! With champagne! Ivy has to tell her mother that she didn’t get the part and Bernadette offers little solace.


And in other awkward encounter news, Jerry shows up! Eileen thinks he’s come to gloat, but he’s come to watch the show. Meanwhile, Julia doesn’t feel well and rushes to the bathroom. Since this is TV, that means she’s possibly preggers! We’re all still reeling from the premiere when Ivy threw up just because of nerves. Nothing else. So Julia’s line about having not thrown up since she was pregnant with Leo was a bit anvil-y.


So we go back to the beginning. Julia and Tom’s mad dash through the theater. The camera walking through people now pulls back to reveal the woman’s brown hair. It’s Karen, we know. Or do we? Because the camera spins around to reveal that it’s been Ivy, but she’s taking her place as a shadow self and not Marilyn. She opens the show with some dialogue before Karen starts “Let Me Be Your Star.”


We don’t see as much of Bombshell this go around. A glimpse of “Lexington and 52nd Street.”  And we go back to the end, with Karen-as-Marilyn wrapped in a bed sheet on the phone with someone. She pleads with him to come over and talk before launching into a reprise of “Second Hand White Baby Grand.” The stage goes dark as we see some cast members near tears in the audience.


As Michael Swift sings a reprise of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” DiMaggio mourning Marilyn, Karen is changing. Derek shoos the costumer away and helps Karen himself. He gives her the clichéd “You are a star” talk before we learn what type of ending Tom and Julia have written. 


And it’s a number called “Don’t Forget Me.” Marilyn stands out in front of a set of mirrors and pleads with people not to forget her. And to see her in the people who are like her. As Karen sings, chorus members (?) re-enact scenes from her life. In the audience, Julia and Tom look at each other with pride. Lyle looks like he’s in love while Eileen and Nick (hi, Thorsten Kaye!) watch with smiles. Dev is all adoring as is Derek.


The only one not adoring is Ivy, who is not part of the final number. As Karen triumphs on stage, we see Ivy sitting at her vanity. She takes her pill bottle and empties its contents into the palm of her hand. That is the last shot we see of Ivy as Karen finishes the song. The episode ends with a picture of Marilyn.


Debra Messing comes to tell us to stick around to watch Bombshell’s journey to Broadway next season. I am curious to see where it goes from here. I just hope that the new show runner believes in character development. The entire cast could use some.


See you all next season!


So, the post script. According to E! Online, four actors have been released from “Smash.” Jaime Cepero, who plays Ellis, is one. The other three are: Brian d’Arcy James (Frank), Raza Jaffrey (Dev) and Will Chase (Michael Swift). These latter actors are the ones I’m upset about. And James is mostly because we never got to hear him sing. YouTube him. And I think poor Will Chase suffered from poor writing. He swung from devoted family man to a man who couldn’t keep it in his pants back to devoted family man to a man groveling for Julia’s attention. And while I didn’t care for Dev’s job, they have just set up a juicy storyline for him. They will be missed.

Playbill recap