SMASH!
Drunk!Derek and Drunk!Karen finish off the last bottle of wine in Karen and Ana’s apartment. She notes that it’s very early in the morning before they start kissing. They fall out of frame as the scene changes.
Jimmy wakes up in The Place Which Shall Not be Mentioned and it is a sty. Another Jimmy sings REM’s “High and Dry” while watching his other self get up and check out the stuff Kyle dropped off the night before. Sober!Jimmy follows his counterpart back to his apartment with Kyle, which is empty. So Jimmy goes to Karen’s apartment, with Sober!Jimmy still following and singing. As the song ends, Jimmy taps on her window. Karen opens it and talks to Jimmy. Mostly to try to get rid of him. Derek coming into the room does it though. He leaves and Karen closes the window in disgust.
Tom tries to call Kyle but only gets his voicemail. So Tom leaves an adorably awkward message as Ivy arrives with Bernadette and coffee. She apologizes for being late and Bernadette says she was busy signing autographs at Starbucks. Eileen calls them into her office to discuss possible Tony nominations, asking where Julia is. Tom doesn’t know.
Julia is having breakfast with Scott and talking about her problems with Tom. He apparently served her papers to legally dissolve the partnership, naming every project they had worked on or considered working on. Scott just reminds Julia he needs “The Great Gatsby” because BOARD! JOB! REPUTATION! I mean, seriously? He’s talking about the FALL program in what appears to be WINTER. I would think he would be able to come up with a replacement and if he presented that to the board, they’d be more forgiving.
Back at Eileen’s office, she has posters set up with all the (possible) Tony nominees. She has Ivy down for both “Lead Actress in a Musical” (for Bombshell) and “Featured Actress in a Musical” (for Liaisons). Ivy isn’t too sure but Bernadette assures her that the voters took notice of her in Liaisons because she was the bright spot in a train wreck. Of course, that would pit mother against daughter and Bernadette is certain she will win. Ivy rolls her eyes.
Eileen is certain they are a shoe-in for Best Musical, though they face some competition from “House of Flowers” and “Imitation of Life.” Tom mentions “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” and “Pippin,” two shows which did bow during the 2012-2013 season. Eileen points out they were revivals but Tom says he was mentioning them for competition in the directing category. (Note: Diane Paulus did in fact win the Tony for directing “Pippin” so it looks like Tom had cause to be worried). Daphne says the ad blitz seems to be working and praises Eileen for the full page ad in the Times. Eileen has no clue what she’s talking about as she didn’t take one. But she does have an idea who did. As she leaves, Tom receives a call.
Derek and Karen approach the
Tissues? *Holds out box*
We come back to a somber “Hit List” cast. Scott and Derek agree it is best to cancel as Jimmy arrives. He starts gathering his stuff and going on about how everyone hates him, including Kyle. The cast realizes he doesn’t know what happened and Ana says so aloud. Jimmy’s reaction was done perfectly by Jeremy Jordan: He at first laughs, as if they are joking with him. Then he realizes they are serious and refuses to believe it. Jimmy runs out as Karen comes in. She chases after him.
Eileen has tracked down Jerry, who is on a date. She throws a drink in his face! It’s been some time since we got that—even Jerry was taken by surprise. She tells him to stay away from Bombshell before stalking out. Jerry’s date is like “How to get myself out of this position. Hmm…”
From this point on, there are memories of Kyle sprinkled in. We start with Julia’s as she works with Kyle on “Hit List.” He talks about wanting to have a place for the audience to grieve Amanda/Nina’s loss. Like how Broadway dims the marquee lights, he says. Kyle says he was at a show the night they dimmed the lights for Wendy Wasserstein (meaning he was there on January 31, 2006. He says he went with his school, though he doesn’t specify whether high school or college. Both could be probable as I was a sophomore in college at the time and I believe I could be in the Jimmy-Kyle-Karen age range as we know Karen is about 25 in season 2). Julia says it’s a lovely tribute and suggests putting a reprise of “The Love I Meant to Say” there. Kyle says it would be great—the song she stole from Jesse. Wait, I thought she stole “Don’t Let Me Know” from Jesse.
(From a synopsis I saw, it appears Amanda/Nina does steal “The Love I Meant to Say” from Jesse. He hears a reprise of it on the radio, which leads to “I Heard Your Voice in a Dream.” He then agrees to write songs for her out of love and “Don’t Let Me Know” is her big break. Even though Derek’s staging in the last episode made it seem like “Don’t Let Me Know” gets Amanda/Nina her recording contract. And if Jesse does sing “The Love I Meant to Say” before “The Goodbye Song,” then the backstage scenes we saw week couldn’t have happened. Or am I overthinking this?)
(For those curious as to what "Hit List" is about, this is the best synopsis I've seen.)
Back to the present, Julia meets with Eileen, who offers her condolences to Julia. Why? Yes, Kyle was her protégé, but that was only recent. Perhaps if they had been working together longer or we had seen more of them working together…(You’ll probably read something along these lines throughout the recap). Anyway, Julia asks Eileen if there is a way to dim the marquees in Kyle’s honor. Eileen is pretty sure there isn’t since Kyle wasn’t a big name on Broadway but offers to try anyway. Julia thanks her.
There’s a line around the corner outside the
And the saccharine continues with Kyle writing something in a notebook while sitting in Tom’s apartment. Tom wanders out and is like “You aren’t in my bed because…?” Kyle chuckles and says he had an idea for “Hit List” and wanted to write it down. Something about social media. Remember this. Tom reminds Kyle that the show has opened and he needs to put the pen down. Not really. The show has opened off-Broadway with hopes of transferring. Anything he wants to change, he should do so now. Kyle gives Tom some notes about “Bombshell,” regarding a song called “At Your Feet.” He says it’s too sad; Tom says it’s historically accurate. Kyle apparently introduces Tom to the concept of “artistic license.” Tom starts to play “At Your Feet” but then launches into Billy Joel’s “Vienna.” Watch it here:
This segues into Tom sitting on a step, waiting for Julia. She approaches and they are appropriately somber. He explains that the legal papers he served her to severe their ties is in her best interest. It will allow her to seek the rights to “The Great Gatsby” on her own and not have to include him in her project. Really? Is that how it works? If a partner wants to do something solo, the entire partnership has to be legally dissolved? The partner can’t just give a blanket approval and ask for occasional progress reports? Anyway, I’m just glad to see a glimmer of Season 1 professional Tom. Welcome back!
We see a brief scene between Kyle and Karen from “Bombshell's” opening night. He consoles her over Ivy being better. It’s not much, really.
Julia finds out that “Hit List” is still going on that night. She talks to the stage manager who says that Scott says it was Julia’s doing. This is news to Julia as the stage manager says that Scott claims Julia encouraged the cast to go on. So Julia storms into Scott’s office to ream him out for using her to do his dirty work. Scott puts up a weak fight, maybe because Jesse L. Martin knew these were pretty much his last scenes. Yep, folks, we will not see him again after this episode.
And no, he doesn’t sing. Shame, really.
Derek gives the cast a pep talk. He says they won’t put on a full staging and will just use their scripts, which means Sam doesn’t have to try to memorize Jesse’s part in a short amount of time. He thanks Derek for this. Ana then reveals that Karen is still out looking for Jimmy. He calls her but she says she wants to try one more place before returning to the
Over at “Bombshell,” we see a snippet of “At Your Feet,” with Bernadette and Child Marilyn performing. Tom watches in the wings with a stage manager who is sadly not Linda. From what I can tell, she is the daughter of some NBC exec. She tells Tom that the change was a good idea and she asks where he got it from. He replies he got it from a friend. He then asks about Ivy and the stage manager replies she went home sick. Tom says that Ivy didn’t look sick earlier and the stage manager agrees. He understands that Ivy went to go see “Hit List.”
We see Kyle and Jimmy talking as they looked out at the East River and Manhattan across the way. They are discussing “Hit List.” Namely, Amanda’s death. Kyle wonders if she has to die and Jimmy replies everyone dies in the shows Kyle likes. He agrees and pronounces that Amanda must die.
The memory fades out as Karen approaches Jimmy in that same spot. She joins him, sitting on a ledge as their feet dangle over the East River. They talk and she encourages him to come honor Kyle. But Jimmy also mentions seeing Derek in her apartment. She swears nothing happened and that she stopped it. Remember that. Jimmy still pushes Karen away.
Down at the
After “Hit List” ends its special performance, Ivy and Derek talk backstage. Ivy mentions Karen. And Derek tells her that while he was drunk and spent the night in her apartment, nothing happened between him and Karen. Why? Because he stopped it! You know what, I think something did happen but we’ll never know because Smash has been cancelled. Anyway, Ivy says that there will always be a Karen and she’s better off away from Derek. Go, Ivy!
Everyone gathers uptown at the
Anyway, Tom asks for everyone’s attention. He explains that while they couldn’t get the lights of Broadway dimmed for Kyle, the league could not stop them from using their own theater. As they raise their alcohol, the lights of the
So, story time! I got a full-time job, but that’s not the story. The story has to do with the episode. New showrunner Josh Safran was dating Anthony Rapp when Rent was coming into being. Which means he was there when Jonathan Larson died. For those who may not be aware, Rent creator Jonathan Larson died at the age of 33 due to an aneurysm. He died the night before Rent was supposed to open Off-Broadway at the New York Theater Workshop. Everyone involved was distraught and a special performance was put on as a memorial of sorts. Just like here, the cast performed from chairs and with their scripts. But unlike here, no one really decided “Hey, let’s act it out.” They just got so into it, it was just an organic move. So, when Josh Safran interviewed for the position of show runner, he pitched the idea to NBC execs. Meaning Kyle always was going to die.
According to interviews, Safran thought this was the best episode of the season. Many across the internet disagreed. And I have to come down a bit on their side. While the ending made me tear up, it still felt undeserved. The only sad part about Kyle’s death was the fact he was the only likeable character left. (Though Ivy was catching up). The showrunners did very little to build up his character to make us really feel his loss. It’s not the same as when the season one finale ended with Ivy staring at a handful of pills and people really worried she had taken them. We had spent a series watching Ivy’s highs and lows. With Kyle, it seemed everything was superficial and could’ve—should’ve—been explored more throughout the season.
Oh well.
Read Playbill’s “Smash” report here.
No comments:
Post a Comment