'Bunheads': Better Luck Next Year 1.04 Recap
The Joffrey auditions caused a big stir within the small town of Paradise, but it did bring about some great bonding moments for Michelle and Fanny. In the beginning of the episode, Fanny barged in at Michelle’s new place (the guest house) because the windows and doors were all open after her stove was leaking gas. While Fanny was in there, she tried to help Michelle organize her place because she could not sleep. Of course Michelle is still half asleep and does not enjoy the fact that Fanny is interrupting her sleep. Most of the rest of the episode, Michelle is trying to help Fanny get the Joffrey auditions back to Paradise after they were moved elsewhere because of the state of the dance studio. She tries to get carpenters to help, but because neither of them has the money for the job, the men won’t do the work. Michelle then tries to seduce them in to doing the job but that doesn’t work either and Fanny gets a good laugh out of it all. They then go to a little town not far from Paradise to try and find more carpenters that will do the job. They find a guy and he is able to get the floors all fixed up in time for Joffrey to change the auditions back to being in Paradise. Michelle then messes with Fanny by asking her questions with a double meaning like “did he get off okay” among others.
While the two of them are doing that, the younger girls are getting prepared for the auditions. Boo is worried about the food that she eats that week and we get to see even more of the amazing chemistry between her and her mom. Boo’s mom also clues us in to the fact that Boo took being turned down really hard the year before and that they both ate a cake to make Boo feel better. I really loved their scenes together and cannot wait to see more of the two of them interacting. After the girls had a rehearsal, Boo throws off her pointe shoes claiming they are broken. Sasha asks her what happened and why she can’t just buy a new pair. Boo points out that her shoes were only a few months old and they couldn’t afford new shoes just yet, so Joffrey would just have to wait another year. The next day at school, Sasha has a pair of shoes she gives to Boo telling her “[her] dad bought [her]” that just so happened to be Boo’s exact size and Sasha convinces Boo to take them and use them for the auditions. The shoes were really bought by Sasha for Boo after she stole money from her mom’s purse to buy them for Boo. Later that night as Boo is getting food from the fridge, she finds a cake that her mom got her for after the Joffrey auditions that says “better luck next year” and makes her sad. It also causes her to want to push harder and make it and also show her mom that she CAN do it.
The next day, it is Joffrey auditions time! Michelle’s land and the dance school are busting with people while Michelle and Fanny enjoy “front-row seats” to everything.
As the auditions go on, Boo tells Michelle and Fanny that it is her turn to go in. Not even 30 seconds later, Boo comes back out saying that she had gotten cut. Fanny was not happy about that and gave Boo a wig and told her to pretend to be someone else. Michelle didn’t understand what exactly Fanny was doing or why. Fanny pointed out that more than likely, the judges weren’t even looking at her and just sending her right back out due to the fact that she is a little chubbier that the other girls there. After Boo has gone in to the auditions a few times, she comes running back out VERY excited and tells Michelle and Fanny that her last person got cut but that they thought she was dynamic and had great form and wanted to see her back the next year. After she went running away, Michelle asked Fanny why she didn’t send Boo back in again. Fanny pointed out that the judges finally really looked at her because she didn’t give up and kept going back in to the auditions and that is all Fanny wanted.
Once the auditions finished, Boo found Sasha and asked if she wanted to go home with her to eat some of the failure cake her mom got for her. From the sound of it, Sasha made the Summer Joffrey Program but she still really wanted to join Boo.
The episode ends on a scene that has repeated through the whole episode – Michelle auditioning for a musical and being cut. This scene, however, doesn’t show her getting cut, but the director showing Michelle a “better luck next year” cake and that really hits home with her after seeing everything that Boo went through just to be told that by a summer program.
Personally, I am loving the “keep trying till you succeed” and “don’t give up” lessons that the show has been giving so far through Fanny’s students! It’s such a great message and something that a lot of people don’t get anymore.
Check out this weeks new Bunheads “Money For Nothing” episode premiering tonight at 9/8c on ABCFamily!