Étoile Season-Finale Recap: Rekindled Flames

Being a professional dancer is a career with an earlier expiration date than most, and there inevitably comes a point when the body can’t take the stress anymore. Ballet dancers can often last longer because companies have rotating casts for performances, but it’s still extremely taxing, and dancers need to have a plan for what they’ll do once they leave the stage. For perfectionist Cheyenne, a small stumble onstage is a huge red flag for her future, and the final two episodes of this season use the potential next step of her career to upend the major relationships in the cast.

It turns out Nicholas did not die when he collapsed, and in the grand scheme of his health crises, the doctor thinks this one isn’t too bad. He even wakes up for a brief time to eat contraband Smarties with Jack, but when Nicholas’s condition takes a rapid turn for the worse, Jack has to start seriously considering who will replace him as MBT’s artistic director. Jack foolishly confides in Crispin about this dilemma, and while he offers a great suggestion by naming Cheyenne, it’s actually a stealthy way to get back at her for the humiliation he’s suffered. Putting the idea in Jack’s head triggers a domino effect that ends with Cheyenne heartbroken after she’s offered the job, gets excited about it, and then loses the opportunity when Nicholas ultimately survives and stays in his position.

Throughout the season, we’ve seen all the reasons why Cheyenne would make a great artistic director. Her commitment to the art form is unmatched, and she has no problem voicing her opinions about dancers, music, and choreography. In her interactions with SuSu, who barely shows up in these two episodes, Cheyenne proves that she’s an exceptional coach. She’s very tough but can be soft when she needs to be, like when she helps SuSu calm her nerves before going onstage by praying to Bolshoi Ballet legend Maya Plisetskaya.

At a press event promoting Cheyenne’s 57 performances of The Nutcracker, Cheyenne solidifies her standing as a replacement for Nicholas. While initially dismissive of the questions asked by audience members, she opens her heart to a young girl who laments giving up ballet to focus on school, a decision that Cheyenne supports because the world needs smart women. Cheyenne then starts to talk about her own passion for dance and the value of art in a world full of angry people looking for a fight. Dance is her way to take that energy and create something better, giving people a reason to hold on to hope. Dance lets her float above it all and play in the clouds, and she gets to bring the audience with her.

Cheyenne’s stumble onstage ends up putting the kibosh on her planned marathon of performance, and it drives a wedge between her and Gael as he scolds her for trying to do too much. The two have been drifting apart, and their relationship falls apart when a figure from Gael’s past returns. The full extent of Jack’s animosity toward Gael is revealed with the arrival of Jack’s sister, Quinn (Nina Arianda), a conductor who had an affair with Gael. He broke her heart and her marriage, and because there was no prenup, the ex-husband walked away with millions. The Fish family is staunchly against Gael being back at MBT, but as is often the case, the family disapproval just makes rekindling the romance all the more alluring. Gael and Quinn can’t ignore the magnetic pull they feel toward each other, and Gael uses Cheyenne’s selfish ambition as an excuse to break up with her and go back to his old flame.

The drama in New York City compels Cheyenne to return home in “The Offer,” giving us the gift of Cheyenne and Bruna onscreen together. Cheyenne is immediately envious of Bruna and Mishi’s relationship, but it’s also clear that Cheyenne was a much more independent spirit growing up. Mother and daughter work through their grievances as they try to find Cheyenne’s father’s grave, and they settle into a comfortable dynamic at the flea market, where they run into Mishi’s fisherboy, Timeo, and berate him for ghosting her.

Being back home is a reset that helps Cheyenne reevaluate her priorities, making it an ideal time for Jack to offer her the artistic-director position. Cheyenne never thought of herself taking meetings and having an office, but she’s also confident that she would do well in the position. She says that she’s not going to do it, but Bruna shoots her a knowing look that says she knows her daughter is trying to fake herself out. The more Cheyenne fights it, the more she realizes how much she wants it, making it all the more devastating when the offer is rescinded.

Mishi may think of herself as a “boring old woman,” but in “The Slip,” she shows how immature she can be when she learns about the company potentially going on strike because she’s a nepo baby that gets all the best parts. Mishi becomes openly antagonistic to the other dancers, but she saves the most venom for her mother, who forces her to attend an event for trailblazing women. Drunk on martinis, Mishi stands on top of a chair and delivers a brutally awkward speech that starts with how much she can’t stand the women she dances with, and her mother is the person to blame.

Her mother’s focus on pushing Mishi into dance ensured that she had no friends, hobbies, or social skills, and the drunken attacks build in intensity to the point where she accuses her mother of potentially having people killed and announces that she was sexually harassed by the man who ghost-wrote her mom’s book. She expels a lifetime of grievances before vomiting up her martinis. Geneviève is the maternal figure who comes to her aid, mortified for Mishi but also pleased to see her mother get taken down. Mishi needed to get these feelings out in the open, and the universe rewards her by reconnecting her with Timeo, who makes up for any missteps by going to one of her performances.

“The Slip” gives us a Spring Awakening original Broadway cast reunion with Jonathan Groff showing up as Tobias’s ex, a short scene that highlights just how clueless Tobias is in his relationships. Tobias still thinks the two of them are a couple despite not speaking to Kevin in a year, and Kevin hasn’t just moved on to another man; he’s engaged, with a wedding planned for next June. The scene ends with a nod to the actors’ musical-theater history as flight attendant Kevin tells Tobias that he’s headed to Barcelona, and now that Tobias is unburdened by this partnership, he can allow his feelings for Gabin to fully develop.

But first, Tobias has to overcome his disappointment when Gabin is arrested for getting in a fight on the street with bullies in his neighborhood. This derails Tobias’s entire creative process, and even though Gabin broke the code of conduct in his contract, Geneviève has to let him come back to the company so that she can get a full return on her investment in Tobias. That return comes through in an unexpected way when Tobias interrupts a concert performance of his latest work, storming the stage to stop the dancers and redo the choreography. It’s wildly inappropriate, but it’s also the kind of thing that makes live performance so exciting.

Anything can happen in live theater, and when the audience starts pulling out their phones to record Tobias’ meltdown and subsequent creation process, Geneviève capitalizes on the moment by broadcasting it on the giant digital screen newly added to the theater’s façade. It’s a ridiculous turn of events, but not entirely implausible, and I can imagine an audience glued to their seats to see what Tobias comes up with in the moment. Those viewers and the growing crowd outside the theater get to see the energy, power, and athleticism that goes into creating the art, and the frustration of watching Tobias’s process makes them all the more invested because they can comprehend the struggle.

Art becomes more captivating when you learn about what goes into the creation process. Once I started taking dance classes in college, my appreciation for performances skyrocketed because I could understand just how difficult it is to not only make the body create those stage pictures but do it in a way that looks effortless. By showing the work that goes into performing and choreographing ballet, Étoile primes its audience to engage with live dance on a deeper level.

Marguerite Derricks is an extremely accomplished choreographer for the stage and screen, a three-time Emmy winner who has also choreographed iconic dance sequences in films like Showgirls, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Spider-Man 3, and many more. She’s a commercial choreographer rather than a concert choreographer, and her work on Étoile emphasizes big crowd-pleasing feats of athletic prowess rather than expressive and nuanced artistry. It’s a smart way to sell the spectacle of ballet to a TV audience that might not be familiar with it, but it also makes Tobias’s choreography look pretty basic when he’s positioned as an innovator.

There’s a wide gap between the work Tobias puts onstage and the original solo choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, who was recently announced as the director and choreographer of the upcoming 10 Things I Hate About You musical adaptation (coincidentally, Derricks did the choreography for the movie). With live music performed on stage by Sparks, Wheeldon’s “I Married Myself” features more subtle, gestural movement to illustrate internal conflict, and it’s beautifully danced by Constance Devernay. My favorite moment is a series of petit jetés that evoke forward movement while keeping her in one place, suggesting the limitations of putting all of your faith in only yourself.

Crispin can assume more power if there’s chaos within these organizations, and the artistic-director debacle creates a lot of it. The romance between Jack and Geneviève ends when she finds out that she might be losing the étoile that was only supposed to be gone for a season, and the rest of the campaign is now more fraught because Cheyenne is at odds with MBT’s artistic director. But the most catastrophic development is the recoupling of Jack and Cheyenne, who seeks comfort in the arms of her superior after being told there’s no room in her heart for other people. They both know it’s a bad idea, but they kiss anyway, and there’s no way this isn’t going into Crispin’s blackmail folders for both of them. Given that Étoile received a two-season order from the jump, hopefully it won’t take too long for us to see the messy fallout.