Étoile 1.7 - The Slip
Aug. 19th, 2025 12:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessWe learnt this episode that Nicholas was not dead (although…)
It started with an awkward random encounter between Gael and a conductor named Quinn, clearly exes who were dismayed to learn that they weren’t just in the same city, but both were working at the same ‘office’ again. She showed another side to her personality later, but the other big reveal was that she was Jack’s sister. We had a fight as exposition between their whole family on a stage, which involved a series of, well, stagey, exits. But suddenly Jack’s animus towards Gael wasn’t just about his flaky past, which I’d bought. Quinn seemed to be accepting – unlike her mother – that the break-up of her marriage hadn’t been Gael’s fault.
The state of Jack’s family was the context for his reaction upon learning of Nicholas’s collapse, hospitalisation and what to do next. I’m not sure what Nicholas’s actual position in the MBT is, but Jack the boss was personally compromised about keeping it from the board and making wise decisions. There was a whole running gag, in which the doctor was involved, about which of Nicholas’s past collapses this was most like. Everyone was relieved that it was only ‘Dusseldorf’, and Nicholas was out of the coma sooner than that (so it was obvious things would turn for the worse.) Honestly, I spent a lot of the touching scene between Jack and conscious Nicholas going ‘But those aren’t Smarties! Are they Smarties in America? What? Did David Haig decide to play it like Nicholas has been in New York so long that he buys this?’ (Aww to Genevieve’s texts to Jack when she found out.)
Crispin’s suggestion that Jack consider Cheyenne as Nicholas’s potential replacement was a shocker, because Crispin hates her, but (depending on what Nicholas’s role actually is, still unclear – and, I thought, at the moment he floated it, depending too on where étoile Cheyenne was at in terms of her dancing career and transition from it) it was actually a good one. It came after she’d started going off the rails at her event with an audience, by answering questions from the public rudely, until a little girl named Amy (shout-out to Amy Sherman-Palladino?) led to her talking quite poetically about what dancing meant to her.
Another shock was seeing Tobias breaking up with That’s Jonathan Groff. The dumpee was surprised too, because Tobias had ghosted him for over a year, so he’d assumed it was over and moved on. Surely having them do all this in front of a Marmite ad was intentional.
So, Tobias was warming to think of Gabin like that, we noted. But back in Paris, Gabin was wound up by two guys from his neighbourhood taunting him. We saw enough not to be surprised that he’d got arrested (especially because he kept swinging at the police, and was in trouble for going through with the attack on the critic.) Totally fair for Genevieve and Raphael to be narked when Tobias burst into the office complaining that no-one had told him, because he hadn’t answered the phone, read texts or e-mails, or answered the door when Raphael had called to tell. Genevieve pointed out that Gabin had broken the reasonable conditions of his contract.
Tobias had to make do with étoile Matthieu as a replacement in rehearsals and hated it with a vengeance. I think they underplayed Mishi being one of the dancers having to put up with Tobias’s unreasonably ire, but she had plenty of other stuff going on to put it in perspective. When Gabin was released, Tobias was there to greet him and point out he’d let him down (and we were free to read ‘personally’ into it, more so than previously in the series.) Although Tobias thought the new work was rubbish (sans Gabin), it looked good (so long as no tuba was involved in the orchestra.)
So much more going on, though: Mishi had to tell Bruna about how badly things had gone with the Gamin, but it turned out he had texted to see if she’d got home, and because she’s melodramatic and has no social skills, she’d left it too long to reply. So, maybe it hadn’t gone as badly as she thought? But her dancing was going well, though, although she found out about the potential strike and that she was part of the reason for it. Tristan gave a nice speech about how he remembered her friendliness from way back, which was why he was being friendly now (Mishi was increasingly aware of her social cluelessness), but I’m not convinced he’s always been the male dancer who’s been nice to her all episode.
Anyway, her mother finally turned up at Mme Toussant’s, and started off with an apology, but really she wanted Mishi to come to an event honouring women where she’d be a big deal, because there’d be press and influencers there, and she had a book out. Poor Mishi!
She did go, in a pretty dress, but as Genevieve (banished to the ‘Siberian’ table with a bunch of extras they couldn’t afford to give dialogue to) soon realised, Mishi was coping by getting drunk. (So, not coping well, then.) The actress had to do a drunken speech where Mishi overshared, especially about her mother’s failings, the last of which was not running to her as she threw up after finishing the speech. Genevieve did, which is why she is good at her job, and was true to all the ‘blah, blah, blah’ from the Minister about supporting women.
The theme of women supporting/mentoring each other was to be seen in Bruna’s care of Mishi, rough and ready though it is, and also in Cheyenne and Susu. (The scene where adolescents totally did not get Mr Fish’s Xerox story was good. And an example of how this was a very sweary episode.)
Christopher Wheeldon is a great choreographer and director, but, er, should not look to becoming a TV actor. Cheyenne didn’t know anything about this whole ex of Gael’s, and they were only on their fourth performance of The Nutcracker, but we and Jack saw her slip in the middle of it. Gael was probably right, she was doing too much. (She sent him packing for daring to say this.) Jack tried to play the slip down, but Cheyenne was glum, she thought the end of her dancing career was nigh. (I thought that canon might be hinting that the prima ballerina she’d turned deity might have switched her favour to Susu, after Cheyenne taught her that prayer.) Unlike Cheyenne, we and Jack are toying with Crispin’s suggestion, although love of dance aside, Cheyenne is Nicolas’s opposite personality wise.
It started with an awkward random encounter between Gael and a conductor named Quinn, clearly exes who were dismayed to learn that they weren’t just in the same city, but both were working at the same ‘office’ again. She showed another side to her personality later, but the other big reveal was that she was Jack’s sister. We had a fight as exposition between their whole family on a stage, which involved a series of, well, stagey, exits. But suddenly Jack’s animus towards Gael wasn’t just about his flaky past, which I’d bought. Quinn seemed to be accepting – unlike her mother – that the break-up of her marriage hadn’t been Gael’s fault.
The state of Jack’s family was the context for his reaction upon learning of Nicholas’s collapse, hospitalisation and what to do next. I’m not sure what Nicholas’s actual position in the MBT is, but Jack the boss was personally compromised about keeping it from the board and making wise decisions. There was a whole running gag, in which the doctor was involved, about which of Nicholas’s past collapses this was most like. Everyone was relieved that it was only ‘Dusseldorf’, and Nicholas was out of the coma sooner than that (so it was obvious things would turn for the worse.) Honestly, I spent a lot of the touching scene between Jack and conscious Nicholas going ‘But those aren’t Smarties! Are they Smarties in America? What? Did David Haig decide to play it like Nicholas has been in New York so long that he buys this?’ (Aww to Genevieve’s texts to Jack when she found out.)
Crispin’s suggestion that Jack consider Cheyenne as Nicholas’s potential replacement was a shocker, because Crispin hates her, but (depending on what Nicholas’s role actually is, still unclear – and, I thought, at the moment he floated it, depending too on where étoile Cheyenne was at in terms of her dancing career and transition from it) it was actually a good one. It came after she’d started going off the rails at her event with an audience, by answering questions from the public rudely, until a little girl named Amy (shout-out to Amy Sherman-Palladino?) led to her talking quite poetically about what dancing meant to her.
Another shock was seeing Tobias breaking up with That’s Jonathan Groff. The dumpee was surprised too, because Tobias had ghosted him for over a year, so he’d assumed it was over and moved on. Surely having them do all this in front of a Marmite ad was intentional.
So, Tobias was warming to think of Gabin like that, we noted. But back in Paris, Gabin was wound up by two guys from his neighbourhood taunting him. We saw enough not to be surprised that he’d got arrested (especially because he kept swinging at the police, and was in trouble for going through with the attack on the critic.) Totally fair for Genevieve and Raphael to be narked when Tobias burst into the office complaining that no-one had told him, because he hadn’t answered the phone, read texts or e-mails, or answered the door when Raphael had called to tell. Genevieve pointed out that Gabin had broken the reasonable conditions of his contract.
Tobias had to make do with étoile Matthieu as a replacement in rehearsals and hated it with a vengeance. I think they underplayed Mishi being one of the dancers having to put up with Tobias’s unreasonably ire, but she had plenty of other stuff going on to put it in perspective. When Gabin was released, Tobias was there to greet him and point out he’d let him down (and we were free to read ‘personally’ into it, more so than previously in the series.) Although Tobias thought the new work was rubbish (sans Gabin), it looked good (so long as no tuba was involved in the orchestra.)
So much more going on, though: Mishi had to tell Bruna about how badly things had gone with the Gamin, but it turned out he had texted to see if she’d got home, and because she’s melodramatic and has no social skills, she’d left it too long to reply. So, maybe it hadn’t gone as badly as she thought? But her dancing was going well, though, although she found out about the potential strike and that she was part of the reason for it. Tristan gave a nice speech about how he remembered her friendliness from way back, which was why he was being friendly now (Mishi was increasingly aware of her social cluelessness), but I’m not convinced he’s always been the male dancer who’s been nice to her all episode.
Anyway, her mother finally turned up at Mme Toussant’s, and started off with an apology, but really she wanted Mishi to come to an event honouring women where she’d be a big deal, because there’d be press and influencers there, and she had a book out. Poor Mishi!
She did go, in a pretty dress, but as Genevieve (banished to the ‘Siberian’ table with a bunch of extras they couldn’t afford to give dialogue to) soon realised, Mishi was coping by getting drunk. (So, not coping well, then.) The actress had to do a drunken speech where Mishi overshared, especially about her mother’s failings, the last of which was not running to her as she threw up after finishing the speech. Genevieve did, which is why she is good at her job, and was true to all the ‘blah, blah, blah’ from the Minister about supporting women.
The theme of women supporting/mentoring each other was to be seen in Bruna’s care of Mishi, rough and ready though it is, and also in Cheyenne and Susu. (The scene where adolescents totally did not get Mr Fish’s Xerox story was good. And an example of how this was a very sweary episode.)
Christopher Wheeldon is a great choreographer and director, but, er, should not look to becoming a TV actor. Cheyenne didn’t know anything about this whole ex of Gael’s, and they were only on their fourth performance of The Nutcracker, but we and Jack saw her slip in the middle of it. Gael was probably right, she was doing too much. (She sent him packing for daring to say this.) Jack tried to play the slip down, but Cheyenne was glum, she thought the end of her dancing career was nigh. (I thought that canon might be hinting that the prima ballerina she’d turned deity might have switched her favour to Susu, after Cheyenne taught her that prayer.) Unlike Cheyenne, we and Jack are toying with Crispin’s suggestion, although love of dance aside, Cheyenne is Nicolas’s opposite personality wise.
