Étoile 1.8 - The Offer
Sep. 3rd, 2025 08:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessI was enjoying this, laughing at Tobias having sent Matthieu to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, thinking it was a rehearsal. Tobias said he’d done it for him, but really it was for all of us. (But really, really I don’t believe Tobias could organise that based on all we’ve seen of him.) Yes, poor Jack being haunted by the image of Cheyenne after working through the terrible list of potential Nicholas replacements was OTT, but it was also quite funny.
I allso thought how good Sherman-Palladino is on mothers and daughters as Cheyenne returned home to find Mishi there and being treated far better than she ever had been, as Bruna’s actual daughter, and so she jealously had a shouting match with her mother that gave me a better idea of the size of their apartment than I’ve ever had. Mishi turned out to be a Cheyenne fangirl. Of course.
Mother and daughter worked through it at an attempted visit to Cheyenne’s father’s grave, where they talked through their daddy issues, and by the time that Cheyenne was hanging with her mother at a flea market, they were getting on, and championing Mishi to Timeo, previously the Gamin, who had to protest that he hadn’t dumped Mishi and broken her heart, but had to be informed that she was A Ballet Dancer and weird, and if he seriously liked her, he had to take account of that. By the time they were outdrinking Mishi, Cheyenne confided about New York and, by then, Jack had called to offer her Nicholas’s job, and though she was saying out loud that it was ridiculous (as he’d done, until he’d thought it through and realised that her instincts were sound, even if, yes, they’d have to beef up the legal department) she was inspired by it. And still freaking out about The Slip which had brought her back to Paris.
I loved that she’d literally stuck a note to Gael’s phone, informing him she was going. He maybe totally missed the point that this is what it feels like to get left behind after you flake out, as he’d always done in the past. Instead he bumped into Quinn, who was less professional woman than klutzy character in a romcom. Then it happened again while they were running in New York, in a reprise of the first reunion on the show, while Cheyenne was admitting that there were feelings for him on her side to her mother.
Poor Jack was not coping well with the possibility that Nicholas wouldn’t wake up and that there were professional obligations to that. Genevieve had to talk him down a bit and pick a casket because he couldn’t (I think there was this whole point about it looking a lot like Jack’s Infamous Couch.) She’d already had to visit a gym to order Gabin to stick to the lawyerly script that might get him out of legal trouble for fighting because Tobias was spiralling so much, and he’d returned to practice Tobias’s latest dance.
So, all that was trundling along fine, and I even took the nonsense about Shamblee videocalling Jack shirtless and issuing single entendres about body searches for a meeting in my stride. But the whole performance of piece 2 getting interrupted by an unhappy Tobias, who forced a whole audience to watch him choreograph a whole new work, it getting livestreamed and going viral, and Genevieve getting them to put it on the big screen so that everyone could see the hard work and artistry or something and everyone having umbrellas in pretty colours on them, and Tobias making the big speeches about Paris (Gabin) having made him care and then the big smooch...
I did not get swept along AT ALL. Though the performance of ‘Whatever This Is’ was wonderful.
In the middle of that, Cheyenne informed Genevieve of Jack’s job offer and pretty much stared her down over contractual obligations because she wanted to take it. Genevieve immediately called him, and she had a point about him not discussing the idea with her, and was entitled to get all emotional about him stealing her star for good and work-related moves affecting their personal relationship, if sometimes tripping over into irrational.
Cheyenne returned to New York...to be dumped by Gael, who seemed to think that she had no place in her heart for people (ouch, also wrong), and to learn that Nicholas had woken up. (Although when he did, I half-believed this could be a dream sequence, even though if this episode proved anything it was that they are pushing the unreality, so, no, what you are seeing is real, not a dream. (Unless if the whole series ends and it’s all been Susu’s dream.) There was and is a way that Nicholas could (and should, given he’s prone to collapsing into comas) half-retire and Cheyenne could shadow him and gain experience, but that would be far too sensible for this fictional drama company. And so, while Actual Christopher Wheeldon was all hyped up to deal with Force of Nature!Cheyenne, he got subdued ‘Let’s Dance because that’s all the universe says I’m good for’ Cheyenne turning up to rehearse.
Gael also informed Jack that he’d broken up with Cheyenne, but would still be dancing and being professional because he did want to keep dancing. Oh, and he was sorry for what he’d done in the past, but he was going to pursue this thing with his sister. (Thought this was bordering into ‘That’s for Quinn to tell him, no?’ but I guess that’s because she’s only a guest and Gael is a regular character.)
Timeo followed the advice and came to see Mishi dance, and was very confused by Swan Lake! (I was irked by their conversation being in English. They’re native French speakers!!! We’d followed Cheyenna and Bruna’s row fine.)
Crispin got under Jack’s skin some more by suggesting that he’d named Cheyenne as a possible replacement as part of a master plan to avenge himself on her. (Even if it wasn’t a master plan, he was happy enough to be opportunistic enough to make the most of the fallout.)
Cheyenne danced the Wheeldon piece, set to a Sparks song, about marrying oneself (on the nose) performed on stage by your actual Sparks, long hair flowing, and it was beautiful. At the end of it, she shot Quinn, who’d been conducting the orchestra, a dirty look that suggested that she had heard the gossip (although we’ve not seen that) and rushed off stage, and outside, without taking a bow. (But given the debacle on the Paris stage, this was small beer.) Knowing what was going on, Jack raced after her, found she was having a meltdown that of itself proved Gael’s claim that she was emotionless wrong. Point to Jack already knowing that the fact that she cared so much that made her such a good dancer, and even as he said out loud that this was a bad idea (yes, it is) ended up kissing her back. I don’t know if the whole series has been building up to this, I can see the legwork in the episode, with Genevieve dumping him, Gael dumping her, but...(a) it’s a really bad idea, (b) I haven’t seen all that much glow in the embers of their past relationship.
Early on in the episode, Bruna was quite philosophical about how you like a show and then it gets cancelled, and then you find a new show to like. That felt pretty meta, because this can’t be cheap to film being set in two different cities, with certain tricky locations (the amphitheatres in particular) and crowd scenes, and needing to rehearse the dance scenes, and I don’t know that it’s had all that much buzz. I mean, I’ve enjoyed it because of my fondness for ballet, (and being a Cheyenne stan) but do proper ballet fans rate it, and if so how many are there out in the tv-watching world? I have subsequently had a look at AO3, and most of the fic is Tobias/Gabin, most of the het is Jack/Cheyenne (huh) and I’ll work through the gen that’s left. Which is to say: what do I know?
I allso thought how good Sherman-Palladino is on mothers and daughters as Cheyenne returned home to find Mishi there and being treated far better than she ever had been, as Bruna’s actual daughter, and so she jealously had a shouting match with her mother that gave me a better idea of the size of their apartment than I’ve ever had. Mishi turned out to be a Cheyenne fangirl. Of course.
Mother and daughter worked through it at an attempted visit to Cheyenne’s father’s grave, where they talked through their daddy issues, and by the time that Cheyenne was hanging with her mother at a flea market, they were getting on, and championing Mishi to Timeo, previously the Gamin, who had to protest that he hadn’t dumped Mishi and broken her heart, but had to be informed that she was A Ballet Dancer and weird, and if he seriously liked her, he had to take account of that. By the time they were outdrinking Mishi, Cheyenne confided about New York and, by then, Jack had called to offer her Nicholas’s job, and though she was saying out loud that it was ridiculous (as he’d done, until he’d thought it through and realised that her instincts were sound, even if, yes, they’d have to beef up the legal department) she was inspired by it. And still freaking out about The Slip which had brought her back to Paris.
I loved that she’d literally stuck a note to Gael’s phone, informing him she was going. He maybe totally missed the point that this is what it feels like to get left behind after you flake out, as he’d always done in the past. Instead he bumped into Quinn, who was less professional woman than klutzy character in a romcom. Then it happened again while they were running in New York, in a reprise of the first reunion on the show, while Cheyenne was admitting that there were feelings for him on her side to her mother.
Poor Jack was not coping well with the possibility that Nicholas wouldn’t wake up and that there were professional obligations to that. Genevieve had to talk him down a bit and pick a casket because he couldn’t (I think there was this whole point about it looking a lot like Jack’s Infamous Couch.) She’d already had to visit a gym to order Gabin to stick to the lawyerly script that might get him out of legal trouble for fighting because Tobias was spiralling so much, and he’d returned to practice Tobias’s latest dance.
So, all that was trundling along fine, and I even took the nonsense about Shamblee videocalling Jack shirtless and issuing single entendres about body searches for a meeting in my stride. But the whole performance of piece 2 getting interrupted by an unhappy Tobias, who forced a whole audience to watch him choreograph a whole new work, it getting livestreamed and going viral, and Genevieve getting them to put it on the big screen so that everyone could see the hard work and artistry or something and everyone having umbrellas in pretty colours on them, and Tobias making the big speeches about Paris (Gabin) having made him care and then the big smooch...
I did not get swept along AT ALL. Though the performance of ‘Whatever This Is’ was wonderful.
In the middle of that, Cheyenne informed Genevieve of Jack’s job offer and pretty much stared her down over contractual obligations because she wanted to take it. Genevieve immediately called him, and she had a point about him not discussing the idea with her, and was entitled to get all emotional about him stealing her star for good and work-related moves affecting their personal relationship, if sometimes tripping over into irrational.
Cheyenne returned to New York...to be dumped by Gael, who seemed to think that she had no place in her heart for people (ouch, also wrong), and to learn that Nicholas had woken up. (Although when he did, I half-believed this could be a dream sequence, even though if this episode proved anything it was that they are pushing the unreality, so, no, what you are seeing is real, not a dream. (Unless if the whole series ends and it’s all been Susu’s dream.) There was and is a way that Nicholas could (and should, given he’s prone to collapsing into comas) half-retire and Cheyenne could shadow him and gain experience, but that would be far too sensible for this fictional drama company. And so, while Actual Christopher Wheeldon was all hyped up to deal with Force of Nature!Cheyenne, he got subdued ‘Let’s Dance because that’s all the universe says I’m good for’ Cheyenne turning up to rehearse.
Gael also informed Jack that he’d broken up with Cheyenne, but would still be dancing and being professional because he did want to keep dancing. Oh, and he was sorry for what he’d done in the past, but he was going to pursue this thing with his sister. (Thought this was bordering into ‘That’s for Quinn to tell him, no?’ but I guess that’s because she’s only a guest and Gael is a regular character.)
Timeo followed the advice and came to see Mishi dance, and was very confused by Swan Lake! (I was irked by their conversation being in English. They’re native French speakers!!! We’d followed Cheyenna and Bruna’s row fine.)
Crispin got under Jack’s skin some more by suggesting that he’d named Cheyenne as a possible replacement as part of a master plan to avenge himself on her. (Even if it wasn’t a master plan, he was happy enough to be opportunistic enough to make the most of the fallout.)
Cheyenne danced the Wheeldon piece, set to a Sparks song, about marrying oneself (on the nose) performed on stage by your actual Sparks, long hair flowing, and it was beautiful. At the end of it, she shot Quinn, who’d been conducting the orchestra, a dirty look that suggested that she had heard the gossip (although we’ve not seen that) and rushed off stage, and outside, without taking a bow. (But given the debacle on the Paris stage, this was small beer.) Knowing what was going on, Jack raced after her, found she was having a meltdown that of itself proved Gael’s claim that she was emotionless wrong. Point to Jack already knowing that the fact that she cared so much that made her such a good dancer, and even as he said out loud that this was a bad idea (yes, it is) ended up kissing her back. I don’t know if the whole series has been building up to this, I can see the legwork in the episode, with Genevieve dumping him, Gael dumping her, but...(a) it’s a really bad idea, (b) I haven’t seen all that much glow in the embers of their past relationship.
Early on in the episode, Bruna was quite philosophical about how you like a show and then it gets cancelled, and then you find a new show to like. That felt pretty meta, because this can’t be cheap to film being set in two different cities, with certain tricky locations (the amphitheatres in particular) and crowd scenes, and needing to rehearse the dance scenes, and I don’t know that it’s had all that much buzz. I mean, I’ve enjoyed it because of my fondness for ballet, (and being a Cheyenne stan) but do proper ballet fans rate it, and if so how many are there out in the tv-watching world? I have subsequently had a look at AO3, and most of the fic is Tobias/Gabin, most of the het is Jack/Cheyenne (huh) and I’ll work through the gen that’s left. Which is to say: what do I know?
