- The girls perform the Nutcracker, Sasha has some competition.
- The Nutcracker performance is upon us & since Sasha had quit, Fanny was desperate & called in "The Ringer". Now that Sasha returned, Fanny's punishment is for Sasha to tell the ringer she's no longer needed, which isn't an easy feat. Michelle helps with choreography & organizing a fundraiser. All is well until a mishap backstage leaves the entire Nutcracker cast at the local ER.—Carrie DeCosta
- Michelle prepares Fanny to see her version of what she's calling "the evil rat dance" from "The Nutcracker." She "moderned it up a bit" and there's a temporary Clara. They enter the studio. The temporary Clara is the regular Clara, Sasha.
The dance begins. The mice from the "Nutcracker" are corporate America, reveling in their greed and temptation. Cops, Melanie and Ginny, come to take them away.
"The Wall Street guys are like rats because Wall Street guys are like rats," Michelle explains. Fanny loves it.
Opening week of the show is sold out, but with the two weeks making up a huge piece of her annual income, she's counting on Michelle's fundraiser at the Oyster Bar to make up the gap.
With things going so well, Fanny asks Michelle how she'd feel about running things for a few months while Fanny runs off to Montana with Michael. "I'd be happy to take over while you hang in the mountains with your boyfriend. Which one of you is going to be Heath Ledger?" Michelle asks.
"You always end a conversation one sentence too late," Fanny says.
They're interrupted by a no-nonsense girl in a leotard who comes in and announces she's ready. She's the Ringer, Fanny had to bring her in from San Francisco before she knew Sasha was back. Fanny is afraid to tell her they don't need her. She's incredible.
The girls see her and go change. Michelle comes upstairs and notices the silence. Sasha explains there's some sort of blood feud going on.
Michelle demands info. Sasha explains Melanie, Ginny and Boo are all essentially warring over Charlie. Michelle suggests that since Boo likes Carl, she relinquishes dibs on Charlie, and maybe Melanie could then be ok with Ginny with her brother.
Melanie gives her blessing as long as she doesn't have to hear anything about Charlie. Boo also agrees, since she likes Carl. Ginny agrees to cut the short jokes and help her get him back.
"See what I did there? I Kofi Annan'd their butts," Michelle announces.
Sasha asks Michelle about The Ringer and when she doesn't get an answer she asks Fanny. Fanny explains that she's in town for the week so she'll just have to give her another role. She makes Sasha break the news as punishment.
The Ringer pirouettes around Sasha on pointe and announces she'll only stop dancing when she takes her bow as Clara.
At the Oyster Bar, the girls are in costume, gladhanding. Melanie and Ginny put on smiles and are unusually nice to Carl. Ginny heads off with Charlie. Sasha tries to shake The Ringer, who won't stop following her.
Michelle is feeling pretty smug and even Fanny is impressed. Michelle sees Boo sulking alone. She tells Boo to make things right with Carl.
Boo heads for the microphone. She tells Carl she likes him and thinks he's hot and he doesn't have to forgive her but if he ever decides he wants his Ginger back, she's there. He's impressed and joins her for their rehearsed dance. They twirl around the bar to "the Rainbow Connection."
Fanny commends Michelle's meddling.
Later, Fanny is suddenly crabby. She tells Michelle that Montana is for "him, not us." He bought land and is going to build a house, even though he's always lived out of hotels. She doesn't think there's anything she can do about it.
Melanie waits for Ginny with her brother's friend Dez. He asks Melanie if they should date, now that Charlie and Ginny are, there's only so much room in the car. That's Melanie's cue to leave. Ginny goes to follow her but tries to kiss Charlie first. She ends up with his teeth in her forehead.
Michelle goes over to Michael and meddles in his Montana plans. She tells him about the cabin Fanny was going to rent, and that Fanny thought with him touring less they might spend more time together. She knows it's not her business but thought he should know. He appreciates the information and goes to make a call.
Tyler finds Sasha hiding in a booth from the "Toeshoe Terminator." He's on the basketball team and recognizes her from cheerleading. He tries to talk to her, but she's more concerned with hiding from the Ringer.
Godot tells Michelle he's leaving for Australia in a week so he has to move things along. His flirting works, they end up making out in the bar.
Back in the studio, Fanny is sad and distracted. She's annoyed with a duet of the Arabian Dance. When the girl protests she'd lose her solo, Fanny tells them to do the Chinese dance. That doesn't please Fanny, so they try the Spanish dance. Then Fanny cuts their duet. Ginny tells Matisse about her collision with Charlie and Melanie tries to avoid hearing.
The Ringer idly asks Sasha if she's ever put ground glass in her rival's toe shoe.
Fanny watches more dances and cuts them, too.
Matisse finally cuts Ginny off from her hypotheticals about giving it up on prom night, pointing out that she's only 12 and shouldn't be listening to any of it. Melanie tries to talk to her, but doesn't.
Ginny sees Charlie pull up. Her heart sinks when she sees another girl in his front seat.
Backstage on show night, Michelle stops Fanny to fix her eyelashes. She has a giant bag with everything she could ever need for show night, including eye lash glue, condoms, hair spray, boob tape, mace and bandages. Ginny and Melanie are pissy with each other as Ginny blames Melanie for ruining things with Charlie. The show begins and Fanny ushers everyone out.
The AC is out out front so Michelle tells the girls backstage to line up for more hairspray. She digs into her giant bag of tools and pulls out a bottle. She runs down the line spraying all the girls and they quickly squeal in pain. She grabbed the mace.
The girls try to go back out but end up bashing and crashing into each other all over the stage. The Ringer grabs the bow off Sasha's head. "I told you I would be Clara," she declares before taking the stage. She dances on as the audience of parents empties out to the wail of sirens in the background.
At the hospital, the halls are lined with ballerinas. Ginny announces she hates Charlie, Melanie agrees.
Sasha notices the basketball player formerly known as Tyler sitting a few seats over, dressed as a punk. He's now going by Roman, his middle name, which Sasha says fits his hair. And he's off the team. The mosh pit he was in got a little rough. Sasha tells him her middle name is Henrietta. He calls her Sasha.
Fanny drops in on Michelle, who apologizes. She had to cancel two weeks of shows and she's worried about being sued. Fanny says bad luck was in the air. She got up this morning and Michael was gone without a word. "Why would he go? I explained everything to him," Michelle says.
Fanny is aghast. She points out she would have told Michael about the cabin if she wanted him to know. Fanny tells Michelle she's the bad luck, ever since she came to town. She stops short of mentioning Hubble dying but tells Michelle to give her some space.
Michelle dreams an audition, slinking around a table and singing "Maybe This Time" from "Caberet." She finishes and asks the director what he thought. She sees Hubble. They talk. She says she tried keep things steady, but he says she's there to rock the boat.
Michelle wakes up in the ER. She hears parents yelling at Fanny about Michelle being unstable and having sex with Godot at the bar. Fanny tries to calm everyone down as Michelle walks away.
Sasha sees her going and climbs on her chair, shouting "O Captain, My Captain!" (from "Dead Poets' Society). The other girls follow suit. Michelle is touched and thanks them, but points out at the end of the movie the teacher had to leave anyway.
She walks away, leaving them in their nutcracker costumes, with mace tear-stained faces, standing on chairs in the emergency room.
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