Smash: The Transfer (2x15)

I'm going to take this episode by its different plot threads, although that will be difficult considering how much they all overlap. Actually, that may be something to praise about the episode as a whole: all of the story lines wove together in such a way as to make each character's fates important to the other characters. That is sometimes hard to do in such a large ensemble cast, but I think it was admirably done here.

So, first off, we've got this Houston-Levitt tribute night, planned by Eileen. It's going to be a show honoring the famous duo, but sadly they have broken up. Julia is far too concerned with Hit List, and Eileen is worried that it looks bad for Julia to be spending so much time with the competition. Tom is hurt, too, when Julia doesn't want to sing with him. Tom directs quite the show, and Julia turns up at the last minute to sing with him. It's all very touching, and it means that Julia and Tom are okay again, at least as friends, if not as partners.

It turns out, a lot of this is part of a publicity gimmick, cleverly manipulated by Eileen. She leaks information to the press that Julia and Tom are splitting up, and then pretends to be very upset by the news getting out. Then, when Tom and Julia do come together to perform, it turns into a farewell concert, which ends up selling tickets for Bombshell. I really liked this plot thread, because it wasn't just more of the same. Instead, it showed us that Eileen is actually quite clever. It also gave us the emotional weight of Julia and Tom's formal goodbye to one another.

Alongside this thread, we have Ivy's own personal problems. Agnes tells her that she has something of a bad reputation offstage, and that she needs to shape up. She tries to be all wholesome and good, doing a national commercial and acting like Norma Gene. Then, Tom wants her to act as a stripper during the tribute show. She has a bit of a crisis, but finally decides to go out there and own it, with a bit of help from Eileen. Her song, "Grin and Bear It," was one of the highlights of the episode, although I was slightly worried her boobs were going to fall out of that dress. At the very end of the episode, after angrily declaring her desire to win a Tony in order to beat Karen, she gets a call from the doctor's and discovers that she's pregnant. I'm not at all sure what I think of this development. I guess I'll wait and see how they handle it.

On the Hit List side of things, we see the show hit a few bumps as they try to transition to Broadway. In particular, Ana is struggling, and Derek thinks it might be a good idea to put her new understudy, Daisy, in for the night. As it turns out, however, Daisy is blackmailing Derek with footage that basically shows him promising her a part if she has sex with him. Derek doesn't know what to do, because he can't expose the truth without ruining his career, but he doesn't want Ana to lose her part. Unfortunately, Jerry loves Daisy in the role, and it looks like Ana is out of a job.

I really like this plot twist. I'm a big fan of characters having to confront their very obvious flaws, and Derek needs a good kick in the pants. I'm really excited to see how this develops. Hopefully, he will do the noble thing in the end. Once he learns of his impending fatherhood, he'll be forced to step it up. Ana has really started to grow on me, too, so I didn't like to see someone threaten her job. I liked how strong she was about it, although I did think it was a bit of a cheap plot device to have her go up to Ivy and start a fight between Karen and Ivy. Oh, well. It wasn't the most horrible way to force conflict.

In other ways, Hit List is going great. Jimmy has stopped focusing on his relationship with Karen and turned his full devotion to the show. He wants to honor Kyle's memory so much that he won't let anyone alter the book at all. He decides to implement Kyle's idea of live text updates during the show, which goes off great during the performance. I like to see him driven for success like this. It feels very real to me that - ironically - the worst thing that could have happened is also the thing that allows him to get better. There were a few annoyances, however, such as his immature attitude towards Julia when she turns back to Bombshell after giving him a lot of help. He is bitter that she won't keep helping him, even though he should understand why Julia needs to stand by her own show.

The songs in this episode were all great. I liked both of the Hit List ones we saw, and I already talked about Ivy's number as well. They were upbeat and a lot of fun.

So, that's the short and long of it. I felt that overall this episode was a success. It sets up some conflict for the final two episodes, had some good character arcs, and some truly sweet moments, such as Jimmy's enthusiasm for the show, and Tom and Julia's song together. That being said, some of this conflict was rather clumsily set up, such as Ivy's pregnancy and her quarrel with Karen. Even if the payoff is good, these moments could have been stronger.

7.5/10