Make It or Break It S1E11 "The Eleventh Hour"

[babydraco]

Payson is performing fantastically on the bars. Cortisone Boy is there, and all her friends, and Sasha, all cheering her on and when she sticks a perfect landing, they run up and hug her.

We get a dreamy fade out to Payson asleep, smiling. She’s wearing a brace. She wakes up and slowly and painfully gets out of bed. Her parents are in the kitchen, discussing whether or not she’s adjusting well.

Becca pops in and asks if she can watch the parade. Her parents hem and haw, but Payson comes out of her room and says “Everybody loves a parade.” Payson’s pajamas, by the way, have a pattern of colorful ice cream cones all over.

The parade is a welcome home event for the Boulder gymnasts (oh good, I thought it was taking p lace in Boston and I was like, um, no, would’ve heard about it if they had gymnastics parades). Emily and Lauren are forced to ride on top of a fire engine in firemen’s hats and throw candy. Lauren finds it humiliating and complains that Kaylie isn’t being asked to do it.

Cut back to the Keeler home, where Payson asks them to record the rest for her, she wants to get a nap in before lunch.

After the parade, Kaylie is presented with a Key to the City and the mayor declares it “Kaylie Cruz Day” (btw, nice genderblind casting making the mayor a woman, I can think of a lot of shows that would assume it’d be a guy and would only use a woman if they wanted to indicate that something isn’t right about the city). I think they might be going just a tad overboard. Boulder isn’t a huge city but it’s not Smallville, is it? From the impression the show gives us, Boulder and surrounding area are a magnet for world class athletes, if the Rock is so great, they must be used to famous gymnasts. On the other hand, if this is being done for pure humor on the part of the writers, it’s working, the ridiculous, over the top Kaylie worship is going to push Lauren and Payson over the edge.

In fact, after Kaylie thanks everyone and Lauren gives her a painfully fake smile, Lauren takes the mike away and reminds everyone that Payson couldn’t be here with them today. Her unspoken point, of course, is that Kaylie only won because Payson nearly died. Cortisone Boy was apparently the male champion, and he pulls few punches about how much he would’ve preferred to be standing there with Payson.

Kaylie wants a break, but MJ (her new sports agent) reminds her that this is her life now, an overwhelming amount of interviews and invasive scrutiny.

While signing autographs, Lauren suggests that they buy a present for Payson and go see her, to show that they’re still her friends. Kaylie doesn’t want to be included on a list of Lauren’s friends. Which, Kaylie, she said they were Payson’s friends. Carter comes over and congratulates Kaylie, telling her she deserved to win, and “everything that comes with it”. Kaylie seems uncomfortable with his presence.

Back at the Keeler home, Mr. Keeler reminds them that he’s used up all his vacation days and needs to go back to Minnesota. Payson suggests they all move back, since there’s nothing left for her in Boulder.
Lauren pretends to be happy for Kaylie in front of Summer, and then heads straight for Sasha and says “I have to tell you something about Carter Anderson.”

Chloe shows up at the Keeler house with a casserole, and she instructs Kim to “just sprinkle the potato chip crumbs on top”. Kim is way more polite about Chloe’s trashy food than Ronnie Cruz ever was, but then, she’s a Minnesota housewife. Chloe explains that she understands what they’re going through and the Keelers are actually pretty grateful for her company. Emily visits with Payson and invites her to come by the Rock, just to see everyone, Payson demurs, claiming that they might be moving back to Minnesota. It’s clear she’s given up.

The next day, Nicky Russo (Cortisone Boy) visits Payson. While he’s telling her how guilty he feels about giving her the cortisone, Lauren shows up at the Keeler house on her lunch break.

“It’s so nice of you guys to spend your break with Payson,” Kim says. Lauren is baffled, since she didn’t bring anyone else with her. As she’s headed down the hall to Payson’s room, she over hears the cortisone conversation. Even the part where Payson tells Nicky her locker combination so he can go in and get the other vial. When Nicky leaves, Lauren tries to express sympathy to Payson, who politely asks her to come back at another time.

Back at the Rock, Sasha asks MJ to lighten Kaylie’s interview schedule but it’s too late, she already has a live one that afternoon. Sasha sees Carter walk in and cuts off his conversation with MJ. He calls Carter into his office. Sasha is, surprisingly, lifting his suspension because “your girlfriend came forward and said she was just as guilty as you”. Overjoyed, Carter finds Kaylie and thanks her. Kaylie has no idea what he’s talking about and doesn’t seem like she wants to talk to him at all. Lauren admits it was her, and says it was the right thing to do, because Carter deserves to be at the Rock. Kaylie and Carter both pretend they don’t care.

Kaylie’s live interview is starting. She’s not ready but MJ won’t wait. She flubs the interview and when the subject of Payson comes up, she rips her microphone off and runs away.

She visits Payson, but spends the whole time begging for Payson’s advice, because she’s in over her head as National Champion. Payson is obviously less than helpful, and Kaylie leaves in tears.

There’s an uninteresting Damon and Emily scene, but it did remind me that it’s clearly been more than “a couple of weeks” since Razor left. Because he shows up just as Damon and Emily are about to get romantic. He’s creepy and weird and hurt, but come on, he’d known Emily all of five minutes before he took off, she owed him nothing.

After Payson’s dad tells her to “feel everything, good or bad”, her parents wake up at night to the sound of crashing. Payson is throwing all her trophies in a box and ripping down her gymnastics posters.

At the gym the next morning, Summer is just offering to fill in for Kim while she’s on leave, when Payson and her father arrive. After staring in shock, the whole gym gives her a standing ovation.

Payson and Kaylie sit outside on a bench and finally get honest. Payson explains that while she was always a little jealous of Kaylie’s money and glamour, she didn’t let it bother her because she knew that she was the only one who’d ever be National Champion. So when she got injured and Kaylie won instead, it enraged her. But she’s trying to work on that, and one thing she wants Kaylie to know is that Kaylie should never, ever, apologize for winning. Payson tells her to own her championship.

Late at night, Nicky is going through Payson’s locker, searching for the vial.

“It’s not in there,” says Lauren, who is standing behind him. “I put it in a safe place.”

“What do you want?” Nicky asks.

“We’ll see,” says Lauren.