Smash – 1×13 – Tech – Recap
Bombshell is headed to Boston. We’re now at the Tech stage. Which is really a bunch of dress rehearsals while they figure out the lights and such. A hitch is thrown into their already hectic schedule when their Joe Dimaggio quits. Their best option is to bring back Michael. Julia isn’t going to like that at all. When Tom finally breaks the news to her, she refuses to come back. She gives them an ultimatum. It’s him or her.
Eileen is already over all of Julia’s crap. While it’s understandable that her family is fragile because she just got back together with Frank, the entire production shouldn’t be penalized because she had an affair. Can’t they just avoid each other? In the end, while Julia is lying in bed with a huge bunch of bananas that she’s like, dipping in peanut butter or something, Frank and Leo tell her to suck it up and go to Boston. It’ll be okay because they’re going with her. Something tells me that happiness won’t last long.
My first impression of this Tech thing is what fabulous hotel rooms these backup dancers are staying in. For a show that was worried about money they sure treat their cast well. Derek treats everyone well. Ivy is worried about this. After Derek lets slip to Ivy that he loves her, she becomes increasingly paranoid about Rebecca. Rebecca is super nervous about her debut and demands attention and compliments from Derek’s accent. It’s his birthday so she even comes on stage, dressed as Marilyn, and does the famous Happy Birthday. It’s not long before they get too close for comfort in her dressing room while her skeezy manager blocks the door from Ivy. Gross. I bet that happens in Hollywood every day.
And then there’s Karen and Dev. Things are already rocky between them because of Karen’s dream and Dev’s horny co-worker. It doesn’t help that she shows up to his apartment with alcohol. Even Stevie Wonder could see this coming. They make out on the couch until Dev stops it from going any further. His solution to all of this is traveling to Boston to propose to Karen. Yeah. Cheating is a great reason to get married.
Karen basically immediately says no “because she’s in Tech.” I don’t..get this logic. You can’t be engaged when you’re in dress rehearsals? It’s not like he was asking her to drop everything and run off to Vegas to get hitched immediately. All he was asking was for her to put a ring on her finger. But when he confesses to cheating, it doesn’t help her reaction at all. So much so that after an awkward sing-off in which Ivy sings the blues about Derek screwing Rebecca, she ends up drunk at a bar with a drunk Dev. And they both want some sort of revenge. Yeah. This is gonna get dirty.