The abrupt end to the 2020 NCAA gymnastics season was a shock to everyone, us included. And while we understand and support the measures being taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19, it means that a lot of us are suddenly left with extra time on our hands…
Which is why we’ve decided to embark on an important journey, one that will take us back through one of television’s most important series to date: Make It or Break It. Every Saturday (and a number of other bonus days) from now until the 2021 season, our editors Katherine, Kalley and Claire will be breaking down and recapping each episode of everyone’s favorite gymnastics show.
Want to watch along? You can find MIOBI on Hulu and the Freeform app, all you have to have is a subscription/cable login. You can also buy the DVDs or purchase seasons or single episodes on various platforms, like iTunes. Join us in the cheesiness and the early 2010s TV gymnastics by using the hashtag #MakeItOrBreakItDown on Twitter as you watch.
You can read our S1E1 recap here.
Season 2, Episode 19: What Lies Underneath
The girls try to promote camaraderie during their worlds team photoshoot, but Kelly makes it clear she is NOT here to make friends. Really? Did you decide that after you made fun of someone for their eating disorder or when you tried to sabotage someone for no reason other than your own personal gain or-
You know who else isn’t here to make friends? The Rock parents, who look on as Abby Lee Miller Kelly’s mother is awful.
They seem to be feeling good about the fact that they’d never let their children be exploited like that. Um, have we forgotten this dark moment in history?
Payson shows off her whiteness as she prepares a little promotional recording for Worlds.
If you actually speak Portuguese, I implore you to not watch this. It’ll make you depressed about the future of America.
In the Rock office, Kim receives an important prize: the original footage of the Kiss Seen Round The World: Uncut Edition (only $19.99 on pay per view). Kim is hype that her daughter isn’t about to send a man to jail, but she asks to keep it under wraps until after worlds to avoid distractions. That doesn’t mean she’s not pissed, though.
Midwestern mom rage could power an apartment building through a blackout.
Lauren is doing well on beam despite being distracted by Payson’s happiness. That is, until she sits her double tuck dismount and starts stressing she’ll never beat the only other two gymnasts that matter, Ivanka and Genji. Speaking of cultural stereotypes:
Did Brazil change national languages over the course of the episode?
After a meeting with an impressive new sponsor, Alex makes sure Kaylie is sticking to the plan; aka, lying to the world about the reason she was away to keep raking in the deals.
Too bad, across town, Kelly and her mom are breaking the real news to Ellen Beals via JournalGate. It’s a bold gamble, considering she no longer works for the organization and isn’t (yet) likely to return.
It’d be like if Brian Carey went to discuss Jade’s path to a specialist spot with Kerry Perry. Sorry I reminded you she was a person.
Payson complains about not getting sponsorship dollars, so Kaylie hatches a plan to give her her own deal with the granola bar company (LOL). And what an honor to be the face of this iconic brand:
Now the problem will be convincing the Keelers to let Payson forfeit her college eligibility by getting an endorsement. But judging by the fact that she’s far along in high school with apparently no interest from colleges, I don’t see that being a huge deal.
At the Rock, Lauren is jealous as Payson gets her close up from Max. But really, with these pictures, there’s not a lot to be jealous of.
Yes, that’s a shot he took.
Lauren warns her to back off her man but splutters when she learns Max has been telling Payson the tea. Now that Payson knows they’re not having sex, what does she have over anyone?
Kelly seems a little jealous of Kaylie’s vaulting prowess, so Kaylie takes advantage of the moment of weakness to invite Kelly to the afterparty at Lauren’s home that evening. Thinking it might be an opportunity to sabotage Kaylie via the journal once and for all (I guess), she says yes.
At Kaylie’s, Max is proving he’s not a businessman; he’s a business, man.
Even though it’s Max, the presentation goes off without a hitch and Payson gets promised $25,000 up front for sponsorship and $250,000 if she medals at worlds. Her parents don’t like that one bit.
The frugal Minnesotans don’t love that she’s considering $25,000 in exchange for rejecting her college scholarship and it feels like a filler scene because this back and forth has 100% been shown before.
Sasha finally confronts Summer. He tells her biggest mistake as a woman is believing her love can change a man, which is rich coming from a former horndog who said he’d hold out for her.
Speaking of laying on guilt in a toxic manner, Kelly’s mom is horrified at the fact that Kelly might be befriending Kaylie by accepting an invitation to be her guest at the party. But when she realizes her daughter can play just as well at that game with the revelation of the diary, all is quickly forgiven.
At said party, Payson is serving “14-year-old going to school on her birthday” realness.
She’s clearly feeling a little jealous about Lauren walking off to have sex in the party’s broom closet with Max. As if this doesn’t sound enough like a Sex and the City episode, well, it literally SOUNDS like it too. It feels like the backing track in a Manhattan gentleman’s club.
Max isn’t in the moment enough for Lauren’s satisfaction, and he admits he is thinking about Payson, so Lauren bounces and tells him to call back when he’s figured out his priorities.
The Keelers discuss potentially letting Payson walk off with the endorsement deal (imagine this much intense debate over a granola bar ad) when Marty breezes in and is horrified by it all. But no one in this episode was more horrified than me when I saw who entered next.
I could have included the quote with no context and you’d have known exactly who I meant.
Steve announces to the whole party that, in a gaudy means of upstaging his daughter’s special achievement, he and Summer will be getting married in Rio. To help him, a man in a fedora stands idly by.
Sasha is in the audience for this and sulks away, and Summer looks just as much like a sourpuss onstage, so clearly the union between her and Steve was meant to be.
We see an intense moment of Kelly crying as she walks slowly, which reveals a level of emotions I didn’t realize was possible in cyborgs. It also foreshadows that something questionable is about to happen, which immediately does in the form of her revealing to Kaylie that she stole her journal. It’s a real moment of character development for Kelly, but I honestly knew it was coming when she didn’t find it and immediately take the opportunity to use it for evil.
But quick important question: Did Austin start looking like Robbie Rotten from LazyTown?
And I guess there’s a type for everyone because someone surprising finds this super impressive.
It’s not just the scotch Max was drinking; Max “likes to kiss guys” -Austin “and girls” -Max. I love how it was Max who had to add that second heteronormative indicator.
Austin reacts in the toxically 2010 way you’d expect and just can’t put together that a man can like…let me see if I’ve got this right…men AND women.
Weird. Really weird.
After getting tipped off by the disgusting Ellen Beals, Summer confronts Steve about who really submitted the video of the kiss. That’s when a guilt-ridden Lauren comes clean about making said move so Summer would break up with Sasha and return to the loving arms of this man right here.
Who wouldn’t want this? Apparently Summer, because she runs out in disgust and vows to have nothing to do with the Tanners ever again. And that’s the last we see of her, which is unfortunate because a scene where she passionately reunites with Sasha would honestly be a perfect ending to an episode a la Peggy and Stan in Mad Men.
But because it’s MIOBI, which is allergic to happy endings, no. Hoping he’s forgotten the fact that he rejected her earlier in the night, Lauren runs to Max to get her to make him feel better. And, in another “jump the shark” moment this show is increasingly coming to rely on, they’re driving away when they get hit by a car.
I hate to make light of this, but…artistic parallels? I can’t get a GIF of the moment but it’s very this.
Balance Check
Every week we will break down the little moments that stood out as being extremely on point and those that wobbled a bit too much. Shout out to Vulture and its Gossip Girl Reality Index for providing the template for our version.
Faker Than Kelly’s Mom Not Going to the Party With Her as “Chaperone”
- The fact that the girls have times for silly social events like parties and social hangouts in the days leading up to Worlds. Minus 5.
- Max having Powerpoint-making skills doesn’t seem to track with his character and abilities. Minus 4.
- How did Steve and Lauren manage to pull off a wedding in Rio with just days to plan? Minus 5.
- Lauren and Max not seeing an oncoming car when it’s pitch dark, the car has its lights on, and they’re the only cars on the road. LMK. Minus 8.
Total: -21
Realer Than Crippling Debt as a Consequence of Gymnastics
- Distraction beam drills are definitely a real thing. Maybe they don’t usually involve purposely putting the gymnast’s love interest in front of her while he’s talking to another girl, but the drills are real. Plus 5.
- Kelly’s mother directing her at the photoshoot was a true Kris Jenner move. Plus 6.
- Parties as arenas for shady backroom dealings related to gymnastics. Plus 7.
- Speaking of parties: a gymnastics administrator under an ethics investigation being allowed to be within feet of gymnasts at said party, because investigation who? Plus 6.
Total: 24
MIOBI made a total of 3 this week, which reminds me how weird it is that we’re only focusing on three people now and Emily really is gone.
Recap by Katherine Weaver
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