Even the Paysons of the world — those beautiful, confident, self-aware, wiser-than-their years teenagers — are bound to have their “Why does nobody think I’m sexy?” moments. Watching Payson lament over her inability to bring sexy back in this week’s Make It Or Break It was amusing, but I still felt badly for her. Although, I had to wonder: was she upset that she wasn’t viewed as a sensual young woman, or was the problem that she felt like she was failing at something gymnastics-related? Perhaps it was just her disdain for walking sexpot Lauren and wanting to one-up her. I can understand that.
I was disappointed in Max’s ogling Lauren during practice, and asking Austin how he could not want to “hit that” (ew), when he was supposed to be into Payson! I suppose that’s part of the reason Payson felt extra self-conscious. And Austin, weird as he was with the chakras and the getting down on all fours and pretending to be a cat, was actually kind of refreshingly sweet to Payson.
When she came out and did her routine, I could have sworn it was Sandy from Grease, down to her conversation with googly-eyed Max afterwards. I even expected her to say, “Tell me about it … stud.” (I actually would have preferred if she had, because the allusion was so strong that I would have liked if they had at least brought some attention to that fact.) As, just like in the movie, I couldn’t help but be disappointed that said stud only wanted the normal, lovely girl after she became someone else, if only temporarily. Fail.
I have to admit, I’m getting a little bored of Emily and her “I have no life / I’m so in love with Damon” woes … which is why I’m so happy she stumbled upon Chloe’s “Bambi” name tag and a napkin displaying the best pun of the show so far — Bodacious Boulders!
And finally, to take this review to a more somber place … Maeve’s passing away at the end of the episode was sudden and horrible, but in no way a surprise. Even my husband, who begrudgingly watched the first season and a half of the show with me on Netflix and saw Maeve (played by Alice Greczyn) a total of two times before this epsiode, said, “Yeah, sorry to say, but she’s probably going to die soon and that’s the only thing that’ll convince Kaylie to take her rehab seriously.” Bingo.
Maeve’s death is really heartbreaking, especially the way Kaylie finds out over the phone talking to Maeve’s mom. I am wondering what path Kaylie will take from here and just how hard the news will affect her recovery, her training, and (from next week’s preview) her nascent musicianship.
Like Maeve said, “what you do, this is … real. This is talent.” Let’s hope Kaylie takes the words of her late friend to heart.
Clacked by Rachel Blum-Jose 
on Apr 11, 2011 @ 23:56 EST5EDT
Actually, Max’s behavior is the most realistic one of all the boys in the series. In real life boys are like that, they can be into a girl, really like her, but that doesn’t mean they are suddenly blind and stop seeing how sexy other girls are and talk about if they would “hit” that.
The important thing is Max doesn’t make any stupid mistakes and just stay with Payson. :)
I liked your post, thanks for writting!
*POST AUTHOR*
You’re right, Lisa! Even the most committed guys have wandering eyes at times! I was just surprised it was so blatant this episode, considering last week he was staring past Lauren to Payson in almost every scene (except the one where Lauren and he were dancing, which makes me laugh when I remember it). I guess he hadn’t seen Lauren’s sexy routine in action yet! Thanks for commenting. :)