Ballet is stressful! That seems to be the thesis of Étoile Season 1, Episode 4 “The Hiccup,” which nudges all our characters’ weaknesses. It’s the halfway point of the season, and I’m genuinely invested in these people. We’re moving at a decent clip, with plenty of fascinating little character moments along the way. To me, at least, the show is getting better as it settles into its groove. Plus, this is the first episode that really leans into the dance of it all, with lengthy (and stunning) performances.
Geneviève’s Bad Day, Part Deux
Étoile Season 1, Episode 4 “The Hiccup” opens with a rare moment of freedom for Geneviève, taking her shoes off and sliding headlong down the opera’s long, chandelier-laden great hall. The stress returns almost instantly, though. Her very bad day starts with finding the two swapped American boys passed out after a night of partying French-style.
Shamblee is at his slimiest, spouting sugary-sweet platitudes at the unveiling of the newly-renamed “Shamblee Theater.” He spends much of his speech, though, taking potshots at the old Fish name, all while Jack is forced to stand by and stew silently.
Then, he zips over to Paris, where he warns Geneviève that there’s been a “little something” happening with one of his companies, and the press might ask. Harried and distracted, Geneviève makes a fatal (and seemingly out-of-character) mistake: not looking into it herself. That’s how she gets blindsided in a radio interview. She blithely repeats Shamblee’s “small hiccup” line, only to be told that the incident in question is, in fact, a devastating oil spill.
She tries to backtrack, with a lengthy (and amusingly delivered) monologue about “really bad” hiccups. But the damage is done. It only gets worse at a later press conference, when the news breaks that the accident has turned fatal. By the end of the episode, a Greta Thunberg stand-in is threatening a march and is turning Geneviève, personally, into public enemy number one.
Our Defrosting Ice Queen
Cheyenne’s interest in SuSu is sweet but overbearing — something even SuSu realizes. In Étoile Season 1, Episode 4 “The Hiccup,” Cheyenne invades the children’s class, coaches SuSu, and even tells her to call her by her first name. Later, though, SuSu admits that she’d rather put a little distance between them. She loves dance, but she also doesn’t want her classmates to resent her. It’s a lovely scene, and one that hints at Cheyenne’s soft (perhaps even hurt) heart beneath the brusqueness and the perfectionism.
Perhaps that’s why she lets her guard down — ever so slightly — with Gael. Rehearsing their pas de deux, they share delicate touches and long gazes. So naturally, the next step is hooking up on Jack’s office couch! Jack is, appropriately, appalled when he finds out. And only partly because their activities moved his couch off its marks. This poor, neurotic man is barely holding it together — let him have his perfectly-placed couch! But Cheyenne hates her hotel, and Gael lives in Queens, and it’s not like Jack is having sex on it. Ouch, but also true.
Jack has bigger problems, though. Julie, one of the leads in Tobias’s New York gala piece, is injured. Cheyenne’s generous streak continues, as she offers to fill in. When Gael comes to his office to find a key he lost, he and Jack have it out. Jack makes it clear he won’t tolerate any flakiness from Gael, but I’m even more convinced that there’s something personal there, too.
Getting Mad at the Mad Genius
I appreciate that Étoile isn’t wasting time in deconstructing Tobias’s whole… thing. Sure, it’s “eccentric” and “funny” when he doesn’t respond to emails, “forgets” people he works with, or brutally takes down an entire company of elite dancers. But it’s also not funny, because it’s disrespectful and selfish, no matter how brilliant he is.
In Étoile Season 1, Episode 4, he and Gabin have a dynamic already. Gabin: chatty and just a little trashy; Tobias: silent and absorbed. There’s a flirtatious edge to their back-and-forth. It’s highlighted further by the editing, which cuts between their rehearsal and Cheyenne’s with Gael. Gabin somehow speaks Tobias’s language, and he clearly thinks of them as a team.
Ahead of their promotional photoshoot, Gabin is his usual vain but overeager self. It’s heartbreaking to watch his slow realization that Tobias simply isn’t showing up. All that bravado fades away, and later, his temper boils over when star dancer Matthieu mocks him. Tobias is in New York for the gala, and he’s mad that they replaced Julie without telling him. He explains, though, that it’s because he choreographed with specific dancers in mind. With Cheyenne, he’d make different choices – so they start reworking the piece right then and there.
When he returns to Paris, he finds Gabin, alone and, apparently, suspended for fighting Matthieu. Gabin calls him out, and wow the scene is constructed to feel an awful lot like someone confronting an unfaithful lover. Tobias actually seems distraught when Gabin says the “message was very clear.” “My message is never clear,” he laments. For a moment, it seems like Tobias’s quirks aren’t just quirks, but a real struggle for him sometimes. He touches Gabin’s shoulder and tells him to get back to work, and it has the energy of a hand brush in a Regency romance. Oh yes, I’m very here for this.
Curtain Call
- Does Nicholas have a different medical device with him every episode? I’m torn between laughing at him and being really quite worried!
- “How do you picture yourself?” “Suffering.” I know we talked about Tobias needing to be less mean, but also, big mood.
- Mishi (with dog Simi in tow!) moves in with Bruna. It’s a major mismatch, but it also might be exactly what they both need. And Clea actually… seems a little hurt?
- Larry (Robbie Fairchild) always looks like he’s about to crack up. You’d think he’d have mastered the art of keeping a straight face after playing Judi Dench’s henchman (hench…cat?).
- I love that we get to actually see significant parts of the dance performances. It’s enough to feel like we’re “in the audience,” but not so much that it starts to feel like the interminable Stars Hollow: The Musical. And it’s a gorgeous showcase for the incredibly talented dancers in the cast.
- Cheyenne uses her final encore bow to call out Shamblee’s oil spill. You go girl, but also, she has just made a dangerous enemy.
- Nicholas’s casual reminiscences of the drug-fueled bygone times when he was a dancer are so, hilariously, horrible.
- Speaking of which, I find it interesting how Étoile very matter-of-fact-ly threads a throughline of the casual objectification of performers. From the pilot, where Cheyenne mocks the donors who demand flirtation from Jack, to Gabin’s comment here about getting cornered by a randy old woman at the gala, it’s positioned delicately: a joke, but not quite – more a fact of life that they’re all resigned too. Very (and sadly) true to life.
What did you think of Étoile Season 1, Episode 4 “The Hiccup”? Let us know in the comments!
