So far, the art has kept Étoile‘s characters going, even when their lives are messy. Étoile Season 1, Episode 6 threatens all of that, with personal and professional disasters intersecting. Putting the characters under pressure, though, reveals some interesting things. Yes, including that relationship reveal!
Étoile just seems to be getting stronger as the season goes on, although I still fear its niche topic might not garner the audience Amazon demands. It would be a real shame to have to leave these characters so soon – we could use more shows that balance their prickliness with a dash of idealism.
A Genius Dethroned
Étoile Season 1, Episode 6 “The Disaster” starts on a low note. Tobias’s first piece in Paris gets terrible reviews and even boos. Gabin pitches a fit (and, really, this guy needs to get his temper in check), while Tobias flees from Geneviève’s clumsy attempts to make excuses. Later, he’s sulking in bed, listening on repeat to auto-translations of the bad reviews.
Of course, it’s Gabin who goes to his apartment to try to drag him out of his funk. Oh, and Gabin admits he wants to put a rock through the critic’s window. I do love this burgeoning connection. They’re both self-absorbed, temperamental people who, for some reason, are learning what it means to understand someone else and care about them.
Geneviève shows up too, telling Tobias what Clea demands he do next (more in a moment). She explains how she has to make compromises all the time to keep her job, and how much she admires Tobias for playing by his own rules. Instead of forcing him into a certain style, she encourages him to be himself.
Cheyenne vs. Shamblee: The Rematch
Shamblee joins the New York ballet class to see Cheyenne, who makes him leave. Instead, he relentlessly messages Jack to force Cheyenne to speak with him. Silkily, he tells Cheyenne it was a mistake to make an enemy of him – he wants to be a supporter, a friend.
Even more unsettling, he has a file on everyone, Cheyenne included. He casually slut-shames her about the men she’s slept with. Cheyenne, in her wonderful way, takes it all in stride – until Shamblee names Jack as one of her ex-paramours. That yell you heard was all the Jack/Cheyenne shippers (I’m on Twitter, I see y’all!) shouting “I knew it!” Look, I am a well-known love triangle hater, but I love Cheyenne, Jack, and Geneviève – and their dynamics with each other – so, so much. Cheyenne tries to keep up the bravado, but this might be the first time we’ve seen her truly shaken.
Later, she confronts Gael and plants a kiss on him in the hallway. He, correctly, surmises that she’s jealous of him talking with other women! She also wants reassurance that neither of them cares about each other’s past liaisons. Yeah, I give it one episode before that blows up in their faces.
Cheyenne is still unsettled, so she barges into Jack’s dinner. Interestingly, although she reveals that Shamblee knows about her and Gael, she does not mention that he knows about her and Jack. Like Gael, Jack is surprised to realize she’s might have real feelings for Gael.
A Change Is Gonna Come
Geneviève has to deal with her dancers threatening to strike in Étoile Season 1, Episode 6 “The Disaster.” They’re mad about Mishi’s perceived “special treatment,” and they feel they got the short end of the stick with the entire swap. Geneviève chews them out for their short-sightedness. She reminds them how hard the pandemic hit the arts, and how hard it’s been to get things up and running again.
Raphaël is proud of her, but the government, less so. Clea and her ministers insist that there cannot be a strike. Plus, they want Tobias to do another piece, one tailored to more traditional sensibilities. Clea’s threat of more “changes to come” feels like a veiled threat to Geneviève’s job, and that’s certainly how Geneviève takes it.
It looks like she took a little of last episode’s intimacy to heart, because she chooses to call Jack about it. He tries to pep her up, and the slow smile that spreads across his face as he realizes she called him for support is pure sunshine. “We’ll find something else for you,” he promises.
Is Étoile Heading For Its First Tragedy?
Throughout Étoile Season 1, Episode 6 “The Disaster,” Jack watches Nicholas work with the dancers. It’s a nice reminder that Nicholas, far from being just pathetic comic relief, is a minor dance legend in the world of Étoile. He and Jack are sweet, supportive, and unashamedly fond of each other; I’m always here for depictions of healthy, warm male friendships.
Nicholas wants to retire from his artistic director post – a conversation, apparently, he and Jack have every year. But this time, Nicholas is serious, especially given his declining health. It’s clear, though, that Jack doesn’t want him to go: partly because he doesn’t feel he can do the job without Nicholas, and partly because it’s hard accepting his friend’s decline.
Later, the pair sit in the archives, watching old videos. Jack reveals he saw Nicholas dance back in the day, and Nicholas recalls just how hard he had to work for his career. Kirby and Haig are so marvelous here; they’ve turned what could be a comic dynamic into one of Étoile’s most touching relationships. Then Jack mentions how, as a kid, the one autograph he never got was Nicholas’s, and Nicholas promises to sign all the programs for him now, and I get a really bad feeling because I know how writing works. And, sure enough, on his way out, Nicholas gazes happily up at the theater… then promptly collapses. Nooooo!!
Curtain Call
- Cheyenne boots out a teacher and takes over one of the kids’ classes. She… is not terrible, even though she’s her usual blunt self.
- The implication, I assume, is that Jack and Cheyenne hooked up when she was dancing in New York in 2019.
- Shamblee also reveals that Gael has something messy in his background. Something Jack knows about, which would explain the animosity.
- Jack’s reaction to Cheyenne’s display of jealousy is interesting. This is a Sherman-Palladino show, so we know there’s going to be drama between them at some point. Right now, he seems more bemused than jealous himself.
- Geneviève owns half of her childhood home, along with Leonor, who lives there now. Their sibling rivalry remains amusingly prickly.
- Mishi tries to go out with Timeo, the boy from the river. Out with his friends, she realizes just how small her life has been: dance, and nothing else. Taïs Vinolo is so sweetly heartbreaking as a girl who wants nothing more than to fit in. With Bruna (even though Geneviève offers her another place), they grow closer to an understanding – maybe even real fondness.
