The Big Leap

The Big Leap – We Make Our Own Light

  • Title: The Big Leap – We Make Our Own Light
  • IMDb: link

The Big Leap closes out the season with the long-awaited performance of Swan Lake, which despite the obstacles and drama (and some of the cast falling through a trap door on stage and getting lost during the live performance) comes off well. The finale plants several seeds to cultivate if the show would be renewed for a second season (cluing us in on which characters would likely come back). The Big Leap worked better than expected telling a self-contained story involves several characters who likely couldn’t be brought back including Piper Perabo who turns out to be the beating heart of the second-half of the season. I think anything more would offer only diminishing returns. That said, the season (and perhaps the series) goes out in style.

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The Big Leap – Swan Song

  • Title: The Big Leap – Swan Song
  • IMDb: link

The penultimate episode of The Big Leaps gives us the final two days leading up to the live performance of Swan Lake. For Mike (Jon Rudnitsky) that means struggling on after the death of Paula (Piper Perabo), for Nick (Scott Foley) that means standing up to his boss’ crazy last idea, and for Gabby (Simone Recasner) that means putting some more of creativity to work in helping to choreograph a new ending to the show before returning to her old life. Perabo, who only appears in recorded messages from an iPad after the initial pre-credit scenes, is terrific here as Paula provides Mike with the encouragement needed to finish the show for both of them and reminds us how how lucky the two of them were to find each other (even for so short a time).

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The Big Leap – What Prevents Us?

  • Title: The Big Leap – What Prevents Us?
  • IMDb: link

Wedding bells chime in “What Prevents Us?” as Mike (Jon Rudnitsky) helps Paula (Piper Perabo) knock off one of her bucket list items. The entire show comes together in setting up the wedding, complete with bachelor and bachelorette parties, and a few last-minute hurdles for Nick (Scott Foley) to produce his way through including dealing with Mike’s former wife and getting certified to officiate the ceremony. While there are other storylines at play involving Justin’s (Raymond Cham Jr.) future and Gabby’s (Simone Recasner) relationship, the episode begins and ends with Mike (who has a complicated past dealing with the death of his loved ones) and Paula who have a hard road ahead but were given a beautiful wedding night by their friends.

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The Big Leap – Revenge Plot

  • Title: The Big Leap – Revenge Plot
  • IMDb: link

Gabby’s (Simone Recasner) convoluted revenge plot to steal Brittney’s (Anna Grace Barlow) part and get her kicked off the show makes up the primary storyline of “The Revenge Plot.” It’s an awkward story that has moments. It leaves Gabby with the part she so desperately wanted but without her car, which she had to trade to save her plan, and with Brittney still a part of the show.  Tied to this is a thread of a high Monica (Mallory Jansen) searching for how to make “Swan Lake” work. The ridiculous dance-off provides the inspiration, but after the drug wears off will she be willing to follow it?

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The Big Leap – We Were Just Babies / I Should Have Gone to Motown

  • Title: The Big Leap – We Were Just Babies / I Should Have Gone to Motown
  • IMDb: link
  • IMDb: link

In “We Were Just Babies” the truth about Sam’s (Crew Kingston Miskel) father is revealed when the show returns to Gabby (Simone Recasner) and Justin’s (Raymond Cham Jr.) high school bringing Gabby’s oldest secret to light by revealing her favorite teacher took advantage of her and then promptly dumped Gabby when she became pregnant with his child. The long-running thread has a far better payoff than I expected, and also gives us a look at the crew discussing what’s best to do with this information, both for Gabby and for the show, ultimately giving Gabby a strong moment to stand-up for herself.

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