Flesh and Bone Episode 5: MIA

Sergei talks to Daphne about the $250,000 he donated to the ballet company and how he hasn’t received any recognition for it. She reminds him that the donation had to be anonymous. He asks Daphne and Claire to dance pieces of Swan Lake for him and his guests at a party.

Claire aka Angel is in the lap dance room at the club, talking to the guy she was with when Bryan showed up. Strip Club Dude wants to get to know her better, save her etc. He asks what she wants to be when she grows up and she tells him that she wants to be like the Velveteen Rabbit–that she wants “to be loved enough to become real.” Strip Club Dude invites her to go with him to a party later.

Mia wakes up to find she can’t see out of one eye. She’s worried that her anorexia is the cause of  her new symptoms.

Jessica picks up her daughter from school and totally lays into the teacher for sending that letter home with her kid. She gives the teacher the check for  $35,000 which we assume she embezzled from the ballet company.

At practice Mia isn’t doing so good because of the whole partial blindness thing. She tries eating actual food but it doesn’t help. Pasha, the company pianist, refers her to his eye doctor. He’s going blind, and acknowledges that his career is on the decline.

Kiira and Claire are getting promotional pictures taken both for Rubies and the new ballet they are doing. Claire wows everyone, and Kiira is obviously unhappy. Toni  refers to Claire as the primordial woman-child, whatever the hell that means.

Trey and Ross are at odds because Paul pulled Ross from the lead spot in Rubies. Trey tells him that he was always happy for Ross’s success because he’s his friend, and he wants Ross to be happy for him. Ross tells Trey that he only got the lead because Ross rebuffed Paul’s advances.

Daphne tells Claire about the party they are invited to dance at it, but it conflicts with Strip Club Dude’s date. Daphne explains to Claire that he doesn’t view it as a date between equals, but rather that he sees Claire as his escort. Claire is really upset, goes home, then leaves a voicemail for Bryan.

Kiira goes to some trippy-as-fuck party at her dealer’s place. There is a Serval in a jeweled collar walking around. I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP. Her dealer implies that Kiira has been similarly domesticated by her husband. We get to see Kiira’s husband when she gets home, and he seems kind of  boring and stuffy, but also a nice guy. Kiira tells him she’s too tired for sex but then masturbates in the bath.

Cut to Claire sleeping with books piled on her again, crying. BECAUSE THERE ARE NO NICE MEN IN THIS ENTIRE FUCKING SHOW.

Mia sees the eye doctor who tells her she needs to see a specialist. Then Mia’s mom shows up. She’s an awful dumpster person. When she goes out with Mia later, she claims to be Mia’s older sister. She also dumps on her daughter, basically asking her when she’s going to break out of the pack and become a prima. She’s put a lot of effort into her daughter’s career, you see. Mia gets revenge by stealing the dude her mom was hitting on out from under her, but then when they are about  to hook up  in the bathroom, she totally freaks, remembering how Bryan tied her up.

Daphne and Claire perform on Sergei’s yacht. The servers are very young looking women in leotards. After the performance one of the guests hits on Claire but is told “not the ballerinas” by a bodyguard. One of the young servers brings Claire a glass of champagne and some water. Claire notices a brand on the girl’s wrist. The girl slips her a note and begs her to tell her family where she is. Claire shoves the note in her pointe shoe.

Later she comments to Sergei that she didn’t see the girl get off the boat. Sergei says, “There are many girls Who can keep track of them all?” When Claire gets in the car, she finds that the note is missing

RHG:

I feel like things actually happened in this episode, which is good, because we only have 8 episode and this is episode FIVE.

God Balanchine choreography is the WORST. It’s just so…awkward and weird. Yes, I know I’m a heretic, and quite frankly, without the damage he did to the ballet world in how he controlled his dancers and kept them dependent on his good will in order to keep their jobs, and his vision of the ideal ballet dancer being a pre-adolescent stick caused untold eating disorders, injuries, and almost certainly death- without all of that, we probably wouldn’t have this show.

It’s a trade off i’d be willing to make.

Anyway, seeing Claire actually dance more (both in the photo session, which was AMAZING) and the Swan Lake solo, was gorgeous and the little touches of the floor needing to be dry, or the rosining of her toe shoes was a nice touch. I wish we’d seen the Black Swan variation, or the Claire stayed to watch Daphne do her piece, but no, we don’t. We just need to take her word that she nailed those fucking fouettes.

I wanted to see that.

I honestly think Claire hadn’t thought too much about what Sergei’s actual business ventures entailed. It was kind of sweet how protective the bouncers are of her (Daphne, I think, could castrate anyone with her bare hands without breaking stride). It’s possible that without her extreme talent and some luck, she could have been in a similar place as the young girls on the yacht.
Elyse:

I agree with RHG that stuff is finally happening and we’re finally seeing some dancing.

The Sergei being a human trafficker is an interesting revelation. Prior to this Sergei was a foil for Paul. Paul operates in a socially acceptable sphere but underneath everything he’s really awful and exploitative to his dancers. Sergei operates in an underground, sketchy world but he’s protective of his “dancers” and doesn’t want them engaging in prostitution. Then we find out that, yup, Sergei is actually an awful person who is trafficking young woman. Based on the “not the ballerinas” scene, clearly these young women are being raped by the guests. I guess this keeps up the theme of NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO BE A DECENT PERSON IN THIS SHOW.

Can we talk about the serval in the emerald collar for a moment? It’s crazy ass ballerinas snorting cocaine at a parties with exotic cats wearing jeweled collars that makes me want to watch this show. Why can’t it all be that?

And I’m with RHG. I wanted to see those fucking fouettes.

Are you still watching Flesh and Bone? If so what did you think about the revelation about Sergei?