Flesh and Bone Episode 6: FUBAR

Trigger warning for everything because this show is all triggers in a blender on puree. 

FUBAR: it’s a military acronym.

Romeo writes at his “studio.” There’s a fountain pen decorated with bird skulls, and a frankenstiened stuffed bunny.

At the studio, Mia asks if she could get the results over the phone, but the answer is no, and she will come by on her lunch break. Ivana walks in with Monica, who looks like she should give birth any second now, and is chowing down on organic chips of some kind (while all the dancers watch her eat with equal parts horror and fascination). Monica announces that the Thanksgiving schedule gives them a 4-day weekend. Everyone cheers, but Trey is grumpy about going home for the holidays- it’s Kansas, which isn’t exactly a haven for a black gay dancer.

Monica leaves, and the dancers get ready to begin class, and few of the other girls make snide mutter remarks about Monica, and Claire snaps at them. “SHE’S BEAUTIFUL. She’s FUCKING PREGNANT have some respect.” “Who are you? Her wet nurse?” “Got the tits for it.”

Claire leaves and makes a call… home. To Bryan, who has their father watching football in the background. Bryan says that he’s fine, and Pop is the same. Claire tries to give advice on how to cook a turkey (with no seasoning, so it would be a sad turkey), and Bryan’s like “We’ll just defrost some Swansons.” Claire offers to come home for Thanksgiving, and Bryan tells her it’s up to her.

Mia goes into the doctor’s office, then we see her leave and look at a sheet of paper, then head to a hot dog stand and orders a hot dog with the works.

In rehearsal, Toni watches them work through a lovely movement (Stieffel please choreograph more please please please). Toni is pleased with all the work they’ve done, especially with Claire being connected and feeling the music. “I say, get the hell out of here and go enjoy your thanksgiving!” Everyone is happy- earlier trains, cocktails.

Toni pops into Paul’s office to let him know that she let everyone go and that everyone has been killing it. “And she’s a benevolent dictator.” Her parents are coming in, and Paul’s plans are wine, take out and a Billy Wilder movie. She leaves, and he stalks to the studio.

“A little bird tells me you’re all fabulous.” He wants to be the judge of their collective brilliance, but anyone who has a need to be elsewhere can go. Kiira leaves. “Claire won’t disappoint.” He has them start from the beginning, and they get maybe 60 seconds in, before he calls “Stop. Again.” And this repeats. “Again.” And repeats. “Again.” And repeats. “Again.” And repeats until they are dripping with sweat and drooping and utterly demoralized. “Again.” He’s not even watching. “Again.”

I wanted more dancing but not like this. “Again.”

Paul looks at one of the dancers. “Mona dear, you’re fired.” He tells her just doesn’t need her anymore, and no one else will meet her eyes. “And again.” He then tells them that they will dance without the music- Toni’s touchy-feely mumbo-jumbo can’t replace the technique that he has given to them, and he smashes the chair he was sitting in and uses the pieces to pound out the beats. “Here’s your accompaniment.”

He’s completely lost his shit. “We’re done here. Each of you need to look deep inside and ask yourselves if this is where you belong. I’ll be making some changes after the holiday.” He leaves.

People have missed flights and trains, and Ross calls him a narcissistic maniac. Sascha: “That was terrorism.” Daphne: “This is what he does. You know the holidays is when he brings the darkness. You can’t take it personally!” She’s going to call Kiira and make a plan.

Claire leaves the building, hails a cab, and has it take her to LaGuardia.

The blonde lady with the kid that no one cares about gets a check for $35K, and tells the kiddo that they’re going to a fancy restauruant for Thanksiving dinner. This doesn’t go well, because kiddo is six or so, and thinks (correctly, I might add) that cranberry sauce tastes like pig butt, and isn’t ashamed to say it VERY LOUDLY in front of people.

At another fancy house, white dudes are whiting it up with scotch. One of the white dudes is Kirra’s boring husband, and Kiira walks in with KELLY BISHOP, who gives us Emily Gilmore, only with more sharp edges, talking about deer poop and her ex-husband. Kiira excuses herself to go pop a pill. In her room is one of the missing children, who has swiped a glass on wine (he’s maybe ten, IDK I’m bad at guessing kid’s ages). Anyway, it’s about as big as his head, and he downs it.

In Pittsburgh, Bryan and Claire arrive home (There’s no way Claire has showered, and after that rehearsal she’s gotta be RIPE). In the house, things are tense. “Maybe someone’ll get a good meal around here” her father snarls at Bryan. Their father says that he can’t possibly do his PT because Bryan never cleans and through this speech Bryan silently brings him a beer with a straw, and then silently helps him to his bedroom.

In Claire’s room, the latch has been repaired, and a new padlock with a key is on the nightstand. Claire padlocks her door and goes to bed.

Romeo finishes a page, rolls it up, puts it in a bottle, and places the bottle on a shelf with hundreds of others.

Bryan and Claire cook dinner (and have a fight over if pepper is a spice or a seasoning), and their father tells terrible (and racist) jokes. At dinner, Claire puts down the turkey, and their father revs up the electric knife. Whatever physical disabilities he has involve not being able to use his right arm, so carving the turkey one handed doesn’t go well. He won’t accept help, and it’s very sad.

(Note: we see Claire cut up her food, and put some on a fork, but we don’t see her put any in her mouth).

After dinner, Claire and Bryan are watching TV, and their father is asleep, and Bryan talks about terrible things he did “over there” and that is was terrible to be stuck over there “knowing what you were dealing with back here.” Then he drops the big bomb – he doesn’t know if they had a boy or a girl.

What the actual fuck.

Their father wakes up at this point and calls him a worthless piece of shit who should have died over there. Bryan silently leaves, and Claire snaps, “That’s what you were hoping for.”

At Paul’s apartment of misery, he’s lying on the couch listening to opera, when the doorbell rings. It’s Kiira. He buzzes her up, but no, no, it’s Kiira and the rest of the company. “SURPRISE!” Including Mona, the dancer he fired at the rehersal from hell. He welcomes them all in, kisses all around.

Claire goes into her room, and pulls a toe shoe box (brand: Capezio) out from under the floorboards of her closet. In the box is a picture, and other keepsakes, and she takes out something. Then she sneaks into Bryan’s room, and they have mutually consenting sex, because this wasn’t fucked up ENOUGH.

At Paul’s, everyone is happy and eating and drinking. Mia stacks her plate, and the other corps dancers assure Mona that Paul is FINE and he’s forgotten about the firing. Ross sneaks into the room where everyone threw their coats, grabs some cocaine out of Kiira’s bag, snorts it, and then tries to proposition Paul. Paul’s not having it, and smugs away. Ross grabs his coat and leaves. Kiira runs after him, but Ross pretends not to hear her.

Claire gets dressed. The thing she got out of the closet was a tiny hospital bracelet. “We had a girl. They said she was beautiful.” She leaves Bryan’s room, and their father is asleep in the living room. She shoves the hospital bracelet into his mouth and leaves.

At Paul’s he makes a speech about family, and chosen family, “even Mona, here, who is no longer with us.” And then Paul swears up and down, publically, that Trey’s recent promotion was NOT due to his and Paul’s new romantic relationship. It’s awful.

The pianist asks Mia how her doctor’s visit was, and she says “My eye is fine, HERE TRY THIS CREAM PUFF.” Paul pitifully asks, “Where’s Claire?” Ivana: “She’s new. She doesn’t know.” Paul pouts.

Everyone leaves, and Paul’s like “THANK YOU SO MUCH WHAT A WONDERFUL SURPRISE” and then he grabs Trey and macks on him fairly viciously.

Mia goes home, slams some wine and cranks up the music and dances around her apartment and goes into the bathroom. The music is so loud, it shakes Romeo’s writing loft on the roof, and he runs down to see what the fuck is going on. Whatever he sees is enough to bring down the cops and the ambulance. As Claire walks up, she sees Mia being wheeled out on a stretcher with her wrists bandaged. Romeo runs up to Claire and says, “Blood is in the water!” and hands her back her copy of The Velveteen Rabbit, which he has written on and Frankensteined.

In her and Mia’s apartment, Claire finds footprints in blood and a bathtub full of bloody water and blood spatter. Clearly that doctor’s appointment didn’t go very well at all.

Elyse: What the fuck. WHAT THE FUCK.

Okay, this whole show was predicated on the fact that Bryan had been sexually abusing Claire. Then we find out that they had a baby together (and was EVERYONE ELSE freaking out that it was gonna be a mummified baby in that shoebox?) and that’s awful. AND THEN SHE SLEEPS WITH HIM?

I thought this was about Claire finding her agency, reclaiming her sexuality? I mean, I get that people have complicated relationships with their abusers but I did not think we were going to go there. Jesus. Is this the price we pay for Outlander?

Also Paul is a monster. He’s the mean dad to Toni’s nice mom. Let the kids have a nice Thanksgiving Paul! No one cares that you’re sad and alone in your turtleneck! We get it, you don’t have a mommy and a daddy so you need to be a prick to everyone else.

I do like that Kiira peaced out from the rehearsal like, “Whatever. Fuck all of you.”

Honestly, at this point I just want a show about Kiira. Kiira and Daphne on a road trip–that’s what I want. They start their own traveling ballet company filled with diva shenanigans. It would be GLORIOUS.

Let’s make that show, Starz. Okay?

RHG: Paul, Paul, you’re a sad little king of a sad little hill. Someone is going to take you down and you’ll have no support. You rule by fear and by pain, and it cannot last.

The guillotine comes for everyone, Paul.

I don’t even know WHAT to say about Claire and Bryan and ::gestures vaguely:: all of THAT. (Yes, I too was expecting a mummified baby in that box.)

The only other thing I have to say is that was a CRIMINAL WASTE OF KELLY BISHOP. CRIMINAL.

We’re at episode 6 out of 8, and this is..well, it’s something. Can we make it to the end? (Probably, we’re pretty tenacious.) Are you still watching?