Make It or Break It: "At the edge of the Worlds" [synopsis with spoilers]

Characteristic of the soapy gymnastics series, the summer hiatus begins with the dramatic conclusion of several ongoing storylines and new challenges for every character. Here's how it went down:

We begin with a parents meeting at The Rock under new board president Steve Tanner. The issue at hand: Given that Sasha’s a potential pedophile, do we dare let him coach our daughters? Despite Kim Keeler and Chloe Kmetko's insistence that Sasha's kiss with Payson was minor (and instigated by Payson) support for this initiative is lacking.

Evil national team coordinator Ellen Beals cuts off discussion by stating that Sasha is suspended until further notice and that gymnasts who train with him will be cut from the national team. As for what to do with the Rock rebels, well, they'll be coached by Beals herself. (Emily in particular looks thrilled at this news.) Especially since World team trials conflict with Emily’s court hearing, and Beals, always a stickler for regimentation, refuses to let Emily out of performing at her scheduled time.

Austin tells Kaylie he doesn’t want her competing at World team trials “in her condition.” Kaylie protests for the hundredth time that there's nothing wrong with her weight, that she's been weighed by both Sasha and her parents, that she's fine. Austin isn't having it; he tells her his formerly anorexic sister used to hide rolls of coins in her pants to make herself appear at a normal weight and asked Kaylie how she did it (the answer, as we remember, is strapping weights to her thighs.) Kaylie chooses this moment to tell him that her gymnastics that’s keeping her parents together, which gives Austin some perspective on just how much pressure she's been under.

Payson’s father Mark puts the k-bosh on her training with Sasha, given the gossip that will surround them and the fact that he doesn't entirely trust the man who's made out with his 16-year-old daughter, no matter how briefly. Meanwhile, Summer is giving Sasha a pep talk about how he’s “a good man, an honorable man, a righteous man,” and says that’s why she loves him. So he tells her he loves her. Despite her willingness, in the heat of the moment Sasha is such a good man he won’t let Summer sacrifice her, um, “values” by sleeping with him. “I won’t let you forget who you are,” he says, and she runs straight to church, horrified at her behavior.

Lauren seems to be going through the “anger” part of grieving for her newly deceased mother Leslie, telling Steve how she let her down how she won’t go to her memorial service and how she's glad Leslie is dead. Steve, who didn’t let Leslie see Lauren when she showed up in Boulder for last week’s episode, starts felling that regret Leslie talked to him about.

Summer goes to church and pleads with God to help her resist her sinful attraction to Sasha. “Tell me the way to go,” she prays tearfully. She turns around and sees a distraught Steve a couple pews down, dealing with his own regrets. Obviously, this is divine intervention. Steve joins her and asks her to pray with him, which given Summer's, um, values, is probably the most seductive thing he could have done.

Damon and a friend go to what might politely be called a “gentleman’s club,” complete with scantily clad women on dancing on poles, where they find Chloe tending bar. Chloe asks Damon not to tell Emily this is her new job. “She doesn’t want to see me anyway,” Damon laments. “She just doesn’t want to tell you that she’s in trouble," Chloe counters.

Payson has a chat with her father, assures him that Sasha never led her on, that Sasha helped her regain her confidence, introduced her to ballet, etc. So Payson’s father sets up a gym for her to train in with Sasha.

Austin goes to Kaylie’s parents and warns them about “the disease.” “Kaylie stopped pushing herself a long time ago,” he asserts. “The anorexia is doing all the pushing now. And it won’t stop. It will lie and deceive until every one of her organs shuts down and it kills her.” When Kaylie walks in on this meeting and angrily asks what gives him the right, Austin gives a monologue about there being something special about her, despite that he’s dated cuter girls and she can be a pain in the ass and throws in that he's kind of in love with her.  Which is all well and good, except that it doesn't move Kaylie and her father Alex accuses him of just wanting to get near her and throws him out of their house.

Damon goes to Emily, who spills her problems: She can’t move her hearing, and she can’t move the World team trial. Damon proposes going to his lawyer stepfather Walter, who hates him because Damon’s father is a con and Damon, despite being a budding rock star, is still a chip off the old block. Nonetheless, Walter wants to help. One phone call and Emily’s hearing problem seems to be solved – at least as far as the time conflict is concerned.

Emily’s judge calls Ellen Beals to confirm that Emily is on the national team and training for a spot on the World team. Beals confirms it, but asks why a judge is calling her to ask. When she learns the reason, Beals trashes Emily for “damaging her Olympic prospects” with her contempt for following rules and urges the judge that the best lesson Emily could possibly learn is that her actions have consequences.

The day of the World team trial arrives and Emily is called to go up first on beam. “We’re starting at the bottom,” Beals informs her helpfully. Emily nearly falls on her beam mount and dismount, and Kaylie, despite Beals’s militant directive that the trial will be conducted in total silence and her talk that you have to stand on your own, cheers her teammate.

In a nice twist of irony, Kaylie’s anorexia gets the best of her on her roundoff, Arabian mount on bars, the skill she started losing weight in order to perfect in the first place. “She worked so hard on that move,” her mom Ronnie laments from the stands. “She’s weak, tired,” says Austin Tucker, appearing beside them. “That’s what happens when you starve yourself.” Despite her stuck double layout dismount, a judge mentions that Kaylie looks shaky. “Blame Sasha Belov,” Beals says. “We’ll all be better off once he’s tossed out of the sport.”

Apparently Sasha’s nuttiness is hereditary – “his father was even crazier when he coached the Romanian national team,” Beals tells the judges. “Thankfully he’s not in Boulder, so we don’t have to deal with any Belov nonsense today.” Oh, if she only knew. Cue Bela Karolyi’s entrance as Dmitri Belov, who walks into the gym, stops the meet, assumes coachingship of Lauren, Kaylie and Emily, tells Ellen Beals to get lost and gives them a Bela-worthy pep talk, complete with fist pumps, head patting and heavily accented phrases that you can't quite make out. (Given the actresses' genuine smiles at this point, I take it Bela was somewhat entertaining on set.)

Dmitri/Bela’s presence and energy take over the trial, though even he looks a bit confused when Kaylie throws only a back tuck on floor exercise.

To add to the drama, Sasha barges in with Payson, having determined she’s ready to see the national committee again. Beals dismisses her as a non-artistic gymnast, but the judges – and everyone else – love what they see in the new artistic Payson. After her floor routine, Payson and the girls – even Lauren – make an impassioned plea to let Sasha remain as their coach. The judges go against Beals and let him stay.

Lauren’s grief finally gets the better of her right before she goes to bars and she doesn’t seem able to perform. Fortunately Steve comes down from the stands and explains that he’d been keeping Leslie from her. That’s about all it takes – Lauren performs for her mother, and performs well, apparently connecting a Geinger to a full twisting double tuck dismount (which would actually be pretty cool in reality.)

Kaylie’s energy finally runs out on beam, and she faints after her flight series. Fortunately, Austin sees that coming from about 30 seconds away, so he has enough time to get from the stands to the edge of the beam so he can catch her as she falls.

Right before Emily vaults, police officers arrive to arrest her for missing her hearing. Damon convinces them to wait until after she’s vaulted (no pressure. Side note: How is it that all of these people are able to just walk up to gymnasts and interact with them right before they perform?) “Go get it,” he tells her. She sticks it (“that is just an anomaly,” Ellen Beals grumbles, and gets shushed by the head judge). Emily gets led out of the arena barefoot, wearing just a leo and handcuffs. Damon wraps his jacket around her and tells her he loves her.

Kaylie, despite falling on her bars mount and not finishing her beam routine, has managed to qualify in second place for the World team, though the judges opt to hold the position open pending a full medical evaluation. If Kaylie is deemed unfit for competition, she will lose her spot not only on the World team but on the National team. “Take it from me, son,” Bela tells Sasha, “you can’t protect them from everything.” “I shouldn’t be hurting them either,” says Sasha on his way out the door. Oh, the adult angst!

Lauren bags the third spot on the team, and Emily gets the fifth spot, though she’s not there to receive her team jacket, being in the back of a police car and all. By special vote, Payson is awarded the last spot and in this moment of glory she prudently does not kiss Sasha on the mouth, though she does look around and wonder why he’s not there. “We all got in because of him,” she says.

The episode ends with a brief look at each girl’s status – Kaylie regaining consciousness in the hospital, her hand in Austin’s; Emily, in an orange jumpsuit, meeting with her mother and Damon in a small jail hearing room; Lauren, looking radiant, having dinner with her father and Summer; and Payson opening a dear John letter from Sasha telling her there’s nothing she can’t achieve.

Sasha himself packs up his trailer and drives out of Boulder, setting up plenty of things to work out when the show returns with new episodes later this fall.

Your take: What did you think of MIOBI's season finale?

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