Smash Recap: About Last Nightcap…

This week on Smash, the last few holdouts finally realize Jimmy is the WORST, Hit List‘s Broadway prospects dim and Tom & Julia: The Sitcom looks closer to cancellation. Oh, and the episode ends with two shocking developments — one very sexy and one involving somebody getting hit by a car.

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Here’s how it all played out:

JIMMY FINISHES HIS “ALIENATE EVERYONE!” TOUR | Here’s the week in Jimmy (aka The TV Character I’d Most Enjoy Seeing Mauled by a Rogue Pack of Dingos): He shows up late for rehearsals, misses a New York magazine cover shoot (which means the Hit List story gets relegated to an inside spread), staggers with utter obnoxiousness out of a cab with a pair of party girls just as said shoot ends, busts in on Sam as he auditions to be his Hit List understudy, and then, after learning Sam used to be a Bombshell chorus guy, drops this infuriating bit of egomania: “Then he should probably audition for the ensemble of Hit List and not my part!” (Wait, wasn’t Jimmy a waiter with no actual stage experience up until like A MONTH AGO???) It gets worse, though: When Derek drops the “good news” that he’s cast Sam, “so the next time you go on a bender, the show won’t suffer,” Jimmy responds in his standard douche fashion: “No, only the audience.”

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But wait! There’s more! On the biggest night of Hit List‘s run — where multiple important producers are attending with an eye on moving the show to Broadway — Jimmy shows up way late (a mere 10 minutes before curtain), gets high, and misses multiple cues — culminating with his failure to catch Karen during a pivotal fall and leaving her with an injured, possibly sprained wrist. And then he storms out of the theater as if he’s some kind of wronged party. At the afterparty, when Kyle drops the very predictable news that Derek is having Jimmy fired, Jimmy climbs onto the bar, reveals Kyle’s affair with Tom in front of Lighting Guy, ridicules his costar, his director and his writing partner, and screeches, “I’m the only one that did anything anyway!” I know that much of Season 2 of Smash has presented Jimmy as a flawed character who’s got a hurt, decent center under his brat-beast exterior, but I feel like he’s finally the border into the Land of the Unredeemable. When Karen and Ana tell Kyle that it’s time to cut Jimmy off, not even his oldest and dearest friend can argue against their logic.

KAREN FINALLY WAKES UP AND SMELLS THE CHEMISTRY | Right at the end of the episode, Karen (who seems to be realizing Ana isn’t a rival, just a good friend who keeps it real) finds herself as one of the last two Hit Listers at the afterparty. “If I have another drink, I’ll probably do something I regret in the morning,” says Derek, the only other one at the bar. And that’s when Karen does what I’ve wanted her to do for the last 26 episodes or so. “Two more, please,” she says winkingly, and later, she’s all, “Are you gonna walk me home or what?” YES! We know what that means. Or we sure hope we know what that means. Cartwills-a-wahh-wahh. They better not skimp on some on-screen smoochey/PG-13ness next week!

HIT LIST STUMBLES | All of Broadway’s top producers arrive (with some planning by Derek and Scott) to watch a Hit List performance where Jimmy isn’t fully on his game. But while eveyone loves it, no one is sure that’s it’s got “uptown moneymaker” potential. Sly publicist Agnes makes sure to sneak into one producer convo, and note, “There’s edge and then there’s cliff.” By episode’s end, Derek and Scott are pretty sure their off-Broadway smash isn’t going to be dropping its “off” anytime this season.

KYLE HAS A CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE AUTOMOTIVE KIND | Kyle (who apparently cheated on Lighting Guy with Tom on three occasions!) ends the episode by packing Jimmy’s things into a sack and dropping said sack off at Jimmy’s drug dealer brother’s place. The whole time he’s singing a “last goodbye” ditty while being lit very strangely. And then, all distraught over his decision, he — screeeeeeeeeeeeeeech — walks right into the path of an oncoming vehicle. Or at least that’s what the cliffhanger would have us believe. Pinocchio can’t die, though, right? I mean, he just became a real character like two weeks ago!

TOM AND JULIA TAKE THEIR SPAT PUBLIC | Tom finds out via Eileen that not only is Julia proceeding without him on their Great Gatsby adaptation, but that the project is no longer a musical, and so far along that Scott Nichols has announced it to the Manhattan Theater Workshop board. (Whoops!) When Julia considers reneging on Scott out of loyalty to Tom, he hot new boyfriend makes a good point: “It’s simple: He lost his [City of Angels] directing gig and now he’s scrambling.” (Of course, Scott needs Hit List to go to Broadway — or score a huge Gatsby hit — to avoid losing his job, so it’s not like he’s impartial.) Tom, though, makes a good point, too: Julia optioned Gatsby in their joint company name. A public Q&A moderated by Ivy Lynn goes badly awry, and embarrassing. And when Julia begs Tom to let her pursue the project because it’s “the first thing that’s made me happy in years,” he drops a bombshell on their partnership: “Thank you so much: we have our answer.” Ouch. I hate when these two fight. Even if they’re not going to team up on their next project, do they have to not be besties? (Also, here’s an easy solution: Tom should direct Julia’s Gatsby adaptation. There! Crisis solved! Friendship saved! You’re welcome!) Also, in related news, Bombshell ticket sales are up after an Ivy Lynn-led P.R. onslaught that forced us to see Kathie Lee Gifford dressed in a Marilyn wig.

MUSIC! | Karen delivered a really great number — “Don’t Let Me Know” — in which her character takes a song from its birth to the studio and onto the big stage, but also had her pondering the idea that cutting off Jimmy would be easier if she knew he was truly deeply bad. We also saw Hit List’s closing number — maybe titled “Come, Stay, Goodbye” and centerted on Amanda’s death scene — but it was so corny I just couldn’t take it on.

What did you think of this week’s Smash? Is Kyle dead? Are you excited about Karen-Derek? Bummed about Tom-Julia? Distraught over Kyle-Lighting Guy? And wouldn’t everything have been better with more Ivy Lynn singing? Sound off below!

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