The Understudy

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## Credits

### Director

RT!

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**"The Understudy"** is the 10th episode of Season 1 of *Backstage* and overall. It aired on May 20, 2016 on the Family Channel.

## Synopsis

Alya's newfound celebrity status at Keaton intensifies her rivalry with Bianca. Sasha comes up with a plan to win Carly’s friendship back. Scarlett loses her voice.

## Plot

Alya was walking to Keaton until a group of girls approaches her. They realize that she is Mimi and said to take a picture with with them. Alya wonders how they’d known about her role and sees a poster advertising Da Boheme, with her picture on it. One of the girls gets the idea of taking a picture with Alya and the poster. Though she hesitated a little bit, gets gets in. Bianca sees them from a distance and wonders what’s going on. Alya reminds the girls that she’s Young Mimi and has just a small part and it’s not worthy of posting it, although they already did. Then they ask her what’s it like working with one of her cast mates, but Alya excuses herself and admits that they treaded like Selena Gomez, Katy Perry or even Bianca Blackwell. But she humbly admits that she’s just Alya Kendrick who is not famous nor popular. As Alya and the girls leave, so does the observant Bianca.

As the dancers stretch and prepare for dance, Sasha excitedly approaches Vanessa and Carly, telling them that Maria Schiller is auditioning the ‘Step, Sister’ rehearsals. Both girls don’t say anything. Again Sasha repeats what he said, adding that Maria is Keaton Hall of Famer, winner of every prestigious dance rewards in the world and principal dancer of the National Ballet. Vanessa corrects him, calling her a former dancer and doesn’t get the big deal. She mentioned that Maria was going to be prima ballerina and then she quit. Sasha assures that no one knows that for a fact. Carly explains what she heard, but Vanessa said she moved to Edmonton and had triplets. Trying to get Carly’s attention again, he gets down and tells them that he’s going to get all details of her past on his blog. Carly again ignores Sasha, asking Vanessa how’s it going with the Primas. She respond that the previous day, Cassandra did 8 pirouettes. On his confessional, Sasha said that Carly did what he called “the classic Carly cold shoulder”. He admits that they did had an awkward moment weeks ago and is determined to continue his friendship with her.

Alya enters the music room, carefully closing the door behind her, making sure no one was following her. She didn’t knew Miles was also there, until he jokingly asked for an autograph. He admits that he liked the poster and the design, not sure of liking the girl. Alya immediately asks him if the could start working on their song and remind him that they booked the space for an hour. Miles jokingly says that the diva demands have begun and gets his guitar. Alya starts singing their song and Miles stops in the middle, complimenting her on her voice, calling it amazing. Alya says that it’s the hip hopera, that everyone there is so talented from the vocal coaches to the directors and that she’s learning so much from them. Miles tells her that she needs to give herself more credit, that her voice is all her. Alya admits to him that she feels like an imposter and tells him what happened that morning. She worries what will happen if she’s not good enough or what if she gets fired before opening night. Miles reminds her that she beat hundreds of people for the role and that she deserves it. He went on explaining that there’s a difference between being full of oneself and confident. Alya hesitantly tells him that she’s confident, sort of. Miles tells her to own the role. They continue practicing their song, with more tempo as Alya advised him.

In the music hallway, Scarlett does some vocal excises. Kit approaches her, giving her her lunch bag she forgot. Scarlett takes it and proceeds with her warmup. As Kit leaves, Scarlett says that the previous night she was working on her history project and discovered that Nicki Minaj was once on a broadway play. Kit asks her what does that have to do with her music history project and she responding that she read it that morning. Scarlett asks Kit if she sounds ok. Kit assures her she sounds great as always and tries to go to class again. Scarlett tries her vocal warm up again and cracks and immediately thinks that she has nodes. Kits knows that she doesn’t have node, but she always has a nodes every time.

Back in the dance studio, Sasha and Vanessa are practicing their Step, Sister routine with Helsweel. During the routine, Sahsa asks Vanessa for her help with Carly. He says that he know things have been awkward between them since he tore her heart and grande jetté all over it, as Vanessa described. Helsweel comes and corrects Sasha with his pas de chat. He continues talking her, admitting that he never wanted to hurt Carly and only has time for one love, that being of ballet. Vanessa says that Carly is hurting because of him and tells him the sisters before misters rule. Helsweel comes again and narrates the through the story. Sasha again begs Vanessa for her help and says that Carly is one of his best friends and that Vanessa would know how much it would hurt to lose her. After being persuaded, Vanessa asks him what does she need to do, and he says it’s time to call the understudy.

At the quad, Alya look for a place to sit for lunch and the girl from that morning invites her over. However, Bianca immediately takes her spot but Alya sits elsewhere at that same table. Bianca gets a conversation started with them but one of the girls interrupts her asking Alya what was wrong. Alya said that she forgot her water bottle and she immediately offers her own. She kindly rejects it, since she can’t drink cold water, saying that it’ll shock vocal chords. The girl decides to get up and find her water that is room temperature. She asks Alya about Phenom, whom Alya refers the Collin, and answered them that she once caught doing yoga before rehearsals, admitting that it’s relaxes him before the show. As Alya was speaking, Bianca leaves and she continues saying that now they both do yoga before every rehearsal and calls it calming.

Scarlett and Denzel are sitting together at lunch as Julie approaches them. She asks Scarlett what was she drinking that smelled so good. Scarlett tries to communicated with her by putting her hands on her throat, but Julie thought she was chocking. Denzel tells Julie that Scarlett has nodes and that she’s resting her voice and drinking hot tea for her voice, giving precisely that she’s drinking honey lemon. Julie asks him how did he know after she gestured and Denzel replies that he pays attention to detail. Impressed, Scarlett writes him a note, asking him to be her interpreter and he agrees.

While the dancers finish up their stretching, Helsweel walks in and introduces Maria Schiller as Keaton’s limelight, mentioning Principal of the National Ballet and two time winner of the prestigious Dora award. The class starts clapping but Helsweel stops them, mentioning this is the opera. Sasha asks where is Cinderella, notably Vanessa. Helsweel tells Carly that’s she’s up to take Vanessa space to dance in front of Maria. Carly however assures them that Vanessa will be there shortly, but again she tells her to take possession since she is late. Sasha tells Carly that they got it, saying in his confessional that operation understudy is a go. They dance their duet. Maria called it beautiful and it was well done. Helsweel tells them there’s always room for improvement. Sasha tells Carly that they did pretty good to which Carly agrees. Sasha gets so happy when she responds, but when he went for a hug, she immediately rejects him.

Vanessa practices her pirouettes outside the dance studio when Carly walks out. She asks her how did the duet go. Carly gets angry that Vanessa was in on Sasha’s plan. Vanessa defends them, by saying that Carly would love to dance for Maria. Carly however freaks out and asks them what if she wasn’t ready or what if she screwed it up. Sasha assures her that she didn’t, but that wasn’t the point. He asks what was the point and as Carly was going to explain, Maria comes out to tell Sasha and Carly that they did a beautiful job and that they have a transcendent chemistry. She added that it was too bad that Carly was just the understudy. However Vanessa secretly gets offended. As Maria leaves, Sasha assures Carly that that they are both amazing together. However Carly corrected him, saying that they were amazing until he humiliated her. Sasha begs her what can he do to fix things. Carly tells him he can’t and leaves with Vanessa.

In the music room, Denzel tells Scarlett’s story to the class. As he leaves, Scarlett asks him to help her with her music history presentation.

In the recording studio, Bianca sings her song, until Alya points out the she left. Bianca tells her that she was t very hungry and closes the door and proceeds. Again, Alya opens the door and tells her that she’s restricting her vocal chords and suggests to open her jaw more to let go of the tension. Bianca was confused and Alya said that she liked the other song that Bianca sang, being more in her power house, where as the one that she was currently working isn’t. Bianca asked her if she even asked for her help, however Alya said she did, on their last assignment. Bianca referred to the time when she needed help to get the role in Da Boheme. Alya said that she got her role because of her talent. Bianca tells Alya to get over herself and leaves. Alya promises that if she’s ever famous as Bianca Blackwell, she’ll never behave like her.

Sasha rehearses his solo when Maria walks in and observes him. She asks him to open up the space between his chest. She tells him that it is his job to fame his partner. She reminds him that the Ballet is only the intimate moments between Cinderella and the prince but about the space between them, that’s it’s only when the Prince lets Cinderella go that she can return to him and asked him if that made sense. Sasha said that it really does. Sasha asks Maria if it was true that she really did have triplets and Maria said that the rumor had it wrong, she had quadruplets. They both laughed.

Alya talks to one of girls about the hours of rehearsing and said that she’ll try to get them tickets for opening night. As they walk to the poster, they saw that someone had vandalized it. The girl said that she’ll get the other girls to find out who did it. Alya told her not to, she knows exactly who did it and had enough of her bullying.

Kit approches Denzel at the hallways and tells her that Scarlett is at the library and will be back shortly. Kit tells him that she has a nodes scare every two months and that he doesn’t have to do everything that Scarlett tells him to do. Denzel says that it’s ok and has had fun and learned that rap goes back to fifty century Britain making it a hit. Scarlett happily runs towards telling them the good news. The doctor said that she doesn’t have nodes but she might be fighting a cold and needs oil of oregano. She turns to ask Denzel but he was gone. She didn’t realize that he left during the conversation. Scarlett tells Kit that she thought he wanted to help. Kit reminds her that the world doesn’t revolve around her.

Bianca goes over some warmups in the music room and Alya storms in, accusing her that she vandalized her poster. Bianca tells her it wasn’t her and tells her that she’s embarrassing herself since she got a tiny bit of fame, reminding her that the show hasn’t even started yet. Alya tells her that just because Bianca can’t sing doesn’t mean that she can manipulate her. She apologized that Mrs. Blackwell chose her and not her daughter for the role but that this is her role and it’s her time. Bianca leaves the room crying. Everyone looked at Alya, seeing what had happened. Miles was there too, pulling up the black marker, thinking that she would take a joke. Alya was shocked that he did it and awkwardly giggled, having everyone again looking at her. She admitted in her confessional that the old Alya wouldn’t have said anything to Bianca and would’ve backed down, realizing that she’s not the old Alya anymore.

Scarlett approaches Denzel who’s working on his assignment. Denzel tells her that she doesn’t need him anymore. Scarlett admits that sometimes she get caught up in her drama as Scarlett the Starlett and forgets about other people having things that they have to do to. She apologizes for taking advantage of him and thanked him for his help. Denzel said that’s what friends do. Scarlett gets up and asks him what is he waiting for.

As the dancers do some exercises with Helsweel, she tells them to pair up. Sahsa looks at Carly and she does the same but Sasha asks another student. He knows that he has to let her go until she’s ready and says that he’ll be there when she’s ready. Vanessa asks Carly if she’s ok a d she admits that she’s not but she will be. Vanessa said that she’s just glad that they could move on and mentioned what a major disappointment Maria turned out to be and still doesn’t get the big deal of it. However while Vanessa was speaking, Maria walks in and overhears. When Vanessa turns around she hope she hadn’t heard her. Helsweel said that Ms. Maria will stay with them to help polish up Step, Sister for the rest of semester. Vanessa asked Carly if she thinks that Maria heard her but Carly said she didn’t think so. Maria thanks Helsweel and says that she can’t wait to work with the students and promises not to disappoint them, looking at Vanessa particularly. Vanessa is now assured that she definitely heard her.

## Cast

### Main

* Devyn Nekoda as Vanessa
* Colin Petierre as Sasha
* Alyssa Trask as Carly
* Aviva Mongillo as Alya
* Mckenzie Small as Scarlett
* Romy Weltman as Kit
* Julia Tomasone as Bianca
* Isiah Hall as Denzel
* Josh Bogert as Miles
* Jane Moffat as Helsweel

### Recurring

* Keana Bastidas as Cynthia
* Pippa Leslie as Maria Schiller

### Absent

* Matthew Isen as Jax
* Adrianna Di Liello as Jenna
* Chris Hoffman as Mr. Park

## Trivia

* Mrs. Blackwell and Cassandra are mentioned in this episode.

## Gallery

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