Hellcats: Some witches don't need brooms to fly
Everybody hates Marti after she tramped out and kissed Dan and betrayed her roommate and BFF, Savannah, the nicest girl on this side of the Mississippi. So when the Lancer Hellcats hop the bus to sectionals nobody talks to Miz Perkins for the entire seven hour ride—which is as it should be.
Check the personal drama at the door
Looks like Memphis Christian is the team to beat with a score of 98.1. Just the winning team moves on to Nationals, so the Hellcats have to pull off the performance of a lifetime—no mistakes. They’ll need to put all their personal issues aside. But we don’t really see that happening, especially when Alice’s dad (the surprisingly well-preserved veteran actor Mario Van Peebles) arrives in a surprise visit. Apparently Alice’s brother is playing a football game nearby, plus he’s all excited to see his baby Alice fly. Guess Alice hasn’t informed her father about her new non-flying, just-cheer-in-the-back position on the squad.
Papa Peebles in the house
Dad brings his fiancée, Kelly for the big surprise. Fiancée? Clearly this family doesn’t talk much. Dad’s big with the bragging and can’t wait to see his daughter “fly 25 feet in the air”. He also thinks that Lewis is still his daughter’s boyfriend. It’s a miracle the man even knows Alice’s name. But fear not, it’s not all his bad fathering, she’s been telling him that she’s the Hellcats top flyer for months and she doesn’t want to disappoint him.
Meanwhile, speaking of conjugal visits…
For some reason Morgan thinks he’s going to get lucky with a goth girl so he decides to bail on visiting Travis at the gray bar. Besides, Travis would rather see Marti. But Mrs. Wanda Perkins learns of this and decides that if Travis wants a hot blond with a guitar, that’s what he’s going to get. So Wanda pays a visit and brings music and oatmeal cookies…no razors. Naturally, they click. He’s a bad boy and Wanda likes her some bad boys. Marti isn’t going to be happy about this turn of events. But who cares? No one likes her anyway.
Alice antics
As the alternate flyer, Alice convinces Savannah that she needs to run through the routine. What if something happens and she has to step in? She should be prepared. She nails the routine and some of the cheer squad speaks up (we learn later that Alice had bribed them), saying that perhaps since Alice has more experience she should be the core flyer for such an important gig. So Alice is in and Marti’s out. Savannah makes the call to stab Marti in the back and enjoys the satisfaction of sticking it to her new enemy.
Marti spills the whole story to Coach Vanessa who gives her a pep talk—she’s really good at those. So they offer a “cheer off” between Alice and Marti to see who should fly in the competition. A montage of a whole lot of gyrating and even some flipping and flying later and Marti nails it. Alice is out. So it’s on to Plan B and Alice confronts Savannah with the video online of her cheering for Memphis Christian. Rather than allow Alice to spill the beans to everyone, Marti steps down, saying she has a big ouchy on her ankle. Naturally, Alice gets her way.
Ugh with the pillow fighting
We knew it was only a matter of time before the egregious pillow fighting scene occurred on this show. Marti comes to Savannah’s room to apologize and kiss a little heiny. She explains to Savannah that she’s her best girlfriend. And she’s never had one of those before. After the dullest pillow fight ever, somehow Savannah decides to try to forgive her.
Then Marti suddenly realizes that Savannah is faking her injury. Luckily she’s decided to forgive Marti so she can confide everything to her. And Marti tells her to take her place as a flyer—she can pay her back just a little that way. The routine goes perfectly, despite all of the inner squad conflict. With a score of 98.6 the Lancer Hellcats win it all. They’re headed to Nationals and best of all, it looks like everyone on the team has forgiven Marti, even Lewis. Really?
Unfortunately, Alice’s brother’s football game went into overtime and Pops missed her big moment. All that scheming for nothing! But it gives Alice an opportunity to tell her father how hurtful he can be and how he'll have to make it up to her someday and somehow we still end up liking Alice at the end of the episode. How does she do that to us?
Alice—love her or hate her?
We’ve seen Alice do some heinous things and, sure, she’s an ace beotch, but she consistently shows us that underneath all that scheming, tough chick exterior, the girl does have a heart. So what’s the consensus on Alice? Do we like her or do we want to see her get run over by her own cheer bus? Tell us in the comments!