Summary
There are plenty of revelations in “It’s Not the Waking, It’s the Rising”, but it encourages the audience to imagine the actual truth to the situation in a chapter where the final twist is continuing to be teased out.
This recap of Netflix’s Tiny Pretty Things season 1, episode 9, “It’s Not the Waking, It’s the Rising” contains significant spoilers.
We recapped every episode — check out the archive.
The opening
“It’s Not the Waking, It’s the Rising” begins with “Two Days Earlier” — before this, Officer Cruz makes an arrest, but it isn’t clear who it is. Monique has a meeting with her staff, and she claims she had no idea that the ballerinas were being abused at the VIP club. Ticket cancellations are high, and their reputation has been damaged. Monique begs her colleagues to trust her to recover from this. This feels like the beginning of an end for the current Archer administration.
A viral video
Meanwhile, the students are fretting at the dwindled popularity of the school. Caleb suggests they make a viral video to show the world what they are about. Neveah states they should tell everyone their version of the truth. Caleb brings the suggestion to Monique — a promo video for Ripper, but she rejects the idea. There’s a look of defeat on Monique’s face as she starts to take calls. She’s like the villain in a movie that knows she’s slowly losing power.
Cassie speaks, briefly
Nabil is visiting Cassie again. She’s in a minimally conscious state and flits in and out. He thanks Cruz for all her help in the investigation. Suddenly, Cassie wakes up and strains her words — “Pushed. Didn’t fall”. But then she falls unconscious again. Tiny Pretty Things season 1, episode 9 is doing anything it can to tease this out as much as possible.
You dance like a virgin
For the final ensemble rehearsals, Bette has been signed off to dance. June is furious, feeling that Ramon has dumbed down the vision of the dance for Bette. Ramon tells June that she dances like a virgin. June tells Ramon that he will be sorry. Despite the sensational news story, Ramon is not toning down his behavior towards women. It presents how bad apples need to be removed from organizations to be clean again.
Keeping it on the low
Neveah tells Oren that they need to figure out what they are before broadcasting their romance to the world. She thinks it would be best if they danced solos, so nobody sees their chemistry.
June hits home the truth
June confronts Monique about losing her lead role. Monique states she had no idea what was happening at the club and calls June weak. June accuses Monique of thinking that women perform better after being raped — Monique cries and slaps June and states how she survived it and formed a romance. June reminds her that Paige will be traumatized and damaged forever and that she wouldn’t be surprised if Travis pushed Cassie — she tells Monique this is all on her. It’s good that a character has finally said it; Monique’s way of running the school has caused the toxic environment.
Ramon pays a visit
The students record their promo video. Bette tells June not to hog the floor, and both women start arguing. Meanwhile, Ramon visits Cassie in the hospital, and she panics. As she tries to grab her phone, he throws it on the floor. Cassie tells Ramon that she has the right to tell the truth. Ramon tells Cassie that he can find the “tiny little things that she loves and tear the wings off”. Nabil enters the room, and Cassie tells him to leave, and claims what they had was never real; she calls it a summer fling. Nabil looks heartbroken, but Ramon is clearly scaring her. At this point, it looks like Ramon was the one who pushed Cassie, despite the revelation later.
Finishing it
Nabil finds June on the rooftop, and she’s very drunk. She’s upset and kisses him. She then declares that she will not be pushed around by Bette again — “Let’s do this”. She enters the dance room and June and Bette dance intensely, but together and in unison. Everyone claps at their performance. The dancers complete their dance promo, and they feel like a family again. As the Netflix series moves towards the finale, the writers are attempting to bring the friends all together to give a warmth to the story. To get them all to fight for each other.
Monique admits to hurting people
Caleb tells Monique that the promo video is done. Monique tells Caleb that she’s done him harm and that she’s the adult in this dynamic. She admits that one day he will feel hurt and she will be the reason why. This is a groundbreaking scene; Monique, for the first time, is admitting that she was the problem; that she was part of the abuse. Meanwhile, Cassie gives Cruz a name.
The ending
Before the Ripper theatre performance, Cruz shows up and arrests Bette. She’s absolutely devastated. None of the dancers believes it was her. June offers to do the solo. Shane tells Jason that Bette did not kill Cassie and he tells him to comfort her. The fact that as an audience member, it’s difficult to believe that Bette did it, says everything about what the finale may bring.
There’s plenty of revelations in Tiny Pretty Things season 1, episode 9, but it encourages the audience to imagine the actual truth to the situation in a chapter where the final twist is continuing to be teased out.
Questions remain; did Bette really kill Cassie? Or was it the obvious suspect Ramon? Or was it someone else entirely?
Additional points
- June’s mother returns to see her daughter perform in an emotional moment. June admits she lost her solo role, but her mother is not judgemental this time.
- Cruz reveals she had failed a woman called Zoe before and Cassie was her chance to make up for it.
- Shane confronts Matteo during the promo recording because of his homophobic slur in a previous episode.
