SMASH Recap: “Publicity (Episode 12, Season 1)

Be careful what you wish for Karen Cartwright as you just might get a bit more than you can handle. That statement is very true for the would-be star who gets a glimpse behind the velvet rope when ‘big star’ Rebecca Duvall decides to reach out and make Karen her new best friend forever. Karen is invited by Rebecca to join her (repeatedly) for clubbing and more over the course of the episode in what Karen can only see (damn those clueless Midwest roots of hers) as a nice gesture from the movie star toward her understudy. But, anyone with a clue can see that this is a motive by Rebecca to either ruin Karen’s potential career before it even gets started as well as sniff out the competition up close and personal.

Karen’s new found celebrity isn’t lost on her parents, who are concerned that, given the photos that are showing up all over the place, that she is now a lesbian nor her boyfriend, who is questioning why Karen has to spend some much with Rebecca. I would say he is not so much jealous of the time that Rebecca is monopolizing where his girlfriend is concerned; but more so in the harm that it could (and will) do to the woman he loves.

The reason behind Rebecca’s attention being pointed at her understudy (Karen) is because of a conversation for which Ellis overheard – for once he wasn’t actually eavesdropping, but walking into a conversation that he should not have heard. Karen came into the rehearsal studio early one morning, upon Derek’s request, to discuss her working with the stage manager for her role as understudy with Derek confiding in her that he sees her as Marilyn in his head. That key sentence was passed along to Rebecca’s assistant straight from Ellis, causing Rebecca to put her plan into motion to make Karen her new BFF.

Meanwhile, Rebecca isn’t really making the situation in all of the rehearsals much better because now she wants a rewrite for the scene involving the “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” number, which would put pressure on Julia to “improve” on the scene and upsets the ensemble because they are getting exasperated with her constant demands for changes. To make matters worse, Derek is getting frustrated with Rebecca’s diva-demands, charging into Eileen office – since she is the producer – stating that she needs to put Rebecca in her place because they don’t have any more time to waste on rewrites and changes.

And, in true Derek fashion, if Eileen doesn’t follow through, it is understood that he will put Rebecca in her place. In the end, that is exactly what he does; bitching Rebecca out when she leaves rehearsals to get “special” potato chips for her morning snack and he screams at her in front of some paparazzi. That will assuredly not make his publicity record any better than Karen’s at this point.

Other stories in this episode were as follows:

• Leo, Julia and Frank’s son, plays one parent against the other, making each of them think that he is spending more time with the other so he can actually get some quiet time to himself – he goes “missing” for over three days, making his parents frantic to find him only to discover that he’s been hiding out at a friend’s house;
• Ivy and Ellis conspire together to get Karen out of the way so Ivy can perform – during one of the rehearsals – a newly written song that Karen was actually given to sing; which in turn puts Rebecca onto Ivy’s scent because after watching Ivy perform the song, she know thinks it should be sung by Marilyn;
• Dev and Karen have dinner with Rebecca at an Indian restaurant; this is Karen’s way of allowing both of them to meet and get to know one another; but that ends poorly and includes an almost unnecessary, albeit visually beautiful musical ‘Bollywood’ number, played out in Karen’s head while Rebecca and Dev have an uncomfortably public argument; and,
• Nick joins Eileen at the opening of a new play where, of course, Eileen’s ex and his bimbo girlfriend are also present, making things awkward; but at least this time she didn’t have a drink in her hand to throw in Jerry’s face.

“Publicity” is the 12th episode of the new series Smash on NBC. The next new episode of Smash will air Monday, April 30 at10/9c.

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