Party Time
USA Network’s cheerleading drama returns for another episode, one that’s a lot slower this time around and ditches a lot of the surrealist, slow-mo shots for a much more straight forward character-driven story. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with that of course, there isn’t a whole lot of plot progression this week, ultimately serving as an episode that deepens the rifts that are starting to form between the girls. Episode 3 of Dare Me begins with Beth heading out drinking and driving while Addy looks after Colette’s girl. When Colette returns home however, she questions who the leader of the squad should be and pitches the idea that the person to do that should be Addy. At practice the next day, Colette pushes the team to perform their tumbles while a rift in the team slowly starts to grow, allowing Beth to grin confidently in the face of this chaos. It’s here Colette addresses all the girls and tells them not to accept weakness and to step up. After practice, Tacy boasts about being top girl, especially given she’s a freshman, while Addy heads off to baby-sit and leaves Beth to listen to music alone on the hood of her car. However, Matt returns home leading her and Addy to practice their moves in the woods together while Sarge watches on. As the sun sets, Sarge drives Addy home while expressing concerns about Beth, especially given how unhinged she was after the gun incident. Back home, Matt comments on Colette glowing but she’s cold toward him, which certainly spells trouble ahead as he may wind up suspecting something. At practice the next day, the team continue to bicker about Tacy being top girl. Thanks to Beth’s snide remarks, Colette forces her to the back-spot for Tacy… who falls straight onto Beth’s shoulder and bruises it. In the locker room after their session the team turn on Tacy, with Beth encouraging her to have an ice-bath. As she and Beth both sit in separate baths, the team watch them both endure the cold until Tacy slowly sinks underwater and passes out. When she comes to, the team get dressed and sit somberly in the locker room as Colette arrives, having sat in her office previously watching rehearsal videos of the session. Colette invites the team to her house to practice but Beth decides not to, instead pondering over what to do regarding the video she has of Colette and Sarge together. As she starts to unravel, so too does Colette as she greets Matt at home and starts dancing with him, while the rest of the girls party. Tacy thanks Addy for her help but she throws it back in her face, telling her she should have got out the bath herself. As the episode draws to a close, Beth and Addy meet up, with the latter massaging her friend as she monologues about things changing. Dare Me’s latest episode really doesn’t do a whole lot for the plot and although some of the character interactions are quite good and the tense ice-bath scene is inevitably the highlight of the entire episode, beyond that there isn’t a whole lot else to get excited about. In a way, this feels inevitable given how full on the past couple of weeks have been with this one but even so, the 40 minute drama just doesn’t have a whole lot of substance to it this time around. Despite that though, the show continues to intrigue and if you’ve made it this far then you’ll inevitably want to find out what happens next. Let’s hope this one picks up a little next week!
