Welcome back to Teeny Bopper TV Breakdown! Today we recap Breaker High, episode 21: “That Lip Synching Feeling.” We are well ahead of the Ashlee Simpson SNL mishap, so I’m curious what we’re getting into.
It is the ‘90s, so what pop group will we start the episode talking about? The Spice Girls of course! Ashley is reading their “dirty secrets” aloud from a tabloid while Cassidy rolls her eyes and says she thinks they’re overrated. Sean spots an ad for a talent contest the following week in London, for which the winner takes home £500, and wouldn’t you know it that’s perfect timing for the Breaker High girls to form their own group (as Cassidy says, girl groups are really hot right now, and looking back she’s absolutely right) and enter the competition. Their name? The Pepper Girls :p.
Jimmy is impressed when a girl flirts with Max just in response to a “‘Sup?”, but Alex assures him that doesn’t work for everyone. Alex’s own approach is to compliment something specific about a girl - in Shelly’s case, her sandals (excuse me, what happened to all the developments with Ashley last episode?!). He notes that “Becky over there has great hair” and while I am beside myself with the longevity of this reference, Jimmy takes the hint and goes over to her. He starts off well by saying it looks awesome, but then gets weird by asking if he can touch it and smell it. To top it all off, while Max and Alex are asked to play doubles volleyball with Becky and presumably Shelly, Jimmy can’t think of anything to compliment about a goth girl, so she pushes him in the pool.
Denise and Tamira walk in on Ashley and Cassidy rehearsing, and it’s clear they’re not actually singing. Cassidy challenges Denise to do better, and she responds with an incredible rendition of “Amazing Grace” - she was a soloist in church choir for seven years and it shows. Ashley and Cassidy ask if she’ll join the Pepper Girls, and Denise is in. The group needs an original song, and Tamira is willing to let them use one she’s written, but she gets terrible stage fright so doesn’t want to be any further involved than that.
Jimmy finds a note outside his cabin door that apparently smells like pot roast. It instructs him to meet the sender on the pool deck Friday night at 8 - the secret admirer will be the one with the bow. He shows up in a button-down shirt tucked into khakis with slicked-back hair, clearly having gone all out, and while he’s on the top level, there’s a girl with a bow in her hair on the lower level, and they don’t see each other so both think they’ve been stood up. Jimmy drinks his feelings in milkshakes at the coffeehouse; Alex and Max show up and tease him, but then realize how seriously he’s taking it. Tamira suggests the two of them set him up, but they turn the question back on her, and her reluctance basically says everything about how hard it’ll be.
Jimmy comes back to his room to his phone ringing - it’s the girl but apparently the phone has been ringing a little too long, because she hangs up right before he answers. Is *69 or caller ID a thing yet?
The teens are off the boat in London as the Pepper Girls are trying on outfits for their showcase, and unpaid manager Sean has been dragged along. They find coordinating looks that are basically ‘90s versions of ‘60s mod and do actually look really cute. Then we get a choreography rehearsal montage, and let’s just say they need the practice, but when they get it they get it.
In trying to find someone who’ll go out with Jimmy, Alex and Max inadvertently crack the case. They ask Becky if she knows anyone who’ll go out with him, and she responds, “Not after what he did to my roommate Annette the other night,” leading them to realize what happened. Alex wants to go talk to Annette, saying he has an idea to sort the whole thing out, and while it’s definitely sweet I am still a little scared.
The Pepper Girls are about to leave for the gig when Denise arrives looking glum and holding a note - she’s got laryngitis! Plan B: lip synching to the rehearsal tape…until they get to the competition site and the stage manager says that’s prohibited. Cassidy suggests they try and get Tamira to sing, but Tamira has gone MIA. Of course, after Denise goes to look for her, Alex and Max show up with a down-in-the-dumps Jimmy, and when the stage manager calls for them to either go on stage or forfeit, they convince Jimmy to go before them as rapper “Hungry J,” the Pepper Girls’ opening act, to buy them some time. He feeds off the crowd’s energy (no pun intended) and actually does a great beatbox and freestyle rap.
Denise does wind up finding Tamira, who guesses almost everything Denise is going to say (well, write) before she actually does, so Denise writes down the one thing left up her sleeve: an all-caps PLEASE.
After Hungry J’s ovation, it’s Pepper Girls time! Like the Spice Girls, they each have their own pepper name - Ashley is Southern Bell(e) Pepper, Cassidy is Lemon Pepper, Denise is Cayenne Pepper, and I’m obsessed. They start dancing, and it looks like it’s going to be just the three of them, but then Tamira comes out! And she sounds great. (Though afterward, when she has to come up with a pepper name on the spot, all she can think of is Dr. Pepper).
The winner of the contest is…Hungry J! So of course now Sean wants to be his manager. Alex and Max then bring out Jimmy / Hungry J’s biggest fan - Annette! Their shy smiles are the cutest thing. Even the pot roast scent mystery is solved - Annette’s room is right above the galley, which of course is a green flag for Jimmy. “You like me and you live near food? You’re like my perfect woman!” Before they walk away, Annette puts on her glasses and Jimmy doesn’t even care (that preemptive “makeover”? Unnecessary).
Tamira’s just proud that she was brave enough to get out and sing in front of everyone, and comes to the realization that “it doesn’t matter if it’s seven people or 700, as long as you have confidence in yourself,” which makes Denise grin and give her a big hug.
Don’t change that channel! We’ll be right back on Teeny Bopper TV Breakdown.
