The Details

• Paul is sleeping with Elsa and Penny, but he loves Penny.
• Suspicions grow about where the twins are.
• Dandy woos Bette (until she sees how crazy he is). Dot is skeptical from the start.
• Paul accuses Elsa of being involved in the twins’ disappearance. She tries to prove her trustworthiness by throwing knives at him on a spinning wheel. Whoops! She stabs him.
• Esmeralda takes Ma Petite to kill her but then chickens out. She wants to run away with Jimmy instead. Stanley shows up and wants to kill Jimmy.
• Jimmy goes to get the twins before he and Esmeralda can leave.
• Ethel makes it clear that she will kill Elsa if she had anything to do with the twins’ disappearance. Elsa says, “I just want to be loved.”

The Big Q

Is your purpose in life to find your part on the world’s stage?

The Impact

Paul stands up to get the knives thrown at him on the spinning wheel (we knew someone was going up on it from minute one of the episode). Even though it may kill him, it was definitely his role to fulfill by exacerbating Elsa’s trust issues. Dandy realizes that his role will never be anything more than death dealer. Esmeralda accepts her role as lover, not murderer, in her plan to run away with Jimmy. Penny rejects her father’s expectations in favor of her love for Paul, accepting that role. Ethel’s role beneath Elsa is shifting with the disappearance of the twins. Elsa’s is the most tragic story–a woman who has been cast as a savior of outcasts rejecting it for fame, a role for which she is poorly suited.