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"Oh, Smash. You&amp;#039;re going with that ending? Really? At least now we have confirmation that when it wants to be, Smash can still be absolutely mental. Up until the final moments, Eileen&amp;#039;s storyline had been one of the dullest parts of this largely average episode. Her deposition is nearing, and Nick turns up from his disappearing act to apologise and vow to turn himself in to save her, while she decides to be a martyr and confirm she knew where the dodgy money came from.  So far, so yawn. I was fully prepared to write about how no-one cares about Eileen and Nick&amp;#039;s legal troubles, and sweep it under the carpet. But then Eileen reveals that Jerry is replacing her as Bombshell&amp;#039;s producer for various boring legal reasons and that&amp;#039;s when things get really insane, because we see Jerry - who might as well be stroking a white cat - revelling in the fact that he&amp;#039;s brought about Eileen&amp;#039;s downfall and will now be behind the totally-going-to-be super-successful Bombshell. This Jerry-being-evil bit is bad enough, but who is he speaking to on the phone and writing a cheque to? It&amp;#039;s only bloody Ellis. ELLIS. ELLIS. Let&amp;#039;s take a little minute for that to sink in. Ellis.  I don&amp;#039;t even know what the writers are doing with this - it is hilarious in entirely the wrong way. I&amp;#039;m going to conclude that they&amp;#039;re playing into the audience&amp;#039;s hatred of Ellis in this James Bond villain homage. But on the plus side, it brightened up this only okay episode. The vast majority of the instalment focused on Ronnie&amp;#039;s one-night-only show. Thank God for Jennifer Hudson, because this is a character we&amp;#039;ve only just met and have barely any investment in. But she&amp;#039;s stunning and her voice is beyond reproach, luckily. Still, the actual storyline is a bit seen-it-all-before. Basically, Ronnie wants to show a different side of herself (to sexual assault suspect/alleged pervert Derek, that basically means sex it up), but her creepy momager Cynthia - clearly working through a few mommy issues of her own - doesn&amp;#039;t see any reason to change her daughter&amp;#039;s good girl image right now.  On the side, Karen urges Jimmy and Kyle to come up with a song to include in the show, but Jimmy has a bit of a downward spiral when grumpy Derek refuses to listen to what he&amp;#039;s come up with and ends up going and doing a whole bunch of drugs. Seeing him wander morosely round New York City while singing, and then seeing him staggering about in front of Karen, is so clich\u00E9d that it might as well be an after-school special. At least Karen and Jimmy have got the utterly predictable first kiss out of the way. It&amp;#039;s easy to see how all of this ends up - Ronnie gets her way and shows off her sexy side, winning over her mom in the process. And Tom saves the day for Jimmy and Kyle and their song is used at the end of Ronnie&amp;#039;s show (it&amp;#039;s not really particularly special in any way, but it&amp;#039;s a strong enough ballad and Hudson obviously kills it). They even get their moment in the spotlight as Ronnie invites them on stage to bow for the audience and the television cameras. (It&amp;#039;s going to be on Bravo? These people will be millionaires!)  Oh, and while Peter&amp;#039;s introduction as the &amp;#039;dramaturg&amp;#039; last week was really entertaining, it kind of fell a little flat this time around. He humiliates Julia by making her sit in on acting students reading out Bombshell, she humiliates him right back by reading his one awful play, and then they find a common ground and realise what they need to do to make Bombshell good (make it about how the men saw Marilyn, basically) and then Peter invites Julia to his country home (phwoar, grr, etc.) only to be interrupted by a phone call. Guys, just do it already.  And honestly? That&amp;#039;s basically all you need to know. I really, genuinely enjoyed last week&amp;#039;s episode of Smash but this was all just a little blah - a three-star kind of hour. There were enjoyable moments, and the majority of the cast is still great, but there just wasn&amp;#039;t enough to captivate me. Until, you know, Ellis. Smashed   Derek wasn&amp;#039;t wearing a seatbelt in the opening scene, and for some reason this really, really bothered me.  I think Christian Borle&amp;#039;s facial expressions might be one of the best bits of this show.  &amp;quot;Shalom from Hell!&amp;quot;  Peter changes the names in the Bombshell script so that the students won&amp;#039;t know what it is. Yeah, changing Marilyn to Mary - big leap.  I really don&amp;#039;t think Derek can lecture anybody about &amp;#039;attitude&amp;#039;, however insufferable Jimmy can be.  Karen offers Jimmy advice on his song. Did anyone else actually prefer his version? Just me?  &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re being passive aggressive - I prefer you aggressive aggressive.&amp;quot;  Jimmy and Karen&amp;#039;s initial conversation when she found him all drugged up was painful. &amp;quot;Nothing makes sense sometimes, you know?&amp;quot; &amp;quot;I know.&amp;quot; Was this written by adolescents...  ...On the other hand, just moments later their first kiss was insanely adorable - Karen&amp;#039;s giggling, &amp;quot;let&amp;#039;s try that again sometime when you&amp;#039;re not high&amp;quot;, Karen&amp;#039;s shocked face when they first lock lips. Perfect first kiss stuff.  Ronnie&amp;#039;s performance of Jimmy&amp;#039;s song ends with rose petals falling from the ceiling and Jimmy&amp;#039;s googly-eyes at Karen. Cheese central. What did you think of the episode? Let us know below! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/smash/review/a461904/smash-the-song-recap/>