Just when you thought you saw possibly the best episode of Victorious, along comes one that's almost as good. Like "The Diddly-Bops," this episode was billed as "A One-Hour Victorious Event," when in reality it was two separate episodes shown back to back, although that can be forgiven. The only thing they truly had in common was that Tori gave a career boost to a major character. In the previous episode it was Andre she helped. Here it was Jade, who wrote a play and can't convince Hollywood Arts High to set it up on stage. Tori seems to think it's easier to get the play produced somewhere else, and Jade insists on making her live up to that promise by imitating her. For some reason, all Jade's imitations of Tori sound like Scarlet O'Hara, or some damsel-in-distress from a Tennessee Williams play. I know Victoria Justice is a native of Hollywood, Florida, but believe it or not, not everybody from Florida has a southern accent.
Anyway, when Tori casually mentions her difficulty producing Jade's play at a Chinese restaurant she became a fan of, the owner is eager to help the girls of Hollywood Arts out. The trouble is, she'll only do so if Jade turns the play into a lame musical, and puts her untalented daughter in the play. There have been people who claim that Mrs. Lee is an Asian-stereotypical "Dragon Lady" villain. But Mrs. Lee isn't a villain because she's a "Dragon Lady." She's a villain because she's a stage mother, relentlessly pushing her daughter into the entertainment industry, whether she belongs there or not, and whether she wants to be there or not. If you think Trina's a bad singer, you'll appreciate her after hearing this little girl, who makes Trina Vega sound like Sarah Shannon(I hope I'm not the only person reading this who knows who this woman is.). Nevertheless, she insists on making her daughter play a singing angel in the show.
Later on we find Jade drags Tori into the janitor's closet and confesses that the play is an effort to convince her all-business father to let her seek a career in the entertainment industry. And once this happens, Tori has to find a way to get the play produced and make sure it goes according to Jade's original script. When you listen to the dialogue from the play with Cat playing the lead character, you could actually get a sense of this in Miss West's psyche. Considering that and the clues we get about Elizabeth Gillies' character from the official website, something must've happened during her childhood to make her into the somewhat sado-masochistic pseudo-goth girl she is today. The play and the aftermath are as touching as Tori's friends' effort to keep Jade's sponsor from screwing up the play is hilarious. Absolutely worth seeing, with or without "The Diddly-Bops."
