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It's a Wonderful Life, Piper - Part 2

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"It’s A Wonderful Life, Piper - Part 2" is the second part of the Season 7 double-episode Christmas Special. It aired on CBBC on December 13, 2019, and was shortly released worldwide for a short time on The Next Step Official YouTube Channel from December 21 to December 31, 2019.

Synopsis[]

With time running out, Piper struggles to reignite the love of dance in everyone.[1]

Plot[]

Picking up where the previous episode ended, Piper runs to James, only to trip and fall, seeing as she is not a dancer in this timeline. Piper tries to convince James to love dance again, but he reveals that he has a lot of things to do — and, in this alternate timeline, has anxiety.

Piper sits down and a list — obviously sent by Fairy — appears on the bench next to her: a list of the names of all the people she has to get to love dance again. Piper goes to The Next Steep and tries to convince the current A-Troupe, Richelle and Ozzy to dance again, but none of them are game. The only person who is convinced is Finn, whom Piper proceeds to tell about her struggles. They go to Studio A and dance together, although Piper is very clumsy. By the end of their duet, Finn loves dance again — and his name is magically checked off on Piper's list.

Finn goes off to get everyone on A-Troupe to Studio A and while he does that, Piper returns to The Next Steep to convince Emily and Michelle to love dance again. She eventually gets them to help her with a pirouette, similar to how they helped her dance again in the original timeline in Season 6. At the end of the session, she convinces them to go back to Studio A following their shift.

Piper proceeds to return to the Studio A office and calls Amy at Gemini Dance Studio to convince her to come to The Next Step to audition for A-Troupe. She successfully manages to do so by bribing Amy with six solos and dance captain. However, when she is still in the office, Riley and Alfie enter Studio A, with Riley attempting to persuade Alfie not to turn the dance studio into a luxury hotel. Through Riley and Alfie's conversation, Piper realizes that Riley is still attached to Studio A and has lingering feelings for James, despite being in a relationship with Alfie. However, after Riley leaves, Alfie discovers Piper's presence when she accidentally knocks over a wooden candlestick in the office. He roughly forces her out (unlike his counterpart in the original timeline, this Alfie is no gentleman) and locks the doors — much to Piper's horror, seeing as no-one can now enter the studio.

Piper then goes to James who, as the janitor, has all the keys for the building. During their conversation, James reveals that he still has feelings for Riley and Piper reminds him that he has to fight for her, similar to how Emily convinced James to fight for Riley in Season 4. Piper convinces James to return to Studio A with her.

When they are in Studio A, Piper puts on "We Go", which is James and Riley's song. As Piper predicted, Riley returns upon hearing the music. James starts dancing and Riley smiles fondly as she watches him, while flashbacks of James and Riley from the first three seasons are shown. Piper hopes that Riley will join James dancing, but before she can do so, Finn and the rest of A-Troupe, Richelle and Ozzy enter to graffiti the studio.

The music changes to "Coming Home" and everyone except Riley and Piper start dancing — their names being checked off on Piper's list. Emily and Michelle show up, followed by the old A-Troupe and all join in dancing. Their names are checked off the list as well. Alfie enters, angry, and snaps at Riley; when James calls for her to join the other dancers, she finally takes off her heels and joins them, implying that she and James will eventually get back together. Riley and James's names are then checked off on Piper's list. Alfie storms out, angry, and Piper asserts that she's glad Alfie's name isn't on her list.

Amy finally returns to the studio and Piper takes her into the Studio A office and convinces her to dance for fun, reminding her that at The Next Step, she will meet her best friends, fall in love and the team will become her family. Piper and Amy join the rest of the dancers in the studio and Amy's name, the last on Piper's list, is checked off. Having successfully convinced everyone on her list that they love dance again, Piper asserts that while this was a great adventure, she feels homesick and wants to return to her own timeline.

Piper is then woken up by Finn in the locker room, and she is very relieved to realize she is back in the original timeline. Piper's dark red dress has also gone, and she is wearing her dance attire again. They hug and then return to Studio A where everyone is confused at Piper's relief, happiness and mentions of differences in the alternate timeline.

James and Riley are talking and laughing at the side of the studio, when Alfie approaches them and all three hug. Alfie then apologizes for being late, explaining that he had to pick up Giselle from the airport; and she then enters the studio as well.

The A-Troupe alumni sit down to watch Eldon's choreography on the new A-Troupe. At the end of the performance, Giselle tells Piper that she knows about her not getting a present in the gift exchange; and produces a small box for Piper out of the giant stocking. Piper opens the box to find a small fairy, hinting at Giselle's alter-ego, Fairy, in the alternate timeline. Giselle winks at Piper before going to rejoin the rest of the party-goers; everyone dances together and then wishes one another, "Happy Holidays!".

Trivia[]

Continuity[]

  • Piper references James's catchphrase "Don't even worry about it".
  • Piper references Finn's signature move, "Big fish, little fish, cardboard box", which was first shown in "Twinkle Toes".
  • Piper getting Emily and Michelle to help her dance is a reference to when they helped her dance in "Coup d'Etat".
  • Alfie refers to Riley and James meeting at The Next Step before Season 1.
  • Riley references the first time she met Alfie at The Next Step, which occurs in "One More Time".
  • Piper tells James that Riley still cares about him even though she is with Alfie, which is reminiscent of the same thing happening in Season 4; even when Riley and James were broken up and Riley was with Alfie, she was still in love with James, which was made particularly evident during Riley and Ella's conversation in "It Ain't Easy".
  • Piper tells James that he has to fight for Riley, which is a reference to when Riley confesses during her and James's break-up in Season 2 that all she wanted was for him to fight for her, when Riley personally tells James that she thought he wanted to fight for her in "Heartbreaker" and Emily tells James that they both know Riley wants him to fight for her in "Danger Zone".
    • Fittingly, in both universes (the real one in Season 4 and the alternate one in the Christmas episodes) that Emily (Riley's sister) and Piper (James's sister), tell James that he has to fight for Riley when she is with Alfie, James does and eventually wins Riley back.
  • James refers to the fact that Alfie is a prince, which he first learned in "Runaway".
  • Piper references the fact that Riley is part of the reason why James fell in love with dance, which James confesses in "Game, Set, and Match".
  • Piper references James and Riley's first date in Studio A which takes place in "First Date".
  • Piper references the fact that "We Go" is James and Riley's song, which Riley confesses before dancing to the song in "The Fallout".
    • Fittingly, when Riley dances to "We Go" in Studio A in "The Fallout", James enters the studio and watches her dance, much like she does in this episode.
  • Several scenes from past episodes are seen as "We Go" plays:
    • James and Riley on their first date in Studio A and them slow-dancing and kissing in "First Date".
    • James and Riley dancing together in the Internationals finals group routine in "How It Ends".
    • James and Riley performing their Nationals duet in "I Don't Know".
    • James and Riley performing their tie-breaker duet in "How It Ends".
  • The only people who know who Piper is in the alternate timeline are James and Riley, which indirectly references the fact that Riley met Piper off-screen before "One More Time", when she specifically asks James what his little sister is doing at The Next Step; everyone else questions who Piper is.
  • The fact that in the alternate timeline, Riley leaves Alfie for James and it is implied that Riley and James get back together is an indirect reference to when James confesses that "No matter how far we go apart from each other, we always have that connection that keeps pulling us back," in "How It Ends"; they start very far apart in the alternate timeline and it is implied that they get back together at the end of it.
  • Riley and Michelle reprise the salsa choreography from "Coming Home?".
  • Piper tells Amy that she'll meet her best friends, fall in love at The Next Step and find a family in the team, indirectly referencing her and Amy's friendship from Season 4 until the present, Amy falling in love with LaTroy in Season 4 and Henry in Season 6 and again in Season 7, and the fact that A-Troupe always refers to themselves as a team and a family.
  • Richelle tells Piper that she would only quit dancing in Piper's dreams, breaking the fourth wall, because that is what Piper dreamed about in the alternate timeline in the previous episode and this current one.
  • Richelle refers to her and Ozzy dating in his dreams, which alludes to when Ozzy dreamed about them dancing together in "Crushing on Richelle".
  • Various white walls from past seasons are played, including:
  • Amy and Finn being featured and partnered as Clara and the Nutcracker Prince foreshadows their future relationship in Season 7.

Behind The Scenes[]

  • In YouTube videos and Instagram stories, it has been confirmed that Brennan Clost (Daniel), Taveeta Szymanowicz (Thalia) and Myles Erlick (Noah) would also have appeared in the Christmas Special, but were unavailable due to their filming Tiny Pretty Things, Dare Me, and West Side Story respectively at the time.[3][4]
  • Brittany Raymond confirmed on her YouTube channel that all her scenes were shot within six hours on the Monday, instead of the Friday, when most of the other scenes were shot because she was at the time shooting Dare Me. As a result, most of the group scenes did not actually originally include Riley and takes were specifically done of her later to make it appear as though she was actually there on the day.[5]
  • Allain Lupien (Lucien) is credited as a guest choreographer for this episode.
  • Emily Roman (Presley), Isiah Hall (a J-Cruise dancer) and Isaac Lupien (Eldon) are credited as assistant choreographers for this episode.
  • There is a partial deleted scene of Piper seeing James leaving The Next Steep, realizing that he has the keys and can let her into Studio A and saying, "It's a Christmas miracle!" that aired in the behind-the-scenes of the double-Christmas episode on The Next Step's YouTube channel.[6]

Errors[]

  • Piper's list does not include Eldon, West, Amanda, Chloe and Stephanie. However, in the previous episode, Fairy explains how they too lost their love for dance and that Piper needs to help them (along with the current A-Troupe, James, Riley, Emily and Michelle) to find their love for dance again.
  • Giselle and Alfie are shown to apparently know one another. But they have never interacted on-screen, as Giselle has left The Next Step by the time Alfie arrives; and when she returned to speak to Amanda, Alfie was in Switzerland. However, it is possible that Amanda, Michelle, Riley or James introduced them off-screen between Season 5 and Season 7 or that they simply met off-screen when Giselle returned to visit Amanda in "Heads Will Roll". Additionally, it is possible that they met off-screen during Internationals in Season 3, seeing as Alfie was the male soloist for Switzerland and he mentioned seeing Riley and James's tiebreaker duet, as well as the blindfolded "Hotel" routine that featured Noah, Giselle, Riley, Stephanie and Cierra in "One More Time".
    • Alfie being not as familiar with the rest of the A-Troupe alumni is reiterated by him sitting with Amanda, James and Riley during the new A-Troupe's performance, seeing as he never met Chloe, Giselle or Eldon before the Christmas party, had minimal interactions with West at the open party in "One More Time" and "Stir It Up", Stephanie during his A-Troupe audition in "Heads Will Roll" and Miss Kate before she left for the United Kingdom in "Welcome to the Jungle", met Emily briefly when she returned to help Riley run the studio, more notably danced on A-Troupe with Michelle and Amanda, and had many chaotic interactions with both Riley and James. In fact, Alfie is likely more familiar with the current A-Troupe than he is with the A-Troupe alumni, given that he danced on A-Troupe with Richelle, Henry, Amy and Piper, and Henry was his best friend during his time at The Next Step.

Production Errors[]

Cultural References[]

  • The title of the episode refers to the 1946 Christmas fantasy drama film It's a Wonderful Life.
  • Finn alludes to the film It's a Wonderful Life (which is ironic as the special's name is also a reference to the aforementioned film) and Back to the Future trilogy when Piper explains to him that she is from an alternative reality. Finn also switches the first names of the films' respective lead characters, George Bailey and Marty McFly, when he says to Piper "Classic Marty Bailey and George McFly." Somewhat confusingly, in the Back to the Future franchise (see Trivia above), Marty McFly's father is named George.

Cast[]

Main[]

Recurring[]

Featured Music[]

Featured Dances[]

Quotes[]

Main article: It's a Wonderful Life, Piper - Part 2/Quotes

Aftershow[]

Main article: It's a Wonderful Life, Piper - Part 2/Aftershow

Gallery[]

Kathy Riley season 3 episode 13 "Look at that painting!"

To view the It's a Wonderful Life, Piper - Part 2 gallery, click here.


Episode links[]

References[]

  1. ↑ [1]. CBBC (December 13, 2019). Retrieved on December 2, 2019.
  2. ↑ "The Next Step Cast React". Wikia. Retrieved on April 7, 2024.
  3. ↑ "[2]". YouTube. Retrieved on June 4, 2020.
  4. ↑ "[3]". Instagram. Retrieved on June 4, 2020.
  5. ↑ "[4]". YouTube. Retrieved on November 24, 2020.
  6. ↑ "[5]" YouTube (December 14, 2019). Retrieved on February 27, 2024.
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