courtesy of ABC Family

This week the show deals with the aftermath of Hubble’s passing. Bunheads takes an interesting stance on dealing with grief that is really realistic in the sense that it acknowledges the fact that everyone essentially deals with death differently but in the end we have to come to terms with our loss.

Fanny and Michelle return home where instantly Fanny in silence starts shutting off all the lights as if nothing happened and then goes into her room leaving an outwardly upset Michelle alone. Michelle goes to the room she shared with Hubble and unsuccessfully attempts to fall asleep even after moving from the bed to the couch so she goes through Hubble’s drawer and finds a Metallica t-shirt of his, which makes her smile. Later on she ends up looking at photos from their Vegas wedding.

The combination of restlessness and dealing with the emotions of losing Hubble leaves Michelle grabbing a bottle of wine and heading to the beach and just staring out into the ocean the whole night and into the morning. Although Michelle admitted last week she didn’t love Hubble it’s clear she cared about him and really meant it when she told Fanny she wanted to be able to love him.

The bunheads, as they call the girls, play a bigger role in this week’s episode. It starts off with Sasha going on about convincing her parents to get her a car. The subject changes when one of the bunheads  Ginny leaves her school soccer game and goes over to the other bunheads Sasha and Melanie, who have excused themselves from playing because of ballet, and brings up the announcement made about Hubble It takes Melanie awhile to get that Hubble died . They go into Boo’s Spanish class to break the news to her and get her to join them in watching a movie insisting watching Mark Walberg was their way of mourning the situation.

Michelle goes back into the house to find a seemingly okay Fanny saying she needed a tent for Hubble’s memorial service since she didn’t do funerals, because there was no ode to life and since she is a Buddhist believes life continues on, which was cause enough for a celebration.

The mourning of Hubble’s death of course included Truly, his ex, whose wackiness never let her get over him. Her way of mourning was taking over the house cleaning and organizing the food people were sending over. Although her intentions may have been to honor the love she had for Hubble she was more imposing and pushy towards Michelle even going as far as blaming her for his death, which she also blamed herself for too. If Michelle hadn’t felt bad and helpless enough, Truly’s break down in front of her to Fanny on Hubble sure did exasperate things. Truly made sure to voice her love for Hubble and desire to have married him and Fanny’s response just added insult to injury by saying Hubble and her were soul mates and were perfect together and that true love really never died.

Fanny dealt with the loss of Hubble by planning a memorial like no other, making sure it was as over-the-top a Buddhist ceremony as possible. Outlandish is the best way to describe the event she was planning. We’re talking about 500 guests, Dalai Lama printed napkins, a sittar player, and an aircraft.

Michelle feeling unwanted and not being allowed to help leaves and goes on a walk where she runs into an old man who asks her to walk his dog. While walking and lost she gets a phone call from one of her Vegas friends who wants all the details of what’s gone on since she left and married Hubble, which Michelle gives her in a play by play. After hearing it all her outspoken friend goes into a tangent on how she had the worst luck with men.

Michelle finds herself in a local bar where she makes a sarcastic joke about the dog being her seeing eye dog when she’s drunk to the bar owner who eventually recognizes her as being sex at the party girl and pours her a bit more to drink saying rough deal. The bar owner’s wife who is as ditzy as they come is informed on who Michelle is and pours her more to drink also saying rough deal. Michelle begins getting a bunch of calls concerning the memorial, which she has no answers to and tells them to call Fanny. She begins realizing the memorial is getting out of hand especially when Fanny’s artist friend comes to her at the bar asking her if her depiction of Hubble’s private parts were accurate for the nude statue she was making of him for the memorial.

When Michelle gets back to the house she loudly disrupts a meditating Fanny to tell her she’s going overboard and needs to have the memorial soon and deal. Fanny finally breaks down saying she has the right to go overboard since her heart is broken forever, which really makes you want to break down with her since you realize how much Hubble was her world and she would of done anything for him and that all the craziness was her way of masking her pain.

After spending majority of ballet class in the room waiting for Fanny seeing if she would decide to teach class Sasha leaves to go find her only to find her crying, which breaks her heart and is the first time we see Sasha show emotion about anything. Sasha goes to Michelle telling her how Fanny was just breaking down crying and something needed to be done, which is what Michelle decides to do. Michelle tells the girls to get all the chairs they can to put into the dance studio.

Boo shows up at the door telling Fanny, who realizes she forgot about class that the sink is leaking, which isn’t true it's an excuse to get her to the studio. Before Boo leaves she tells Fanny she’s sorry about Hubble and she responds that she’s sorry too.

When Fanny finally makes it to the studio she finds a beautifully decorated studio entrance and room filled with people who knew Hubble and Michelle waiting with a seat for her. Michelle opens up saying she doesn’t know what to say but just had to do something and here it was. It was a beautifully choreographed dance performed by the bunheads to a song Michelle found in Hubble’s CDs. The whole performance is exactly what Fanny needed and she and Michelle share a moment over it.

The episode ends with Fanny introducing Michelle to a friend of Hubble who tells her that she was it for Hubble from the day he met her and that all he did was talk about her. He then informs a shocked Michelle that Hubble left her everything.

This week’s episode was less about laughter and more about grief, but didn’t lack entertainment value in the slightest. Tune in next week to see what happens next.

Reach Reporter Phoebe Abraham here.