Westbrook is one win away from Division Two, and Carlsbad is suspected of stealing their playbook.
After Emma’s (Sophia Mitri Schloss) inspired performance in the Beth Macbeth, it was made clear to Coach Korn (John Stamos) that his job offer at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) was the worst kept secret and it has hurt everyone that he built a relationship with at Westbrook. This Season’s final episode opens with Coach Korn replaying the scene in his dream/nightmare as the closer he gets to a job back as a Men’s Basketball College Coach something just doesn’t feel right.
Well the offer from UCSB is in, this is the moment Korn has been waiting for since being given the opportunity at redemption coaching the Lady Sirens. However, Korn doesn’t seem thrilled to take it but he blames it on the fact that his agent just woke him with the call. As viewers would expect Emma doesn’t like the fact that once again she’ll be forced to move and change schools due to a decision that is out of her control. The girls on the team are giving Korn the silent treatment because of his betrayal no longer consider Korn their coach, and speaking to him through Coach Holly (Jessalyn Gilsig). So Korn ends practice to let the girls cool down, giving Coach Holly the perfect time to tell him about the offer she received from Coach McCarthy (Camryn Manheim) to be Carlsbad’s next head coach.
Meanwhile, in the locker room, the hate-fest of Coach Korn continues until Samantha (Cricket Wampler) can’t find her playbook. The team’s prime suspect is Olive’s (Monique A. Green) new boyfriend Jake (Damian Alonso) from Carlsbad. The girls now are in need of some new plays for the Carlsbad game this weekend, going back to Coach Korn with their tails tucked. Korn uses the chance to make amends with the team while exposing Samantha’s fake ankle injury.
Principle Thomas and Korn sharing a celebratory drink together.
Korn is suffering from a massive case of writer’s block struggling to come up with new plays, due to all the stress in his life at the moment. Miss Goodwin (Kathleen Rose Perkins) does offer some relief by open her home to Emma so she can stay at Westbrook. Emma does appreciate the offer but for the first time, she finally feels like she has a dad and doesn’t want to lose that. So if she has to choose between stay at Westbrook or her father safe to say she’ll be choosing her dad.
The use of a dream sequence is a classic trope that depicts the struggle between Coach Korns Heart and his head while going back to Men’s College Basketball is the best choice for his career his heart is in Westbook with Emma and the girls on the team. As Coach Korn Continues to struggle to come up with new plays he is visited by Kalm Korn (His Statue that was taken down at Wisconsin following his chair incident) points him to the court where a ref that looks like George Pappas (Richard Robichaux) who gives him 10 seconds to make a decision if his the coach at Westbrook or forfeit the game, Louise (Nell Verlaque) asks You’re coming, Coach, right? As the ref continues to countdown the rest of the girls yell “Come on Coach! We need you to–Coach! Come On!” Unable to answer in time Korn forfeits the game, enraged throws a chair at the ref. It lands on a pile of chairs that has Emma trapped, a metaphor for that torment she suffered over the action at Wisconsin. This dream, speaking with Destiny’s (Tiana Le) adoptive mother and shooting in a dark gym reflecting on everything that happened this season helped Korn in making the decision to stay at Westbrook. He now understands the fact that you may need to sacrifice things in your life for the betterment of the ones around you.
It’s finally time for the game at Carlsbad and Coach MacCathy is still up to no good with the physical tricks from being in a visiting locker room that displays all their trophy, smells bad, and is uncomfortably hot at 107 degrees. Couple this with the crowd noise Carlsbad would have the edge but Korns experience dealing with all the stress/noise in the world prepared him for this. So he has the team circle up and holds hands they simply mediate as the noise dissipates, but the real reason for the crowd noise disappearing is that the gym was infested with bees. MacCarthy believes it was Westbrooks doing it because they were afraid to lose but Coach Korn willing to accept the challenge will play Carlsbad in Westbrook with no one but the refs and players to prove the Lady Sirens are the better team.
So viewers don’t get to see the entire gameplay out but the most in the part play of the game came at the end when Korn called the Sacfrice play knowing MacCarthy would double Louise and Samantha on the inbound, Destiny would pass it to Olive who then passes it to Mou.. I mean Carolyn (Tisha Custodio) who makes the game-winning basket. They’ve done it winning enough game to play in the Division 2 league (DII) next year.
Korn calling the sacrifice play
Other things that happened, Principle Thomas (Yvette Nicole Brown) and Korn shared a drink as a farewell/congratulations on the new job while talking about life. Principle Thomas is able to empathize with Korn due to her deiced to take her current position at Westbrook that uprooted her family from Ohio. Commenting that her kids gave her the silent treatment for about two weeks, the funny thing is she liked the silence. The conversation also reviled that this team has to change Korn as he builds a connection with each girl on the team which why they’re all hurt by his decision to jump ship. Originally he was a guy who came into Westbrook seeing this as a pitstop on his way back to Men’s College Hoops but over the course of this season, Marvyn Korn has evolved and that person he uses to be may no longer exist.
Olive breaking up with Jake after letting her teammates get into her head about him possibly stealing Samantha’s playbook for Coach MacCarthy, Jake is the one who let the bees into the gym at Carlsbad, Destiny’s talking to her birth mother Angel, and Samantha playbook being returned by Miss Goodwin when it was taken by one of the ushers during opening night on Beth Macbeth.
What started as a story of a quest to make history at Westbrook became a story of the sacrifices it took to get there. They all had to give up things they cared about, but got something much more valuable in return; a family.
In all, I would say I’ve enjoyed this series as a whole, while some of the storylines were easy for me to figure out halfway through the show, Disney’s Big Shot did a great job not completely change their characters after they learned a lesson. Marvyn Korn was a complicated men and throughout the series learned an important lesson to get him to become the person he is now but along the way, he had to fail again and again to attack a situation different than he would have in the past. Now as for a second two like many series the final episode did leave room for that and I would love to see it. Until next time Lady Sirens.
