‘Katy Keene’ Fashion Dreams Could Be Frozen in Season 1, Chapter 5: “Song for a Winter’s Night”

Kristin
13 Min Read
Courtesy of The CW

In the latest episode of the freshman series, Katy begins by attempting to perfect her portfolio for Parson’s Fashion School, where her mother always wanted her to study fashion design. As all four in the apartment, Katy included, model her top choices to submit, she finishes off Pepper’s outfit with a little flair. Katy notices the box of her mother’s belongings still tucked away in the closet, and much like Katy’s dreams, had been stuffed away while life took over. A letter from someone like Gloria would surely help with admission to Parsons, and could Katy’s designs be enough? With a polar vortex is looming over New York, threatening to shut everything down, read on to find out what happened in this week’s episode.

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After Katy’s breakup with KO, she was starting to feel like she was back on track thanks to her friends. Pepper and Josie both suggest having Gloria write a letter for Katy, given she is the gatekeeper of the fashion world. Just then, the pipes in the apartment shake and it’s announced on the radio that New York is bracing for a polar vortex. Josie is called out for being late on the cable bill, and Jorge mentions that’s how Marci used to be. Who is this Marci?

Back at Lacy’s, Gloria is reviewing Katy’s designs. While Katy is grateful, Gloria points out that her outfits have no direction, no cohesion, and if her client is a drag queen. Gloria then gives Katy a task: design with one client in mind, Gloria, and she has 24 hours to come up with a dress worthy of a ball the following day. If Gloria approves, Katy will get her letter of recommendation. Gloria hands over her measurements, and threatens Katy’s life should anyone see them. Katy vents to Francois that she feels like she is being set up. In the end, he sends her home to start sketching and make Gloria’s dress.

Meanwhile at Chubby’s, Josie is shown the basement recording studio at the store. She and Chubby discuss if she has come to a decision about her own record deal offered by Mr. Cabot. Josie feels like she would be selling herself if she cashed the check. However, she would get to make her music. The deal was offered if Josie would also date Alex after all, and Chubby points out that everyone in the business at some time has paid a price. Just then, Alex comes in to the shop upstairs to find out if she is the one who leaked the story of Kissing Cabots to the tabloids. She is the only one recently who has found out about Alex and Xandra’s past. Josie tells him she did not. He believes her.

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Back at the apartment, Jorge has a run in with his mom in the hallway, as Ginger, but ran out before she could say anything. Katy returns home to see Jorge back home, as drag bingo was cancelled due to the weather. Katy tells him about needing to make a dress for Gloria and his Aida dress is going to have to go on hold for the time being. He needed that dress for the next night as well. While Katy searches for inspiration, Josie comes in blaming Pepper for leaking the Kissing Cabots tabloid story. Katy defends Pepper in the end, while Jorge has a meltdown about his run-in with is mother.

Katy runs off to sketch ideas for Gloria as Pepper seeks information, and food, from the bodega. Josie questions why Pepper would stay with them on the coldest night of the year rather than her hotel room, but Pepper hasn’t told them she lost the room and is staying at the warehouse. While Katy is drowning out the world, Jorge is insistent and pushes Katy to still work on his Aida dress, hemming it and attempting to sew it himself, which does not go well and the sewing machine breaks. Katy flies around the corner into her room, tries to fix the machine, and yells at Jorge that her one rule, ever, was to never touch the machine. Jorge tells her, “it’s not the end of the world. It’s just a sewing machine,” which sets Katy off. He knows more than anyone what is on the line for her for the next 24 hours, and he would not leave her alone to do it. Katy angrily tells everyone to get out.

Jorge collects his tips from Molly’s and leaves to check the one store that may still be open and pick up a replacement machine, while Pepper checks on Katy. She vents that it’s about his selfishness, about how many hundreds of dresses she has made for him with money that she earned, fabric she bought, and now this dress for Gloria she has to sew by hand when she doesn’t even have the right fabric for it. Katy sees the Aida dress and is struck by an idea. Pepper tells her no, but Katy has already started to tear it apart. What she is doing to the dress is nothing compared to what Jorge did to the sewing machine, in Katy’s opinion.

Josie called the Palace Hotel while Pepper was with Katy and finds out the truth: she has been kicked out. Jorge comes back empty handed. They are not 16 anymore. He can not apologize, sing Aida, and make it better. The three of them begin to sing “My Strongest Suit” to make Katy feel better and hopefully inspire her along the way. Jorge’s mother comes up to visit the apartment, but he is dressed as Ginger. He isn’t ready to show this side to his mother yet, so he hides in the closet where he finds Josie’s check from Cabot Entertainment. When he comes out, Jorge, Josie, and Pepper have a conflict and Josie is told who Marci was: a former roommate who was a long line of girls to sleep on the pullout before her in their first few months in New York.  Jorge then finds the Aida dress that Jose destroyed and feels betrayed, but Katy breaks down as she tells him that he broke the last part of her mom that she had left.

Courtesy of The CW

Later on, Pepper comes to Josie to tell her she found the source of the Kissing Cabots leak, a Tuxedo C. Sebastian, which Pepper deduces to Alexandra as she has a tuxedo cat named Sebastian. Josie asks Pepper what the deal is with the hotel. Pepper comes clean about the hotel, that her credit card was declined and her father has frozen all her accounts. In exchange, Josie comes clean about the check from Mr. Cabot. It’s to not only fund the first EP, but also to “look after Alex,” which she also promised she wouldn’t tell him about. The more Josie pushes Alex away, the more she cares. Pepper tells her that by caring she may be looking after Alex after all. Josie also agrees to keep Pepper’s cash flow problem a secret between them, as they have gotten closer through this.

Jorge approaches Katy, asking about the outfit for Gloria. Katy is reminiscing about her mom wanting her to go to Parson’s and use the insurance money when she died to pay for it. Katy is angry that it barely covered medical bills, which is not a familiar emotion related to her mother. Katy feels alone, but Jorge tells her she has them, and life is unfair but we do our best. When she is sitting on top of the world, it will feel so much better because she worked for it. Katy urges Jorge to come out to his mother as Ginger, apologizing for getting mad earlier. Jorge suggests that her mom will not only always be here, but to stop avoiding the box in the closet.

The four of them sit on Katy’s bed while she begins to go through her mothers things: old photographs, slides, and Pepper finds fabulous red fabric that her mother had planned to make something special with but had gotten sick before she had the chance. Katy decides with the help of everyone together, they could put together a Katy Keene original, and something spectacular.

Courtesy of The CW

At Chubby’s, Alex has Josie meet him in the basement studio where she tells him the source of the Kissing Cabots story. He apologizes and says that it was Alexandra and shows her the improvements he has made to the studio so far. Josie tells him about his dad advancing funds for an EP, but she doesn’t know if she should take it. He tells her that she should, with our without him.

Katy brings the sewing machine to Lacy’s to have it fixed, but Francois tells her that not only is it kaput, but that he didn’t know her mom worked there. The machine itself was manufactured exclusively for Lacy’s staff, after all, and if she didn’t work there, maybe she knew someone who did?

Back at the apartment, Jorge decides to show his mother Ginger. His mother tells her that she recognized her in the hallway, but this would be too much for her father to understand. Jorge asks his mother for a favor, and we move over to Lacy’s where Katy takes the hand-sewn dress to Gloria. She tells Katy it is an improvement, however she will not be wearing it to the gala that night as a custom gown was dropped off earlier that day. Katy does ask about the letter, however.

Katy returns back home with her broken machine where Jorge shows up with his aunt’s antique machine, which he knows could never replace Katy’s mom’s, but it was the best he could do given the circumstances. Katy shows him the letter of recommendation that Gloria wrote for Parsons. Katy tells Jorge about her mom’s machine being a Lacy’s exclusive. Katy checks the bottom of her machine and finds a medallion that says “for Katherine. Love from L.L.”

Katy Keene airs Thursdays on The CW.

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By Kristin
First a fan of One Tree Hill, then Supernatural and many others. I work in restaurant management full time and enjoy photography as a hobby and part time when I can. I love most kinds of music, and really love Swain (and Rob). I’m basically a 80's/90’s kid that never really left that era. I can be found on twitter at @1WaywardSister or @42photostudio
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