'Tiny Pretty Things' Episode 1: Did June push Cassie off the roof? Here's why Neveah was admitted to Archer
Spoilers for 'Tiny Pretty Things'
The first episode of Netflix's elite ballet high school drama is titled 'Corps' and things get pretty intense real fast. The first few minutes of the episode sees the attempted murder of Cassie Shore (Anna Maiche) as a hooded stranger pushes her off the ledge on the roof. The audience is immediately given the context, in the sense, that we know for a fact that Cassie was pushed and did not slip. The stranger had walked in with a white rose and we hear Cassie say, "It isn't what it looks like.. it is.. but I can explain," before she screams "noo!" as she is shoved off the ledge. At this point, the anticipation of who did this is already building as now almost everyone could be a suspect at the elite, fiercely competitive, Archer school of ballet.
The question that begs to be answered though, is did June Park (Daniela Norman) push Cassie off the ledge? June was Cassie's roommate, and while she is a dancer worthy enough for Archer, her mother doesn't think dancing should be June's future at all. There are a few things that could point to June being the culprit. When June's mother came to visit her, and the duo was having dinner, June says to her mother, "Cassie will not steal my spotlight" to which her mother tells her that Cassie didn't, but rather than Cassie was better than her. June's morbid reply to that was, "she's not better than me now". June, as Cassie's roommate, not only had easy access to Cassie but also seemed to be very jealous of her. The atmosphere at Archer isn't kind, and the expectations of the students are cruel enough for them to take dirty measures to make it big. As for June even liking Cassie, she admitted herself that she doesn't.
When officer Isabel Cruz (Jess Salgueiro), who was on Cassie's case, approached June after dinner with her mother, June tells her, "We all admired Cassie, but we didn't much like her." While the school, in order to save its reputation, deemed Cassie's incident a slip and fall, and the investigation was set as officially over, Cruz thinks otherwise. She tells June that she had lost someone herself recently and couldn't shake it off, she tellls June that this must be what she's feeling. In truth though, June didn't look upset at all. Cruz even showed June pictures of the roof that Cassie had "fallen" off of - there were scuff marks which means someone had backed up. Even though June didn't budge with her information, Cruz ended up giving June her card.
Towards the latter part of the episode, June ends up calling Cruz admitting that Cassie was not alone on the roof. She tells June that Monique "Madame" DuBois (Monique DuBois) also knows this information - "There was a party with every tier 3 student but me. I was in my room where I was supposed to be," June said. She even added dubiously, "I won't be here much longer." To solidify our suspicion that June may have been the one that hurt Cassie, the end of the episode sees June at Cassie's bedside in the hospital - she is in a coma. While there, June is joined by Nabil Limyadi (Michael Hsu Rosen), Cassie's Muslim boyfriend, who is thought to have pushed Cassie by all his peers - but we doubt this. Why would June apologize to Cassie if she did nothing wrong? How does she know that Cassie wasn't alone on the roof if she wasn't at that party? There is too much with June that doesn't add up and even if she isn't the culprit, she one hundred percent knows more than she is volunteering.
Cue in Archer's new ballet admission Neveah Stroyer (Kylie Jefferson) who was not wanted at first, but after Cassie's injury was invited to the school. Neveah is impeccable in her dancing, but as the audience and her less naive peers know, she was admitted to Archer so that her talents would overshadow the scandal the school recently faced. As one of her peers/competition Bette Whitlaw (Casimere Jollette) puts it, Neveah is a "shiny new distraction". Neveah's spot at Archer was earned by hard work, that's for sure, but DuBois has other plans for her - the new student is more than just a dancer, she's a prop held by Archer to make it seem as though they are moving past the scandal. So now, Neveah is now June's roommate, and if we are right about June, Neveah has a lot coming her way.
'Tiny Pretty Things' is now available to stream on Netflix.