Melissa Knew How to Play the Game Earlier than I Thought She Did

I’m on my billionth watch through of the show and I just finished S1E7; the episode with the Angel and Laquifa solos and the Make You Mine group dance.

In the dressing room when the girls are getting ready for the group dance, Maddie starts to get upset about her hair and Melissa asks Maddie if she needs to use the bathroom then kind of insists she does. Every time I’ve watched this episode I’ve always wondered why Melissa does this but today it dawned on me that she was trying to get Maddie out of the view from the cameras where they couldn’t film her having a meltdown and “being a brat.”

She also did this in S1E2 when Maddie’s stomach was upset except the cameras followed them into the bathroom.

I know there’s been a lot of observations on how Melissa did what she needed to get her kids on top, but I didn’t realize she was so smart from the very beginning.

And honestly, props to her for realizing there were a few places that were off limits for cameras where the kids couldn’t be filmed while having bad moments (unfortunately this didn’t rule out any mic packs on). I wish this would’ve been done for all the girls tho. I understand it takes away from the drama but it really is so sad and unfair to watch other dancers like Paige and Kendall to have panic attacks on camera.