By Lindsay Strouse

Romances continue this week on Taking the Stage, with Emily Silber and Tyler’s romance growing and Emily Sones and Adam’s relationship growing more complicated.

After the back-to-school talent show, Emily and Adam continue to hang out and Emily starts to pay more attention to the butterflies fluttering around her stomach whenever she is with him. She decides to write a song about the inability to express her emotions for him and hope he’ll realize it’s about him.

Just when things seem to be going well for Adam and Emily, a new girl named Holly steps into the picture. She’s one of the most assertive girls I’ve ever seen, and definitely the most assertive girl Adam’s ever come in contact with. When he asks Carlton’s advice on whether to go for the hot and wild girl or the sweet girl, Carlton’s answer is no surprise: “Go for the hot girl. If things don’t work out you can always go back to Emily.” Real nice, Carlton.

SCPA graduate Mia returns as a guest teacher for a music workshop in which Emily, Holly, Adam and Ian are all students. I could feel the tension between Emily, Holly and Adam through the television screen. Breaking away from his romance issues for a moment, Adam volunteers to sing a song in class dedicated to his grandmother who was recently diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. My heart melted as he sang it, but Mia thought he could have been a little more emotional with his facial expression. To each his own.

Meanwhile, Tyler and Emily Silber practice some moves in the dance studio before Tyler gets the guts to talk to Emily about their relationship. He asks her if she has a boyfriend, and when she replies no, his eyes light up like fire. He asks if he meets her high expectations in a boyfriend, and it seems that he does. The only thing holding Emily back is Tyler’s reputation about his past experiences with girls (see Season One: Jasmine and Tyler…oy).

After school lets out, Adam follows Tyler’s example and asks if Holly has a boyfriend. She seems a bit hesitant in asking but finally answers no—she is single. However, the following commercial previewing next week’s episode hints that she may not be telling the truth. I smell drama.

After Adam asks Holly out, he goes to see Emily Sones to tell her the news. I mean, really?! Why don’t you just tear out her heart and stomp on it why don’t you? I predict this ends like any other love story—boy likes girl, boy makes stupid mistake, boy has to work to get girl back, boy and girl live happily ever after.

Once all the relationship nonsense is out of the way, everyone prepares for the show where Adam, Emily and Ian will perform the songs and compositions they have created. In the audience is Emily and Tyler in a pseudo-date fashion, Carlton and Anna canoodling with each other and Adam’s grandmother.

When Adam comes on to sing his song, “She’s the Brave One,” dedicated to his grandmother, I think every heart in the audience melted. Their relationship is obviously very special and the song was truly beautiful and sincere. He finishes the song with tears in his eyes and is readily consoled by Holly as Emily stands to the side watching.

After pulling herself together, Emily prepares to sing the song she wrote about her feelings toward Adam. As soon as she begins the song, Adam feels as though she is singing only to him and they are the only two people in the room together. He only gets more confused about his relationship with Holly and how he really feels for Emily. He doesn’t want to ask her about it because let’s be honest—how embarrassing would that be if she told him the song wasn’t about him?

The show ends with a question mark circling Tyler and Emily, Carlton and Anna and Adam’s love triangle. Tune in next Thursday, February 11 at 11 p.m. ET to see who ends up with whom on Taking The Stage!

(Photo courtesy of MTV)