Tiny Pretty Things’ Season 1 Finale Is A Middle Finger To Toxic, Predatory Men

Whether you grew up taking ballet classes or are completely unfamiliar with the world of dance, Netflix’s new series, Tiny Little Things, has given us a lot to think about. After watching all 10 episodes, we now know who pushed promising dancer and mean girl Cassie Shore off the roof of the prestigious Archer School. We also know just how sordid and complicated the school and its faculty really are behind the scenes. Like all the best ballets that have stood the test of time for close to 200 years, the season finale is full of deeper meaning, metaphor, and poetic tragedy.

In the final episode, the dancers use the last night of the showcase to expose the school’s deplorable deal it has with its wealthy patrons. It is just like the exploitations dancers experienced at the Paris Opera Ballet in the 19th century. Now that the scandal is out there for all the world to see, you would think that the dancers would get a moment of relief. But any sense of closure is short-lived when Torri (Jessica Greco) and Officer Isabel (Jess Salgueiro) find Neveah (Kylie Jefferson), Bette (Casimere Jollette), and June (Daniela Norman) in the dance studio standing over Ramon’s (Bayardo De Murguia) dead body. Ripe with deeper meaning waiting to be dissected, the murder scene finds Ramon stabbed in the heart with a wooden stake. It’s a classic murder-mystery cliffhanger and a prime set up for a possible second season, but beyond wondering who killed the controversial choreographer, there is a lot to unpack.

From the moment he waltzed into the Archer School, we knew Ramon was trouble. Not just in a difficult to work with sort of way. Throughout the series, he verbally abuses his dancers, gets involved with underaged students, and manipulates whoever he needs to in order to get what he wants. He exhibits the classic signs of a predator who must be stopped, but because his ballets sell tickets, program director Madame DuBois looks the other way. She would rather have success reflected on herself even if it comes at the expense of creating a safe environment for the students. It’s a classic example of the myth of the male artistic genius. As long as his genius seemingly outshines his abuses, he avoids scrutiny. However, if we have learned anything in the last few years, it’s that powerful men are no longer untouchable. 

Looking at Ramon’s death as a larger metaphor, because it is ballet and dance loves a metaphor, it could symbolise the larger idea of how toxic and predatory men are on their way out. Women feel more empowered to join together and demand what they need. We saw this in episode 4 when the dancers protest to doing a ballet that glorifies Jack the Ripper. Ramon’s original concept for the student showcase was a dark story that romanticised the tragic deaths of women and portrayed a notorious serial killer as powerful and seductive. He seemed to find some level of identity in his portrayal which is *shudders* unsettling. It is very telling of Ramon’s motives and ethics that he believes Jack the Ripper is worthy of a showcase where he is idolised. 

The attempted murder of Cassie loosely resembles one of ballet’s most famous shows, Sleeping Beauty. Ramon’s plotline doesn’t mirror another well-known ballet, but it does reference folklore which is a favourite subject area for ballets. It is curious that he was stabbed through the heart with a wooden stake. It’s not something you would just find lying around a dance studio. Could this perhaps be symbolic of an end to the vampiric, siphoning hold that abusive men have historically had on ballet? After all, you do kill a vampire with a wooden stake. That’s just our theory. This ending narrates a turning of the tables that a hand-off of power that has been desperately needed for centuries.

It is early days for knowing whether Tiny Pretty Things will get a second season yet, but if it does, there is a lot to build off of with this setup. The show touches on a lot of what goes on behind the scenes in dance, both good and bad, and it does so in a way that is quintessentially theatrical like a ballet itself which makes it all the more poetic. 

Tiny Pretty Things is now streaming on Netflix.