Dance Moms Reunion Recap ‘Abby Rules’: Season 4 Episode 32 “Playing Favorites”

Dance Moms Reunion Recap 'Abby Rules': Season 4 Episode 32 “Playing Favorites”

Tonight on Lifetime Abby Lee Miller’s Dance Moms continues with an all new Tuesday October 14, Season 4 episode 32 reunion show called, “Playing Favorites.” On tonight’s episode the moms from both the Elite and Select Teams face off against Abby to hash out their grudges from this season and accuse her of blatant favoritism.

On the last episode nationals were a day away, and with all of the distractions of Hollywood, the moms worry Abby had not given enough attention to the routines. With Cathy using the song that made Maddie famous, Abby considered pulling an ALDC solo to let Maddie dance. Stakes had never been higher as Abby threatened to cut the losing team and Christi and Chloe made a heart-wrenching decision. Did you watch the episode? If you missed it we have a full and detailed recap, right here for you.

On tonight’s episode the moms from both the Elite and Select Teams face off against Abby to hash out their grudges from this season and accuse her of blatant favoritism. Maddie takes the stage to talk about her recent success in Hollywood with the Sia video, the girls present new dances, and of course, Cathy makes an appearance to ruffle Abby’s feathers.

Tonight’s episode is going to be another drama packed evening, which you won’t want to miss. So be sure to tune in for our live coverage of Lifetime’s Dance Mom’s Season 4 finale – tonight at 9 PM EST! While you wait for our recap, hit the comments and let us know how excited you are about the new season of Dance Moms tonight!

Tonight’s episode begins now – Refresh Page often to get the most current updates!

Tonight on #DanceMoms it’s playing favorites – a reunion and yell at Abby show. Executive producer Jeff Collins welcomes us to the reunion and Abby is onstage with him. They have the moms from both teams, the girls and Todrick Hall as well as Mackenzie’s new video. He welcomes Abby and asks how it went at nationals and she says it was the fourth time in a row. He asks about the disappointing solos and she says there was a lot of competition in the solo divisions and she didn’t let Maddie dance.

She says Jill kept saying that without Maddie, Kendall could win. She says all the girls had the opportunity to win with Maddie out but didn’t and Abby says that means she can say – I told you so. The audience laughs. Jeff asks about Maddie and Abby says she’s busier than she is. Abby says she trains kids to be stars and Jeff calls Maddie out. She comes out and sits and Jeff says Sia’s video she was in that won the VMA. Abby says Sia tweeted her to invite her and Maddie says she learned the dance in two hours then did it.

Abby shows her new book – Everything in Life I Learned in Dance Class – and Maddie wrote the foreword. Maddie says when she first started with Abby, she wasn’t that good. Abby says the girls get it, but the moms don’t. Jeff asks if she’ll be working with Sia again and she says maybe. Maddie leaves the stage with a wave. Jeff says the other mom’s claim that favoritism to Maddie is to the detriment to the other girls. He calls out Holly. Holly says she tears other girls down to lift Maddie up. Jeff asks about her documenting it.

We see the white board the moms set up to keep track of the “unfair” treatment. We see the moms telling Abby her teaching methods are wrong and Abby asks why she stays. Holly says Nia likes her and Abby rants that she’s not a little girl, she’s 12 and could be married and having kids in other countries. Abby laughs and Jeff asks about it and Holly says there is nothing funny about talking about a child getting pregnant. Abby says it was about her coddling Nia.

Abby says she had to take a step back from Nia to let Holly cool down. Holly says Maddie gets freedom to thrive but Nia doesn’t get that. Abby says she pushed the kids buttons to make them champions. Holly says Nia came in first because Abby wasn’t heavily involved. Abby says Nia came in first because she wanted to prove to Abby that she could. Abby says she set the whole thing up. Abby says maybe Nia is ready to move on but Holly says she will stay and fight the injustice.

Holly says their team beat the select team but Abby rewarded Kamryn with a solo at nationals. She says their kids did their job but Abby rewards only those she favors. Abby says she works a system to deliver a finished product. Abby says the only problem is the moms. The elite team comes out to perform Tribal Council with Nia dancing lead. It goes off great.

Jeff asks Abby about nationals and about her and Christi fighting after the show about Chloe. We see a replay of their mega-blowout. Christi asks if Abby is going to run back to the judges to argue about Chloe’s score and calls her classless. She also calls Abby big and fat. Abby says Christi goes for the jugular no matter what the argument is about. She says it can be about Scotch tape, but she calls her ugly and fat. She says she was talking to Jill about Kendall crying over her scores and Abby telling her not to indulge that.

Abby says her big issue with Christi is her not making Chloe’s training a priority. She says she delivers her late by 10 to 20 minutes to a half hour private lesson. She also says because Chloe is getting so tall, it requires more training to correct for her long limbs and growth. Christi comes out and says that Abby just had to criticize Chloe even though she won. Abby says she just wants Chloe to work harder. Abby says when you work with a kid, you know what they’re capable of. Christi calls her a liar and says she was upset that she beat Kamryn.

Abby says Chloe didn’t win – she placed fifth. Christi says she didn’t win because she gave her a crappy solo. Christi says Abby doesn’t want her to win because of her issues with her and calls Abby a horrible, rotten human being. Abby says – yet you keep bringing her back. Jeff introduces Kendall, Chloe and Maddie all dancing together doing the solo that the other girls understudied Maddie for – but now they’re doing it as a trio.

I’m sorry, you can definitely tell that Maddie is the better dancer of the three. Chloe is headed toward gangly and Kendall isn’t as polished. The number ends to a lot of applause. Jeff asks Christi about Melissa and she says she’s privileged and given the best of everything. Holly agrees. Christi says she’s greedy and Holly says Melissa will do whatever it takes to get her kids ahead and Christi says she likes to pretend she’s not that way. Melissa comes out and says – my kids come first and always will. Christi says that’s different from being openly manipulative.

Christi calls Melissa a puppet and tells Abby to get her hand out of her butt so she can talk. Abby asks what privileges they think Maddie has and then says it’s earned. Christi says she just hands those things to Maddie and takes from the other girls. Christi says Melissa even plays favorites with her own kids. We see the scene where Abby put Maddie in to dance knowing Mackenzie wouldn’t win against her sister. Christi chews Melissa out for not protecting her younger daughter. Christi says she robbed the younger girl.

Christi says it’s wrong. Melissa says it didn’t hurt Mackenzie because she knew up front she wasn’t going to win against 12 year olds. Abby says when they got there and the ages were 10-12, she would never put two 10 year olds in. We see the flashback to prep for nationals. Maddie leaves to work on a solo and Jill complains that Abby let Maddie step out instead of working on the group number. The other moms then bully Melissa into talking to Abby about Maddie’s solo. Holly says that makes her sad. Melissa comes in and asks that Maddie not do a solo and Abby tells her it’s not her decision.

Christi says Abby assigned three solos – Abby interrupts and Christi says to give her the respect she deserves. Abby says she doesn’t deserve any respect. Christi starts saying ugly things again and Jeff calls Jill out. She says they were all told Maddie was getting a solo and then Abby specifically said no solo at nationals and asks why Abby had her rehearsing a solo for nationals. Abby says she won last year and she had to have her prepared if they needed her.

Christi says Melissa didn’t do the right thing and says Maddie was given the choice to not do a solo and to let the others do it. Holly says Maddie has more sense than Melissa. Abby tells Jill that she always says if Maddie wasn’t there, Kendall would win. Abby says that was the case and she didn’t. Jeff says they have MackZ’s newest music video produced by Abby. Her new song is Shine. She’s backstage singing in the video watching herself dance onstage. The song is about when is it going to be her turn to come out from behind the curtain and shine. It’s very auto-tuned and bubble gum pop but cute for a tween pop song.

Jeff says it’s time to talk about the new team. He says Abby brought them on to make their kids better but Christi says she thinks everyone is replaceable and she’s seeing who she can phase out and in. Jill says individually, their kids beat the select team and says she took time away from their kids to deal with the other team. Abby says she kept it very even with the team rehearsal schedule. Jeff asks about Sarah’s mom Christy and how divisive she was this season.

We see scenes of Christy pitching its, calling Abby garbage and then Sarah getting ejected right before nationals. Jeff says Christy said she was too devastated to come. Jill says Christy could be so sweet then totally the opposite. Christi says Abby told them no more crazy moms, then in walked Christy. Abby says it would be easier if there were no parents allowed at the studio. Tami comes out with a totally skanky dress on with her boobs out that is very unflattering and risque (ick).

Jeff plays the Tami vs Christy fight. Christy says the other moms are jealous and tells Tami to go hoe then says to bite her. Tami says if she had lips the size of Texas she was. Tami pulls someone’s hair then tries to attack Christy. Tami says the bitch touched her first. She says Christy scratched her and tore her shirt off. She says she feels no remorse. Christi says the moms on the elite team would never have been tolerated. Abby says she did kick them both out but then Christi says she was back the next day.

Christi then brings up the fact that Chloe missed out on nationals because she got in a fight with another mom last year and Abby yells out – Hallelujah – knowing she finally hit what Christi really wanted to complain about. Chloe does her solo for the live audience. Jeff has the other select moms out there now – Tami, Loree, Jodi and Tracey are all there together. Jeff says they looked a little shell shocked. They ask how they feel about getting kicked out after nationals.

Christi says Abby put her money on the sure thing and that’s why she kicked them. Abby tells the select moms that if the elite team wasn’t there, they would have won. Holly says they got the light version of Abby and the other moms says Abby wasn’t the problem, it was the moms. Jill says they didn’t kick them out, Abby did. Jeff brings up Jeanette. We see the scene where Jeanette shows up to nationals and Abby takes her daughter’s jacket. Abby calls Ava over and kicks her out all over again.

Christi says Jeanette was always there. He asks Abby what her problem is with her and she says she’s a ding-dong stalker. Jeff calls Jeanette out. She immediately attacks Abby. She says Ava wanted to show her something and says Abby grabbed Ava and flipped her into an aerial. Abby calls her a liar and Christi calls her a low class piece of shit. Jeanette says she would never bring her daughter back to Abby and Abby says that’s good since she doesn’t have the talent. Jeanette says she’s done and doesn’t have to listen to Abby and says Ava doesn’t want her – she just wants to dance.

Abby says she needs to get Ava a real teacher, not just Jeanette. She stands up and wishes them luck and stomps out. Abby says she’s red with envy. Abby says Jeanette did that to her daughter, not her. Jeff introduces the select and elite team performing together in a rain forest themed number. It looks very nice. Jeff says they saved the best for last and calls out crazy Cathy from the Crab Apples. He asks about her taking the Sia song for her group number. She says Maddie did a good job in the video but theirs was avant garde and cutting edge. Abby tries to interrupt and Cathy tells her to be quiet.

Abby tells her to run home with her tail between her legs and says she loses, loses, loses. Cathy says they weren’t trying to emulate Maddie. Abby says they were gunning for ALDC and should have made a wiser choice. We see during the season with Cathy talking during Maddie’s number and Abby coming down the hall saying she’s finished and she needs to get on her broom and fly away home. She tells Cathy she’s a joke in the dance community. Cathy gives it back to her.

Abby says the rule is that you don’t talk about numbers while in the audience because you never know who is sitting near you. Jeff says the big news of the evening is Abby’s LA studio plans. She says she has a new venture – ALDC LA. She says it’s the entertainment capital and she thinks for the elite team, it would be a logical next step. She says she has kids already out there working and kids out there already retired that teach that grew up in her studio. Cathy pulls a sour face.

Jeff says to take them out, it’s a new video by Todrick Hall featuring Abby and the ALDC kids called Freaks Like Me. It’s really cute and set in a school. The moms are even in the video playing teachers, the librarian and other school staff. Whew. What a cray hour – all I have to say is I can’t wait for Season 5!

THE END!