Little Voice Review: Sing What I Can’t Say (Season 1 Episode 9)

Similarly to Bess on Little Voice Season 1 Episode 9, “Sing What I Can’t Say,” writers prefer scribbling (or typing) their emotions than speaking them.

Still, it’s hard to put emotions about the season finale into words. 

It’s sad yet groundbreaking for representation that the most important place to begin is here: physical abuse of people with disabilities is never okay, and if Little Voice did not portray Mary King as a monster, this would be a very different review. 

It’s also emotional and psychological abuse to force Louie to keep her violence a secret from everyone else in his life.

As a disabled writer, I feel I must go further and say that their disability is not most disabled people’s biggest burden. Our biggest burden is that society fails to accommodate us in the necessary ways so that we can live to our full potential. 

So be careful if you feel the urge to give Mary any credit for leaving to spare her son abuse she “couldn’t help” but subject him to because of her being overwhelmed. Her issues are entirely hers and hers alone.

Louie is not to blame for the fact that his family needs to seek more support for him to help him become as independent as possible. At least Bess has begun that process. 

Having an autistic child and an alcoholic husband must have been very difficult. But hitting your child and running away to be the hero is not the way, Mary. Not. The. Way. 

We also must make it clear that Percy King’s actions — while not okay — are a result of alcoholism, which is a sickness. The abuse Mary subjected Louie to is not a symptom of illness.  

It’s frustrating that Bess lets anything her mom says propel her in any way, even if it is toward music and Samuel. At least her dad and Mrs. Finch also remind Bess of how powerful music can be in different yet equally sad ways.

But we need to talk about Samuel because he’s one of the few people in Bess’s life who have stood firmly by her side. 

I owe Bess an apology for ever doubting her eyes were closed to his feelings or what she deserves. Even if Bess is just realizing the full scope of her feelings now, she must have been filing his best moments in her mind. 

A kiss is just a kiss but that is a damn long kiss. It’s a kiss between friends who have been wanting to kiss for a long time. 

Shippers be warned, they’re not necessarily sailing yet — Ethan is in the audience at Saint C’s that night, though his presence serves no purpose. 

If the kisses between Bess and Sam and Prisha and Ananya aren’t enough to send chills down your spine, an acapella sing-along of a Sara Bareilles original with the audience providing percussion will do it — unless you’re heartless. 

Plus, Bess’s name scribbled on a napkin by a music executive is such a New York way to end the season. 

Where the episode falters is the time jump, even though it’s just a month. 

Little Voice doesn’t have time to fill in the details of the rich narrative it wants to tell, so it doesn’t even try sometimes and that’s a shame. 

At the beginning of the episode, we know that Bess has built a fragile bond with Mary and is also keeping parts of her life hidden from her.

We barely see a glimpse of that trust slowly growing, so we don’t have a clear picture of the new bond that has broken, no matter that dialogue tries to fill us in. 

It’s just great to see Bess and Louie walk away from their mom this time. Mary has some nerve to pitch a lake house life to the son she just slapped in public for being himself. Autistic is not a synonym for unintelligent.  

As if Broadway-obsessed Louie would ever leave Manhattan for a lake in Ohio.

He might do it for Bess, but he would let his frustration about it be known. 

This episode solidifies that the most important love story on Little Voice is between Bess, Louie, and the music they love, which can only be found and nurtured in Manhattan.

Little Voice deserves an encore season. This tragic musical fairytale is far from over.

Song Notes:

• I know for a fact that Sara Bareilles would be in Louie’s vlog IRL, and it’s a good choice not to have her perform on the show for her debut.
• I would’ve loved to hear a completely new song in the finale, though “Little Voice” is lovely. 
• Prisha’s sister should move to the Ohio lake house with Mary. New York doesn’t need them.  

What did you think of these episodes of Little Voice? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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