'Chasing Life' Recap: 'Life of Brenna'

On this week’s episode of Chasing Life, Brenna feels overwhelmed by her maid of honor duties, Leo takes dance lessons from Sara, and Dominic reconnects with his mother.

The episode opens with Brenna’s alarm ringing. When she wakes up, she sees an email from her ex, Greer, and she decides to fill her in on recent happenings. Brenna’s being forced to leave Charton and she also had to quit her job. Brenna says she’s tired of always living in April’s shadow, because now that April is sick, this has only gotten worse.

Later, Sara tries to cheer up Brenna at breakfast with little avail and April asks Brenna to be her maid of honor.

Cue opening theme.

When Brenna agrees to be April’s maid of honor, April begins to share wedding plans with her. Invitations will need to be picked up and mailed immediately, since the wedding is quickly approaching. Brenna has film club after school, but says she’ll make time to pick up the invites, too. April tells her dress shopping will take place the next day, as Leo enters and joins the Carver’s for breakfast.

At school, Brenna tells her friends she can no longer enter the film festival and their reactions to her being forced to leave Charton aren’t helping her situation. Brenna tries to convince herself—and her friends—that public school won’t be that bad when Margo interrupts, asking Brenna if she wants her help with editing her film. Brenna explains her time is tight because of her maid of honor duties and she’s only available that day. Margo agrees to work around her schedule and reassures her they’ll get everything done.

Later, complications arise when Brenna and Ford go to pick up April’s invitations; her last name is misspelled, meaning the invites will need to be re-printed.

Meanwhile, April and Dominic chat. April shares her concerns about adjusting to her clinical trial, while Dominic wonders if he should get together with his mother. Dominic’s still upset she lied to him, so April offers to accompany him if that would help things be less awkward. April also apologizes that he and Natalie’s relationship didn’t work out.

Simultaneously, Brenna and Ford race back to Charton only to find a note left on the computer in the editing room and no sign of Margo. Out of luck, Brenna decides to drop in on Natalie and the two sisters commiserate over their problems together.

Back at the Carver house, April prepares to go out and says she’ll meet everyone at dress shopping the following day, though Sara doesn’t love the idea of April being alone while adjusting to her new meds. Enter Leo, who says she’ll be staying with him, so he can look out for her. In addition, April asks a favor of her mom: to teach Leo how to dance. Sara agrees to give Leo a lesson the next evening.

The next day, April goes to lunch with Dominic and his mom at The Charles. Dominic’s mom, Mariann has made major changes recently, including getting her real estate license, and says it feels good to have direction in her life again. April, on the other hand, feels aimless having put her career aside to focus on her health. Hearing this, Dominic suggests she write for herself, since she wrote some great personal pieces for The Post.

Later, dress shopping proves to be a unique challenge for April due to her port scars, which in turn, freaks out the sales girl who’s supposed to be helping her. Simultaneously, Brenna has an uncomfortable encounter with Jake, the boy who accidentally got her pregnant two years prior and confides in Natalie, who almost alerts the rest of the Carver’s of her secret when she causes a scene.

Following this incident, Natalie and April talk and April discovers Brenna’s secret. April also rips into the salesgirl for acting weird around and promises to take her business elsewhere.

After leaving the dress store and heading to pick up the new invites, Brenna gets a text from Margo, causing her to stop by Charton.

Meanwhile, April and Beth discuss Brenna’s secret and April is hurt that Brenna didn’t tell her. Beth says Brenna probably went to Natalie since Natalie is more of “buddy” to Brenna, whereas, April is more like a mother figure.

At Charton, Brenna and Margo edit Brenna’s film and Brenna apologizes for blowing Margo off. Margo understands why Brenna’s been overwhelmed in tending to April; she explains how she’s kept in touch with her ex, who’s an alcoholic and that it’s hard to sometimes say no to people. Brenna makes a move on Margo, but Margo rejects her, claiming Brenna is too young for her. Brenna tries to play things off by saying that she thought it’d be okay to go for it, since she’s leaving Charton and Margo will no longer be her advisor. Brenna leaves after things get awkward.

Dominic has dinner with his mom and she fills him in on the house she’s trying to sell. They also talk about Dominic’s love life and how Natalie broke up with him, thinking he’s still in love with April. Dominic’s mom asks him if he does still love April, but he claims he doesn’t.
At the Carver house, Sara teaches Leo how to dance and Leo fails miserably, while Brenna has a breakdown when she realizes she left April’s invitations at Charton. Wanting space, Brenna goes to Natalie’s and soon enough, April shows up, reassuring Brenna she’s not upset. The girls also plan to go up to Charton to retrieve the invites so Brenna doesn’t have to go on Monday having already said goodbye to her friends.

Back at the Carver house, Leo and Sara have a conversation about sharing care of April and Sara offers Leo another dance lesson. He does much better the second time around.

Meanwhile, April, Brenna, and Natalie prepare to sneak in to Charton.

Simultaneously, Dominic’s mother receives word that she didn’t close the deal on the house she tried to sell earlier and Dominic lets her know that he forgives her despite their past differences. Mariann also advises Dominic to look at his future wife the way he looks at April.

Back at Charton, the girls sneak into the editing room, but get stuck in there when the alarm sounds. A fight ensues, as Brenna seems closer to Natalie than April, which soon prompts the girls to share all their secrets, so they’re all clued in to each other’s lives. Among the information shared is Natalie’s discovery of their father’s unpublished manuscript and Brenna’s issues with Margo and film club.

The next morning, April and Natalie head out and Brenna decides to finish editing her movie with Margo. Brenna has a talk with Margo and Margo has a change of heart about saying Brenna was too young for her to be interested. Following this, the two share a moment.

At home, Sara and April address April’s invites.

Meanwhile, Dominic sees his mom’s real estate ad on a house, April and Brenna discuss sharing their dad’s book with Sara, Brenna reads an email from Margo, and the Charton student body notices Jake’s trophy case pictures have been defaced.

End of episode.

Image Credit: Walter McBride/INFphoto.com

Chasing Life airs every Monday at 9 p.m. on ABC Family.