We all knew it was coming, but that didn’t make it easier.
On Dance Moms Season 6 Episode 18, Maddie and Mackenzie Ziegler performed their last competition with the ALC before saying goodbye …
If you watch Dance Moms online, you knew that this was not only going to be a crucial plot point of Season 6, but a contentious event.
The girls’ mom, Melissa Gisoni, made it clear she wasn’t happy with Abby Lee Miller, who resented that Maddie and Mackenzie are bolting.
As a result, the ALDC shot-caller is “lashing out.”
According to Jessalynn Siwa, Abby is trying to hide her feelings but doing a very poor job of it. Melissa, for her part, was pretty emotional.
“I’m not really ready for it to end,” Gisoni says.
The farewell coronation she was hoping for didn’t materialize, however, when some of the other girls were presented with the spotlight.
“This is supposed to be Maddie and Mackenzie’s great week for fun stuff and now it is not even about my kids at all,” she lamented.
When one of the other mothers calls Melissa out on her statements, she responded, “This is my kids last week, honey. Make it nice.”
Did she forget that Abby Lee Mille is involved?
To hear Abby tell it, she’s not sad Maddie, Mackenzie and Melissa are leaving, but rather she’s just worried about her current students.
As such, she all but ignores the Zieglers after their final efforts while congratulating Areana for her emotional performance at the event.
Miller did offer one parting shot to M&M:
“This will be the last time that I work with Maddie and Mackenzie. It’s exciting, it’s fun, it’s wonderful.”
“It’s kind of like when you graduate from high school and you’re off to something, maybe not better, maybe not bigger, but different.”
“But you’re excited about it, so it’s not a bad thing, it’s not a sad thing. It is, maybe, perhaps for some of you, a blessing in disguise.”
“You never know what your future holds. They don’t. They think they have it all planned out. Maybe, maybe not, who knows? Just saying.”
At awards, Maddie places first with her solo but Areana beats out Mackenzie, placing second overall. But that’s not why Melissa was upset.
Hurt by Miller’s lack of emotion regarding her daughters’ departure, Gisoni quasi-lashed out, while Abby told her to be more “grateful.”
Not the best parting of ways in human history.
Still, for the Ziegler girls and their mom, the experience of being in the ALDC and the show as much more positive than not, on the whole.
“Overall our time at the ALDC has been fabulous, exciting, adventurous,” Melissa told the camera. “More good times than bad time for sure.”