Dave Franco revealed that Adam Driver “changed animation forever” due to his voiceover work as Kylo Ren in “Star Wars.”

Things are really heating up on Stumble as the cheerleading championships in Daytona are fast approaching. 

On the sitcom’s penultimate episode, “Making Mat” — which debuted on Friday, March 6 on NBC and will be available to stream on Peacock the next day — junior college cheer coach Courteney Potter (Jenn Lyon) had to make the impossible decision to designate one of her squad members as an alternate, meaning that person won’t get to compete at the championships. 

The dilemma came about after Courteney added some members to her team in the prior episode in order to boost the squad’s chances of winning the big competition. That left her with one cheerleader too many. 

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In “Making Mat,” Courteney told the mockumentary cameras of her squad, “Only 16 can make mat at Daytona — that means compete — so, one of them will not get to perform and they will just go as an alternate.”

She decided she had to “lead with my head over my heart and take emotion out of it” when it came to figuring out who to cut. So she held “mat tryouts,” judging on a point system as the members of her squad performed various exercises including jumps, partner stunts, and a basket toss.

Cheerleader Sally messed up in her first two tryout rounds

After the first day of tryouts, back at Courteney’s house, the coach tried to whittle down her list of cheerleaders that would make mat by placing their faces on popsicle sticks and separating them into two groups. When her husband Boon E. Potter (Taran Killam) walked in, he asked, “Why is popsicle Sally off to the side and not with the others?”

Boon grew attached to Sally (Georgie Murphy), who doesn’t have a family, when she moved in with the couple for a bit after Courteney discovered she was living out of her car. 

“I love Sally but you and I both know she’s not my strongest cheerleader,” Courteney told Boon.

She added that there were still more tryout rounds to come, but Boon wasn’t happy.  

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During the partner stunts round of the tryouts, Sally stumbled, just as she did in the jump portion.

Seemingly coming to the decision to cut Sally, Courteney removed the cheerleader’s popsicle stick from her faux mat stand back at home — and Boon promptly put it back. 

When Courteney broke the news to Boon at church that she was going to designate Sally as an alternate, Boon had an outburst and he — and the rest of the congregation — persuaded the coach to give Sally one more chance. 

Sally was nervous before her basket toss tryouts, so her teammates tried to psych her up. Most of their efforts fell flat, until one of them got Sally to find inspiration by asking, “What about something sad that you’ve overcome that’s given you power?”

Just then, Sally spotted Boon in the school gym’s bleachers, frantically praying for Sally to do well. Flashback scenes showed that Sally was thinking about bonding with Boon as a father figure, and she finally said, “OK, I got something.”

Glancing at Boon again just before she attempted the basket toss as a flyer, Sally nailed the difficult stunt. 

Boon was thrilled and Courteney quietly celebrated, not wanting to seem biased. 

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Finally, it was Madonna’s (Arianna Davis) turn to try out. Everyone was sure she’d be great, especially since she founded Headltston State Junior College’s cheer team before Courteney even arrived at the school to coach. 

But Madonna couldn’t seem to concentrate and even fell during her routine, telling her boyfriend and fellow cheerleader Dimarcus (Jarrett Austin Brown), “I just got really nervous.”

Madonna tried again, but was only able to mutter a “sorry” before running out of the gym.

“Oh no,” Courteney said. “She got the yips.”

Courteney had planned on telling the cheer squad members individually if they’d be competing in the championships, but they insisted on hearing the news as a group.

“Madonna,” Courteney began, as the the group cheered, thinking she’d made the cut. But then Courteney continued, “I’m sorry, honey.”

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The entire squad was in shock and heartbroken, but Madonna just responded, “No, it’s OK, it’s OK. It’s more than OK.”

Her teammates, however, weren’t having it. Sally just looked at their coach, and asked, bewildered, “What?”

Headltston’s cheerleaders weren’t happy with Coach Courteney for cutting Madonna

Back at home, Courteney decided to read her emails to see if the cheerleaders had turned on each other. But as it turned out, they’d turned on her, with multiple members demanding in writing that Madonna make mat. 

The coach finally opened up an email from Madonna, bracing herself by telling Boon, “Put on your big boy pants, this might get rough.”

But instead of an angry email, Madonna had sent a video of herself playing guitar. Before she started singing, Madonna said, “Hey coach, I know you have to make a hard choice, but no matter what happens, I just really want to let you know how much you mean to me… and as the original cheer team, I’m not going anywhere.”

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Madonna then went on to strum her guitar and sing a song about a “group of unlikely friends” and the “coach lady that brought us all together.”

It was too much for Courteney to bear, and she began sobbing uncontrollably.

To find out what happens at the championships in Daytona, tune into the Stumble finale on Friday, March 13 at 8:30/7:30c on NBC or stream it on Peacock the next day.

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