Leap of Faith

"Leap of Faith " is the twenty-sixth episode/finale of the third and final season, and series finale of Braceface.

Plot[]

Sharon, Maria, Alden and Brock are getting ready to leave for an environmental science camp (called "Enviro-Camp") for the weekend. Brock's packed way more stuff than his girlfriend and their respective best friends have, and after Sharon points out that they're only going to be gone for a few days, Brock explains that he just wants to be prepared. The bus for Enviro-Camp soon comes by and Julia, the camp director, introduces herself and Alex, one of the counselors. Sharon's stunned by how good-looking Alex is, which Maria notices, and they and the rest of the campers get on the bus so Julia can take roll call to make sure all the campers who signed up for Enviro-Camp are on the bus.

During the ride, Alex catches Sharon staring and questions her on it, to which she claims that she was staring at his necklace, which she complements him on. Alex thanks her and says that the necklace is from India--he elaborates that while he's never been to India, he wants to save up money for a trip to India before he leaves for college. Alex admits that part of the reason he wants to go to India is because he's really into yoga and meditation--Sharon explains that she's into yoga as well and asks Alex if his girlfriend gave him the necklace. Alex claims that he doesn't currently have a girlfriend, which delights Sharon.

After finally arriving at the camp, Julia tells the campers that their first activity is going to be a trash pick-up "scavenger hunt," and that whoever finds the most interesting piece of garbage gets a prize. After Julia tells everyone to grab a partner for the hunt, Sharon asks Alex if he's coming on the trash pick-up, but he has to go finishing putting up the tents. Sharon's a little bummed about this, but seems to get over it after Alden comes up to her and asks her to be his partner, as Brock and Maria paired up for the hunt. After they picking up trash in the woods, Alden says that he's happy that he came to Enviro-Camp and Sharon admits that she's also glad that Alden was able to come to Enviro-Camp. During this, Alden and Sharon end up having a bit of a moment where Alden stares at Sharon for a bit--Sharon's a little weirded out by this and doesn't get why Alden's looking at her like that, and thinks that something must be stuck in her braces. After briefly distracting Alden, Sharon quickly cleans out her braces before going back to talking to Alden.

Later on, after the all the campers have gathered up and Julia's looking over all the pieces of trash that they found, Sharon's ultimately chosen as the winner due to a really old bottle she found while out on the trail with Alden. The prize ends up being a bag of marshmallows, which Sharon promises to share with the other campers. While everyone (minus Sharon and Alex) follows Julia to the lake to go swimming before lunch, Sharon takes Alex aside and explains that because of her vegetarianism, she doesn't eat marshmallows--she elaborates by explaining that one of the main ingredients in marshmallows is gelatin, which is made from animal skin/cartilage/bones, thus meaning that marshmallows aren't technically vegetarians. Alex is surprised by this but promises to get Sharon something more suited for her personal tastes after she gives the marshmallows back to him.

Later on, Sharon and Maria are helping Alex carry some stuff down to the lake for lunch. While swimming around in the lake, Alden confesses something to Brock: he still has feelings for Sharon (and tells him about the little "moment" they had during the scavenger hunt) but makes him promise not to tell anyone (including Maria). Brock questions Alden if he really wants to mess up the friendship that he and Sharon have now, and Alden admits that he isn't sure what to do, especially since he's not even sure if Sharon returns his feelings for her. Brock's willing to keep quiet about it for now, but points out to Alden that if he really wants Sharon to know how he really feels, he needs to tell her soon or else she might end up with someone else (pointing out Sharon's newfound crush on Alex). Later on, after Alden and Sharon go back to lake's beach for lunch, Sharon sees some flowers by her towel that someone left for her--it's apparent that Alden left the flowers for her, but Sharon, not realizing that Alden still has feelings for her, thinks that Alex left the flowers (possibly as a "consolation prize" for what happened earlier).

As the campers are getting ready for a nature hike, Alden's complaining about what happened to Brock, and the guys get worried that Alex might return Sharon's feelings and Alden decides he'll just have to try harder to tell Sharon how he feels about her. While this is going on, Sharon's talking with Maria about the flowers, and is convinced that it's a sign that Alex must return her feelings for her. Since they're still not totally certain about it, Maria says that they'll just look for signs on the hike, since they'll be spending the afternoon with him anyway. During the hike and then a canoe ride in the lake, Alden tries doing things to show Sharon that he still likes her, but he just ends up making a fool of himself (and Brock gets caught in the crossfire).

Once they're done with the hiking and canoeing, the campers are getting ready for a campfire and Alden decides that he'll just have to be more direct in telling Sharon how he feels about her. After Sharon complains about being cold, Alex goes to get more sticks to start the fire and Alden uses this an opportunity to leave his red sweater in her tent--when Alden, Brock and Alex advise Sharon to put on another layer, she goes to her tent and finds Alden's sweater. However, Sharon doesn't realize that that sweater is Alden's and thinks that Alex must have left the sweater for her, and is further convinced that Alex returns her feelings for her.

When Sharon comes back to the campfire after putting on the sweater, she goes to sit next to Alex, making Alden and Brock realize that Sharon thinks that the red sweater belongs to Alex. Later in the night, while Sharon, Maria, Alden, Brock and Alex are singing a song, Julia makes them stop and Alex brings out his guitar. Sharon's impressed that Alex knows how to play the guitar and admits that a friend of hers tried teaching her how to play, but she just couldn't get the hang of it. Alex (not realizing that Alden was the friend who tried teaching Sharon) then says, "Well maybe you just didn't have a very good teacher," which, of course, makes Alden mad. Alex offers to teach Sharon how to play guitar as a consolation prize for the scavenger hunt, which Sharon agrees to, but then Alden gets between and complements Alex's guitar before showing off his own guitar skills. This makes Sharon mad and she interrupts Alden to drag him off and talk to him in private. While Sharon and Alden are arguing, Alex admits to Julia that while he does like Sharon, he's not romantically interested in her.

As Sharon and Maria are getting ready for bed, they're talking about how Alden acted at the campfire, and now Maria's convinced that Alex must return Sharon's feelings for him and tells Sharon how happy she is for her, and questions her best friend on what her next move is going to be. Sharon says that Alex told her that he's going to Jump Rock to practice yoga in the morning, and Sharon plans on meeting him there and telling her how she feels about him. Alden and Brock happen to overhear this while they're getting ready for bed as well, and after all the stuff that happened before, Alden isn't sure what to do about his feelings for Sharon.

In the morning, Sharon leaves to go to Jump Rock, and Maria wishes her luck -- Alden eventually leaves to follow Sharon, and after Maria sees this, she goes to try and stop him but has trouble getting out of her tent after the zipper gets stuck. Brock goes to help her out and is ultimately forced to reveal to Maria that Alden still has feelings for Sharon (very strong feelings at that), and that all the stuff that Sharon and Maria thought that Alex did for Sharon was actually Alden's doing. Maria's shocked by all of this, and after she and Brock hear Alex waking up, they work together to keep Alex from going to Jump Rock and interrupting Alden and Sharon.

While Sharon's waiting for Alex at Jump Rock, Alden comes up to her and explains that the reason he's been acting the way he has been since arriving at Enviro-Camp is because he still has feelings for her and wants to pursue a relationship with her again. Sharon's shocked by all this -- but then she admits that she's not entirely certain if she wants to pursue a romantic relationship with Alden again, for two reasons:

For starters, Alden had been the one to break things off when they were dating -- Alden admits that he regrets doing that.
Even without the above point, it's been kind of a long time since Alden and Sharon have broken up, and Sharon admits to Alden that, at this point, she hasn't really thought about him in a romantic light for quite some time.

As Sharon and Alden are talking things out, Sharon steps too far and falls off the ledge into the lake -- Alden jumps into the lake to save Sharon. Alden gets to her and is able to get her to shore safely -- after this happens, Sharon (after thinking over all the stuff that Alden told her), realizes that she feels the same way about him as he does about her and decides that getting back together with Alden might not be that bad.

Sharon and Alden eventually walk back to camp while holding hands (re-signifying their status as a couple), which Maria's quick to point (but makes it clear that she's happy for them). After Alden and Sharon change into some dry clothes, Sharon brings up one crucial thing: why didn't Alex show up at Jump Rock for his early-morning yoga session? As it turns out, Brock tied an entire netting of knots over Alex's tent to keep him from leaving and interrupting Sharon and Alden (though Julia and the rest of the campers, not knowing about what was going on between Alden and Sharon, dismiss it as some kind of prank). While everyone else is helping Alex (who tells them to hurry up because he has to go to the bathroom), Sharon and Alden share a kiss and watch the sunrise.

Characters' Last Appearance[]

Major[]

Minor[]

Hannah Corbett

Trivia[]

Alex never reveals who gave him the necklace he wears.
While Marlo doesn't physically appear, she's mentioned by Alden, who claims that she's not into camping.
- Alden also claims that, if he and Marlo hadn't broken up, he probably wouldn't have come to Enviro-Camp -- he elaborates by saying that despite not being into camping herself, Marlo didn't like doing stuff without her around.
Though Alden claims that Alex is 18-years-old, Alex must still be in high school (or is at least taking a gap year), because after Sharon complemented his necklace and he told it was from India, he says that he wants to save up some money and go on a trip to India before he starts college.
Brock and Maria's middle names are revealed to be "Shelby" and "Nunziatina," respectively -- prior to the events of this episode, Maria claims that Brock had told her that he didn't have a middle name (presumably because he found it embarrassing).
- While it's never explained how Brock got his middle name, it can be assumed Maria's middle name (an Italian name that basically means "annunciation") was chosen by Mrs. Wong (who's of Italian descent), as Maria claims that her mom was the one who had filled out her sign-up form for Enviro-Camp and that "Nunziatina" is a family name through her side.
  - The name "Shelby" basically means "willow tree"/"willow farm." Also, though Shelby is technically a unisex name, it's more common as a girl's name than a boy's name (which could be the reason why Brock feels embarrassed by his middle name).

Leap of Faith

Contents

Plot[]

Characters' Last Appearance[]

Major[]

Minor[]

Trivia[]

Gallery[]

Fan Feed