As tensions mount even higher, the final details are tended to. Guy and Dominic Champagne, Director of Varekai, try to calm the artists' nerves as the world premiere approaches. The last dress rehearsal is performed.

First Aired: November 17, 2002 (Global) March 10, 2003 (Bravo)

With each subsequent episode of the series the stress level increases. This installment opens three days prior to opening night. Tension is high, patience is low and big changes are being made to the show with little time left to smooth over the rough patches. Director Dominic Champagne is charged with the monumental task of locking down all the elements of the show. The Director is not seeing enough performance quality from the performers. He lectures the cast members about their overall performance up to this point, "It's your show. It's clear what you have to do. Do it and give it to the audience. Ok, I know now this show is very demanding for you and I know you're scared about doing that show ten times a week for years. Now we're doing the best show we can do in the amount of time that we have. When you are [on stage] you've got to participate, 'What's the action? What's the focus? Where's the focus?' So you don't upstage but you're alive."

Gareth and Ashley have been removed from the Icarian Games act and now perform only minor supporting roles in Varekai. They are both obviously unhappy about their new reality. Gareth and Ashley's replacements arrive; the Stevens Brothers are a world class Icarian team from Italy. They will have to move extremely quickly to integrate into the world of Varekai in the two days before the premiere.

Olga is struggling with the choreography for her Hand-balancing on Canes number. The acrobatic aspect of her act is flawless but her dramatic performance lacks quality. Stella speculates, "Olga's act is beautiful. She's an amazing and talented hand-balancer. She's good on her hands, not so good on her feet . . . Maybe it has a lot to do with her being the Cirque baby and being protected by her dad and everybody sort of takes care of her that's kind of stifling her maturity." After struggling through the dance portion of her act Olga leaves the stage and is obviously distraught. We meet up with her backstage, "It's no one's fault, it's just me, I'm just frustrated a bit and I shouldn't be. Something goes wrong and I get just like freaked out. So I have to be patient."

Raquel and Stella's Triple Trapeze number is finally blossoming after months of hard work. The act is becoming fluid and aesthetically pleasing. However, the women now have other concerns. At Cirque they not only perform their trapeze act but appear as supporting characters throughout the show. Raquel and Stella perform roles in the Body Skating act which opens the show's second half and assist Olga during her number which leaves the trapeze artists with very little time to focus on their own act. Raquel and Stella express their concerns to Head Coach Boris. They complain that having all of their duties concentrated in the show's second half puts them at risk for injury. Boris promises the problem will somehow be rectified.

At 11:00PM the night before the final invited dress rehearsal Dominic stages Olga and Anton's wedding, the show's finale, for the first time. The tired performers finish work at 1:00AM and relax with drinks in the dining trailer. Tomorrow they will perform the show in front of an audience for the first time. Luckily that audience will mostly consist of Cirque staff and invited friends and family members.

The morning of the final dress rehearsal Olga looks exhausted and has lost her voice. "I didn't sleep good, my throat is killing me. Oh well, I still have to go." She says. Before heading to the big top she must make a stop at Cirque Headquarters for the final costume fitting of her yet-unfinished wedding dress for the finale.

Kevin and Andrew Atherton pick up their family at the airport. Parents, sister, Grandmother, aunt, uncle and cousins, the entire Atherton clan has come from England to watch their boys perform. One of the twins confesses, "It's gonna be a bit weird to perform in front of my parents, there's a bit of added pressure but I wouldn't say a lot." Joining the Atherton family in the audience will be Stella's parents, Raquel's boyfriend and Olga's parents.

Oleg and Tatiana receive some good news; their Acrobatic Pas de Deux act which was previously shelved for the premiere will be performed after all. They are elated.

Before the final rehearsal begins, Dominic Champagne informs the performers that their brand new big top has just been christened, "We're starting the life of a new big top tonight and the name of the big top is Vivia which means 'full of life'. Viva Vivia!"

With Vivia full of invited guests, the lights dim and the stage comes alive. Backstage it is pandemonium, performers scramble to make their cues. On stage the performance does not go well, riddled with errors and missteps. There are falls during the Icarian Games, the Solo on Crutches dancer takes a spill, the Athertons fail to catch each other in mid-air during Aerial Straps and then stumble on their landing. For all her worries, Olga's hand-balancing act is one of the few that is performed flawlessly.

Afterward, the artists give the performance mixed reactions. The Atherton twins are disheartened, "The audience is just silent, it's really crappy." Olga gets a verdict from her mother, "There has to be that sense of magic. You can't fake it. You have it or you don't."

At this stage of the game there is not much that can be done to fix the flaws in the performance, the performers and creators will have to rely on a Cirque dictum: Bad dress rehearsal, good opening night. Tomorrow they will premiere Varekai to the world and see for the first time if it will fly or fall.