All the characters feel the pressure and intensity of the approaching world premiere. Insecurities are revealed as they push themselves to meet individual expectations.

First Aired: October 20, 2002 (Global) February 10, 2003 (Bravo)

This is the most hectic and stressful installment yet. It is February, 68 days before the premiere. Following his review of the troupe's progress, Cirque CEO Guy Laliberté's impression can be summed up in two words, "Not enough." Everybody has been working hard but the show is nowhere near the level it needs to be at this time, two months before the April premiere. Oleg, a veteran performer with Cirque, is aware that the troupe is desperately behind schedule as he compares his current situation to his past experiences during the creation of Quidam. "Six years ago it was a little more strong. Not even two months before the show, like five months, I remember my number [Banquine]; we started to run through it in September compared with right now, where all the big numbers don't even do run-throughs yet."

Cirque's make-up, costume, and props shops are working well into the night. The cast and creative team accelerate their work in order to be ready in time for the premiere. They work 15 hour days, six to seven days per week. Everybody is stressed and the strain is starting to show. Director Dominic Champagne is becoming increasingly agitated with the troupe's slow progress. At a group meeting he berates the cast and asks them to start working with a more focused attitude. During a late rehearsal of the group dance number that opens the show the entire troupe seems tired and dispassionate. Choreographer Michael Montanaro vents his frustration to the cast, "Listen! Listen! Look, do you know what I want? I want to go home. I can't stand to think that you're gonna be there opening night doing this [mocks the cast by dancing around flimsily] Please, I beg you."

Accelerating their work is not easy for the already weary cast members. Oleg is starting to show his age. As he rehearses his Acrobatic Pas de Deux number with his partner Tatiana he has a surprisingly hard time with many lifts and figures. During Oleg's struggles, Tatiana must endure his frustration. However, Oleg's experience tells him to take a break. He is burnt out from all of the work so he takes a day off and goes to a spa. We watch as he gets pampered with a massage and a haircut. He comes back to work relaxed and rejuvenated, immensely improving his performance.

Two other veteran Cirque performers, Olga (Quidam) and Anton (Saltimbanco) work with Dominic Champagne to develop one of the show's interstitial sequences. Anton, a 16-year old Russian contortionist will perform an aerial contortion act in the new show as well as the lead character, the mythical Greek Icarus who flew too close to the sun on wings of wax and feathers and fell to his death in the sea. One of Anton's biggest challenges is to create an emotionally engaging character who will thread through the show's narrative. Particularly, he must develop a good on-stage relationship with Olga who plays his love interest. "In the show I have to fall in love with [Olga] but in real life she's six years older than me and . . . I don't know, we'll see," Anton says bashfully. Later in the episode Dominic Champagne directs the two leads in an underwater photo shoot where they film images to be projected onto the set during the show. The underwater filming produces some beautiful and evocative images.

Evocative imagery is just what Marketing Director Louise Mercier must find. She is in charge of producing a poster and main icon for the unfinished show. She works with a Montreal marketing agency which creates several designs based on the show's Icarus theme. She is under pressure to finalize the graphic since Guy Laliberté is leaving for a month and wants the show's poster to be completed before his departure. Louise meets with a group of the show's designers to review the candidate posters. Louise's favourite design features a sky of dark clouds pierced with a man-shaped hole set against the moon, "This one would sell more tickets," she says. However, Guy Laliberté prefers an eye-catching design with a yellow background.

Stella and Raquel's trapeze team works day in and day out to improve the Triple Trapeze act. Guy Laliberté still has not approved the act for the show. The team members have exhausted themselves trying to catch up to the rest of the troupe and must now push even harder. "It's painful because we do too much," admits aerial acrobatics coach André Simard. Stella is frustrated and visibly fatigued. She expresses her dismay during dinner with her boyfriend. "We have a lot of work to do and we're not even close to doing any of it so that's a little frustrating cause it's all going to come in one huge explosion." On top of having to improve the acrobatics, the trapeze team needs to work on their on-stage chemistry, the artistic and dramatic elements of the act are not as strong as they need to be. Director of Creation Andrew Watson encourages the team to be more expressive, to make the act more sensual. Dominic Champagne motivates, "I think your characters are sexually mature. This is a key, also. It's quite important to assume that presence. Trust yourselves and go make decisions, do your own homework and try to come here with more decision. If you really want to stand up, now you have the opportunity but you have to push yourselves a little more." The artists come to a realization; to save their act they must take matters into their own hands and give it absolutely everything they've got. Stella explains, "We took control of our act, we took control of our destinies and said 'y'know we're kinda being placated but we're gonna show you that we're stronger than that, we're bigger than that and we're gonna come up with stuff ASAP.'" Their coaches are impressed by the progress due to their newfound determination.

At the end of the episode we see that the troupe's hard work is beginning to pay off, the disparate elements that make up a complete show are finally starting to come together, and slowly but surely the show is starting to take off.