Hollywood Arts midseason ending explained: Emmy’s massive new crush sparks a brutal sibling war

While Netflix's Hollywood Arts left fans reeling over Trina and Robbie's missed connection, it dropped an equally massive, Romeo & Juliet-style bombshell for the new class: Emmy was officially sneaking around with Matteo—her own brother Oscar's bitter nemesis.

Oscar (Martin Kamm) and Emmy (Alyssa Miles) featured an interesting sibling dynamic. They weren't quite as toxic as the Vega siblings were, but they definitely liked to best one another. While Trina used to be the toxic sibling, she often gave Oscar and Emmy key advice, including that the performance world had room for both of their unique skills. They had made progress until the entire friend group worked the Hollywood Arts Renaissance Fair, and Emmy found herself in a Romeo & Juliet plot when she fell for Oscar's arch-rival, Matteo.

Emmy found herself in a Shakespearean family feud

The students initially thought Shakespeare sounded boring when Trina signed them up for the Renaissance Faire until Emmy found herself as a modern Juliet. Emmy and Matteo unexpectedly hit it off at the Hollywood Oaks Renaissance Faire, not knowing that Matteo was Oscar's archrival. A deeply betrayed Oscar forced his sister into a brutal ultimatum: choose between her own blood or his worst enemy. To make matters worse, Oscar was convinced that Matteo didn't even actually like Emmy but was using her as a cruel weapon for psychological revenge.

While the boys were acting immature, it was difficult to believe Matteo didn't like Emmy since he climbed a ladder to romance her, almost like the Romeo & Juliet balcony scene. Of course boys will be boys, and they literally dueled over her.

Caught in the middle of a family war, Emmy turned to her chaotic substitute teacher for guidance—and received peak Trina Vega advice. Trina told Emmy to pretend to choose her brother by erasing her name from the future Renaissance Faire sign-up sheet, then sneakily re-adding it later.

Naturally, Trina's plan completely backfired. Trina abandoned the area before the job was finished, leaving before Matteo walked up. Seeing Emmy's name crossed off, a heartbroken Matteo assumed she had chosen her brother over him and angrily crossed his own name off the sheet, leaving Emmy under the impression that he now hated her.

Despite the massive misunderstanding and Oscar's strict demands, the midseason finale proved that this high-stakes romance wasn't over. In the tense final closing sequence, Matteo texted Emmy, asking if they could try again. Emmy replied to him right in the middle of class, right under the noses of her brother and close friends.

When Hollywood Arts returns to Netflix for the second half of its 26-episode order, Emmy and Matteo's secret relationship will be a ticking time bomb. Oscar is bound to find out, and when he realizes his sister defied him to play Romeo & Juliet with his rival, the sibling fallout will completely fracture the group dynamic.

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