GLOW – Freaky Tuesday

By: Ellie Dolan-Yates

Classical music plays as we see a montage of Tammé (Kia Stevens) struggling with her back pain. She showers, takes pills with wine, Bash (Chris Lowell) announces the show, Tammé jumps into the ring and repeat until Tammé is in too much pain to bear. Despite wrestling every night Tammé sneezes in the bathroom and her back has gone. Following the opening credits, we learn that Bernie (the director of Rhapsody at the Fan-Tan who we met in Episode 1) has sadly passed away. Sandy (Geena Davis) is delivering a eulogy to several of the entertainers and staff. After delivering her eulogy she tells Bash, Rhonda (Kate Nash) and Debbie (Betty Gilpin) that she would like to extend GLOW’s run until the end of the year! Another nine months! Bash is clearly ecstatic, but Debbie is obviously thinking about her son who she already hates being away from. Bash starts to say yes, but Debbie says they need to discuss it with everyone. Bash asks Debbie what there is to discuss and Debbie quite rightly says that’s exactly why they need a discussion. When Debbie says it’s not about the money, it’s brutal being away from her child. Bash says that it doesn’t seem like it has been. Rhonda tells them to stop arguing since they’re basically at a funeral.

Tammé is lying on her back on the floor of her hotel room. Reggie (Marianna Palka) lets in a masseuse who tells Tammé that she should see a doctor. Tammé says that she’ll be fine, but Reggie looks worried. Sam (Marc Maron) places his notepad in his fancy folder (sorry, portfolio) and we then see him talking to Justine (Britt Baron) downstairs. As they talk it turns out that she is doing better at school and her and Billy have broken up. Oh, and she has a new haircut! She’s also spending Spring Break in Vegas. Sam reveals that he will be playing ref from now on. Sam is about to show Justine his screenplay when she announces that she’s finished hers and drops it on the table in front of him. He starts reading it, but Justine leaves and says she doesn’t want to be near Sam when he’s reading it. He shouts after her saying that he doesn’t have to read it right now.

Sandy is sat alone next to the ring, drinking a bottle of gin. Debbie joins her and Sandy explains that she doesn’t like to get drunk in the bar. Debbie says she wants to talk to Sandy, but Sandy says it isn’t a good time and to imagine how she’d feel if Bash died. Debbie said it would be a shame given his young age and looks. Debbie tells Sandy that she dropped a real bomb on her with the extended run offer. Sandy asks her why she didn’t have a plan for if the show became successful. Debbie says she wasn’t thinking that far ahead and Sandy tells her that if she wants to be a good producer, she should. Sandy says she will pop by the show tonight. Bash finds Sam at the bar reading Justine’s screenplay. Bash hands him a piece of paper with a number on it and tells Sam that’s how much he’d be making if they stayed in Vegas. Bash says that they need to get Debbie on board and he wants Sam to be on his side until Debbie agrees. That’s why he kept Sam around. Sam says he thought Bash kept him to direct, but Bash says Sam is basically on a paid vacation. Sam says he’s not Bash’s butler so he can’t pay him to be his friend and agree with him. Bash bites back and says he’s paying him to sit in his hotel room writing a screenplay that won’t get anywhere.

In the dressing room, Reggie asks Tammé how her massage was and Stacey (Kimmy Gatewood), as Ethel, says she could use a massage. Tammé asks if she could play one of the biddies, which prompts the whole group to play character swapsies! Jenny (Ellen Wong) points out that no one’s costumes will fit but Debbie says it would be a good idea. She obviously has it in her mind that Sandy is coming to the show and is thinking that this stunt would mean the end of GLOW. Reggie says that she should be Liberty Belle seeing as she was her first. Throwback! This prompts all of the girls to argue over who should be Liberty Belle until Debbie says it should be Ruth (Alison Brie) and that she will play Zoya. The girls get excited and head for the costumes.

Justine has been seated with Sandy for the show. Justine explains that her dad’s in the show and Sandy says her father figure died this week. Bash introduces the show and introduces Ethel and Edna. Oh, his face when he sees Tammé and Arthie (Sunita Mani) emerge dressed as biddies! The audience is loving it! Sam, dressed as the ref, seems impressed. Debbie emerges as Zoya, middle fingers up to the audience, cigar in mouth alongside Melrose (Jackie Tohn) who has taken on Fortune Cookie. Bash’s face drops again. Debbie rubs being Zoya in Bash’s face. As they enter the ring Melrose puts on a very stereotypical display. As the biddies, Zoya and Fortune Cookie wrestle Jenny is in the dressing room trying to sort out everyone’s costumes. Yolanda (Shakira Berrera) will be playing Black Magic and Rhonda says instead of being Machu Picchu she’s going to be a British explorer who has conquered it. Reggie is struggling to find a character. Jenny hears Melrose over the speakers doing and over-exaggerated Chinese accent and asks why she is doing it. Sheila (Gayle Rankin) says to Jenny that’s the same voice she does, but Jenny says it’s not the same as Melrose is white. She asks if Sheila is going to change, but she says she’ll be back as she needs a minute.

Zoya, Fortune Cookie and the biddies continue to wrestle, but Debbie and Melrose notice something isn’t quite right with Tammé. As usual, Zoya turns on Fortune Cookie and wins, prompting Bash to refer to her as Mel-tune Cookie. Bash takes the crown and enters the ring to present it to Debbie. He asks her what she thinks she is doing, knowing that Sandy is watching. Ruth, as Liberty Belle (but looking and sounding more like Dorothy from Wizard of Oz) challenges Zoya from the audience. Justine and Sandy are loving it. They play out the match, taking on each other’s moves until Liberty Belle wins. The crowd give a standing ovation. Bash again enters the ring to present the crown. He’s so on edge. Carmen (Britney Young), as Welfare Queen, challenges Liberty Belle. Carmen fully gets into character as Welfare Queen, seizing the opportunity of being in the limelight. Sam is loving it, but Bash shows him he’s not. Sam says he feels like he’s on acid. Dawn (Rebekka Johnson) attempts and fails to take on Junkchain’s dance moves whilst Stacey in character as Beirut gets ready to wrestle her. As she pretends to pray on her knees, Bash puts his head in his hands. Jenny is playing Britannica with, of course, an over-exaggerated English accent. Cherry (Sydelle Noel) has taken on Melrose’s persona who is getting ready to fight Reggie the nun. As Bash is losing hope for this tag team match, Sheila bursts through the doors dressed as Liza Minnelli! Everybody is stunned. Sheila has a black cropped wig and is wearing a short red cocktail dress. She takes off her heels and enters the ring. She is totally in character. The other girls stand beside Bobby (Kevin Cahoon) who says she better not rip the dress. They are all opened mouthed and it is so heart-warming to see how proud of Sheila they are. As the audience show their appreciation Bash dings the bell, a defeated look on his face. Melrose (the actual one) is loving watching the different characters wrestle. Carmen says she can’t remember the last time she actually wanted to watch the show and by the look on Debbie’s face it seems that she has forgotten she agreed to this in order to actually sabotage the show.

Debbie returns to the dressing room to grab a piece of costume and finds Tammé bent over in pain with tears rolling down her face. Debbie asks her how long she has been in pain. Tammé says since this morning, but Debbie asks her not to lie to her. Tammé doesn’t answer, but says it’s only four more shows and can barely speak through the pain as she says she’ll make it. Debbie looks around not knowing what to do, but Tammé tells her to go back out and not to worry about her. As Debbie leaves Tammé cries in pain. Sam asks Ruth if she’ll read Justine’s screenplay so that he knows he’s not going crazy. Ruth agrees.

Ringside Cherry is giving Tammé a sports massage and Debbie is at the side of her looking concerned and angry…Angry at herself for not noticing anything was wrong. Arthie says to Justine that she can’t believe this was the show she ended up seeing, but Justine says she loved it. Bash appears with Sandy and Sandy tells the girls that she loved the show. Debbie says that they wanted to have some fun since they were on their way out, but Bash tells Sandy that they would love for GLOW to stay for the rest of the year. The girls are shocked. It’s the first most of them have heard of the news. Sam points out that they haven’t had a meeting. Bash said that he told both him and Debbie that they were staying. He says he’s the only one who cares about keeping the show alive, but Debbie says all he cares about is jugglers, magicians and impressing Sandy. She states that he hasn’t actually sacrificed anything for the show. He says he pays for the show so that it’s his decision and she can leave if she doesn’t like it. In fact, he tells all of them that.