Wow, a lot of stuff happened this episode. After getting one-off episodes about random artists, the show goes back to the main plot with CandT working on their album, while also shining some spotlight on the other characters again. Ertegun goes bankrupt, Spencer walks away from his mother, Angela’s stalker makes their move, and Pinocchio is dead. What an episode.
First off, I’ll just say that I’m shocked that Aaron isn’t the stalker. So far the show has been painfully predictable, but they actually threw me for a loop at the end there. Everything pointed to Aaron being the stalker with how weird and sleazy he was, and while he did have some interest in Angela, it wasn’t stalker level. He was only interested in her to benefit his own reputation, not because he actually liked or respected her. As he says this, a car crashes into him to which I can only guess killed him as the stalker watched. Very creepy stuff.
When it comes to Angela herself, not much other than her trying to show off the dating rumor to Tao. Which he didn’t seem phased by. I don’t know what her deal is, it seriously looks like she has a giant crush on Tao but I have no idea why. We haven’t spent too much time with them so I don’t even know what they feel about each other. I can’t even describe Tao because he’s so weird. He’s apathetic, but also kind of weird and funny? I burst out laughing after he accepted Eretegun’s offer so nonchalantly after a short stand off.
Ertegun: beatboxes for five seconds
Tao: Sure, ok.
He’s hilarious but he’s still weird.
We focused a bit on Carole and Tuesday, but they weren’t the focus of this episode. They finally got some money and were able to rent a studio, even though it’s old and dirty. Tobe comes back and works with them to pick out their songs for their album. And by working with them, it was basically the girls playing only a few seconds of their songs and Tobe calling all of them shit. Which I also found pretty hilarious. Unfortunately he was only satisfied with one song, and the girls have to come up with more for the album. It’s then that the blonde guy from before comes to interview the girls.
He gets to know them personally, less about their music. He also mentions how Tuesday feels about her mother and her policies. While she thinks her mother has nothing to do with them, he brings up the refugee stuff she wants to carry out. It does look like this stuff will be part of the bigger plot, but again, it’s hard to care about it when the show’s world building has been minimal. Also…again, I hate the politics in the show so much.
My favorite part of the episode was the drama with Ertegun. His AI manager stealing all of his money overnight, Ertegun’s home gets foreclosed and he has zero money, no home, nothing. I don’t think this type of stuff happens overnight but…well. Anyway, best boy Roddy brings Ertegun to his place because he’s just so nice, but Ertegun of course is down in the dumps. All his so-called “friends” left him once they found out he had no money, and now the internet and press were writing a bunch of crap about him. I thought what they did to show Ertegun’s negative inner voice was really good. That ugly voice in your head can really paralyze you and make you think horrible things, so I thought they did well with that. It was also cool seeing his bombastic positive voice waking him up basically. I found it funny and also pretty mean that after he wrote a song using Carole’s keyboard, he instead goes to Angela to ask if she could sing his song, and not Carole and Tuesday. You borrow their home and equipment for a bit and that’s how you thank them? Damn. I hope this experience taught Ertegun many things, like money not buying your friends, being less pompous, appreciating Roddy more, etc. I hope it makes him more humble, basically. Also, again, Roddy is great. Can we get more of Roddy, please? Oh, and Ertegun chucking his Pinocchio manager was amazing. The design of that little guy was amusing.
I’m really interested to see how Angela’s stalker plays out, and I’m curious to hear what Ertegun’s new song sounds like. I liked this episode, there were lots of laughs. It’s just interesting that the less the episodes are about Carole and Tuesday themselves, the more I tend to enjoy them. Spend more time on the other characters too, because it was great seeing them all again.
