S03.E06: Outward Bound

[ElectricBoogaloo]

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A camping trip in the desert canyons outside Vegas spirals into a night of soul searching, bitter showdowns, and bombshell revelations.

Original air date: 8/9/19

[kieyra]

This episode got more screentime for Ghost than all of season 7 of Game of Thrones. 

[Lady Calypso]

So, after last episode's cliffhanger, it seems like we cut to everyone going camping? 

I love that it was all the ladies going camping. I didn't realize that there were so smaller smaller, and bigger, issues within the group.

The Jenny/Mel plot wasn't something I was actually expecting, but one I appreciated seeing. I do think that Mel needed to apologize sincerely but she first needed to understand why Jenny was upset. And that scene with Mel and Jenny sharing their stories? Oh yeah, that was the most powerful scene I've seen this season, maybe even in the entire series.

I love Carmen so much. She helped Tamme find an alternative to avoid further back injuries. 

I also liked Yolanda/Arthie's plot. It was hard to watch, though. 

Rhonda tried to stand by Bash while everyone else was...well....bashing him. Admirable, but it only makes the inevitability of Bash hurting Rhonda that much worse. I did like Rhonda and Carmen's talk, as well.

No surprise that Ruth told Debbie about her own feelings about Sam.

Yay, Sheila sheds her wolf side! I loved her moment with Ruth, as well. It was almost as powerful as the Jenny/Mel scene.

I do love that the girls asked the obvious question to Debbie: why not see if she can bring Randy over to Vegas?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I liked seeing all the girls hang out together during the camping trip. In the first season, we had scenes where they got to hang out together outside of practice (going to get burgers, the party at Bash's house) and then in the second season we had scenes of them outside of practice because they were living at the motel. The camping trip is the first time this season where we got to see all of them spending time together outside of the casino and just hanging out. As much as I enjoy the wrestling and the theatrics of their performances, I love the relationships between the characters which is why I liked this episode.

While I'm glad that Jenny and Melrose finally understood each other and made up, the one thing that annoyed me about that situation is that Melrose shouldn't feel bad just because of Jenny's trauma. Why is it so hard for Melrose to understand how shitty the Fortune Cooke situation is without knowing what happened to Jenny's family?

Part of me thinks it's sweet that Arthie is so naive that she thinks she's safe in the hotel because security is there. She didn't comprehend at all what Yolanda meant when she was talking about being safe if people know you aren't straight.

Yay, Reggie got some lines!

And yay for Sheila moving on from her wolf persona.  Her wolf thing never bothered me, but it's clear that she's ready to stop hiding behind that which is a good thing.

I'm glad that everyone else sees the easy solution for Debbie: bring Randy to Vegas. There's no reason he has to stay in LA all the time. He can come to Vegas and stay with her. She and Mark can split Randy's time between LA and Vegas. It's a short plane ride so it's very doable.

[dubbel zout]

6 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Why is it so hard for Melrose to understand how shitty the Fortune Cooke situation is without knowing what happened to Jenny's family?

I think because Melrose is so self-centered.

7 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I'm glad that everyone else sees the easy solution for Debbie: bring Randy to Vegas. There's no reason he has to stay in LA all the time. He can come to Vegas and stay with her. She and Mark can split Randy's time between LA and Vegas. It's a short plane ride so it's very doable.

I do't know why Debbie didn't think of that herself. It's SO obvious, especially since Randy isn't in school or anything. Maybe it took another mother to persuade her. Tammé made some good points about not waiting too long.

[mtlchick]

Haven't watched this episode yet, but Jackie Tohn talked about this episode and why this was important for her. https://ew.com/tv/2019/08/10/glow-season-3-spoilers-jackie-tohn-interview/

[thuganomics85]

Glad that they didn't let the issues between Jenny and Melanie fester for too long, and Melanie now understands why Jenny was upset over how her doing the imitation of "Fortune Cookie" was offensive, even if Melanie didn't mean it in that way.  I didn't mind that it took hearing Jenny's family story to get there, because Melanie is self-centered enough that it would take something really big to really sink in for her.  Still, I hope they move forward from this.  Jackie Tohn and Ellen Wong really sold that campfire scene.

I hope Arthie and Yolanda work things out, but I do think that the issue is that Arthie is just so sheltered and naive about what it is like to be out and still isn't even sure who she is sexually, while Yolanda knows what she is and wants a more even-handed relationship, instead of almost having to be a mentor in some ways.

Tamme being a manager sounds like a fun idea!

Shelia is no longer the She-Wolf!

[Blakeston]

The Yolanda/Arthie scene was very interesting.

On one hand, it's totally understandable that Arthie hasn't figured out her identity yet, and I don't think it was fair for Yolanda to write her off as "straight." And if Yolanda doesn't want to walk a newbie through the process of figuring out her identity or coming out, then what was she doing with Arthie in the first place?

But at the same time, I can understand Yolanda bristling at the "I'm not anything" comment. Obviously no one needs to label themselves, but there are a lot of people out there who use that as an excuse to live in denial, and maintain as much straight privilege as they can.

When the Passover stuff was happening, I thought Jenny was going to ask Melrose how she'd feel if someone mocked her religion. The way it actually played out felt very true to life, but I agree with those that it kind of sent the message, "Mocking someone's culture is wrong if they've been through a genocide."

[Maysie]

This was an interesting episode. In a way, Arthie's kind of ahead of her time with her "I'm not anything." I know quite a few people her age that are quite fluid with their sexuality and their identity these days. I don't know if it's a matter of people feeling freer to question it, freer to state it, or what, but I only remember that to be "openly" gay at that time was a big deal. I say "openly" because my experience in the mid 80s was people came out only to close friends.

I would expect the team to be a little more tight now, after the success of trading roles followed by the bonding of the camping trip. That could have some interesting ramifications for Bash.

[Dots And Stripes]

I loved Sheila burning the wolf costume. It felt like something that had really been building.

I personally responded more to Jenny telling Melrose how she felt by the rocks where she expressed her feelings about having to play that character. I didn’t like the campfire quite as much and I can’t put my finger on it. It could be that I think Melrose would have had a personal experience to share dealing with anti-semitism in the US. 

I also felt like Melrose relied on a lot of stereotypes about Jewish mothers when talking about her own mother. Kind of stood out to me because this episode felt so much with stereotypes.

[kieyra]

I agree that the campfire stuff went on too long. It kind of sums up my overall feelings on this season: too much talking about feelings, not enough wrestling and wacky hijinx.

That said, I can understand if the actresses needed a break from the wrestling. 

[Loandbehold]

On 8/10/2019 at 6:38 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I'm glad that everyone else sees the easy solution for Debbie: bring Randy to Vegas. There's no reason he has to stay in LA all the time. He can come to Vegas and stay with her. She and Mark can split Randy's time between LA and Vegas. It's a short plane ride so it's very doable.

I'm not sure if this answer is truly an easy solution. Las Vegas in the 80s was quite different from what it is now. "Family-friendly" wasn't really on the radar back then. Debbie will basically need full time child care since they do rehearsals and training during the day and shows at night. I don't know how easy it will be to find a full time nanny or even two nannies (one for days and the other for evenings) and I doubt the hotels, and especially the Fan-Tan, had daycare on site. The other thing is that while she and Mark might come to an arrangement of splitting time caring for Randy, it is possible that he could object to this and courts don't like to allow a parent to take a child out of state against the other parent's wishes. There was more of a presumption then that the child would be with the mother (unless it was split custody) in cases of divorce, but Mark would be able to argue that Debbie couldn't spend a lot of time w/ Randy given the nature of her job and Mark wouldn't be able to get to Vegas quickly if problems arose.

On 8/13/2019 at 11:31 AM, Blakeston said:

The Yolanda/Arthie scene was very interesting.

Theirs has been one of the best storylines this season. Arthie is naive and may have only been attracted to men before. She may be gay or bi, or find out that she is straight and was just doing some experimenting.*

Surprised to see Sheila burning her wolf skin. Yes, she Liza'd herself for the Freaky-Friday show, but I wasn't expecting this. I thought last episode was more of her getting caught up in the switching of characters.

Happy Tamme will be staying around as a manager. Yay for Carmen coming up with the idea.

The Passover scene was difficult to watch. I know I cringed watching Melrose's take on the Jenny's Fortune Cookie character, so I could understand why Jenny was so upset. Melrose's Holocaust family history was also a surprise. Reading the article posted above about how the show allowed both actresses to incorporate their family histories into this episode was fascinating. I can only imagine how emotional filming this scene must have been for them.

*Not a complete range of sexuality and gender identity.

[tennisgurl]

I didn't expect the thing with Jenny and Melrose to be dealt with so quickly, and while I am glad that they got into it and why Jenny felt so awful about the yellow face routine, I did kind of wish that they had come up with a different sort of solution beyond "Dont make fun of cultures that have suffered a genocide" which is good advice certainly and gives more context as to why these goofy and offensive stereotypes are actually quite hurtful in the context of real world racism, but probably not quite what I was hoping for. I expected her to end up asking Melrose how she would feel if someone was making endless Jewish jokes in front of her, especially if they weren't Jewish and didn't care about the actual culture. It was nice to see Jenny get some screentime though, I feel like we have hardly seen her this season. 

Really I was just happy to see all the women together hanging out and bonding again, it seems like everyone has been so separate this season despite all living in the same hotel. 

Tamme as a manager should be fun, I think she has the big personality and charisma to pull it off!   

The Arthie/Yolanda plot has been really interesting, I can see both of their perspectives. I can see why Yolanda doesn't want to commit to someone who might see her as some kind of experimental phase, but I can understand why Arthie feels uncomfortable putting a label on herself when she is really new to dating a woman. Sexuality and gender can be confusing for people even now with tons of resources and information about LGBTQ identity, but in the 80s, I can imagine it was even more challenging. 

Edited August 14, 2019 by tennisgurl

[MrsR]

8 hours ago, Loandbehold said:

Debbie will basically need full time child care since they do rehearsals and training during the day and shows at night.

No not really. The show was frozen with the exception of Freaky Friday (which was improv), and a Christmas Carol.

Not mention a bevy of women always around, but hotels do provide babysitting services ( yes even in the 80's). She's the boss, I'm sure that's just a detail that's too ordinary for the show to depict. 

[Loandbehold]

On 8/14/2019 at 9:27 PM, MrsR said:

No not really. The show was frozen with the exception of Freaky Friday (which was improv), and a Christmas Carol.

That's not from this episode. You might want to put this under spoiler tags. 

[whiporee]

Didn't Jenny come up with Fortune Cookie? Mel's riff was over the top, but all of them are over the top. And no one has forced her to play it -- I liken her position to Tamme's in season one when showing her son Welfare Queen -- so if she doesn't like how playing it makes her feel, she should stop. I think she was assigning a lot of her own guilt to Melrose, and nothing about that seemed fair to me. 

I understand Rhonda backing Bash, but she should remember that without Debbie's "star," the show never gets off the ground, either. 

[AllyB]

On 8/10/2019 at 2:42 AM, Lady Calypso said:

Rhonda tried to stand by Bash while everyone else was...well....bashing him. Admirable, but it only makes the inevitability of Bash hurting Rhonda that much worse. I did like Rhonda and Carmen's talk, as well.

I really don't buy the way everyone reacted to what happened at the end of the last episode. These are jobbing actresses, with the exception of Debbie, this is the best job acting they have ever had. They would be ecstatic to have the show extended and if they were annoyed with anyone it would be Debbie. She tried to sabotage their chances of continuing employment just because she wanted it to end. She could have left the show as a wrestler and even found a way to continue as a producer back in LA while Liberty Belle was recast. Instead she tricked them all into trying to tank the show and their chances of 9 more months of work. That's pretty despicable. Bash might have been an ass about it all but he blew up at her because she tried to underhandedly ruin their run. In real life most of the women would have been on his side.

[Slovenly Muse]

On 8/17/2019 at 9:08 AM, AllyB said:

I really don't buy the way everyone reacted to what happened at the end of the last episode. These are jobbing actresses, with the exception of Debbie, this is the best job acting they have ever had. They would be ecstatic to have the show extended and if they were annoyed with anyone it would be Debbie. She tried to sabotage their chances of continuing employment just because she wanted it to end. She could have left the show as a wrestler and even found a way to continue as a producer back in LA while Liberty Belle was recast. Instead she tricked them all into trying to tank the show and their chances of 9 more months of work. That's pretty despicable. Bash might have been an ass about it all but he blew up at her because she tried to underhandedly ruin their run. In real life most of the women would have been on his side.

But the point was, he didn't give anyone a CHANCE to be on his side. Debbie wasn't trying to sabotage the run, she doesn't have the ability to unilaterally do that. She wanted to talk about the offer with everyone before accepting it. If they had talked about it, then yes, everyone probably WOULD have been on Bash's side. Because that is the right thing to do: Extend the run, sure, that's the best business/career decision, but talk it over with the performers. Find out who is willing and able to stick around and who will need replacing. Give everyone a sense of accomplishment that their show, that they work hard on every night, is successful and they get to keep doing it. Instead, Bash decided to announce the extension in the most dick-swingingest way possible, specifically to punish Debbie and establish unilateral control over a show that has two other producers who are entitled to a say. His "my way or the highway" approach undercut everyone's sense of accomplishment and made them feel like they were being held hostage to a show that they created and have suddenly lost the illusion of control over. Of course they felt slighted by Bash! His actions are understandable, considering his identity crisis, and yes it was the best business decision, but reasoning out his actions does nothing to invalidate the feelings of the people whose moment of triumph he stepped on, and whose good news he co-opted for himself.

Bash is typically very warm, open, and collaborative. You can't blame the performers for being surprised and dismayed at his sudden turnabout.

[AllyB]

5 hours ago, Slovenly Muse said:

Debbie wasn't trying to sabotage the run, she doesn't have the ability to unilaterally do that.

That's exactly what she tried to do with the "Freaky Tuesday" stunt. She got everyone to switch roles so the show would be a disaster in front of Sandy and she'd rescind her offer to extend their run. Debbie didn't want to do the show past that week and she tried to ensure that nobody else could either. It really was a despicable move on her part and it's why Bash was so furious. And the other women should have been too.

[Slovenly Muse]

7 hours ago, AllyB said:

That's exactly what she tried to do with the "Freaky Tuesday" stunt. She got everyone to switch roles so the show would be a disaster in front of Sandy and she'd rescind her offer to extend their run. Debbie didn't want to do the show past that week and she tried to ensure that nobody else could either. It really was a despicable move on her part and it's why Bash was so furious. And the other women should have been too.

Oh, I see what you mean! I can respect that reading. Did Debbie know Sandy was going to  be there? If so, I did not connect those dots. That wasn't my read on the episode, though. The Freaky Tuesday stunt wasn't Debbie's idea, and once she agreed to it, all the choices she made seemed to support the stunt being a success. Unless I'm misremembering, she didn't try to put anyone in a role they weren't suited for, give deliberately bad advice, or generally look unhappy when things were going well. She seemed to enjoy it along with everyone else! I thought she was just trying to foster that "end of run" silliness that always bubbles up when productions are wrapping up, to get everyone feeling like they were ready to say goodbye to the show. After all, everyone knows the show so well by now that switching characters is hardly a recipe for disaster, just unprofessional. It also seemed to be a move in the power-struggle with Bash, from the way she taunt-flirted with him as Zoya, rubbing his nose in the fact that she and the other wrestlers are a close unit that can make big decisions without him, and making him feel like an outsider to his own production.

I just figured the character shake-ups were the most jarring for Bash, who is not an experienced performer and not used to improvising so wildly. He was not happy about not knowing what was happening, and he did not cover for it well in his announcing, making him look like the weak link in the cast. He had to accept the offer unilaterally to get back at Debbie, mend his wounded pride, and assert his control over the production.

[Clanstarling]

2 hours ago, Slovenly Muse said:

Oh, I see what you mean! I can respect that reading. Did Debbie know Sandy was going to  be there? If so, I did not connect those dots. That wasn't my read on the episode, though. The Freaky Tuesday stunt wasn't Debbie's idea, and once she agreed to it, all the choices she made seemed to support the stunt being a success. Unless I'm misremembering, she didn't try to put anyone in a role they weren't suited for, give deliberately bad advice, or generally look unhappy when things were going well. She seemed to enjoy it along with everyone else! I thought she was just trying to foster that "end of run" silliness that always bubbles up when productions are wrapping up, to get everyone feeling like they were ready to say goodbye to the show. After all, everyone knows the show so well by now that switching characters is hardly a recipe for disaster, just unprofessional. It also seemed to be a move in the power-struggle with Bash, from the way she taunt-flirted with him as Zoya, rubbing his nose in the fact that she and the other wrestlers are a close unit that can make big decisions without him, and making him feel like an outsider to his own production.

I just figured the character shake-ups were the most jarring for Bash, who is not an experienced performer and not used to improvising so wildly. He was not happy about not knowing what was happening, and he did not cover for it well in his announcing, making him look like the weak link in the cast. He had to accept the offer unilaterally to get back at Debbie, mend his wounded pride, and assert his control over the production.

That's the way I read the situation as well. Tamme suggested the first change, because she knew her back couldn't take it - and everyone else was excited by the idea, some as a way to shed a hated character they'd been trapped with, and collaborated the way they had in the beginning. There may have been a little FU on Debbie's part, but I saw it more as a "what the hell, let's have fun."

[Spaceman Spiff]

On 8/14/2019 at 11:56 AM, Loandbehold said:

I know I cringed watching Melrose's take on the Jenny's Fortune Cookie character, so I could understand why Jenny was so upset.

It was Mickey Rooney Breakfast at Tiffany's cringe worthy.

[Megan]

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Sheila's been maintaining platinum hair under her wolf persona? Sure, Okay.

Edited August 24, 2019 by Megan

[Cheezwiz]

On 8/20/2019 at 10:00 AM, Slovenly Muse said:

Unless I'm misremembering, she didn't try to put anyone in a role they weren't suited for, give deliberately bad advice, or generally look unhappy when things were going well. She seemed to enjoy it along with everyone else! I thought she was just trying to foster that "end of run" silliness that always bubbles up when productions are wrapping up, to get everyone feeling like they were ready to say goodbye to the show.

That's kind of how I read Debbie's participation in the switch-up show too. It didn't seem like deliberate sabatoge, (but I could have missed things). Also, remember Debbie was the one person who saw how much agony and distress Tammye was in, which I think was a motivator, since playing a biddy with a walker would have been much easier on her.

Also that scene with Sheila and the wolf was magical - even if it was a hallucination. I was a bit worried about her and was relieved to see she recovered from her heat stroke. I'm eager to see what new characters she adopts in the ring!

[Ilovepie]

On 8/9/2019 at 6:42 PM, Lady Calypso said:

Yay, Sheila sheds her wolf side! I loved her moment with Ruth, as well. It was almost as powerful as the Jenny/Mel scene.

For me, more so. I teared up when she and Ruth stood there hugging and watching it burn. Sheila has been so closed off, it was so great seeing the emotion from her.

[aradia22]

I thought they'd decided to say fuck Bash and drive back to LA. Why are they going camping?

I'm glad Jenny finally got a story besides making out with that other camera guy.

Is this the first time we've seen Yolanda without makeup?

I appreciate the women having a more serious talk around the fire but I'm not sure that truly resolved the issues from the past episode. Frankly, I'm not sure why they would have Melrose play Fortune Cookie anyway. And Jenny will probably continue to play Fortune Cookie, won't she?

It's sweet that Carmen and Rhonda got to reconnect. We didn't see their friendship before but I appreciate Carmen being more than just everyone's trainer. 

I feel like the Sheila thing has been a joke that we're supposed to take seriously for some reason even though it's a bit offensive to people who genuinely have identities that may not match their physical appearance. Like Bash's sexuality, I feel like this is a storyline that could have been handled better. Up until now it's something we've only gotten fragments of. Is this supposed to be a coping mechanism from trauma? Mental illness? A genuine identity? I feel like it can't be that last one because Sheila is capable of joking about it and taking it off and has acknowledged that she is a human woman early on in the show.

When Ruth was holding Sheila by the fire I was like, let them be a couple. It makes more sense than Ruth and Sam.

[aradia22]

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I'm glad that everyone else sees the easy solution for Debbie: bring Randy to Vegas. There's no reason he has to stay in LA all the time. He can come to Vegas and stay with her. She and Mark can split Randy's time between LA and Vegas. It's a short plane ride so it's very doable.

Debbie made some fair counterarguments when she was discussing the situation. Vegas is not really the right place to raise a baby. Debbie would have to live her life a lot differently. Even if she curtailed her sex life it's still a casino with smokers and loud noises. How would she arrange a babysitter for Randy? How much time would she be away from him? I don't think splitting Randy's time would work well. You don't really want to put a baby on a plane all the time. If Randy does stay with her I think it would be Mark flying back and forth until Debbie moved back to LA. 

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On one hand, it's totally understandable that Arthie hasn't figured out her identity yet, and I don't think it was fair for Yolanda to write her off as "straight." And if Yolanda doesn't want to walk a newbie through the process of figuring out her identity or coming out, then what was she doing with Arthie in the first place?

But at the same time, I can understand Yolanda bristling at the "I'm not anything" comment. Obviously no one needs to label themselves, but there are a lot of people out there who use that as an excuse to live in denial, and maintain as much straight privilege as they can.

From a 2019 perspective, Arthie sounded like she was describing pansexuality or any kind of sexual identity when you're attracted to specific people and not necessarily just men or just women or any other particular grouping. But there's bi erasure even in the gay community so I get how in the 80's, Yolanda would have been upset at Arthie rejecting labels. I think it was also a general sense of things. Like, how long it took before Arthie was comfortable with Yolanda going down on her and the way she couldn't even say the word "gay." She said, I'm not sure if I'm "that word." 

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Didn't Jenny come up with Fortune Cookie? Mel's riff was over the top, but all of them are over the top. And no one has forced her to play it 

I'm hazy but I feel like she had one of the characters that was basically assigned by Sam and Bash. And as we saw with Arthie, yeah, they do get forced to play their stereotypes, especially the racial stereotypes. Whereas Melrose can be a party girl and Rhonda can be Britannica.