GLOW - Slouch. Submit

Sam Sylvia (Marc Maron) has this grand vision in mind as his central focus line for GLOW. After Ruth (Alison Brie) is pinned to the mat by her [former] best bud, Debbie Eagon (Betty Gilpin) in the pilot episode, he has put together in his mind a rivalry he hopes can come to fruition when the show begins. He needs former soap opera actress, Debbie (retired since giving birth to her baby), to agree to join the show so she can be the babyface opposite Ruth’s heel. Ruth doesn’t want to be despised, loathed, hated, detested, but her homewrecking adultery with Debbie’s husband has set her up as the chief villain. Sam assures her that the “villain always gets the best lines”.

While Sam’s courting Debbie for his show is a major subplot on the second episode, “Slouch. Submit”, a few more characters get some development, primarily Cherry Bang (Sydelle Noel, proof positive that Netflix continues to knock it out of park in the casting of African-American women for their various shows) and Melanie “Melrose” Rosen (Jackie Tohn; the prickly rose bush all too willing to run her mouth and stir up the hornet’s nest). Cherry and Sam have a history. She’s a take-charge but fair kind of personality, someone Sam trusts to whip his girls into shape after firing the pro wrestler he had hired initially to train them. Cherry had a miscarriage that gets brought up during a conversation with Sam while he seems to be looking for something documented in a notebook (she thought he was looking for blow), with Melrose hearing this while in the john. Melrose pulls a distasteful joke with some ketchup in revenge for Cherry rendering her unconscious with a sleeper hold. This miscarriage joke sparks some creative output from Sam, wanting Melrose to reenact it with Ruth as Debbie watches with the other girls from the outside. Sam had implied to Debbie he’d fire Ruth if she would join his show but this was a ruse employed to urge her to visualize his vision. That Ruth would be depicted as a villain instigating a miscarriage, Debbie could see Sam continuously crippling her appeal. That Debbie is to be “the star” with Ruth the object of villainy in his show, it is a bit of sweet karma.

When Ruth is introduced in the pilot she is somewhat presented as scrappy, no-quit, and determined but her adultery with Debbie’s husband has altered her course. She wanted to be a star, someone similar to Hulk Hogan, not hissed at but looked up to. Then Debbie is brought in by Sam to take that spot; instead, Ruth is to be reviled and booed. The entire second episode Ruth is reminded of her adultery. It is a wound gaping and she can’t stitch it. Debbie being involved on the show certainly serves as a really sharp scalpel. The blood will continue to flow if Ruth cannot make amends with the friend she betrayed. Cherry is unsettled (as she should be) by the use of her miscarriage in storyline. After the day is over, Cherry is unsure if she wants to continue despite Sam’s offer to beef up her pay. The husband urges her, though, to take the trainer addition to her performance in the ring so they can upgrade their bathroom. 

Something I didn't expect was for Debbie to be more of a co-starring part with Ruth. The pilot didn't seem to indicate she'd be this adversary for Ruth, but the reveal of Debbie's husband being her lover really is a catalyst for the eventual development of the second episode. Recovering from a retirement from a soap that saw her character in a coma, bedridden, soon moved to a wheelchair before her cheating husband encouraged her to get pregnant and have a baby; Debbie deals with a breastfeeding bite as Sam arrives with a proposition. Frozen food used as a soothing for the bite, Debbie is in disbelief that she even considers his offer...but he's persistent and she goes with him to the gym to at least see what he has in mind. This treatment of Debbie as opposed to his dismissal of Ruth with many a derogatory term sets up a fun dynamic going forward. Very little money, very little pride left, and continuing to endure disrespect; Ruth is quite a faltering and diminished character.