GLOW - Money's in the Chase

Concluding the first season of GLOW, I can say that I look forward to what the next season has to offer. Clearly the in ring choreography reveals the high impact, off-the-top-rope action of today’s wrestling more than what you actually watched on the show back in its day. Because this is a dramatic presentation of a show—loosey-goosey with the real facts so that the show can reach the audience of today, mock the stereotypical representation of specific people in society at that time in their over-the-top, exaggerated fashion, and follow a select group of women contending with career and life difficulties—the writers room took the obvious liberties to tell ensemble stories within the framework of a startup wrestling company working with the restraints and shackles of a low budget and amateurish foundation. The season was building towards Ruth and Debbie squaring off in the main event of GLOW’s first big show to be presented on television between cable access and informercials.

Sam’s vision alters the course of what Debbie and Ruth were expecting with the finish of the show. Debbie had decided at the beginning of the final episode for the first season to go home to Mark to work their marriage out. Sam was dealing with drug and alcohol issues, already reeling from impacting loneliness, the revelation that he has a daughter, his dream project failure, and insecurities about GLOW’s success. Ruth has to wrangle together the girls, lead them into makeup, carry around the clipboard which details the activities of the day heading to the start of the show, and get them all into costume. Bash is getting the ring together as the camera crew sets up, and Ruth arriving to activate the game plan. Sam has sure put them all in a pickle so Ruth having to corral everything together is a testament to her dedication to the show and her own craft. With Debbie skipping out on them, Ruth puts together a tag match where she and Jenny portray Russia and China villains right out of the “foreign heels playbook” of the 70s/80s wrestling era against Stacey and Dawn as old ladies from a retirement home! While Mark sits in the audience of the Ballroom unamused and wanting to leave, embarrassed as all the silliness (he says), Debbie becomes increasingly annoyed at him. Sure enough, under her coat is the Stars and Stripes wardrobe of her All American character, challenging Ruth’s Zoya, the Destroya when Zoya attacks Jenny’s Red China villain, claiming the GLOW crown. Then the predictable American hero vanquishing the Russian heel storyline plays out in the ring as the attending fans (some of which were waiting to attend the Midnight screening of Back to the Future, paid (not paying!) by the girls come over to the Ballroom to fill up the building around the ring) cheer. Debbie believes she’ll stand tall as the crowd celebrates, but Sam changes the finish. Much to Debbie’s dismay, despite being told by Sam she was the focus and star, he pulls the rug out from under her. “Money’s in the chase”, he tells her.

If the heroes always won, there’d be no reason to “tune in next time”. To put the crown on a heel, it provides incentive for the audience to return, to see if the heroine chase after that main prize, and to ultimately built towards a supreme victory; Sam sees money in the chase. Pro Wrestling booking 101. Because Debbie comes from the daytime soap opera world, she doesn’t quite understand this sudden philosophy but Sam is thinking of the health of the show and building it dramatically. If you think about it, writing for television is similar. Not necessarily all of television has a hero and heel combating for a prize, but the understanding that something is at stake and even if the show is exaggerated to a certain degree features characters to invest in an audience can be seduced to the product and continue watching. Sam is wanting to preserve this and make it profitable. His movie is no longer a possibility. So this show is perhaps his concluding legacy.

Carmen needs to be able to not only get in the ring but perform. Performance anxiety once again does undermine her but when she sees her dad in the audience, that fades and she’s fired up and ready. Tammé is the heel working underneath her, as Welfare Queen. With this character, Tammé actually stuffs food stamps in Carmen’s mouth after a splash, totally devoted to playing up the audience. Sam sees Tammé as his top heel, allowing her to confront Debbie at the end and take her crown. But for this match, she puts Carmen over. It only made sense considering her dad was watching from the audience.

Justine didn’t want to wrestle. She just wanted to meet her father. Sam, to his credit, seeks her out and finds Justine at boyfriend, Billy’s. Sam doesn’t know how to be a parent and is more than a bit unsure of his capabilities but is willing to try. Justine sees his effort and eventually does go to the ballroom, finding him on the balcony overlooking the building, perhaps envisioning what is next for the show. The two have a moment that is still a bit awkward, but you have to start somewhere.

In the previous episode, it was revealed that Cherry was up for a big part on a show willing to audition her. It was a Cagney and Lacey type role with her as the African-American cop opposite a Jew…well that is how she was told by an agent over the phone! Cherry learns she got the part and must abandon GLOW because of it. How does she tell her girls and Sam that as soon as the show is about to get underway Cherry must leave them? Her hubby, a referee for GLOW, is happy for her. While she’s wrestling “Vicky, the Viking” (Reggie), Keith closes in to celebrate with her, during a spot where she was tossed into the turnbuckle, dumping into the corner. I like how the show does that. It shows how two people (whether it is wrestlers or even the ref and wrestlers) can, in fact, communicate during an in-ring match as the audience watches the action. It is all about technique and performance in that ring. Like when Ruth suplexes Jenny: the camera shows them calling the move.

With Melrose carried to the ring by male studs as if a worshipped goddess to wrestle Sheila, brought herself down the aisle in a cage! While their match is essentially off screen, the match featuring Arthie gimmicked as some type of “mad Arab” against Rhonda’s “Britannia Brain”, sees members of the audience all stirred up by her spit and toss racial slurs her way! Poor Arthie sends up the character and clearly plays her in an extravagant way, but to realize how much certain members of the audience hates her freaks her out. A beer can is hurled into the ring at Arthie and hits Rhonda in the face! Rhonda assures Arthie that because she elicited that response she did her job because the crowd is supposed to hate her.

The work in the ring conveys all the training the ladies have put in to make this show work. That is why they care so much. Not just the physical duties did they dedicate themselves to but the characters. The gimmicks, as wrong and politically incorrect as they might be, were presented to get a reaction from the audience. Sam realizes that these characters are gratuitous, but he urges the girls to make them characters not real people. Despite the ladies being handcuffed to these caricatures, they’re empowered to perform at a high level. In the ring they bring it. And now Sam is seemingly empowered and ready to direct this show as he sees it long-term. The second season should see Sam further shake the cage and see what reaches out to him.

Ruth puts over Debbie and indeed, as Sam did say, made her look great. Ruth got her shots in, did her Russian impersonation, and convinced the fans to boo her. At the end, Debbie was still just not ready to have that drink with her and share a friendship as they had in the past. Ruth is clearly still riddled with regret and aches over how she was responsible for the rift between her and Debbie. So Debbie will still need more time. As she tries to co-exist with Mark and attempt to work on the marriage, Debbie just isn’t quite ready to totally forgive Ruth and let bygones be bygones.