Pam and Tommy
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She deserved more from the strangers who devoured her sex tape despite its provenance.
She deserved more from the courts, which repeatedly sided with greedy men who profited off her tattered privacy.
Pam deserved more from Tommy, whose inability to appreciate his wifes perspective bordered on the sociopathic.
Its indisputably different to be the woman in a celebrity sex tape!
Men admired Tommy when they watched that video.
Im so annoyed that I could scream.
(I did scream a little, but I could still scream more.)
The familiar setting imbues the scene with the frisson of meaning, but not any actual, discernible meaning.
Yearning to understand why Crue might play a corner lot, I searched for their new album.
Girls, girls, girls / Long legs and burgundy lips.
Girls, girls, girls / Dancing down on Sunset Strip.
As it turns out, Motley Crue did not release any music in 1996.
The shows timeline is most loyally pegged to Pams pregnancy, and by June, shes about to pop.
Confidentialwith a full bump.
Are lad-mag circulation numbers in 1996 really on par with the current population of Lithuania?
Its disappointing, but given they just played to a half-empty patch of pavement, Im surprised that Tommyssosurprised.
At least, the Lees tell themselves, things cant get worse.
The sex-tape release sucked; the lawsuit blew up in their faces.
ThePenthousecover is even newsier than the lawsuit, but the story has to die eventually.
This months Penthouse will be next months recycling.
Oh, if only!
This is a plague.
The defendant couldnt be more stoked to get served, which is a hallmark of a bad legal strategy.
Just like the judge didnt grant an injunction in the case ofPenthouse, the judge doesnt stop Seth.
New media is the Wild West, baby.
Its a devastating outcome.
Her lips are an inverted breve; her sadness is resigned.
I cant imagine the helplessness she must have felt.
At this point, even I didnt realize it would still, somehow, get worse.
But Seth comes to town the next day asking to buy the rights to the tape.
Pam, so often sharper than the series has time for, says absolutely not.
She doesnt want some pervy guy with a mustache to own her.
Pam agrees to give Seth the rights for free.
This is the choice that Rand Gauthier has forced her into: selling herself for nothing.
But she cant make a deal without Tommys permission, and Tommy still doesnt get it.
Pam needs a break from Hollywood and the corkscrew cave of Tommys all-drama, all-the-time rollercoaster.
She loves him; shes about to have their baby; she needs this to work.
No cameras, Tommy promises as they set off on an impromptu babymoon.
Tommy can only maintain the supportive husband act for a few hours.
Hes the earthquake; shes the evidence of its aftershocks.
That kind of energy doesnt just evaporate.
Tommy, meanwhile, is a hothead caught in a cycle of apology.
Its not the same to be the man on a sex tape.
By the time Tommy returns, Pams set off for Malibu.
When Tommy finally joins her, shes watching the sex tape, something the real Pamelaclaimsto have never done.
He says hell do better.
But Pam doesnt want indeterminate assurances.
She wants him to sign the release for the sex tape.
He flips their coffee table and knocks over a lamp because his neediness is incompatible with Pams reserve.
When he signs the release, its not an act of love or sacrifice.
Its over, she tells him, almost nine months pregnant with his child.
The spell, it seems, is broken.
Or maybe this scene will have to play out a hundred times more.
The decision to leave isnt made in a split-second; it has to be made over and over again.
The following year, theyll have another.
His collections are up; his health is unraveling.
The bloody work gives him nightmares.
For reasons never explained, Butchie cuts Rand a deal.
If he comes up with $10,000, he can buy his freedom back.
Not that Rand deserves it.
When the episode begins, he still considers himself a victim.
Rand never realizes what hes done is wrong.
His atonement is the consequence of a tarot-deck shuffle.
Queue the redemption tour.
Rand apologizes for being a leech; Erica asks that they limit future communications to a biannual schedule.
A final round of applause for Taylor Schilling, who manages a lot with little to work with.
Its not a great proxy, butits something, the show begs of us.
Except Rand hasnt changed at all.
After Tommy agrees to release the tape to Seth, Seth comes to Rand in search of the original.
You cant charge 30 bucks for a copy of a copy of a grainy copy.
And Rand sells it to him for the convenient sum of $10,000.
Instead of handing the money over to Butchie, Rand gives it to Erica to pay for their divorce.
He claims it as a karmic victory, but it feels more like a Ponzi scheme.
Hes always stiffing someone, then convincing himself hes made even.
Pam inks over her Tommy ring tattoo so that it now reads, amusingly, Mommy.
It goes unmentioned that Pam claims she was still holding their infant son when Tommy started beating her.
Hell be sentenced to six months in jail.
Rand Gauthier moves to Northern California to grow marijuana.
It may not have happened here, but, for better or worse, the redemption will be televised.
