GLOW Season 2 Recap
Credit: GLOW season 2 – Erica Parise – Netflix
Episode 4: Mother of All Matches
This is my favorite episode so far, this season.
The show is a parallel between Debbie and Tammé as they prepare for their match for the crown the Welfare Queen stole from Liberty.
They’re so much more alike than you think. They are both single mothers, raising sons, and trying to be part of something that makes them proud. They fiercely love their sons.
This is Betty Gilpin’s finest acting and I think could earn her an Emmy nod.
When her ex’s new secretary calls to find out the make and model of their old mattress, she snaps and sells it. But Facebook doesn’t exist yet, so she tapes a sign to the tree outside of her house instead.
You know when people get addicted to something that gives them a rush, like shoplifting or jumping out of planes? She gets addicted to selling her stuff. Next thing we know, there’s dozens of people in her house “shopping.”
One little old lady comments on how nice the picture of her and her ex are in a silver picture frame. Debbie goes on a monologue about her son looking more like her ex than her and ends it with the best line ever, “We’re all just a bunch of dildos banging around trying to have a few good moments.” I actually laughed out loud when she said it.
Meanwhile, Tammé drives five and a half hours to Stanford to visit her son, Ernest, for Parent’s Weekend. She can only stay for a few hours and tries to make the most of her time with him.
Ernest is one of a few black students on campus and when a white girl mistakes him for another black student who looks nothing like him, Tammé and Ernest sort of laugh it off. But really, it has to be annoying.
Ernest doesn’t know about Tammé’s new job, so when a fan approaches her and calls her the Welfare Queen, she’s excited, and Ernest says, “What did you call my mom?”
He insists on driving back down with her to see the match.
Liberty takes the crown back from the Welfare Queen, but the humiliation and racial stereotypes after the match are what affects Tammé without her realizing it.
Liberty exclaims this is for all the moms out there, even for Welfare Queen, who has many. As the audience chants “get a job,” Tammé leaves the stage in tears and her son close to tears as he watches.
The crowd, who was a few minutes ago cheering for Liberty, turns on her. This prompts Ruth to grab a little girl in the audience dressed in red, white, and blue, pretends she’s Liberty’s daughter, Savannah, and “kidnaps” her as Zoya.
It’s genius and moves the storyline forward.
In the end, Tammé’s son is proud of his mom and her ability to wrestle, even though he thinks her character is offensive.
And Mark confronts Debbie about selling the furniture and accuses her of being a lousy mother without saying it. In my humble opinion, he is preying on an insecurity all working mothers face: guilt for leaving their child to work.
Bye Mark, good riddance.