The Catfish are on a roll! With their new star quarterback, it seems like they're having the perfect season, and Chad's got a brand new face thanks to last week's away-game shenanigans. The team is now 5-0 thanks to quarterback Chad Powers, but the cameras and growing popularity sends Russ further into his identity crisis.
As Chad gets further tangled with his persona, the team, and the coaching staff, what could possibly go wrong?
What happened on Chad Powers season 1, episode 5?
The episode kicks off with Chad accidentally signing the wrong name on a football for a young boy with leukemia, and things just continue to get unbearably awkward as he scribbles over what he did to the point where he runs out of ink. It's a callback to the very first scene in the season, and though Chad handles the interaction much, much better than Russ did, Chad still can't seem to get through the moment.
The identity crisis continues as we cut to Chad in the interview chair for ESPN's College GameDay show, and he's asked what should be simple questions about his past career and his football ambitions. Chad is ridiculous -- saying that Benjamin Franklin is the reason he plays football because he keeps the lights on -- but when he's asked to redo the interview, he ends up vomiting and gets out of it.
And getting media attention isn't the only change for Chad, because he now has a beautiful home to live in! And of course Danny is enjoying it too, taking advantage of all the space he now has to sing "Reflection" from Mulan and dance around the living room. Danny finds Russ practicing his Chad signature, and for the first time, he seems just as concerned about locking down his backstory and protecting his identity as Danny had been earlier in the season.
Russ questions whether he and Chad are well-liked without football
Tricia, the head of the boosters for the football team (who thinks she's got more power than the head coach) convinces Coach Hudson to have Ricky be a media coach for Chad so that the team can get the sound bites they need for ESPN. It takes some encouragement from Ricky, but after a heartwarming pep talk about how Chad isn't only liked because he wins games, Chad agrees to do the interview. But whoops! He lets his Russ voice out in a moment of honesty, and scurries away with a bathroom emergency excuse.
The episode takes a turn when Russ goes to a dive bar alone, but a local woman gets his attention, and they quickly hook up in the back of Russ' car. She reveals that does know Russ and what happened to him, but she reframes the perspective on why Russ can still be redeemed. It's the second conversation Russ hears that night about self-worth, and though it all seems pretty random, it plants a seed for Russ no longer needing to hide behind Chad's face. We almost think that Russ believes her, until we find him the next morning recommitting to being Chad Powers.
Danny awakes to the sound of Chad singing "Reflection" from Mulan in the mirror as he gets ready for the day's re-do interview. But this isn't Russ practicing how to be Chad... this is Chad trying to pretend that Russ no longer exists at all. Danny calls him out on how unhealthy he's being, saying that he's having a psychotic break. Chad goes as far to say that he wants cosmetic surgery so that his face can look like Chad's permanently. Danny can't break through to Russ, and Chad heads out the door for the GameDay interview.
The GameDay interview twist no one saw coming
Chad is feeling incredibly confident as he struts up to the Hudson lake house for the interview, and after a few comedic moments with the coaching staff, everything comes to a screeching halt when he's introduced to Coach Hudson's wife. Wendy Hudson is the woman he slept with the night before from the bar!! All of Chad's internal hardware just shuts down, and even though Wendy doesn't recognize Russ, Chad is absolutely terrified.
The camera crew has Coach Hudson, Wendy, Ricky and Chad all sit together for a lunch to capture b-roll footage, and the tension is shooting out of the screen. As Wendy stares longer at Chad, we get the impression she's putting the pieces together. But maybe Wendy's guilt is coming from having to pretend they're all a perfect family? She quickly turns the conversation to expose marriage problems she's having, which leads Tricia to usher the camera crew away.
Jake and Wendy's argument escalates to the point where Wendy admits she slept with Russ Holliday in his Cybertruck the night before, which absolutely stuns Ricky (who had also run into Russ at the Knoxville hotel in the previous episode). Ricky walks away from the table, and Chad follows her back to the house. Jake comes back inside, and after a few words about how he always knew Russ was a cancer to football, he admits to Ricky that he thinks he's having a heart attack.
With only one episode left, I'm starting to think the season will end on a cliffhanger about whether the Catfish will uncover Chad's real identity. Chad Powers season 1 streams Tuesdays on Hulu!