Netflix’s GLOW Recap by Penny; Episode 4 – The Dusty Spur

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The cold open shows us Sheila at home, looking very plain and blond and insecure, putting on her she-wolf look. After the title card, we’re at the gym with Sebastian and Sam having spent a weekend doing blow in a hotel room. They’ve decided everyone except Debbie is going to live in a nearby motel so they can all be close to the gym to get ready better since few of them can act and none of them can wrestle. Most of the ladies are less than enthusiastic, but Sam says it’s mandatory. We get a cute montage of everyone packing up their stuff, including Ruth eating or trashing everything in her fridge and Carmen making a really bad body double out of pillows.

At the gym Sebastian shows the ladies clips of Gorgeous George to show them what a great wrestling persona does to get under the fans’ skins. They all bounce a few ideas off each other, and later we see Carmen and Tamme`, (and OMFG I just realized that’s Kia “Awesome Kong/Kharma” Stevens and I am HARDCORE marking out right now), as their characters practicing a promo, when Carmen’s dad and brothers burst in. Dad is kind of a sexist prick, telling Carmen women’s wrestling is a sideshow like the midget wrestlers and he wants her to find a nice man and have a family. Sam of all bloody people stands up for her and demands that the giant wrestler respect his actors and gets backhanded for his efforts. Carmen caves and agrees to go. (Fun note for wrestling fans; Carmen’s brothers are played by (I think) Sim Snuka, and the former Brodus Clay). Sebastian follows them out, kisses Carmen, whispers that he knows about living under the weight of family expectations and to follow his lead. They play off that they’re dating and she’s moving in weith him, but her dad says a wrestler needs to know how to sell what they’re saying. This pisses Carmen off enough to finally stand up to her dad, telling him she’s 25, can make her own choices, and he can damn well respect them or he can lose her like he lost her mom. Dad backs down.

At the motel we get a few interactions between various new roomies, such as Carmen possibly having a little lesbian crush on Britannica, and Sheila being really standoffish with Ruth, who’s still trying to figure out who her persona will be. Ruth gets up during the night to pee, snoops in Sheila’s purse, and wakes Sheila on her way back to bed. She sees Sheila’s real hair and Sheila screams at her not to look. The next morning at the pool Jenny expresses annoyance at the math wizard ninja genki girl Sam has her portraying, and later at the gym Tamme` expresses the same concerns about her Welfare Queen character. Sam says he’s playing into these stereotypes on purpose to deconstruct them but Tamme` is worried her son who is at MUHFUGGING HARVARD won’t see the nuance and will only see the racist stereotype and be ashamed of her. Sam says he’s built a career on offending people and making them think, which is clearly bullshit only he believes, and gives Tamme` videos of his movies, including one he’s proud to note was banned in 49 states for it’s offensiveness.

Ruth is still trying to find her persona and tries a couple really bad ones on Sam, who tells her go go pair off with Sheila. She does so reluctantly and apologises for last night. She well-meaningly but insultingly makes suggestions to enhance Sheila’s werewolf character, which Sebastian overhears and greenlights, which annoys Sheila who insists she’s not a werewolf.

Later that night, Cherry leaves her hubby with the girls to watch Sam’s shitty movies, as apparently with 14 other women in the motel midnight is the only time she can get hot water to shower. The movie is every bit as schlocky as you’d expect a movie called Blood Disco to be, and Tamme` asks Cherry’s hubby if he thinks Sam is racist. He thinks Sam is sexist if anything, and then the movie is interrupted by a recording of Sam talking a profile for a video dating service. It’s kinda sad and the ladies all feel kinda sorry for him. A lot of Sam’s douchiness seems to be rooted in bitterness over his ex being verbally abusive to him and his desire to not be alone while being scared of finding the same abuse, and suddenly Sam isn’t quite so cardboard cutout.

At debbie’s house, her cheating douchebag husband shows up and tells her since he pays the mortgage he’s GOING to sleep there. She takes the baby and leaves for the motel. Sheila meanwhile has found a dead squirrel and left it in Ruth’s bed to get even for the werewolf thing. They yell at each other but when Ruth calls Sheila a damned wolf instead of any other word she could have used, Sheila calms down and explains that while her look may be something she has to put on every morning, it’s not a character, it’s the real her. She knows she’s a human but spiritually she feels the soul of a wolf. They bond a little and Ruth leaves when Sheila asks for privacy.

Debbie arrives at the motel and after being shown her room, takes the baby and goes for a walk around the grounds. She stretches out in a pool chair, and spots Ruth sleeping in another chair on the other side of the pool. She starts to say something, but decides to just let Ruth be and goes to sleep herself. End of episode.

It’s finally starting to show it’s cards and starting to draw me in. Hopefully things keep improving. See you tomorrow for episode 5.

Penny is a now divorced intersexed disabled lesbian in BC Canada. She's been watching wrestling and reading comics since she was a kid, and knows her stuff. She lives with her pets and passes her free time writing, drawing, doing paid photoshop work (including logos done for Pulse's Own Mike Gojira), and is a part-time Queer model.