Directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton
Written by Brooke Baker & D.V. DeVincentis
Starring Lily James, Sebastian Stan, Seth Rogen
New episodes airing Wednesdays on Hulu

by Kristian Cortez, Staff Writer

Episode five of Pam & Tommy was directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton and written by Brooke Baker and DV DeVincentis. I feel it necessary to acknowledge this right off the bat because finally this show has displayed the potential I knew it was capable of having, and it is most certainly on account of the three names I just listed. This episode is my favorite of the series so far. Gone is the choppy editing and rapid pacing and in its place are longer uninterrupted takes where we get to exist with the characters and their emotions for more than thirty seconds. Oh, and my favorite detail of all? There are no scenes of Gauthier in this one.

We spend the thirty-minute running time of episode five going back and forth between three story lines. The first being the writers’ room of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno as they toss around crude jokes about Pamela Anderson in regards to the sex tape. The second, a reporter at the Los Angeles Times fighting for the opportunity to write a piece about the sex tape. And third is, of course, Pam and Tommy as their world continues to spiral out of their control. Pam is excited about being featured in the women’s magazine Glamour, but the excitement is short lived when she discovers that the tape is now being sold on several websites online—instead of just the one by Gauthier—signaling to her how copies are being made and spread faster. 

One of these copies gets into the hands of Bob Guccione, the founder of the adult magazine Penthouse. Upon learning this, Tommy remarks how they need to sue immediately before Guccione prints screenshots from the tape in the magazine, explaining how he would love to do it just to spite Hugh Hefner at Playboy, by printing images of his “golden girl.” Pam is against suing as she believes that doing so will only bring attention to the tape, which is mostly underground at the moment. The suit moves forward and the reporter at the Los Angeles Times now has a juicer story to tell. Her piece runs in the paper and now everyone is finding out about it.

With the tape now being big news, Jay Leno makes the stupid joke about Pam (that he initially turned down when the tape wasn’t so big) on late night television and Pam loses her feature in Glamour. As for Tommy, his worry is not so much on the tape, but on his career as a musician, struggling to keep his place in the everchanging music world. In one scene, he heads to the studio to record with his bandmates, only to discover that they’re not recording in their usual spacious Studio A (which has been given to rising new band Third Eye Blind) and have been ousted to the smaller Studio B. Tommy barges in and attempts to kick the young band out, only to discover that both groups are under the same label, thus signifying how the change he has been feeling is now manifesting itself in the real world. Originally it was something Tommy felt on the inside only, now it is being reflected to him by others.

Finally, Tommy’s sadness and frustration is being explored over a full-length episode instead of discarded into a passing scene. Here it gets referred back to several times, including in an argument with Pam when she speculates that maybe Tommy wanted this to happen because he likes the attention, or that he was scared of her career continuing to rise. It displays itself again, indirectly, later in the episode when he tries to make conversation with Pam who gives him the cold shoulder, bringing him to express how he feels “like nothing [he] does is ever good enough for [her].” It’s a tough scene to watch because thanks to this episode, and the last, we know that Tommy is being genuine in his efforts to support Pam, even though he has no idea how to properly do so.

Because Gauthier is nowhere to be found in this episode (yay!), the core focus is just on Pam and Tommy, which is a joy because for the full thirty minutes we truly get to witness the great love story we were promised. With the space to properly allow these characters to breathe, we are able to witness the connection and care they have for each other. In an especially tender moment at the start of the episode, after her Glamour interview, Pam joins Tommy on the floor of their bedroom. With his arms wrapped around Pam, Tommy mentions how sad he is over the loss of their baby. The camera doesn’t cut away to another angle, or to another character elsewhere in the story; it just stays put, observing. By not rushing on to the next moment we get to feel the full weight of their loss, bringing us that much deeper into their relationship.

The episode ends with a letter informing the pair that Pam will need to be deposed in their suit, but not Tommy. She wonders why it’s only her that needs to be questioned, and Tommy responds how it doesn’t matter because, regardless, they are in this together. Pam leaves without responding, amazed at how Tommy still, after everything that has happened, doesn’t understand how untrue that statement is. The two of them may be on that tape together, but out here in the real world, Pam is very much on her own.