Directed by Lake Bell
Written by D.V. DeVincentis
Starring Lily James, Sebastian Stan, Seth Rogen
New episodes airing Wednesdays on Hulu

by Kristian Cortez, Staff Writer

After a two-episode break, this week’s Pam & Tommy sees the return of the Rand Gauthier storyline, and it is just as boring as when we left it. Mostly the seventh episode in Hulu’s limited series serves as a bridge to get us to the finale, but so little happens here that much of it could have been included somewhere in the past episode, or in the finale itself.

Gauthier is still trying to get a hold of Miltie in Amsterdam, but since the mob guys can’t get to him they settle for Gauthier. They want their fifty-thousand dollars back, but since Gauthier clearly doesn’t have the money that Miltie stole, they tell him he can pay back half. Gauthier then decides to extort Tommy Lee for the money, typing up a letter that requests he meet him in a parking lot alone that night with twenty-six thousand dollars in exchange to “lift the black cloud that follows him.”

Meanwhile, Pam is on a press tour for her new movie, Barb Wire. She manages to evade questions about the tape during the press conference, but is less lucky when she makes a late-night appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. After Leno asks her what it feels like to be so exposed by the tape, Pam responds how the entire situation is horrible and to have a private moment between herself and her husband out there for the world to see is devastating. But, of course, this is not how she actually responded. What we heard was only the way she wishes she could respond: honestly. Instead, she has no response, laughs it off, and moves on.

Later that night Tommy meets with Gauthier, a chain link fence separating the two of them. Tommy calls Gauthier a loser and tells him that he will always be one, which prompts Gauthier to refer to Tommy as a bad person and thus the purpose of this scene materializes. Tommy acknowledges that he isn’t a very good person, but then he asks about Pam and whether she deserved what he did to her. Gauthier doesn’t respond and Tommy burns the money.

The next morning Pam and Tommy are visited by their lawyer who comes with the bad news about the judge dismissing their lawsuit against Penthouse, explaining how the adult magazine is using their first amendment rights because the tape is big news. This information prompts a big response from Pam, as the only one in the room who can read between the lines of what this decision is actually communicating: that Pam is a slut and “sluts don’t get to decide what happens to their body.” Their lawyer responds in the only way he knows how, with the automatic, unfeeling, “I understand,” but, like Pam, we know that he doesn’t and never will.

The episode ends with what should be a high note for Pam, the Barb Wire premiere, but ends up being a low one when she overhears a negative comment trashing the movie at the after party. Tommy, being the proud supportive husband, takes Pam to a showing of the movie at a local theater and while they watch, hear nothing but laughter from the scarce audience members. The pair ride home in silence. It’s a rather sad place to leave them on, given how excited and proud Pam was about the movie, but with the negative reviews and the damage done by the tape, everything around them is crumbling and they can do nothing except watch as it all falls.

The major standout for me in an episode where so little happens, of course lies in the performance of Lily James as Pamela Anderson. On the press tour her brilliant work at perfecting Anderson’s voice and mannerisms is on full display and she doesn’t skip a beat. Embodying Anderson so completely - with the added help of the brilliant hair and make-up team - that it is truly difficult to find any trace of James on screen. Pam and Tommy’s great love is, once again, exceedingly palpable. First, when Tommy attempts to beat up Jay Leno during the live show, and then later that night when Pam is at a hotel watching Sleepless In Seattle and calls Tommy to say she misses him.

With one final episode left it will be interesting to see how the show chooses to wrap everything up, and what final note to leave the characters on. My only wonder is if they plan on giving what screen time is left to Gauthier instead of Pam and Tommy.