‘Pam and Tommy’ Episode Four Recap: ‘The Master Beta’
The you-know-what finally hits the fan in the fourth episode of Pam & Tommy.
After blissfully unaware newlyweds Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee (played by Lily James and Sebastian Stan) celebrated a couple of important relationship moments at the end of episode three, "The Master Beta" shows what happens when they first find out their private sex tape is being sold on the internet.
The episode opens with random men across the world opening the tapes they were sent by carpenter turned thief turned illegal porn distributor Rand Gauthier (played by Seth Rogen.) Right around this same time, months after the theft, Lee finally realizes his safe has been stolen, sending Anderson into a panic about the tape.
The couple hire a private investigator who pretty quickly figures out Gauthier is involved, then goes to his apartment and beats him up. Anderson finds out in pretty much the worst way possible that the tape is indeed being distributed.
This leads to the first of many fights with Lee on the subject, as the drummer doesn't understand why this is worse news for her than it is for him, "It's not because of my career," she tries to explain. "It's because I'm a woman."
Meanwhile, Gauthier is getting squeezed from every direction. Uncle Miltie, the porn producer he wrongly chose to trust as a partner, has fled the country, the threat of beatings from hired goons has forced him to leave his apartment, and rival bootleggers have begun selling their own copies of the sex tape he, you know, stole fair and square.
Rogen is particularly effective in this scene, losing his cool while trying to get a guy selling videotapes in a Tower Records parking lot to acknowledge Gauthier's perceived but completely meritless ownership of this stolen property.
The episode takes a much darker turn as Anderson suffers a miscarriage. On the way home the couple are hounded by paparazzi, leading them to attack a photographer's car right in the middle of the street. Oddly enough it's Anderson, not the hot-headed Lee who takes the fiercest swings, and the catharsis actually helps the couple reconnect.
But of course, much bigger problems are on the way for the couple.
Best Scene: Anderson's understandably shocked and angered reaction to discovering the Baywatch crew watching her once-private sex tape at work, right behind her back. Any gains she made towards earning her proper respect in the workplace are long gone now.
Episode five of Pam & Tommy debuts on Hulu on February 16th.