The Deuce, Season 1, Episode 4 Review: ‘I See Money’
At the halfway mark for The Deuce‘s fourth episode titled ‘I See Money,’ the show seems to have taken the opportunity to let the characters take a break from moving forward and taking acton to change, and allow them to take stock of where they are right now, and how they got there. Candy’s spirits have taken a plunge since the rejection from porn filmmaker Harvey Wasserman, and experiences both a potential love interest entering the picture, as well as a series of humiliations while on the “job”; Abby plants a seed in Darlene’s head to go back home to get out of the life; Vinnie questions whether he wants to take on even more business responsibilities from Pipolo given that that Hi-Hat is going fine on its own; Alston starts questioning the legitimacy of the “no-go” zones; and we finally learn a little bit more about Paul (Chris Coy) – the amiable, handsome, gay bartender who works at the Hi-Hat and seems to be in relationship purgatory with a man that isn’t fully out of the closet. Though not as high-energy as last week’s episode, this was another solid installment of The Deuce that allowed us to focus on individual stories and motivations.
Candy Hits Her Bottom, But Eileen Gets a Date
In any other universe, a girl being encountered by a handsome guy in a music store the way it happened in ‘I See Money’ would be the type of meet-cute that would make hearts swoon. But in the context of Candy’s existence, where rats will crawl on her while giving a blow job in a porn theater, or where Johns die on the spot while you’re servicing them, she naturally approaches it with a certain amount of skepticism. Because when the basis for your daily existence is simply being a temporary remedy for mens’ sexual desires, and being casually tossed aside afterwards, the idea of a man seeking something deeper in a genuine way doesn’t seem like it can ever be part of your reality. When Candy does eventually go on a date with Jack (Will Chase), she obviously doesn’t follow the standard first date etiquette of at least pretending to be someone else. Jack sees her as Eileen, but she still sees herself as Candy, and Candy is the woman who has sex for money and doesn’t kiss guys on the mouth. She almost reflexively pulls away as if he was just anotherJohn when he attempts to go in for one at the the end of their night. And after initially pushing him away, it’s as if she allows herself to be Eileen for the first time as she goes to kiss him. She savors it as if it will be her last time, before pulling away and leaving without a word.
I would have expected that someone as resilient as Candy would have quickly found a way to put her on the road to porn filmmaking stardom, or at least get her foot in the door. But we find her here completely deflated and hopeless, and it’s Candy’s story that at least partially tells us why these girls stay in the life. It’s because after you’ve been doing it for this long, and all your worth is tied to being used as a sexual plaything, then you eventually internalize it as who you are. And if you do get the courage to try something new, you’re eventually knocked back into reality, as is what happened with Candy and Wasserman in the last episode. It’s because of this mentality that I don’t think Candy will ever see Jack again, but we’ll see.
The defining moment of Candy’s storyline is at the end of this episode is when she’s in the diner with an assortment of pimps and hookers, and two of the pimps decide to stand up and give “Mouth of Death” a slow clap for her talents. And before she knows it, all of the men – and just the men – are standing to give Candy a rousing standing ovation, essentially for blowing a guy to death. Once again, any sense of worth or any praise is directly tied to the demeaning acts she has to perform every day. And that may be even more demoralizing than the act that earned her the applause.
As a side note, if Maggie Gyllenhaal doesn’t get recognition for her work on this show, it will be absolutely criminal. She’s truly owning the hell out of this show.
Abby Breaks Off a Piece of Her Privilege, Hands It To Darlene
So far, Abby has basically been a sassy, sexy, independent fixture at the Hi-Hat, regularly using her wiles to get what she wants and showing few signs of vulnerability. But in the scene between her and Darlene in the bathroom, she casually gets called out for being the type of girl who buys a new pair of shoes when the buckle breaks, as opposed to just fixing it the way people without disposable income or affluent parents have to do. Darlene, being someone who has to be out on her feet all day and probably can’t afford to be continuously buying new pairs, has to carry around a tool to fix broken buckles. They share a sweet moment as the usually resourceful Abby is taught something new by a girl who she implicitly looks down upon. When she asks Darlene why she’s a prostitute, it’s surprisingly naive coming from someone as smart as Abby, but it’s also the type of question asked by someone who has never known true hardship. It’s like asking someone in a poor rural town with incredible poverty and no jobs “Why don’t you just leave?” When Abby innocently says she just wants to understand, Darlene says “You don’t need to understand.” As if to say that the reasons can’t ever be effectively described or understood. Or she probably just knows that no explanation would be good enough for the likes of Abby, who is sympathetic to women like Darlene but have lived a life of comfort for too long to truly understand how these women wound up here, and why they stay.
Abby at least has enough self-awareness to know that she’s in a privileged position, and uses it for the forces of good when she gets Darlene a train ticket to visit her aunt in Charlotte. I’m not sure how Larry will feel about losing his top girl – even temporarily – so this could also be one of those gestures that could ultimately cause more harm than good.
Vinnie Gets Another Opportunity (To Be Killed!)
Vinnie’s check-cashing scheme experiences a minor setback this episode as certain workers at the construction site decide not to cash their checks in advance, affecting the bottom line of the business that’s supposed to help pay off Frankie’s debt. He also inadvertently gets one of the defectors badly beaten by Pipolo’s men when he tells Tommy the name of the ringleader of the mini-revolt (that would be Schmidt, by the way). While Vinnie is definitely a man who knows what makes people tick, he’s obviously pretty inexperienced with how mobsters work. Like when they ask for someone’s name, it’s for a reason. And that reason usually involves fists and/or a baseball bat. But Vinnie’s also a quick learner, so while he’s flattered by Pipolo’s confidence in him, he’s justifiably hesitant to take on even more from the mob boss, no matter how “big” the opportunity. Because every new business venture with Pipolo is also another opportunity to fuck it up and get killed for failure. It’s another chance for complications to emerge, and one thing I’ve noticed about Vinnie’s character is that he likes to keep things simple and drama-free, and taking on more responsibility for Pipolo definitely doesn’t keep things simple or drama-free.
But since this is a tv show where things go badly a lot, there’s absolutely no way Vinnie doesn’t wind up taking this on, either of his own volition or because he’s pushed to.
Alston Pokes the Hornets Nest To See If It’s a Real Hornet’s Nest
Alston continues to be suspicious of the “no-go” zones, so he purposefully arrests a perp dealing drugs in one of them (after an amazing rant by Flanagan to a man urinating in a phone booth). When he brings the guy into the station, he’s told by his superiors that he has to cut him loose. So, it appears that these no-go zones are the real deal, but why these zones are no-go remain a mystery – a mystery I’m sure Alston will stay on until his curiosity is satisfied. In the process, he sees journalist Sandra Washington (Natalie Paul) in the prostitution round-up, and blows her cover because she was wrong non-ho-like shoes. When she asks for his number, Alston at first thinks she’s asking for his badge number, but she actually asks for his phone number, implying that perhaps she wants to get to know him socially. But in the end, she is more intent on bringing him along on her stakeout of a particular prostitute.
What struck me here were two things: the first being that Alston didn’t instinctively think that Sandra was asking for his phone number. It’s as if he suffered from the same skepticism that Candy did with Jack when he first asked for hers, though to a much lesser degree. Secondly, unlike Candy, he completely rises to the occasion when he shows up to the date with Sandra. He is someone who isn’t completely bound and stigmatized by his station, so when he gets the opportunity to date the hot journalist, he doesn’t have to deal with the same internalized insecurities that she does. I was also kind of surprised he didn’t call Sandra out for tricking him into a lame date, but I suppose that’s the kind of gentleman Alston is.
Who’s Paul?
We finally got an inside look at Paul Hendricksen – the pretty, gay, good-natured bartender that Vinnie inherited when he took over the bar that is now the Hi-Hat. Here’s what we know: he’s currently in what appears to be a casual relationship with another man who isn’t quite ready to embrace his homosexuality publicly. Paul – who has been active in the New York gay community – tries to convince him that since it’s New York that nobody cares. He seems like a sensitive man who just wants some affection, but this dude wasn’t giving it to him, and desptie Paul’s limited screen time so far, I hurt for him when he would get lightly brushed aside by the man he was seeing. I’m wondering why he would pursue someone who hadn’t fully embraced his homosexuality, though, given that he seems pretty deeply entrenched in the gay scene. The guy in question also seems to be a pretty big wet blanket when they’re out together, or even then they’re alone, to be honest. Paul definitely deserves better.
Paul also gets another scene with Vinnie where they discuss where he’s worked before, and what his aspirations are. It sounds like he would love to have a place of his own, even though things are going relatively well at the Hi-Hat. The new big opportunity that Vinnie is entertaining from Pipolo could provide a way for Vinnie to pass on more responsibility to Paul, who’s proven to be a reliable bartender, and an otherwise trustworthy fellow to have around. We’ll probably get a clearer answer to that in the next episode since I’m sure Vinnie will have to make a decision about Pipolo’s offer relatively quickly.
Other Stuff That Happened on The Deuce
- Vinnie and Abby did it. So yep, that happened and we all saw it coming from a mile away.
- Vinnie also gets a shake-down by one of the cops after an altercation breaks out that another cop started. The price of keeping Vinnie and all of his clientele from being busted is going to be $250 a week. Ouch.
- I can’t get over how much I loved the introduction of “Black Frankie”. The moniker is succinct, to-the-point, and just the type of unimaginative name I would expect Vinnie to come up with off-the-cuff.
- Melissa (Olivia Luccardi) and Barbara (Kayla Foster) appear to actually be a couple who use their tricking hours to hook up. Apparently, they’ve figured out a system to where they always show up with money to make the time away look legit to their pimps. Bravo, girls. Git yours.
- When Officer Haddix (Ralph Macchio) calls Sandra “Angela Davis” I laughed out loud. Just saying.
- Notice the many uses of the word “date” there are in this episode. There’s the kind of “date” that Candy has with her Johns. There’s the kind of “date” that Candy had with Jack, which is much more personal, intimate, and exploratory. Then there’s the kind of “date” that Alston got, which basically meant sitting in a car with a pretty girl eating a cold hamburger and watching her watch other people.
- C.C. and Lori got only a small scene this time around, but it served to solidify the fact that Ashley – once C.C.’s favorite – is definitely on the outs and that Lori has slipped in as C.C.’s “amazon”. It made me start to wonder whether this is how prostitutes defect to other pimps, if that’s even a thing.
That’s a wrap, folks! Come back next week for a review of Episode 5: ‘What Kind of Bad?’
