Rue gets caught in a double-bind
Picking up on the cliffhanger that left viewers reeling at the end of last week’s episode, “Kitty Likes to Dance” kicks off with Rue getting pulled over by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Still dressed in the blazer she wore at Cassie’s wedding, she’s cool and collected in a harshly-lit interrogation room, batting away questions from two DEA officers—only to choke when they pull out a photo of her standing next to a member of a Mexican drug cartel.
They also find a hefty packet of fentanyl in her car, and it’s not long before she agrees to be a confidential informant. She heads back to Alamo Brown’s Silver Slipper strip club with a fanny pack full of fake drugs to use as bait for the DEA to bust Laurie. But Rue’s problems just get more complicated, since a war between Alamo and Laurie is brewing.
Nate gets his toe back, but not his dignity
In the aftermath of Nate and Cassie’s disastrous wedding, Nate is in a philosophical mood. After getting his pinky toe snipped off in “The Ballad of Paladin” and then reattached by a doctor, he muses to Cassie about rebuilding all the things he’s lost. But he owes a million dollars to a loan shark, and Cassie decides to leave him to pursue her career as an OnlyFans model and sexed-up influencer.
In a last ditch effort to save his real-estate development project, Nate goes on hands and knees to a city council meeting to plead city officials to allow the construction to move forward. “This is a good thing!” he cries, his face still bruised and scarred from his recent beatdown. “This is good for the world!” The city council chair has had enough of this guy (who can blame him!) and promptly denies Nate’s request.
Jules gets burned as an artist
Thanks to a referral from Lexi Howard, Jules Vaughn gets a lucrative commission to make a painting for a much-anticipated TV show. The job is straightforward: a picturesque piece of neo-impressionism inspired by Georges Seurat. But instead she delivers a ghastly reinterpretation covered in penises—a piece that would probably go over well in L.A.’s funky arts district but that hits all the wrong notes for the show’s production crew. “I told her to paint a picnic,” a befuddled Lexi tells her boss.
In a scene that satirizes Hollywood politics, the production team brings in Jules and, being extra sensitive since she’s trans, goads her into getting rid of the penises. But her protests lead to them cutting the scene entirely, and Lexi’s boss is furious because of the costly snafu. In frustration, Jules smears the painting with bloody red paint—a sad reflection of her increasing isolation and her naïveté about how the entertainment business works.
Cassie does an influencer makeover
After ditching hubby Nate and pawning her new wedding ring, Cassie moves into a picturesque apartment in sunny Los Angeles. Now teamed up with Maddy, she looks like a completely different person, posing for photo shoots in thick makeup and Marilyn Monroe-esque retro sexy outfits.
Then she and Maddy stage her big breakout. In a cheetah-print dress, Cassie goes to a dicey Hollywood party where Maddy serves her like shark bait to a powerful young influencer. Cassie charms her way into the influencer’s penthouse suite, and here the episode teeters on disaster.
As Cassie takes a sniff of powder, director Sam Levinson pays homage to Uma Thurman’s iconic overdose scene in “Pulp Fiction”—only instead of dropping almost dead, Cassie lets out a scream of joy. Moments later, Maddy bursts in and captures Cassie in flagrante with the influencer right before a hookup. Teasing the camera is what their business is all about, and this staged moment, though primed with danger and volatility, makes her a hit on social media.
A poker game, followed by war
Wearing a wire, Rue starts asking Alamo Brown too many questions during a poker game, and she ends up getting subjected to another withering interrogation. Alamo is more menacing than usual, but he doesn’t seem wise to her DEA stop (for now at least) and merely accuses her of being on drugs. Rue cops to the accusation, saving her hide and winning a huge hand while she’s at it.
The depravity of Rue’s situation finally dawns on her when she watches CCTV footage of Kitty, a new dancer at the Silver Slipper, getting brutally used by a group of jocks. Kitty is the replacement for Angel, a sex worker who disappeared after having a meltdown on Season 3’s second episode, and a few words of concern lead to Rue coming under suspicion by the club’s manager. To save herself, Rue has to turn on another dancer, forcing her deeper into her own path of self destruction.
In the final act, the brewing conflict with Laurie intensifies when two masked rednecks burst into the Silver Slipper. Holding Rue and another dancer at gunpoint, they torture the manager into giving them access to the club’s safe and then run off with the cash. Surely things are only going to get worse for Rue and the rest from here on out.
