Cassie’s OnlyFans dreams come true
After ditching her newlywed hubby Nate Jacobs in last week’s episode, Cassie is now living out her dreams as an OnlyFans star, racking up tens of thousands of subscribers by catering to their most bizarre and fetishistic whims. Maddy Perez is doing a genuinely great job as her manager, booking her for odd jobs (like farting in a jar for $700) but also for podcast interviews.
In the process, she’s transforming into a completely different person. Unlike the vulnerable high school girl we knew in previous seasons, she’s now an internet giant—a rocket to hilarious success captured in a surreal scene in which she transforms into a Godzilla-sized supermodel who presses her bare breasts against a skyscraper.
But while Maddy is helping Cassie achieve stardom, her own fortunes as a budding talent manager are in limbo. And Brandon Fontaine, a superstar influencer played by Jeff Wahlberg (Mark Wahlberg’s nephew), urges Cassie to fire Maddy to join his team. Cassie is also still talking to Nate (and sending him money), getting pulled in multiple directions. But Maddy saves herself, manipulating Cassie into signing a contract to keep her on.
Rue is in even more danger than ever
Alamo Brown is not happy about the robbery that went down last week. On “Kitty Likes to Dance,” the manager of the Silver Slipper strip club succumbed to mortal threats and opened the safe for two thieves from Laurie’s drug-dealer crew. His outrage boils over when he nearly stabs a tailor who mistakenly fits Alamo with a pair of pants that are way too short for him, insulting his masculinity.
Rue Bennett is looking more anxious than ever as Alamo’s gang of henchmen—led by Bishop, played with impeccable menace by Darrell Britt-Gibson—prepare for a bloody showdown with Laurie. “Something about you gives me the heebie jeebies,” Bishop tells Rue, as he gets dressed up in a shower cap and white surgical outfit to conduct some seriously evil revenge on an unlucky captive.
Rue is still useful to Alamo (for now at least) because she has insider information on Laurie’s compound and business operations. But she also has to keep the DEA happy as an informant, and her double-cross of one of the Silver Slipper’s dancers leads to her cover getting blown.
Lexi gets used, again
Maddy’s attempt to keep Cassie as a client leads to poor, level-headed Lexi Howard having to do another undeserved favor. Cassie uses her connections as Lexi’s sister to score an audition for a small role in a hit TV show, and Cassie wins the role with a dramatic monologue from Shakespeare’s “Anthony and Cleopatra.”
You’d expect this to be a disaster, but she actually does a solid job. Lexi’s boss and the show’s director think it’s hilarious, and they give Cassie the role. Still, what about Lexi? She is left embarrassed yet again by the selfish actions of her family and friends, and it’s hard to tell whether Cassie getting this role is a win for Lexi or just another career setback.
Jules and Nate are not doing okay
Jules hasn’t had a whole lot to do this season, but every time we see her, it’s clear that she’s in an uncomfortable place. A lunch hang with Rue turns awkward when she brings up their old romance and asks if Rue wants to kiss her. The camera jumps to a hot sex scene, but it’s a fake-out as we suddenly see her with her rich surgeon sugardaddy—a jealous jerk who finds out that Jules had a friend over and turns aggressive because he doesn’t want her with anyone else.
Nate’s fortunes meanwhile also turn sour: He’s getting plenty of money from Cassie, but he’s still being hunted by loansharks. A henchman working for Naz shows up at his mansion and brutalizes him once again: First he plucks off Nate’s wounded pinkie toe (which was severed in the infamous wedding episode) and then snips off another appendage, this time a finger.
This isn’t the only violent scene in “This Little Piggy,” but Nate’s desperation and haunting screams—which are so loud that a toddler can hear him outside—makes for one of the most painful scenes of the entire series.
Maddy finds a new business partner
Rue and Maddy are talking about the Bible at a diner—a callback to the religious themes of Season 3’s premiere—when Alamo Brown suddenly shows up and invites himself to sit down. Dressed to the nines with a gold-plated iPhone case and lots of rings, he sends Rue off on an errand with Bishop. Alamo doesn’t trust her anymore, and wherever they’re going, it can’t be good for her.
Still, Maddy pointedly ignores Rue’s hints to get out of there and decides to keep hanging out with Alamo at the diner. Maddy has a taste for danger, able to navigate moral grey areas with more confidence than Rue, and she talks to Alamo like a respected colleague: Two crafty pimps in the business of exploiting women and selling sex. After talking through the lucrative finances of the influencer business, they decide to head out to the Silver Slipper, where Maddy recruits two of Alamo’s dancers.
Meanwhile the web of lies, coercions and double-binds that has kept Rue on edge all season comes to a horrifying turning point. Brought out to a remote field near Alamo’s mansion, she is ordered to dig a hole. Then she gets buried up to her neck, in that very same hole, and she’s left there to suffer until dawn when Alamo comes riding up on horseback. He’s swinging what looks like a long club, and the episode ends on a teeth-clenching cliffhanger, right as we’re wondering if he’s about to play polo with her head.
