Episode seven ofPam & Tommy, “Destroyer of the Worlds,” brings Rand Gauthier back into the spotlight as he continues to seek the benefits of his big steal but instead, sees himself running into new enemies and hurdles. As previously reported,Seth Rogen brings a sad puppy aspectto the character, but that doesn’t make him any more interesting or less sleazy. It’s a refreshing change to see his villainous side, the same side that led him to snatch Pamela’s sex tape in the first side, overcome his free-loving, intellectual personality.
Following the previous week’s emotional episode, this penultimate episode sees the series shifting into a new direction. The last few episodes have focused on how the scandal has affected Pamela emotionally and halted her budding career. Audiences have seen her bumping heads with publicists and her husband, Tommy, and standing up for her personhood while being unfairly questioned by lawyers. This week continued that narrative, giving Lily James' Pamela a Tonight Show monologue about the unethical spread of her sex tape and how hurtful it is to see her industry peers and fans, and the world, nonetheless, partake in the spread of it.
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“Destroyer of the Worlds” split the screen time between Pamela, Seth Rogen’s Rand, andSebastian Stan’s Tommy Lee, abandoning the Pamela-focused trend that the last few episodes have taken. This refreshed this series and helped move the story along in a natural, entertaining way. While many creative liberties were taken in Pamela’s monologue to fake Jay Leno, the message rang true: Pamela Anderson was extremely mistreated by the media throughout the late 90s and it was damming on her self-esteem and career. This wasn’t the first time the show took such creative liberties, as the week prior saw band members from Motely Crue and Third Eye Blindadding clarity to a made-up confrontationfeatured in the series.
The episode had two standout scenes: One being Pamela’s hotel room monologue about how women don’t have rights, and Rand’s remarried ex-lover explaining how “wholesome” Pamela’s sex tape is. However, they stood out for two entirely different reasons. The scene involving Pamela came after her botched appearance on The Tonight Show withJay Leno, where the host opted to make ill comments about her leaked tape, amid the press rounds for her premiering movie Barb Wire. She goes on to tell Tommy that he must be on his best behavior, as these next few days are for her and her career. After spending the night away from her husband to get some much-needed R&R, she and Tommy is paid a visit by their lawyer who says the case has been “thrown away”. Tommy reacts with boyish excitement as he assumes that they won, however Pamela is more skeptical. The lawyer continues to explain that the judge “ruled in favor of Penthouse,” as the tape is news-worthy.
While the two men are confused by the ruling, Pamela chimes in saying she understands it. She points out that they’re hiding behind freedom of press to avoid saying that she “doesn’t have any rights” due to her history posing in Playboy. After she marches off, the screen does a quick cut to Rand who is now moonlighting as a hit-man to help pay off his debts. Following a failed encounter, he returns home to sleep on the couch of his ex-wife Erica (Taylor Schilling) and Gail (Mozhan Marno), and finds out that the judge ruled in favor of Penthouse distributing pictures from the tape — which dampers his plan for distribution. This launches Erica and Gail to recount their experience watching the tape, and they gush about the “wholesomeness” of the tape, talking in details about Pamela’s creative choices while filming. Erica ends up making flirty comments about Tommy, calling him a “sensitive caveman” which irritates Rand and prompts him to leave the room.
The scene was unnerving and a bit unexpected. It was strange to see the creators try to create a more sympathetic take on the tape’s viewers, as if it made it okay. There was a stark contrast between the villianizing of those making sleazy comments about the sex tape and those who think it was “beautiful” despite both takes being equally harmful to Pamela and her lack of consent regarding the tape’s distribution. Erica, of course, gets redemption later in the episode when she kicks Rand out of her house after discovering that he was the one who stole the tape. She launches into a rant about consent and shoves him out of her apartment. But, I guess she wasn’t too concerned about consent when she watched the tape at a friend’s party?
It’s this sort of mixed narrative that keepsPam & Tommyfrom being an incredible series, it lacks in tonal consistency and nuance. Instead, it puts forward overly-simplified definitions of feminism and consent. While the show is watchable, it’s deeply flawed and its best moments are when it allows itself to get lost in Pamela’s heavy emotions, the love story between Tommy and Pamela, and Tommy’s unpredictable antics, rather than when it tries (and fails) to make a statement.
