Last week’s episode, “The Escape Wheel,” offered the potential for some major plot acceleration as American Gigolo gets into the latter half of its season. Not only did Julian discover that Colin is his son and then witnesses him getting kidnapped, the episode culminated with Julian once again getting arrested. Episode five ended with a lot of juicy material for this week’s sixth episode to run with, but “Sunday Girl” seemed almost unsure what to do with itself. Should it ruminate on Julian’s childhood? His time in prison? Should it emphasize the anger and tension that ought to exist between Detective Sunday and him? Or dig further into Sunday’s own past, too? Maybe instead it’s time to see how Colin is doing. Hey, what about that Lisa girl Julian dated in high school that died? Is Isabelle throwing any cool sex parties this week?
“Sunday Girl” touches upon all of this, but never gets deep enough to really say anything. If anything, it’s actually entirely unclear what is trying to be said at all — literally, there were bits of this episode I had to replay three times over because I could not understand the words coming out of Julian’s mouth. It isn’t the first time that American Gigolo has avoided focusing on some development that seems obviously worthy of talking about. Colin’s running away in earlier episodes or the lack of ill-will Julian expressed toward Sunday at all were entirely unmentioned. And to the show’s credit, the disjointedness is in many ways appropriate. At present, both Julian’s own state of being and the various murders and mysteries of the show remain in a state of chaos. Episode six once again presented us with a thick ball of knots to untangle, but by the end of the episode, it looks much the same as it did before.
Much of the more interesting bits of the episode are centered in flashbacks, in contrast to the usual slog of Julian’s flashbacks of Michelle. We get more time to see when Julian was just Johnny, living in a trailer park in rural California. He was bullied terribly by other teens in the neighborhood, even forced to pay them in order to ride the school bus. Briefly, however an elderly neighbor takes him under his wing and offers to teach him about cars. Witnessing the fruits of his labor and tasting the opportunity that a car presents for him, the chance to leave the town, Johnny catches a glimpse of euphoria much of his youth has not yet provided.
The bullies quickly shatter this moment for him, though, and we see Johnny do something we had not yet known he could do: become violent. Extremely violent, to the point where he nearly kills a bully with a stone. Immediately after this happens, the neighbor who abuses him tells him he needs to come over because she knows his rent is due. We already knew that Julian’s life as Johnny was rather horrific, but with this scene we gain some further understanding of why he might have ultimately confessed to the murder he didn’t commit. It turns out, he is actually capable of violence, and perhaps doesn’t trust himself for that reason.
All of this also potentially highlights something important about the decision to cast Detective Sunday as a woman. Thus far, Rosie O’Donnell as Sunday has been one of the strongest points of the show, providing both complexity and levity to a show that struggles not to be flattened. Sunday’s gender may be entirely irrelevant, but I do wonder if Julian would have been so quick to confess in the first place had it been a man interrogating him. After all, as the flashbacks continue, it’s said that Julian was entirely silent with other (likely male) detectives until Sunday came in and pulled the confession out of him. While Julian “knows” women in the sense that he is skillful in pleasing them in the way a high-end male escort ought to be, women are also obviously a complicated field for him to navigate. With his male bullies, he’s able to bash their faces in with rocks. With the adult woman who molests him, he’s powerless. As he ages, this sense of powerlessness only continues as he follows the whims of the Queen, Isabelle, and in some ways, Michelle. It seems plausible, then, that Sunday’s own womanhood is pivotal in shaping Julian’s life, too.
We also see how Sunday’s own circumstances led to Julian’s imprisonment. The night of his arrest, Sunday is dealing with her brother having a near-fatal overdose in her apartment. Just after this settles, her girlfriend essentially says she can’t deal with Sunday caring for her brother anymore and that she’s going to have to leave. Sunday is therefore already in a fragile state as she goes to interrogate Julian, offering her an intensity that is crucial in breaking Julian down to confess. In the present day, with Julian once again under arrest sitting across from Sunday, all of the resentment of these dynamics is visible. Julian rightfully begins to express his disdain. “Last time I sat across from you I got fifteen years. What did you get, Detective? Did you get a new office?” he asks. There’s much that Sunday has lost in that time — her brother, her relationships — but it remains true that her career did benefit from the case, and that’s a sacrifice she continues to struggle with.
All of this jail/prison stuff is wrapped up pretty quickly, though. Michelle calls up Sunday and tells her that Julian had nothing to do with it, Sunday gets the motel owner to confess to lying, and Julian is rather unceremoniously released. But in his time in custody, he does mention Lisa, his high school girlfriend, while talking to Sunday. The show has been suggesting that there’s something here that ties together the murder Julian was arrested for and that of the Queen. With this missing piece, Sunday now increases her suspicions towards Isabelle. Despite being like, 9 years old when it happened, it’s implied that maybe Isabelle had something to do with Lisa’s death, too. Regardless, things are certainly about to get even feistier with Isabelle, as the episode closes with her appearing inside Julian’s apartment when he returns home from jail. Whatever reason she’s there, it doesn’t seem she’s only interested in a friendly visit.
Hustlin’
• Little happens in the Colin front in this episode with the exception of Michelle’s husband procuring the $3 million for his return. We do learn that Michelle’s husband seems to know that Colin isn’t his son, but doesn’t care, or at least doesn’t want to confront it.
• Isabelle throws a freaky elite S&M party, but we only see the absolute tamest bits. It actually looks deeply boring. This show should have way more sex, and this would have been a good time to include it.
• Detective Sunday plays Wordle! I bet she does it on her iPad.
