Guilt
The Wedding
Episode 6 of I Hate Suzie begins with our protagonist returning to her roots and singing. With her acting career up in flames and personal issues still haunting her, she turns to a stage musical as her salvation. Back home she sits with Frank and learns that Cob is stuck in Paris. Meanwhile, Suzie and Naomi visit her parents. Immediately there’s tension as the men start joking about the pictures uploaded online. With a Wedding imminent, Naomi and Suzie both trade some back-handed insults to one another Only, things immediately become awkward when Cob shows up. He learns about Suzie’s musical gig and the pair come to blows again. As Suzie takes her leave, she notices some messages on Cob’s phone from Valerie. Unfortunately that’s the least of her problems as the theatre want Suzie to do a dance audition – right now in the garden. With everyone watching, the family get behind her and cause complete chaos. Teary-eyed, Suzie tells the producer she’ll phone back at a later date.
Selling Out
As if things couldn’t get any worse for Suzie, she learns that her parents are going to conduct an interview with the papers about her. With 30 grand on the line, they’re prepared to sell out their daughter to make a quick buck. Suzie immediately confronts her Father about this. He intends to use 20 grand of it to pay a deposit for her sister. This inevitably brings her straight up to Cob, admitting what’s happening. While he’s distracted, Suzie messages Valerie from Cob’s phone and suspects the worst. She continues to provoke flirting, believing something is going on between them. Tellingly, American Pie starts playing (the same song from the audition at the start of the episode) and Suzie finally lets loose and dances around. She decides to put up the 15 grand herself to keep her Father quiet. Meanwhile, Naomi hooks up with a woman at the party and finds her date has a C-section scar. This, of course, plays back into her concerns surrounding having a child. In the morning, Suzie asks Naomi to get her something from the chemist. That something comes in the form of pills. As they sit and talk, Suzie tells her friend that she wants to be in a musical all the time.
The Episode Review
Out of all the episodes this season, episode 6 is the one that really nails the dysfunctional family unit. The dialogue is on-point right the way through and I’d be interested to know if any of this was improvised. It all flows so beautifully and the tension when Cob walks in the room feels very natural too. It’s also quite telling that Naomi hooked up with that girl at the party. Given her concerns and fears this season, it seems telling that her experience here is a much more positive one compared to the previous episode. Beyond that though, there isn’t much in the way of stylistic cues or visually impressive scenes. Instead, I Hate Suzie dives into Suzie’s family set-up with more understanding surrounding where she’s come from.
