The impact of the tape is now starting to settle in for everyone. Rand, who has been crashing on Erica’s couch, is freaking out because he can’t reach Miltie, who is dodging his calls while living it up in Amsterdam, no doubt spending the money they borrowed from Butchie on hookers and blow. Butchie, meanwhile, hears about the tape’s wide distribution and sends his goons to get Miltie to answer for it, but when they tell him Miltie’s split, Butchie tells them to “bring me the doofus.”
After being called on the carpet and threatened by Butchie to pay him the $50,000 they owe him or else, Rand, ever the believer in what’s right, goes back to the source, believing he can appeal to Tommy’s sense of right and wrong by luring him to a parking lot in the middle of the night to ask him nicely to give him the money he owes him. Even though Rand has nothing to blackmail Tommy with, Tommy still shows up, hoping for the chance to give Rand a beat down.
When it’s just the two of them in a darkened Dodger Stadium parking lot, Rand asks Tommy to pay him just what he’s owed for his labor and tools, which is $27,000. When Tommy laughs at Rand’s request, Rand tells Tommy, “You’re a bad person.” Tommy responds angrily, reminding Rand that, no matter how he feels Tommy may have screwed him out of money, stealing and releasing the tape was crossing the line. “What did Pamela do to deserve it?” Tommy asks. He then takes out the wad of cash he brought and, instead of giving it to Rand, he burns it in front of him.
Rand returns to Butchie, telling him he’s still trying to reach Miltie to find out where the money is. Butchie gives him a little time but warns him that if he can’t pay him back, he will need to work off his debt by working as a debt collector. There’s one client in particular who owes some money to Butchie, and he asks Rand to use his best powers of persuasion to get the money from him. Butchie expects Rand to use a baseball bat if persuasion doesn’t work. Rand refuses and promises that he will get the money—he just needs to reach Miltie.
Even more frustrated and determined to reach Miltie now, Rand calls Amsterdam, pretending to be Ron Jeremy to get Miltie to take the call. It works, but when Rand’s appeals to Miltie for help go unheeded, Rand finally wakes up and realizes Miltie has screwed him over and he’s in real trouble. At home, when he sees Erica is watching the tape, he tries to impress her by telling her that he’s the one who stole the tape and released it. Her reaction is not what he was hoping for, as she gets furious and kicks him out of the house, telling him that nobody has the right to release anything like that without getting a release. He is gobsmacked, yelling, “You’re one of those release people, too??”
With no other options, Rand returns to Butchie with his tail between his legs and takes the assignment…and the bat.
Meanwhile, Pamela is trying to move on. She’s got her big movie premiere coming up for Barb Wire, and she is putting all of her focus and attention on it. Desperately needing the film’s premiere to go off without any more distractions, she tells Tommy, nee, she INSISTS that Tommy be on his best behavior until after the premiere.
Pamela faces the press at the Barb Wire press conference and holds up well, even as the rumors persist that she put the tape out intentionally for publicity. Even Leno grills her, and she uses the opportunity to put him and everyone else on blast for how they are unfairly treating her and for violating her privacy.
When her lawyer tells her the case against Guccione has been thrown out because of First Amendment rights, Pam is pissed and defeated because she knows the real reason. “It’s because I have no rights,” she says. “Sluts don’t get to decide what happens to pictures of their bodies.”
Hoping to put it all behind her, Pamela goes to the Barb Wire premiere, and she and Tommy are the toast of the town. She’s thrilled with the movie, but she’s still bummed about everything that’s happened and just wants to go home after it, but Tommy wants to celebrate. He feels they should paint the town red, but she’s exhausted. He can see how defeated she is, so, to cheer her up, he comes up with a great idea to sneak into a late showing of her movie, so she can see how much people are loving it.
But when they sneak into a theater, all they hear are people laughing and making fun of the movie, especially her performance. All she thought she needed to put the tape behind her—and to take the first step on her path to being the next Jane Fonda—was to be taken seriously as an actress. She realizes she’s got a much bigger hill to climb than she first thought.
Pam & Tommy is now streaming on Hulu.
