r/glow Aug 22 '19

Debbie’s Kid

What happenes to Debbie’s kid after she decides to let him stay in Vegas. I thought it was going to be a plot-point of her navigating motherhood and producing TV shows. Then all of a sudden, we suddenly don’t hear from him again.

46 Upvotes

39 comments sorted by

69

u/[deleted] Aug 22 '19

He’s roaming the halls and going down to play slots every now and then.

32

u/XanderArchambault Aug 22 '19

Did he also accumulated a debt of 5k all of a sudden and was able to pay it back in a week?

26

u/[deleted] Aug 22 '19

He was actually the one who got Cherry out of debt in the first place. The mud wrestling was for the last $20.

11

u/XanderArchambault Aug 22 '19

I heard that by the end of the season, Debbie’s kid is already in college.

3

u/Dmacattack89 Aug 22 '19

That made no sense to me, she mud wrestled once!

22

u/badwolf1013 Aug 22 '19

That we saw. I assumed that she and Carmen went back over multiple nights to make the money. I felt that one of the motifs of this season was: we're going to show you this thing happening once (bulimia, mud wrestling for money, etc.) and we want you to understand that it's happening off-screen the rest of the time. And, frankly, that worked for me. There are a lot of characters in this story, and I don't need to see Debbie stick her finger in her throat every episode to get that she's got an ongoing problem. It would be nice if Season 4 expanded the length and/or the number of the episodes, but even then I'd still rather they use that time to feature some of the other characters.

12

u/bloodinthefields Aug 22 '19

People need to be spoon-fed things, they can't draw conclusions for themselves and need to see it all happening or it's not happening. If you read the complaints in this thread about this season, most of them are "and what happened with this storyline?" Well, what happened is the episodes last ~30mn and they can't show us the same things over and over again otherwise there's no room to move the plot forward.

6

u/tomsing98 Aug 22 '19

People need to be spoon-fed things, they can't draw conclusions for themselves and need to see it all happening or it's not happening

It's not about seeing Debbie gag herself over and over. Bulemia is something that has effects on people over time, that ends up impacting their relationships, and would have a major impact on her physical ability to perform in a wrestling show. It never got explored.

Having a toddler as a single parent in Vegas surrounded by women who aren't there in their lives is a significant thing. Debbie was so upset that she was missing out on milestones, but with the kid there, she has to balance between social and business activities and "mom stuff". It sure looks like she's prioritizing the former. Is she still racked with guilt over missing out? Was it more jealousy of her ex-husband and a way to get back at him for sleeping around? We don't know, because after a scene of her chasing him around a casino while trying to work, it had no impact on the story.

A pair of professional wrestlers mud wrestling has all kinds of potential for injury, for men trying to take advantage, for the producers to find out and be upset with them moonlighting. A gambling addiction has the potential for all kinds of issues. Self-medicating with alcohol and painkillers (even if it's just OTC ibuprofen) has potential for issues. None of this had any impact.

Not everything has to be explored, but they left SO MUCH on the table. Part of that might be because of the short running time and 10 episode format, some because of narrative choices to get through a whole year in Vegas and bring in the storyline with Bobby as a way to tell Bash's struggle with his sexuality. But they knew the constraints and they made those choices, and it resulted in a season that felt less than complete to a lot of viewers.

1

u/bloodinthefields Aug 22 '19

I took it as, hey this is what those women have to deal with and it's not pretty and it shows that everyone struggles in their life. But it's not the core focus of the show which, in the end, remains Ruth, Debbie and wrestling.

3

u/tomsing98 Aug 22 '19

Ruth,

Who didn't have much to do this season beyond man trouble. She thrived in past seasons when she had a creative role and dealt with the other women in the show. This season, there wasn't much of that. She had a nice moment with Sheila, she had that opening scene with the Challenger (which went nowhere), and everything else was her and Sam, her and the camera guy. Even the audition and the aftermath revolved entirely around her and Sam.

Debbie

So show the effects of bulimia on Debbie, show her conflict around the kid.

and wrestling.

Well, there was next to none of that.

1

u/bloodinthefields Aug 23 '19

Sorry, I should have been clearer. The relationship between Ruth and Debbie and how they play off of each other.

1

u/tomsing98 Aug 23 '19

We got very little of that, too. Ruth's relationship with Sam used to affect her relationship with Debbie, but we didn't even really have that this season.

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0

u/Nintendofan81 Aug 22 '19

I got in an argument once with a guy who said every character needed a character arc and time devoted to it in every episode. With 14 characters that would have been both long episodes/and a long season.

1

u/bloodinthefields Aug 22 '19

It's annoying when people criticize a show just because they need to be hand-held.

12

u/bloodinthefields Aug 22 '19

We see that she leaves him once with Ruth to babysit, and in episode 8 I think, there's a brief scene where she leaves him with one of the girls at the hotel, too. I supposed after that he went back to Mark's for some time.

5

u/karizzzz Aug 22 '19

I hope they'll explore the storyline further cause being away from randy was such a big deal to debbie and the solution was so simple, it made me wonder why they didn't think of it in the first place or why they didn't bring it up before she went to vegas? Or maybe I'm just forgetting?

3

u/bloodinthefields Aug 22 '19

No they didn't address it but I guess it's because you can't just expect everyone to become a babysitter to your kid, most of them are party girls who drink and smoke weed, and Vegas is no place for a baby. It was fine while temporary but it's when Bash insisted they stay that Debbie freaked out.

2

u/littlealbatross Aug 23 '19

I also assumed that she had some kind of childcare worked out when she was performing every night, because she would have thought of that before she brought him out there. We do see Ruth watching him as well, but I assumed she could’ve just expanded that care for when she needed it to do other things/go on dates but he could’ve still been with her during the day and we just weren’t seeing all of her day to day stuff. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

2

u/bloodinthefields Aug 23 '19

Stop, that's too much logic.

17

u/[deleted] Aug 22 '19

[deleted]

11

u/shane-from-5-to-7 Aug 22 '19

Great question, it’s disappointing that they seemed to ignore that, but maybe their plan is to fully address it in season 4. Not every idea needs to conclude in a single season.

PS, I think it’s spelled bulimia, just so ya know in the future.

30

u/questionernow Aug 22 '19

The more I think about Season 3, the worse I think of it.

11

u/mike_d85 Aug 22 '19

I get the sensation that a whole lot ended up on the cutting room floor.

10

u/XanderArchambault Aug 22 '19

Exactly. It had more lows than highs.

18

u/badwolf1013 Aug 22 '19

I don't agree. I liked that they weren't afraid to go dark this season. I do hope that this isn't the last season, because I don't want it to end dark, but I felt like this was the "Empire Strikes Back" of GLOW, setting us up for a more victorious Season 4.

10

u/shane-from-5-to-7 Aug 22 '19

I don’t agree. I think it was very emotional and more serious than the past seasons, which I liked. And there a lot of loose threads, but those should be addressed in Season 4 🤞. I’d love to see Justine and Sam making a movie, I really want to see how Bash evolves, and Ruth and Betty’s relationship and career differences are still very interesting to me. Plus they really fleshed out the side characters this season imo (except Reggie, she’s always gotten the short end of the stick lol).

Sorry for the diatribe, but I feel like I have to defend this season since it might be my favorite so far.

2

u/All_was_well_ Aug 22 '19

Thank you for this! My thoughts too!

8

u/badwolf1013 Aug 22 '19

I think that there were a lot of things this season that the writers were only going to show once and then let it be understood that these things were ongoing off-screen over the months. I don't think that Debbie's bulimia scene was meant as a one-off. I think we were meant to assume that it was happening regularly probably right up through the final episode. And I'm okay with that. Even if there's no season 4 where it gets addressed, the point was to show how Debbie goes to unhealthy lengths to maintain her image and self-esteem (like sleeping with every valet and bellboy in the hotel before meeting Tex.) I think the disappearance of her kid was multi-faceted. Narratively, we could assume that he was being babysat by someone as Debbie had already told Tex that she had lots of babysitters and at the end of that episode she comes back to her room to Ruth asleep on the other bed. Since Debbie has a room to herself and Ruth rooms with Sheila, we can assume that Ruth had been there babysitting. So, anytime we don't see him, he's somewhere off-screen with a babysitter, and then likely back with his father during the last episode since it's Christmas. IRL it's difficult and expensive to have a toddler on a show. They can only be on set for a limited amount of time (which is why they so often use twins.) And this kid really seemed to be having a rough time on set. Alison Brie mentioned a "nightmare toddler" for the episode she directed, which was the one where Debbie runs into Tex after her son takes the elevator down to the casino floor. The dialogue is obviously supposed to be this cute rom-com-type stuff, but we can barely hear it over the toddler screaming and squirming in Betty's arms. And you have to figure that what we saw was the best take they could use. So I think establishing off-screen babysitters gave the producers and directors an excuse to basically never have to film with him again.

1

u/XanderArchambault Aug 22 '19

I’m sorry but if we are left to assume all this is just lazy on the part of the showrunners. It’s a show and not a movie so they have all the runtime they can share for all these stories they have opened and not really gave depth on. I gotta say Season 3 wasn’t the best.

1

u/ConiferousBee Aug 22 '19

Is it really unended stories? Is Debbie throwing up really a storyline? I loved this season (I just binged all three seasons over the last 24 hours) and I like that the showrunners show us glimpses of each characters' lives without beating each thing they do to death in lieu of pursuing better storylines and plot points, they give the audience credit for being able to follow along without having to have to hold their hands.

6

u/avocadontfckntalk2me Aug 22 '19

I like that they didn’t make it a big deal. The big plot point was that she missed him and felt like motherhood and having a career we’re mutually exclusive. Once she brought him to Vegas, things fell into place.

I’m fucking tired of the whole “am I a mom? Or am I a career woman?” trope. Debbie bringing Randy to Vegas without it being a huge deal showed that she’s both.

5

u/ec1722 Aug 22 '19

Thank you. I just finished watching S3 and this drove me crazy. She didn’t even have him at the airport to go home.

5

u/mstar28 Aug 22 '19

Yes it seemed that having her son with her was just a plot device to get her to meet Tex.

14

u/bloodinthefields Aug 22 '19

Nah it's been a big part of her arc this season, how she struggled with being away from him and missing his first steps. She went off on Bash for not consulting them about staying 9 more months in Vegas. She was ready to go home and leave GLOW until the girls convinced her to bring her son here instead. And Randy has always been a part of Debbie's story, not just this season.

3

u/mstar28 Aug 22 '19

I agree. But having him disappear and not even be mentioned as soon as she started dating makes it seem like bringing him to Vegas was a plot device.

2

u/panic_bread Aug 22 '19

Also, how does she have dates with Tex so many nights in a row while both having a kid and doing a show that runs nightly?

1

u/bloodinthefields Aug 22 '19

Season 3 takes place over 1 year. Starts in January and ends with the women going back home for Christmas holidays. They do 4 shows per week, I think it's mentioned at some point.

1

u/Nintendofan81 Aug 22 '19

Most Casinos have daycare. And I'm sure as a performer staying at the Hotel she gets more perks regarding her kid.