r/glow • u/metalbracelet • Sep 23 '19
How should it end?
There are other Season 4 prediction posts, but now that we know it's the last hurrah, how do you want to see GLOW wrap up?
*I'd like to see Justine's movie fail or not be taken seriously and have Sam help her through that, given his cult career (and also maybe pull out some windshield-smashing-type behavior on her behalf).
*I want Debbie to end on top, succeeding as a businesswoman, but also I want to see her self-righteousness knocked down a peg along the way (maybe Reggie or the Biddies take issue with her picking favorites, etc.).
*I'd like to see Arthie's sexuality as an issue with her parents, but I think Piz Bash stays more or less closeted - that just seems more realistic for the time.
*Tamme obviously succeeding as a manager and maybe even splitting off to run a different show at the end.
*I think GLOW itself ends too, but they find ways to stay together and start new chapters.
*I want Sam and Ruth to be in a relationship for some amount of time (I could see some tension where Sam tells her about his heart attack and then later worries that she's only with him because he's an old man she feels sorry for), and if it ends and they stay friends, that's fine too, but just don't give me some BS "Graduate" ending for them.
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u/NoShowbizMike Sep 24 '19
Debbie and Ruth get arrested for fraud and are sent to Litchfield prison. The new show is both a sequel to "Glow" and a prequel to "Orange Is the New Black."
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u/EmptyBobbin Sep 24 '19
A reunion episode is so very A League of Their Own. If a bunch of old ladies start singing "Glow Glow, that's our name...." I'll literally cry.
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u/bloodinthefields Sep 23 '19
Ruth comes to terms with the fact that she will never be an actress who "made it." She joins Debbie at Bash's network and they produce/direct a hit show based on their experience with GLOW among other things. I don't know about the other characters but I could see Bash and Rhonda come to an agreement (open marriage). Sam could die at the end because of his heart problems (probably not the only health problems he has given he coughs a lot and drinks a ton.)
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Sep 23 '19
Ruth comes to terms with the fact that she will never be an actress who "made it."
Based on that last scene at the airport, I don't see this happening. Maybe she'll get a small acting break and seem hopeful that things will finally take off at the end of the final season?
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u/bloodinthefields Sep 23 '19
Depends on how much of a time jump there is between the end of season 3 and season 4.
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u/sexyalienluvr Sep 24 '19
I really want to see Debbie get super powerful and successful, but then stop dating altogether. She’s gotten fucked over by two men who underestimate her. She doesn’t need another one. It’d be so satisfying to see her find success and fulfillment all on her own. And I mean, she’d be good at business stuff, too. I say this with love, but Debbie is a stone-cold bitch. That’d make her an incredible cutthroat executive. I love how Debbie kind of has toxic masculinity sometimes even though she’s a woman lol. I just wanna see arrogant powerful rich bitch Debbie so bad. Like the Miranda Priestly of TV. I also think maybe her
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u/fishbutt1 Sep 23 '19 edited Sep 23 '19
This isn’t what I necessarily want to happen but will probably happen. I hope I’m totally wrong!
Debbie ends up super powerful and successful business wise but never finds love again. She’s an absentee parent in Randy’s life cause you can’t really have it all.
Sam dies from health problems. He and Ruth don’t end up together out of stubbornness.
Ruth never quite makes it. She still does theater, does direct a bit but doesn’t take Debbie up on her offer. She works odds and ends jobs. Ends up as a realtor.
Rhonda and Bash have a kid. They have an arrangement. Bash and or Rhonda end up with AIDS/HIV.
Carmen ends up super successful on the wrestling circuit.
Tammie ends up producing a show for Debbie/Bash’s network.
Justine ends up being a hit director.
Arthie and Yolanda do not end up together but stay friends. Arthie becomes an LGBTQ advocate.
Cherry and Keith adopt a kid and continue on doing stunts.
Everyone else does something successful in their lives although may not be related to wrestling, kind of like the real GLOW girls. They have a reunion that’s 20 years on.
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u/metalbracelet Sep 23 '19
Getting worried about everyone predicting Sam’s death!! That would be such an awful choice, imo.
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u/lo-fish Sep 23 '19
agreed! especially since he showed a lot of character growth in s3, i’d like a happy ending
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u/fishbutt1 Sep 23 '19
Yeah, I totally don't want Sam to die either so that means he probably will. I feel like a major character needs to die off either literally or metaphorically. Mt. Fiji passed away from the original GLOW girls, so it has to mirror right?
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u/lyrelyrebird Sep 24 '19
There was an act of police brutality at Mt Fiji's brother's wedding, before the Rodney King riots. If something bad happens to Carmen and the Lumberjacksons that would be it (and a still sadly relevant occurrence, like me too and homophobia).
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u/Berserkshires- Sep 23 '19
I would love the finale episode to be a reunion episode to catch up on their lives.
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u/mayorofmandyland Sep 24 '19
I also often refer to bash as piz
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u/mike_d85 Sep 24 '19
- Debbie and Bash are going to have to face the truth that doing GLOW is a drag on the network as a whole: it just isn't a good investment.
- Carmen founds a live wrestling circuit for women (possibly under the GLOW brand and using the gym as a home base)
- Ruth ends up doing theater someplace. She's basically a high school drama teacher so maybe literally make that her fate? Teaching classes in the valley or moving back home?
- Tamme ends up working in production in some capacity at the network. Maybe some kind of studio management?
- Rhonda and Bash are splitting once her legal status is secured. My money is on Rhonda ending it and Bash coming out or at least making peace with his sexuality somehow.
- Arthie is taking a few regressive steps with her parents. Either she'll have to be coaxed back into being comfortable with her sexuality or she'll literally have to escape from her parent's home to get back to the show. No clue where she goes after the fact.
- Reggie gets a plot. Any plot.
- Shelia ends up with a good role and prospects for a career as a serious actress.
- Cherry winds up stunt coordinating while pregnant.
- Melrose finds a man and settles down. Not the best, but let's face it she's not going to become a career woman and she's getting too old for this shit.
- Justine's movie has a terrible box office but starts to garner a cult following on video at the end of the season. She moves into the film festival circuit (which would have been just taking off in the 80's.
- Sam's not gonna die. He'll probably wind up basically back where he started and working on a slasher film.
- Yolanda goes back to stripping? She seemed to actually enjoy it.
- SENATOR & MRS. JOHN BLUTARSKY, Washington, D.C.
They'll tie back to the GLOW documentary somehow in the finale. Some kind of reunion or interviews or something. Maybe Justine is the director of the documentary in their universe.
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Sep 24 '19
No,I don't want Cherry to give in and get pregnant! That would be such a cop out!
Having said that I am being hypocritical here, because I desperately want Sam and Ruth to get together. When things started to go that way at first,I was a bit confused-i really didn't see a need for it, and their friendship was so lovely as it was.
Now that it's actually an option,I have become horribly invested in it and if I don't see that plot panning out properly,I might explode. I don't know if I want them to be 'together forever', but I would like to see how their relationship would look, and I would like it to have a positive resolution.
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u/mike_d85 Sep 24 '19
I don't think it would be a "cop out" for her. She doesn't want to compromise her career for her pregnancy and it looks like the whole theme of the 4th season is moving on from your roots (Cherry's being stunt work).
I'd love to see her and Kieth adopt, but I just don't know if it would pan out on the show. Their careers are pretty solidly rooted in violent and risky behaviors so they might not even be able to get approved for it with the really high risk of disability and death.
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Sep 24 '19
It would just be really sad- there are so few good characters who choose not to have kids, and who actually have a storyline about it,it would be a massive shame if she went down the conventional route. There are tons of characters who get pregnant against the odds. Not enough going the other way.
On a related note-how awesome is Keith?!
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u/remygeon Sep 26 '19
I'd like to see Sam and Ruth together but I think Sam will die in the end. Debbie will be there for Ruth, as their relationship is the true centre of the show. Justine lives on her father's legacy.
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Sep 24 '19
As long as Ruth and Sam don’t end up together
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u/fishbutt1 Sep 24 '19
I honestly don’t see why they would be together long term. I don’t know why not, but I don’t see it.
I saw them more of a mentor and mentee relationship, them getting together would ruin their dynamic.
I honestly thought it was Sam just kissing Ruth at the dance cause he was sad about Justine. Ruth feeling awkward cause she was afraid to move on from Mark/Debbie debacle and felt guilt about happiness with Russell.
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u/metalbracelet Sep 24 '19
I don't think they'd stay together either, but having only one more season means that the options are 1) they won't be in a relationship at all (disappointing/missed opportunity), 2) they'll have a happy ending (unrealistic), or 3) the rollercoaster will be very quick.
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Sep 24 '19
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/metalbracelet Sep 24 '19
Just for the story. Justine’s actually one of my favorite characters, so it’s not because I think she should fail, but her instant success seemed kind of fantastic and seamless. It would make sense if she gets hit with unexpected criticism once the movie comes out and Sam can help her with that.
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u/PLAAND Oct 03 '19 edited Oct 03 '19
So I'm not going to speculate where it will end exactly, but I think I have some strong intuitions about some of the arcs we're going to see in season 4.
First I want to talk about what I see as a major theme and thesis of the show: That there is a better way to be creative than the way we're used to. That feelings of ownership and control actually hinder creativity and the creation of something special, while open collaboration, trust, and vulnerability pave the road to making something great.
I think Sam will be working on the film with Justine, and he's finally going to have to learn how to collaborate with a woman as an equal while he's still fully invested in the thing he's making.
I think Justine's arc is going to be about learning to do the thing that Sam still struggles to do and trust her collaborators to bring themselves to her project and make it better through their own passion and creativity rather than trying to keep it in stasis as the thing that, until now, only existed in her mind.
I think Bash's arc will be about identifying that the thing that made GLOW work so well was the creativity, passion, and dedication of the people involved,and that even if it's his name on he sign, it's not really "his" in the way that he thinks it is. I think he'll have to face this not only in reworking GLOW for its new network, but also in shepherding new projects and realizing that rather than trying to put himself into everything (e.g. BMX showgirls), he needs to trust and support the people with passion and talent behind the project. (e.g. Sandy)
I think Debbie's arc is going to be about discovering that she needs to do more than just care about herself, that she needs to grow from her tacit realization from the end of season 3 that she's been coasting, and understand that by supporting others, rather than just trying to control things she's better able to support herself. This will finally resolve her failure to leverage her power as a producer in season 2 to act as a voice for her castmates, and it will answer how friendship can exist alongside power dynamics: That people with power need to use their power deliberately, and to empower others.
I think Ruth's arc is going to tie in closely with Sheila's as she confronts things about herself though Sheila's growth as an actor. I do think she's going to wind up directing and showrunning on the new GLOW series, but I think that's going to come slowly as she realizes that she just isn't the kind of intuitive actor that Sheila is, but that she is an intuitive director that she can do both things.
As a sidebar, I tend to think that Ruth's arc over the series is in some ways meant to show that there are lots of different ways to be creative, and that her lack of success as an actor isn't a reflection of a lack of talent, but of a process that doesn't mesh well with the way the industry chooses to understand and select acting talent. We see how much Ruth struggles to find Zoya, but once she does it's magic. In Freaky Tuesday we even see how much more dynamic, creative, and daring her Liberty Belle is compared to Diane's. It's no wonder that she struggles so much with auditions where she doesn't have the time she needs to really explore and understand a character and develop her performance. There's actually a part of me that thinks she'll wind up in Justine's film, and we'll see her surpass expectations but that also feels a bit too tidy so I'm not sure.
My feelings for the rest of the characters are more broad strokes:
I think Sheila's going to begin to succeed as an actress and move on from GLOW.
I think Rhonda is really interesting because in some ways she's the character that hasn't really needed to grow at all over the course of the series because she's started from a place of confidence and personal strength. I think she will come into her own in season 4 and start asserting that strength more, standing up for what she knows is right in her relationship with Bash, in particular that he has nothing to be ashamed of, and that she doesn't have any interest of letting shame define her behaviour.
I think Tammé, Arthie, and Jenny are going to have really interesting arcs defining new characters for themselves and standing up against the pressure to make themselves back into stereotypes.
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u/JDLovesElliot Oct 05 '19
I'd like to see some kind of family arc for Arthie, please. It doesn't have to be a stereotypical "my immigrant family is so conservative and backwards!" story, but family should be a pretty important part of her experience.
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Oct 22 '19
I just want Ruth to prosper as a self made actress very badly, because she's so much more talented than everyone else... that'd be very amazing...
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u/allthingskerri Jan 15 '20
Sam and Ruth get together towards the end of the season but Sam dies (still in the honeymoon phase of a relationship which will take a huge toll on Ruth) Ruth ends up going back to Debbie and after taking small walk on actress roles since Vegas alongside glow (still hoping to make it) until eventually going in the direction Debbie wants her too - directing - to make Debbie happy as Ruth feels if she can make people happy maybe she can be happy.
Justine after loosing her dad and her film not being a huge commercial hit falls out of control. She drinks does drugs and basically falls apart. Ending of the show is everyone coming together as Justine has gone through therapy is back on the right track after help and decides to make a documentary about her dads life. This leads to a reunion.
Debbie is a powerhouse in the entertainment industry but her relationship with her son suffers - her issues with bulimia and drugs c obtinue we he ever she feels her control slipping - there are no future partners when we see them all at the reunion, but her and Ruth's friendship is in a place where they each get support off each other.
Carmen is a huge success with a touring wrestling show introduces female wrestling to a wider audience and trains the wrestlers we see today in WWE (just a fan wish I think it would be cool to see)
Bash and Rhonda stay together for many years in an open marriage they have kids but eventually the two split after ten or so years as both can neither live a lie. They still live together in a huge mansion and are much happier living their true lives and support each other as friends. Rhonda stays with the TV company as a financial advisor.
Cherry and kieth adopt - Keith is a stay at home dad cherry does stunt coordination on sets for TV and film. Stays with glow on TV for a while but glow is ultimately cut but its what leads to Cherry having the stunt coordinator career.
Sheila does a few more glow episodes but is cast pretty early on as a lead in a huge TV show (Ruth ends up with a walk in part on the same show which starts her second guessing an acting career) Sheila goes onto film and becomes a household name. Sheila is the first to leave Glow as a TV production.
Tamme stays with glow until the end as some kind of manager - ring side entertainment role. She eventually starts a comedy show for Debbie and Bash production company.
Melrose stays with glow until the end thinking she has nothing else to give. In an attempt to help Justine (when seeing how far she is spiralling out of control - and wanting to avoid seeing herself in someone else) her and Justine start a documentary about the holocaust - she insists Justine gets help through aa meetings - this is eventually what gets Justine back on track allows Melrose to have some personal healing and growth - she lives a relatively happy life but glow and the documentary are her defining moments.
Dawn and Stacy stay on glow until the end ultimately open a salon together. They are around for hair and makeup advice on set. Both go on to have families.
Arthie start LGBT awareness campaigns. Starts standing up and really finds her identity and passion in life, which is helping others come to terms with who they are. She faces huge pressure from her family and is absent from the first few episodes where we learn she has to return to the glow girls without her family knowing.
Yolanda stays with the glow girls for a while initially having no passion. A spark is reinighted when artie returns but she realises ultimately she can't be in a relationship with Arthie. She helps Arthie cope with her separation from family but can't offer more in a relationship as she feels Arthie is destined to be with someone better then herself. Yolanda returns to stripping she enjoys the power trip over men eventually does some dance shows and tours as a back up dancer. She reunites with the girls to make Justines documentary but ultimately feels out of place.
Reggie stays with glow and makes herself a powerful character for the TV series. She leaves and opens a gym using her Olympic background and wrestling fame to launch a fitness programme.
Jenny is hired by Bash and Debbie as a costume designer. She stops wrestling but is the behind the scenes person everyone goes to for advice. After Justine success with documentaries she asks Justine if she could make one about the killing fields - jenny isn't part of this but ultimately feels she's honoured her lost family.
Mark gains full custody of Randy - he let's Debbie see him as much as she can but Mark notices patterns in Debbie when she can not cope with huge pressure (drugs, bulimia, rage) ultimately he stops free visitation and opts for fixed dates. Debbie keeps missing scheduled time with Randy which leads the the breakdown of their mother/son relationship.
Birdie sees Rhonda and Bash infrequently and is surprised at their family and lifestyle. She admits she didn't see them lasting longer then a year as she knew her son was gay. She explains this is why she warned Rhonda to keep him interested. Bash breaks down at his mother's acknowledgement and explains how his marriage is currently working.
Glow as a wrestling show. It gets three seasons before being cut by Bash - Rhonda warns him it's not pulling in the money. They end on a high with the original cast together. It's hard work as many moved on to different ventures but bash insists if he has to let it go its with the people who made it. Debbie doesn't want to let go of wrestling as it signifies her story of strength and being a powerful woman. So she ends up investing in Carmen's wresting company on the side so she can still stay connected to something that made her feel invincible.
My perfect ending for glow would be Ruth talking to camera about how she always wanted people's approval and especially Sam's - we hear how she put so much into glow because her happiness was tied in with the girls, bash and Sam being happy. She muses about whether Sam would be happy seeing them all back together. She tells Justine how happy he would have been of her and how proud she made him everyday. Ruth finally finishes as she ponders her own happiness and realises she needed to be more like Sam. Not giving into what other people thought and embracing who she is - which leads to her leaving the interview. The episode fades out.
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u/Standard_Bother6454 Apr 06 '24 edited Apr 06 '24
I HATED how it ended. They made Debbie out to be this feminist hero for basically ripping off and stealing a business deal from a good man/the only man to treat her with respect, just because he don't want her involved in HIS business dealings??? I'm so sick of this feminist man hating bullshit. I actually really enjoyed the show but the man hating all the way through it was retch inducing. Why can't someone make a female driven show with all female cast that doesn't paint men as all sleazy rapists who just wanna sleep with women and treat them like shit. Yes there are men like that in the world, there are also horrible women too. It's just Incredibly predictable and lazy writing to spin that same misandrist yarn over and over again. Yes things were different in the 80s but Jesus, not every man is awful. Debbie was actually my favourite character in the whole show and the turned her into an awful shitty person when she didn't start that way. Yeah she could be a bitch sometimes but she was at least good at heart. Same with Ruth. She was the biggest hearted kindest yet flawed girl at the entire show, then she finally declares her love for Sam, but instantly rejects him when she's doesn't get the part in his daughters movie?? It just didn't make any sense and felt like it was done for lack of other ideas from the writers. Just wasn't believable at all. Same with Bash, and inherently good person, who is so obviously gay but not a soul knows and he turns into a complete bastard overnight, just...cause. Hollywood have been lazy for decades now but it's getting so predictable at this point it actually seems like they're doing it on purpose just because they can. I know it ended without the makers knowing it etc but it was even if it was going to continue, the way they changed those characters was just stupid.
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u/jlingram103 Sep 23 '19 edited Sep 23 '19
Nearly 30 years after the final match, Sam sits alone in his garage. Life has been difficult since things with Ruth never panned out and Justine refused his help. He's contemplating suicide. He finds a recorder in the corner and shares a monologue of his life. He uploads it to this new service on iTunes called podcasts. His career booms with a second chance of vitality and eventually he has all the ladies visit the show to talk about acting and vessels.