'Hollywood' Episode 6 Review: After protests, deaths and burning reels, will 'Meg' ever be released?
Spoilers for 'Hollywood' Episode 6
The penultimate episode of 'Hollywood' is the signature calm before the storm — the kind that makes one think that after already giving everything a wholesome conclusion, how could the finale get any better? What else can they do to tie all the loose ends any more perfectly?
Well, the answers arrive in the form of sudden deaths and legal calls that nobody has the power to stop. And even with Dylan McDermott's Ernie shining as the real star of the show, as the stakes get higher and higher for the film within the series, we find ourselves surrounded by the looming concern over 'Meg' — will the controversial film ever be released?
The episode opens to the Amberg mansion going up in flames — or so we think until Avis (Patty LuPone) and Claire (Samara Weaving) finally open the main door and find a giant wooden cross ablaze in their front yard. It's protesters flocking to warn them before things get too much out of hand, but they aren't as considerate with people of color, especially the only ones involved who are also gay.
What's just a burning cross for the Ambergs, and Raymond Ainsley (Darren Criss) and Camille's (Laura Harrier) home, is a Molotov cocktail for Archie Coleman (Jeremy Pope) and Rock Hudson (Jake Picking). But this tragedy, along with Ace Amberg finally waking up from his health scare can't stand in the way of 'Meg'; not yet.
Amid all the protesters threatening to pull back on ever releasing another ACE Studios movie in their theatres again, the only respite is in the form of the somewhat happy endings the characters of the series come to in the wake of the tragic uproar. On one hand, we have the entire reel of 'Meg' shot, and on the other hand, there's Archie asking Rock to move in with him in their new house.
Even Avis claims back her ownership in the studios and stands up to her husband, demanding her rightful respect be it at home, or in the workplace. Ace, moved by what Avis has done in his absence, gives her what she wants and they spend the entire night making love like they haven't in decades. Sadly, the storm arrives too soon, and Avis finds Ace dead in the morning.
This is when the legal team at ACE Studios — your regular conservatives — swoop in and they finally get to do what they have been trying to under the wraps all this time: kill the movie. They snatch the reels and burn them in a fireplace the very second news of Ace's death arrives — leaving us swirling in doubts over whether 'Meg' will ever see the light of the day.
For a movie that went through such historic milestones and even had the ending changed to show a strong, black woman's journey of survival and being her own knight in shining armor, this doesn't feel the right kind of closure. In fact, this is no closure at all, but could this be one of those realistic commentaries on society that creator Ryan Murphy so subtly slides into every work of his?
Throughout the plot we see Murphy reimagining the '40s Hollywood in a progressive manner — the way things ideally should have been. But with the racist bunch finally taking their big win, maybe it's just a cold reminder of what could have been had reality not been so cruel. As for 'Meg', sadly, only the finale will reveal if her story will finally reach the big screen.
'Hollywood' dropped with all seven episodes on May 1, only on Netflix.