'Katy Keene' Episode 10: Sexual scandals, shattered 'thruple' dreams and a love letter from Leo Lacy
Spoilers for 'Katy Keene' Season 1 Episode 10 'Chapter Ten: Gloria'
This episode was most definitely a heavy one. Gloria Grandbilt (Katherine LaNasa) is accused of using her worker girls as bait along with sexual favors to get ahead in the fashion business, 'Josie and the Pussycats' lose their first performance to 'Xandra and the Kitty Cats,' Jorge Lopez's (Jonny Beauchamp) 'thruple' dreams are shattered and Pepper Smith's (Julia Chan) past won't quit trying to catch up with her. But the most exciting part of all was that 'Riverdale's' Kevin Keller (Casey Cott) makes an appearance, and we find out what his future five years down the line from 'Riverdale' is like.
Gloria, who has written her very own memo gears up for a book launch only for it to be shattered by an article with claims that she has provided sexual favors and used her worker girls as bait to make sure Lacy's gets the deals with big clients. As Katy Keene (Lucy Hale) chimes in to help 'sus' out the person that dropped the shady news, she finds that Mrs Lacy may have been behind it all. The most interesting part to come out of the Gloria scandal was the fact that Katy found a love letter in Gloria's desk from Leo Lacy, Mrs Lacy's son and on it was the signature "LL", the same one that Katy found on her late mother's sewing machine.
Wanting to put down her resignation papers, she ends up being hired to be interim-cohead with Amanda of the department that Gloria herself resigned from. What she can't help but wonder was, were her mother and Gloria both dating Leo Lacy? Gloria revealed to Katy that how if a man helped her get ahead keeps her awake at night, and she wants Katy to not let a man — aka Guy LaMontagne (Luke Cook) — come in the way of her dreams. This was a cutthroat episode for sure, but to see Gloria leave the world she built behind and pass on the torch — be it, unintentional — sets a tone for a more serious narrative to a show that has oddly been mostly rainbows and butterflies. We all know that that's not how NYC works!
In the midst of uncovering the secrets of Gloria's takedown, Katy welcomes Riverdale's Kevin Keller, Josie's stepbrother, to apartment 4B. There to perform at 'The Pepper Plant' with a play that brought back fun 'Riverdale' memories, Kevin dishes on how he now works at Riverdale High teaching drama. Good to know that the man survives the haunting town's shenanigans! In the process of finding people to experience his play, Pepper mentions the name Lester Darin (Wayne Pyle) which sends Kevin into a fit of subtle rage.
The man that apparently broke Kevin's spirits was now offered up as bait by Pepper who helps Kevin take this man down. Now, let's not forget Pepper's selfish attitude. She owes her wife, Hannah Melvey (Tedra Millan), $30k and this was her way out. After catching Darin on tape asking or sexual favors of Kevin in return for directing his play, Pepper was able to make the man cough up $70k she still published the article though and so there was "one less bad man" walking the streets.
On the music front, Cricket (Azriel Crews) and Trula Twyst (Emily Rafala) confront Josie telling her that they feel like they are in the background of a band that they all call theirs. Josie, with a bit of a reality check from Kevin, tightens up her attitude to help the girls feel included only to have Alexandra Cabot (Camille Hyde) steal their first show performing with her new band, Xandra and the Kitty Cats. Alexandra claimed that Josie made those songs under Cabot Entertainment, and does not own any of it. We just got the cats back and now we have a cat war.
As for our favorite drama queen Jorge aka Ginger, his need for wanting his ex Buzz Brown (Eric Freeman) in a 'thruple' relationship with his current boyfriend, Bernardo (Ryan Faucett), makes him lose sight of what he wants in a relationship. After Buzz rejects to be part of a 'thruple', his depression over his ex has Bernardo breaking up with him. What shocked us the most was that it seems that Bernardo and Buzz may be hitting it off leaving Jorge high and dry.
The show is picking up the pace of scandals that are getting much darker than what it originally looked like. Hiding behind perfectly sewn sparkly dresses, voices to kill for and wish-upon-a-star dreams come to a lot of unpacking of drama that we're finally getting to see. This episode took an interesting and jarring turn with the reality of all too common sexual scandals, but most importantly, we are getting closer to the narrative of Katy's mother and her past with Lacy's franchise.
'Katy Keene' airs on Thursdays at 8 pm EST on The CW.