'Katy Keene' Episode 8: Pepper Smith's birthday party exposes secrets and redefines family
Spoilers for 'Katy Keene' Season 1 Episode 8 'Chapter Eight: It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)'
This episode titled 'Chapter Eight: It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)' takes birthday drama to a whole new level — backstabbing truths are exposed, enemies inch closer to friends, music dreams come closer to fruition and family is re-defined.
If it were up to us, this emotional episode was probably one of the best ones yet and having Pepper Smith (Julia Chan) at the center of it helped throw light on a character who has remained rather mysterious for much of the series.
An apprenticeship with Guy LaMontagne (Luke Cook), although unpaid, becomes the center of Katy Keenes (Lucy Hale) world as she's tasked with the retrieval of Guy's dress from Alexandra 'Xandra' Cabot (Alexandra Cabot).
While that would have been a seemingly easy task had it been someone else, Xandra has racked herself enough enemies from Apartment 4B. She's messed with Josie McCoy's (Ashleigh Murray) career and love life gaining her the nickname "nemesis" and she's dating and "exploiting" Katy's ex KO Kelly (Zane Holtz).
Katy leans on Pepper's birthday party as a crutch hoping to get Xandra to give back Guy's dress. She gets back the dress the next morning — KO hand delivers it — but the drama that occurred at the party is the reason why this episode could be the best so far.
Josie decides to make a video behind Alexander Cabot's (Lucien Laviscount) back and realizes that he may be looking out for her talent after all. She then finds out that her band from Riverdale High 'Josie and The Pussycats' might be her ticket to success.
Like "Beyonce with Destiny's Child and Diana Ross with The Supremes", Alexander reminded her. It was a sweet moment, a direction forward for a young artiste who deserves to make it in NYC. It's also kind of cool — if you're a fan of the comics — that we might see the band back on the small screen since 'Riverdale'.
On a more awry note, Jorge Lopez's (Jonny Beauchamp) character was attacked the last episode while in drag and this episode rippled with its aftereffects. Jorge's dad finds out that his son was dressed up as Ginger Lopez in drag during the time of his attack.
A man that took a while to get to terms with the fact that his son was gay decides to leave with harsh words. This episode not only saw the sweet rebellion against un-needed political and moral views but showed strength in sticking to your true self and Jorge chose Ginger instead of a father that gaslights him.
The last scene of this episode will bring you happy tears — YAY JORGE!
Ah, now for the woman of the hour: Pepper Smith gets into some hot water with the fact that she promised more than one star the lead role of her show when it premieres.
Not to mention, her unwelcome business "partner" may have walked away with a very heavy investment — might we add, we knew this would blow up in Pepper's face? Who do you think will take the lead role, we think it was always Jorge's, to begin with.
It seems as though Pepper may have been lying to her closest mates about her past, and her "aunt" comes into town with questionable stories of young Pepper. It's finally interesting to get deeper into Pepper's character, have her gain more depth than just being a gossip columnist.
As KO and Katy try to be friends with the shadow of a decade-old relationship hovering over them, it seems the gang in Apartment 4B has a heap of responsibilities to make it through. For their sake and that of their friends whom they've chosen to be family.
'Katy Keene' airs on Thursdays at 8 pm EST on The CW.