'The Act' episode 6 spoilers see Gypsy escape from one prison and walk right into another
In the sixth episode of 'The Act', we see Gypsy Blanchard (Joey King) and Nick Godejohn (Calum Worthy) make their escape after committing a murder and drive off, only it is not their happily ever after. The sixth episode of King and Patricia Arquette's 'The Act' moves between the past and present as two generations, mother and daughter, fight to be freed from the prison their mothers have built for them.
As Gypsy struggles to deal with her new reality, we see how Dee Dee (Arquette) struggled to come to terms with reality just after Gypsy's birth. Dee Dee's mother Emma (fictionalized) was emotionally abusive and this parallel is drawn in the show to give audiences an idea about why Dee Dee is the way she is.
When Dee Dee gave birth to Gypsy in the absence of her father, it was Dee Dee's mother Emma (Margo Martindale), who comes in and takes over. From the beginning, she tries to distance Dee Dee from her daughter and even when Dee Dee gets arrested for felony cheque fraud, she doesn't try to bail her out. When Dee Dee returns from jail, in a heartbreaking scene, Emma tells her, "When the cops came, I could have told them you weren't here. But you needed to learn your lesson. I knew she was better off with me from the day she was born."
All of this festers in the mind of Dee Dee enough to exact revenge on her mother in the final days of her life. Gypsy, at the time, was a four-year-old child. Emma seems to be in a lot of pain but has denied the service of a hospice.
In one of the scenes, we see Emma ask Dee Dee to give her Ensure and a Percocet. She refuses Ensure, hands over a Percocet and tells her mother, "The only way out is through." Something Emma told her daughter many times in the past. Even when Emma calls Dee Dee for help, she ignores it and decides to drown the call with loud volume from the TV. This is probably when Dee Dee truly became capable of what she put her daughter through.
Ironically enough, when Emma is about to pass away, Dee Dee tells her, "I know you did your best to always love me." This somehow reminds us of when Gypsy lied down next to her mother in bed for the last time. Both Emma and Dee Dee had their own struggles and Dee Dee turned into a monster in the eyes of her daughter, similar to how she viewed her mother.
We also see Gypsy struggle with the fact that she and Nick may not be meant for each other when she sees how he lives. The sex between the two doesn't seem to be making her happy either, and so when she wants the night to pass sooner, she hands Nick a sleeping pill, ready to take one herself. He refuses and this shocks her because she thought, "But we're supposed to do everything together like Cinderella and Prince Charming."
While Nick and Gypsy escape after the murder, 'Bonnie and Clyde' by Bridgette Bardot and Serge Gainsbourg plays in the background. While in this instance it does seem romantic for the two of them, the lyrics of the same song sounds inappropriate and just doesn't befit Nick and Gypsy anymore.
Did she decide to topple her world for a man who she knew nothing of? All of this has Gypsy bursting out at Nick in frustration about how she has been fixing the mess he has created. She also panics after seeing a mother and daughter, probably because it reminded of her own mother that she had conspired to kill. Between her guilt of being an accessory to her mother's murder and wanting a free life, how will Gypsy move forward? We will, perhaps, see in the next episode of 'The Act' on Hulu.
