'Work in Progress' Season 1 Episode 5 explores Abby and Campbell's long and complicated friendship
Episode 5 of ‘Work in Progress’ Season 1 -- ‘66, 65, 64, 62’ -- examines Abby’s (Abby McEnany’s) relationship with her best friend of 30 years, Campbell (Celeste Pechous). It’s a rocky relationship at times.
The previous episode saw Campbell telling Abby that she does not quite approve of her relationship with Chris (Theo Germaine), a trans man Abby has been dating for roughly three months. Campbell felt Chris was not right for Abby, that he was very young.
Episode 5 began on the same note. When at a party Chris asked the room about how long Abby’s fainting had been a problem, Campbell tartly responded that it had been going on from before he was born.
Chris was left visibly uncomfortable, something he even mentioned to Abby, who shrugged it off. Per Abby, Campbell just had a harder time letting new people in. But was that really all of the truth? No.
In a flashback, we saw Campbell telling Abby she was making a big mistake moving in with her previous girlfriend -- on the day she was moving in. The two seemed to leave their problems in “agree to disagree” mode.
But it was more than apparent that this was not a bug, and more of a feature: Campbell always had a problem with Abby’s partners. The Campbell saga goes further when she gets admitted to the emergency room because of a gallbladder issue.
There Campbell tried to dig more information out of Abby about Chris -- especially, what his name was before he transitioned. Abby refused, not just because she did not know the name herself, but also because she considered the request transphobic.
Even though Campbell tried to convince her that she only wanted to do a background check on Chris (via Google), Abby refused to be a party to it. Yet another flashback -- this time after Abby’s breakup with her ex -- showed Campbell in a much softer light; that she was right about her ex, but she did not gloat or even say, “I told you so” after things had come to a crashing but inevitable end.
She was there for Abby in a period when she was absolutely broken. Post-surgery, things became better between Campbell and Chris, even though Campbell threatened to “gut” Chris if he ever broke Abby’s heart.
From there, it was more harmless but decidedly more inappropriate -- Campbell asked them about what they bought at the “sex store” and if they were matching. The episode ends with Abby taking Campbell’s years-old advice of opening up to her partner about her OCD and she did it with Chris. That Chris wasn’t overwhelmed by it -- in fact, he appreciated Abby telling him -- only proved that Campbell never had anything but Abby’s best interests in her heart.
‘Work In Progress’ Season 1 airs every Sunday at 11 pm/10c, only on Showtime.