Pam & Tommy – Episode 4 “Master Beta” Recap & Review

Master Beta

Episode 4 of Pam and Tommy begins with the sex tape doing the rounds. From Toronto to Cleveland, through to Amsterdam and across the world, the cheques begin coming in as Rand and Miltie begin distributing the tapes out.

While this is going on, Pam and Tommy head to the doctors and have their first baby scan. Everything’s looking up for the pair but obviously things are about to take a wild turn.

We’re up to January 1996 in this story, and as we skip across to Rand, he ends up chatting to a guy called Seth Warshavsky. He’s also looking into the adult industry but his interest is in internet videos and streaming porn online. Nah, can’t see that taking off at all! And neither can Rand, who believes his system is going to revolutionize the industry and that the internet is just not going to take off.

Meanwhile, Tommy heads home and finally learns that his safe is missing. It’s taken a while but he eventually catches up and calls the police in to let them know. Tommy is not confident that the cops will make this a priority though, so naturally they decide to bring in a private investigator instead. Anthony starts to do some digging and brings the attention across to Rand.

It doesn’t take long for this PI to show up in Rand’s house, knocking him down and desperate to find the tape. Realizing he’s in trouble, Rand begins to do the rounds to find a tape to use. This sex tape has gone far and wide though, and there’s even a bootlegger in the parking lot that begins handing out tapes too. This does lead to a rather ironic chat about ethics.

The ball is rolling now and Pam immediately finds the tape has been distributed, courtesy of a bunch of cameramen huddled around a monitor.

After grabbing Tommy from the studio, the pair head to the local library where they load up the net and try to find a phone number. Realizing this links back to Canada, they start to understand that the whole thing is one large operation. Tommy loses his temper and begins asking around, trying to find Rand and those distributing the tape, intending to bring them a world of pain.

While Anthony tries in vain to do just that, Pam and Tommy end up fighting over the tape. Pam is distraught, pointing out that this is way worse for her as a woman. Unfortunately, Tommy puts his foot in it, suggesting that there’s nothing there people haven’t seen before.

In the morning though, things take a turn for the worse when Pamela feels pain in her stomach. The pair drive together and head to the doctors. Unfortunately, Pam has lost her baby.

While Miltie high-tails it away to Amsterdam, intending to “change the IR codes” and keep their identity a secret, Rand continues to run away from Anthony and his goons, ending up at Erica’s place. But how long can he keep the charade going for?

The Episode Review

This episode does a great job humanizing Tommy and Pam, and especially the latter when she loses her baby. Lily James has done a brilliant job bringing Pamela Anderson to life and this whole scene about Pam learning about her loss is so well composed too. You don’t need to be told what happens – you just know.

The interesting thing about this chapter is that it turns the attention around to make Rand look like the bad guy, although the opening few chapters worked really well to actually give an incentive for Rand to steal the safe and the gear in the first place.

Although this has been the shortest episode thus far, it’s actually the most impactful. There’s not a single minute wasted and there’s a decent amount of drama too. Quite what’s in store for our characters next though, remains to be seen.