Episode 6 of Stick is effective in many ways, but it also suffers a little from too-obvious writing and preachy subtext that some viewers are guaranteed to find off-putting.
I was very surprised by how suddenly got good. But I wasn’t entirely surprised to discover that Episode 6 takes a bit of a downturn. The previous outing felt a bit like lightning in a bottle, at the same time. “RV Shangri-La” does continue to develop some of those stronger ideas and dynamics, but it also loses its way a bit with some too-obvious writing and one conversation, in particular, that feels like it’s talking down to the audience to a distracting degree.
This episode also deploys the narrative nuke of Santi finding out about Pryce and Zero’s “arrangement”, which causes such an intense and immediate blowout that it makes one wonder how we’re going to spend the next four episodes. It almost felt like too much of an overreaction. The groundwork has been done to justify Santi’s viewpoint, and we’ll unpack that soon, but still. I’m not sure everything about this show is totally coming together.
Some of it definitely is, though! I do feel that Santi and Zero’s relationship away from the whole secret caddy angle is quite sweet and earnest, and it takes a turn here in Episode 6 when Zero not-so-subtly explains in golf terms that it’s high time they slept together. Santi turns to Pryce for advice on the subject, which isn’t a brilliant idea, given that even at his peak as a golf pro, he was only the equivalent of a “keyboardist in the Goo Goo Dolls” on the celebrity pecking order. He also confesses to being a habitual liar, which is pretty heavy foreshadowing for later.
Santi decides to go in the opposite direction — he tells Zero the truth about him being a virgin, she confesses to being a virgin herself, and then they do the deed. It’s relatively sweet and chaste, but my paranoid, cynical brain couldn’t help but go into overdrive about Zero being a virgin. The come-on seemed much too strong for that to be the case, and there’s a slip of the tongue later that implies she might have been lying to make Santi more comfortable. This, coupled with the inherent hypocrisy of her taking Pryce’s money to essentially “betray” Santi, is a much more interesting take on her character. I hope Stick commits to it.
It’s around this time that Santi spots Pryce’s Ryder Cup ring in Zero’s bag, but he doesn’t mention it until later. When he does, Zero plays it off like she found it and hadn’t had time to return it; she later gives it back to Pryce to make the story believable. But later, Pryce’s story about where he apparently lost it doesn’t match Zero’s story of how she apparently found it, and Santi intuits immediately that he’s being lied to. And, to be fair, he is. But in hindsight, with quite a lot of water under the bridge, I’m not sure that’s such a bad thing. Pryce was definitely right, and Santi’s claims that he would have breezed to the U.S. Amateur Championships without any coaching whatsoever don’t hold much water when he saw him get himself into trouble the second he went off-script.
Lilli Kay and Peter Dager in Stick | Image via Apple TV+
Either way, Santi goes ballistic, laying into Pryce and Zero on deeply personal terms, to the extent that it’ll be hard for either of them to forgive him and move on (or it should be, at least). You have to remember, though, that this is a trauma response, and he’s lashing out because being manipulated on the course dredges up memories of his relationship with his father. I’m not sure how well the show’s getting this across thus far, but I suspect it’ll be the focus of the next couple of episodes, at least.
I think it’s fair to say that if Stick has a crucial problem, it’s that Santi is the least interesting thing about it, which is very obvious in Episode 6. The subplots involving Pryce grieving the loss of his child and Mitts learning to open up again romantically after the loss of his wife are both much more emotionally engaging. And they both get a good amount of screen time in “RV Shangri-La”. The show’s really at its best in the smaller, more understated moments, like Pryce calling Amber-Linn when he’s struggling with his grief and her comforting him without him even having to explain. There’s more depth in Pryce plucking up the courage to play around with a little girl on the campsite than there is in Pryce and Santi’s pickleball doubles match.
And whatever is developing between Mitts and Elena is great. I think Mitts is probably the show’s MVP anyway, but he’s especially good here in his awkward vulnerability, realizing he’s developing some real affection for Elena but accidentally causing offense in his efforts to try and protect her from a risky investment in helium. Elena points out that a) helium has many more applications than party balloons, which is a fair point, and b) that Mitts is risk-averse to his own detriment, which prompts him to plant a surprising kiss on her. The aftermath is awkward, but you can tell it’s going to be temporary. There’s something very real and sweet blossoming here.
Oh, did I mention they get chased by a bear? Well, they get chased by a bear. Don’t worry about it.
In case it isn’t obvious, there’s a fair bit to like here. But then you have scenes like Santi and Zero discussing his racial makeup and her gender preferences that are just torturous to sit through. It’s well-intentioned but terribly executed, which applies to a lot of Stick overall. It makes me slightly worried about where it all might go following the big revelation. I guess we’ll have to wait and see — but I’m nonetheless hoping for the best.
