Summary
The Act Episode 5, “Plan B”, gets dark and twisted as Gypsy and Nick declare their love for each other and put plans in place to be together.
Hulu Original Series The Act is a seasonal anthology series that details strange true crime stories. The first season follows Gypsy Blanchard, a young girl who appears to have a range of medical issues, trying to remove herself from her toxic relationship with her overprotective, abusive mother, Dee Dee Blanchard. Her persistence for independence leads to darker secrets, and ultimately, murder. This review of Episode 5, “Plan B”, contains spoilers. You can read the review of the previous episode by clicking these words.
Do you know what Dee Dee Blanchard (Patricia Arquette) didn’t consider when she planned her entire life obsessively keeping Gypsy Blanchard (Joey King) under the illusion that she had a range of medical conditions? Time. Yes, folks, time has caught up to Dee Dee, with a dose of mismanaging Type 2 Diabetes. She is barely fit to look after herself, never mind actively controlling Gypsy, which Episode 5, “Plan B”, shows. Gypsy has 50% of her life under control.
Episode 5 shows that Gypsy has managed to successfully maintain a relationship via Skype for years, using a variety of creative ways to sustain cybersex with Nick, who creepily never looks at the camera correctly for some strange reason, despite his demands for her to take on different roles. We get a slice of what Nick is about in “Plan B” – he’s not only creepy, and I suspect mentally ill, but also useless as well. Nick gets a small promotion at a pizza takeaway, and he cannot even manage to navigate the pizza to the oven.
In an episode where the horror of the situation gathers pace, Gypsy and Nick devise a plan where they can meet each other somehow and adequately convince Dee Dee that they can have a relationship. The idea is watery and pathetic – they organize to meet at the cinema, and Nick will open the door for Gypsy for her and declare, “no princess should have to open her own door”. Of course, Nick is late, so he bumbles the words out of context while Dee Dee orders popcorn.
They have sex in “Plan B” – while her mother worries in the screening for Cinderella, Gypsy sneaks off to the toilet, and they both lose their virginity. After the film ends, Nick tries to confront Dee Dee, but she accuses him of being a creep and quickly gets Gypsy into the car.
By this point, Gypsy and Nick have decided they want to be with each other for the rest of their lives, and they reference plan b, which is to kill Dee Dee. Gypsy fantasizes drawing out Nick’s other evil personality, licking a sharp knife on webcam to turn him on. Gypsy spends the rest of Episode 5 being nice to her mother and spending quality time together as a token of goodbye. Deep down, she’s plotting for Nick to house himself in a motel, and get him to kill Dee Dee.
“Plan B” was twisted and dark, showing the repercussions of imprisoning a young girl for so long, and this is the consequence – naivety. Gypsy and Nick genuinely believe this is the only plan, and I suppose they have no choice. As the episode ends, Nick texts Gypsy with, “I’m here”.
You can read our review of the sixth episode by clicking these words.
