Supersex is loosely based on the life and career of Rocco Siffredi, and across seven episodes peeks behind the curtain of the adult entertainment industry. With some surrealist elements and a non-linear structure, Season 1 isn’t the simplest, so here’s a handy recap of everything that happened in Episodes 1-7.
Supersex Season 1 Recap
Episode 1, “Superpower”
“Superpower” opens with Rocco Siffredi retiring from porn, much to the chagrin of his fans and wannabe co-stars. But it’s no surprise since he’s urinating blood, seeing dead people, and waxing philosophical even during sex.
Supersex is a comic book character whom Rocco idolized as a child growing up in poverty and dysfunction. As he grows up, he begins to imagine sex, albeit an especially unhealthy version of it, being his way to escape his circumstances and patch over familial wounds that never healed.
Rocco grew up in public housing with his mother, Carmela, his stern father, and his brothers Armando, Giorgio, and Claudio. A fourth brother, Tommaso, is not a biological relation, but everyone loves and idolizes him and is fascinated by his beautiful girlfriend, Lucia.
Claudio died in childhood, causing a rift within the family and immense trauma for Rocco. He was sexually assaulted by a gang and fed unhealthy ideas of sex and relationships by Tommaso. In the present day, it’s implied Tommaso is dead, but Rocco imagines seeing him everywhere, despite not having seen him since he was a kid.
Back then, Rocco had caught Lucia cheating and told Tommaso, who beat her suitor to a pulp. Carmela was wildly against Lucia for let’s say religious reasons, and refuses to let the brothers attend the wedding when Tommaso marries her. They haven’t seen him since.
Episode 2, “The Flesh”
Episode 2 is a repetitive exploration of Rocco’s early sexual awakening, which manifests almost immediately as an unhealthy and addictive dependency.
Rocco has moved to Paris with Tommaso and Lucia, none of whom look anything like they did in the rosy flashbacks of Episode 1, but he remains very naïve. He initially falls for a Corsican girl named Sylvie, but because of Tommaso’s prodding, he quickly accelerates past a respectful and gradual sexual relationship and progresses to soliciting prostitutes, including a trans woman, and attending sex clubs.
Tommaso works in a restaurant used for laundering Corsican money, so he’s loosely affiliated with the underworld, but he’s mostly just a loser. Rocco eventually discovers that he has pushed Lucia into prostitution.
At the end of the episode, Rocco rejects a life of criminality with Tommaso and instead doubles down on pursuing his sex life, meeting Gabriel Pontello.
Episode 3, “The Beast”
Episode 3 is defined by one negative setback after another for Rocco. Despite Gabriel’s enthusiasm for him, his early efforts at a career in sex work don’t go well and his relationship with Tommaso breaks down.
In the early going, Rocco is too excitable for softcore porn and not experienced enough for hardcore; he’s baited into an obvious trap by a rival, Christoph, and embarrasses both himself and Gabriel. Things at home aren’t any better. Tommaso has been implicated in a shooting in Marseilles and the police are looking for him. By the time he gets back home, he takes Rocco having bonded with Lucia as evidence of an affair. Presumably to protect Rocco, Lucia, who is pregnant with Tommaso’s child, tells him she wants Rocco out of their house.
Rocco returns to Ortona briefly to protect Armando from the gypsy gang that rendered Claudio disabled. Tommaso returns too, ostensibly to help, but leaves Rocco to deal with the situation himself.
Back in Paris, Rocco meets Theresa, the queen of porn, and impresses Gabriel once again. He’s invited to Rome to make a movie with him, where he meets Moana.
Supersex | Image via Netflix
Episode 4, “The Dream”
Episode 4 is about Rocco’s made-up identity of Saffredi coming into conflict with his original life as Rocco Tano. Now fully embroiled in his porn career, Rocco has to decide whether to move on from who he once was and embrace a new identity, or make an effort to be more present for his family.
Unsurprisingly, he chooses porn. Despite a reputation for being too rough and a form of cirrhosis that might kill him young if he doesn’t stop ejaculating multiple times a day, Rocco continually puts his penis first. This is exemplified when Lucia calls him to tell him she’s alone and the baby’s coming and he hangs up.
While Lucia gives birth alone, Tommaso acquires the restaurant from Don Mario by stabbing him to death. Rocco eventually meets baby Claudio, but Tommaso once again acts like a lunatic and tries to attack him. With his career damaging his family reputation, Rocco feels more disconnected from his identity and past than ever, which prompts him to fully submerse himself in the Rocco Saffredi persona.
Oh, this is also the first episode with a full uncovered shot of Rocco’s manhood, if you’re interested in such things.
Episode 5, “The Island”
Episode 5 sees Rocco come the closest he ever has to normality… and then reject it out of fear.
“The Island” is where Rocco enjoys a whirlwind romance with a woman named Tina, which begins as lightly romantic and becomes toxic in record time. Even before Rocco starts being… well, Rocco, the relationship is a little off-kilter and weird. The longer they spend on the island – which involves lovely scenery, anal play, and a pregnancy scare, though thankfully not all at the same time – the more the two of them come to loathe each other.
Rocco is addicted to work, because he’s addicted to sex, which becomes clear to him and Tina throughout. Terrible dialogue is abundant in this episode which helps to get the point across in the most leaden possible way.
Elsewhere, Lucia finally plucks up the courage to leave Tommaso when she catches him trying to pluck up the courage to drop Claudio off a building. She and Rocco enjoy a nice-ish moment towards the end when he tells her he’s leaving for America, which he does.
The episode ends with Rocco calling home and being told by Carmela to visit her soon. Since we see her coughing up blood, the implication is pretty clear.
Supersex | Image via Netflix
Episode 6, “Resurrection of the Bodies”
In the penultimate and best episode of Supersex, Rocco returns home. His mother is dying and, soon after he arrives, she passes away.
The news also brings Tommaso back with another business venture, though he remains too cowardly to visit Carmela. She never meets his son, Claudio, though both he and Lucia attend the funeral.
At his mother’s funeral, Rocco gets sucked off by the grave, so decides to get a dodgy backroom circumcision as a kind of penance. This causes him physical pain while having sex because he can’t wait long enough for it to heal. It’s a fundamentally terrible idea.
Lucia and Rocco have a conversation in this episode that is also the season’s best. In it, she highlights the weirdness of Rocco’s dominant sexual style, implying that he is, essentially, a rapist, disguising his abuse of power as passion. He thinks sex can’t exist without a power imbalance, which is a painfully naïve viewpoint.
Finally, Tommaso gets stabbed and his bar gets burned down, while Rocco wins a Hot D’or award for Best European Actor.
Episode 7, “The Cock Comes Last”
In the finale, it is revealed that Tommaso is alive in the 2004 timeline. He has been hiding out for years and intends to shoot Lucia and Jean Claude at their wedding.
After spending the day with Tommaso, Rocco follows him to the venue. Tommaso can’t go through with his plan and flees, and Rocco takes him home. After he leaves, a gunshot implies that Tommaso has committed suicide.
In the meantime, Rocco meets, falls for, breaks up with, and eventually returns to his wife-to-be, Rosa. The season ends with him confessing his love for her, although he also returns to work in the adult industry. Sharing is caring!
You can read a full breakdown of this episode in our in-depth ending explained article.
That was our recap of Supersex Season 1 (Episodes 1-7). What did you think of the season overall? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
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