Summary
Margo’s Got Money Troubles goes heavy on the wrestling in “Buddies”, but it also has the faint whiff of impending doom about it, thanks largely to Jinx.
Margo’s Got Money Troubles, fittingly for a show about an aspiring writer, has a great facility for catchy insults and screen names. I’ve never heard anyone be called “titmouse” before, and I’m not sure what it means, or indeed if it means anything at all, but I can see myself using it all the same. Episode 4, “Buddies”, has that kind of playful vibe to it, but it also has a looming sense of impending doom around Jinx in particular, for various reasons.
I am, for instance, counting down the minutes until an inevitable relapse. Now we also have a potential prison sentence to worry about. And the knock-on effects of him taking the law into his own hands with Mark could deeply impact Margo and Bodhi’s futures, especially given the agreement she signed. I’ve just got a bad feeling, is all, but I suppose we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
The good news is that Margo’s OnlyFans account is a hit. She’s mostly leveraging the Pokémon/penis thing, coming up with creative passages about the critter various submitted members most resemble and the special powers they might have. Sure, she occasionally uploads a topless picture, but it remains a writing exercise primarily. In a funny montage where Margo begins to model some of Susie’s cosplay outfits, we see how the mundanity of brand-building lurks in the background of salacious content. Margo and Susie discuss the account like they’re having coffee, not staging a photoshoot of a bare-chested Princess Zelda.
Margo’s doing okay, but she needs more exposure and subscribers. A collaboration is the best way of achieving that, so she sets her sights on a double-act comprising — get this — WangMangler99 and SucculentRose, whom she discovers are locals. But Margo’s suck-uppy pitch gets rejected with a callous “ha ha ha”, prompting Margo to launch into a tirade. WangMangler responds with the titmouse insult and an address where Margo can find them if she wants to start any real problems.
To the surprise of everyone, she does. The boldness of this kind of endears Margo to Rose and WangMangler, whose name is KC, since they’re carrying a lot of mileage OnlyFans-wise and see the potential value of having some fresh meat involved. Some alarm bells did start going off for me when Margo signed yet another NDA and a waiver without really reading the terms, but perhaps I’m just cynical.
The rest of Margo’s Got Money Troubles Episode 4 devotes a lot of time to Jinx, who is still quietly cleaning Margo’s apartment and bonding with Bodhi, but also visibly struggling with his addiction. The situation is only made worse when he briefly crosses paths with Shyanne, who makes a comment about him not really knowing Margo, which resonates. To try and remedy this, he invites her to attend a fan expo with him so she can see a snapshot of his old life.
Jinx also inadvertently discovers Margo’s OnlyFans side hustle when he walks in on a photoshoot, and initially, he judges her for it. He doesn’t consider it to be “honorable”, which is an odd word to use, especially for an absent father. Naturally, Margo is furious about the hypocrisy, but she attends the expo anyway, and they agree to table the matter for later.
As well as a Chris Jericho cameo, the expo also introduces Nicole Kidman’s character, Lace, another pro wrestler who was once part of a tag team called Leather and Lace, but Leather is now apparently dead to her. She proposes that she and Jinx give the crowd a show, since there’s a ring on-site, and Jinx reluctantly agrees. Margo loves seeing the in-ring version of her father as he riles up the crowd and tears off his vest, but she doesn’t quite love how his selling a dropkick lands him in urgent care, unable to move.
This is played for laughs, largely, but also not really. While he’s immobilised, Jinx warns Margo that he’s going to lie to the doctors about his history with drugs, so they don’t treat him like a criminal, and then throw away whatever medication they send him home with. He also apologises for judging Margo about the OnlyFans thing, since he has realised that what she’s doing isn’t all that different from what he’s doing. Everyone’s an exhibitionist, putting on a show of some kind. It’s a really sweet moment, and Jinx is an extremely likeable character, which makes his flaws sting all the more.
And he does have those flaws. Potential relapse aside — his back turns out to be fine, just seized up — he’s less than thrilled to learn that Margo was impregnated by her professor and, at the end of the episode, decides to pay Mark a visit. “Buddies” ends with him delivering such a firm handshake that the bones in Mark’s hand start crunching, and he starts screaming in agony, which isn’t a good sign. Given Mark’s litigious family, Jinx might have ruined not only his own life, but potentially Margo’s and Bodhi’s, too.
