GLOW season 3, episode 4, “Say Yes,” introduces us to Bobby Barnes, the most important character you’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.

At some point we all want to be asked a question. How are we doing? Can I help you with anything? What is your name? Will you marry me? They range from social pleasantries to life-altering requests. However small or large, they make you the target of someone’s uninterrupted focus and attention.

Picking up in episode 4, there are several people who want to be asked both monumental and smaller questions. Ruth wants to read Sam’s script; Carmen wants to offer up some ideas on the show; Cherry and Debbie just want someone to ask them what’s going on with their behavior; and Sheila wants someone to simply keep asking her questions, even if she is not ready to face the answers.

‘GLOW’ season 3, episode 4 review

Bobby baby, Bobby bubi, Robby, Robby, darling…

There is one person in this episode begging for an answer, loudly, proudly, just asking one person to “Say Yes.” That person is Bobby Barnes (played by Kevin Cahoon) and the subject of his attention is Bash Howard. The answer, on the surface, is to acquire a spot on the Bash Howard Production ticket to better pay and a better room to work his solo drag show outside of the tiny, cabaret-style ICONS. But the question Bash Howard is hearing is something else entirely.

Earlier this season, we touched on whether or not the fallout of the Florian’s death after a battle with AIDS would ever be addressed again with Bash. After Florian left Bash’s side following years of him undermining their partnership, Bash finally recognized the huge amount of space that Florian filled in his life. While none of the dots quite connect to Bash being in love with his former friend/butler, it does introduce questions about his sexuality, and his ability to emotionally connect to anyone or anything that scares him.

In an interview with TVLine at the end of season 2, Chris Lowell, who portrays Bash said there’s something great about the audience being ahead of his character, seeing something that he doesn’t, especially after he finds out that Florian is gay. “[Bash] goes into his room and he sees all these, you know, half-naked, chiseled, greased-up men [on posters], and I think he still can’t see what other people are maybe seeing…Bash doesn’t know how to feel about all of it. He feels terrified and ashamed and scared and panicky, and I think that’s what leads him to jump into this last-minute marriage to Rhonda.”

That marriage is what leads him to meet Bobby Barnes the man under the wig. His first impression is not a man singing Judy, Liza, or Babs on stage, but the performer who works several shows a night and can sense something in Bash that, although it may be completely misguided, could be read as a connection between the two.

So many people are asking Bash for things this episode. They are asking with flash, sometimes literally, and Bash is easily appeased. Magic tricks, illusions, juggling, they all win him over with their gimmicks. But Bobby Barnes, stripped down to a black t-shirt and slacks, looking more like he handles the props than puts them on, makes his request as bluntly as he can–word travels and Bash cares about his performers and Barnes would like to make money for him. If he would come to see a show, have a drink, maybe he can make his case to become the next Bash Howard Production.

But Bobby breaks his professional mold, and the seemingly intense connection between then by poking fun at Bash’s instance that he and his wife go to bed early. Bobby reads wife with giant air quotes around it, an assumption which Bash doesn’t quite take offense to, but is definitely startled by. Apologies pour out, but in the lingering silence between them, Bobby lets the thought sit with Bash until he fills the silence by offering up that he has a son–attempting to build a bridge that suggests, not everyone is as they seem.

While the bridge gets Bash to see the show, the result is not in Bobby’s favor. As he sits in the empty house, listening to Bobby sing Liza Minnelli’s “Yes,” he is visibly hit with more waves of emotion than he is prepared to speak to. So, instead, he leans back into the flash and glamour of the people who distract rather than captivate him. But hey, maybe Bobby can give his wife some singing lessons.

Funny thing, your name came up only last night…

One man and a murder of women. That line from Bobby could apply to Sam or Bash, but in this instance, it is about Russell, the most boring human being of all time. Sorry, he is the worst. And he, in turn, makes Ruth unbearable. As a foil for her attraction to Sam, Russel is, at best, about as interesting as a piece of white bread.

There does not appear to be a push or pull between them about anything. Ruth wants to discuss the future; Russell wants to actually spend some time together in the same state before making plans. The ring conversation in the pawn shop, pushes this point even further, with Ruth making a drastic statement about her investment in their relationship where Russell is not willing to meet her halfway.

This does turn into a great moment later on at ICONS where Debbie asks Russell about the camera he is flashing around his neck the same way a woman would brandish an engagement ring for all her friends to take notice of.

The only time the two come alive are when they are fighting in the lobby. Of course, it is about Sam and the lack of attention he is giving Ruth. “You wanted him to ask you.” That statement sums up why Ruth has been bugging me this season. She has been in limbo for too long, using her relationship with Russell as a bookmark for her life. The show isn’t changing, her routine isn’t changing, and Sam introduces something new, a decision that needs to be made.

But, as far as being a risk-taker, thus far in GLOW season 3, Ruth has been resigned to the background. And although things do not end on a sour note with Russell, thanks in part to some hot-mess newlyweds, you cannot help but feel that they are already circling the drain.

GLOW season 3, episode 4, puts a pin in Ruth and Russell saying yes to anything about their future. But it does have them asking if that future is even worth considering.

Honey, if you’d visit the kids once or twice…

Which leads us to the impetus for Ruth’s spiral–Sam asking Sheila to read his script with him. While Sheila was not looking for an ask here, Sam is asking for someone to give him feedback on what might end up being his big break. But Sheila’s line of questioning points out glaring character flaws in the script.

In the script, the father is the hero, in part because he is a caricature of Sam. However, the feelings of the daughter are never brought into question. How is the daughter in the piece responding to finding out who her father is after 19 years of not knowing where he was or if he was even alive?

Sam never knew to ask these questions. And while he is frustrated by the notes, they stir something in him and at the end of the episode we see him returning to his story–both personally and on paper– and fueling it with something it did not have before–perspective.

Bobby, dear, I don’t mean to pry…

Sheila is also need of some perspective, though, like Sam, she doesn’t know how to ask for it. Part of Bobby Barnes’ act is to read the room, get the audience talking. While the public inquisition does little to make Sheila budge, the performance entrances her and allows her to see a kinship in Bobby through his ability to lose himself to another persona yet come out of it at the end of the day. Does performance need to be all or nothing?

After two very different, but emotionally charged days, Bobby and Sheila’s shared moment at the mirror in almost silence is my favorite shot of GLOW season 3, episode 4. It’s an intimate pivotal moment that represents a turning point for Sheila and the integration of Bobby Barnes into the group.

That’s what it’s really about, isn’t it?

Which leaves us with two women who find a way to ask each other the simplest and most important question–What is going on with you? Cherry is wallowing in her loss of Keith with loud music and indifference. Debbie is sleeping her way through the strip hitting on every bellhop, valet, and bartender in the lobbies.

Though funny to watch, the duo finally get to some deep-seated truths about the state of their lives. Debbie is guilt-ridden by the thought that sometimes she finds herself thinking that life would be easier if she never had Randy. Cherry doesn’t want kids, but she wants Keith, forever.

These problems are not going to disappear so long as the show keeps them chained to Vegas. But the burdens they bear can seem lighter the more they vent their frustrations and realize there is nothing more they can be doing in that precise moment. Female friendships will save the day.

Stray thoughts about GLOW 3×04

GLOW season 3 is streaming now on Netflix.