Directed by Hannah Fidell
Written by Sarah Gubbins
Starring Lily James, Sebastian Stan, Seth Rogen
New episodes airing Wednesdays on Hulu

by Kristian Cortez, Staff Writer

Episode six of Pam & Tommy is dedicated solely to Pamela Anderson, as it follows her through the deposition where she is given a myriad of inappropriate and intruding personal questions regarding her past. By intermixing flashbacks of Pam’s humble beginnings in Canada, the episode brings us deeper into the history of how Pamela Anderson became the Pamela Anderson we all know.

It begins in Canada in 1989, when Pam is discovered at a sports game after being featured on the jumbo screen. She takes an opportunity to start modeling and soon acquires the attention of Playboy magazine, who ask her to fly out to California for test shots. The camera then cuts back to the present time of 1996; back into the room where the deposition is being held and Pam is made to sit quietly and answer questions like, “Has Tommy ever paid for prostitutes?” Or if she herself has “ever been paid for sex?” Or if she “considers posing naked for a camera a sex act?” 

The scene is then followed by Pam’s first experience at the Playboy Mansion. At first, she is nervous and unsure of how to conduct herself in front of the camera, before being told by the photographer that she can remove her blouse or keep it on, whichever way she is most comfortable. It is this option to choose that is significant to Pam, because it allows her the freedom to find empowerment through her sexuality in an environment that feels safe. Believing that, if at any moment, she feels like covering up, no one will object or deny her.

In a conversation with Hugh Hefner, he advises Pam to “separate [her] price from [her] worth” and that, by doing so, she can be any version of herself that she needs to be, and still remember who she truly is. She responds how “women have been doing that for centuries,” and how “playing parts is nothing new.” But it’s this moment that inspires Pam to begin crafting her new look, the one that will greet the world, and to her that means getting her breasts done to look more like the other girls in Playboy. Pam will model for the magazine several more times in the years leading up to 1996, forming a bond with Hefner, whom she considers a close friend. And it’s because of this information that Pam is then asked, back in the deposition room, if the sex tape was intentional. Created so that she could “expose” herself to the readers of Bob Guccione’s Penthouse magazine.

The opposing lawyer explains the feasibility of this by outlining the financial benefits Pam would acquire by giving pornographic images of herself to Penthouse magazine, given how much Hefner and Guccione dislike each other. Then, he asks her the question he’s been building up to all day: “what was the reason for making the tape at all, if it wasn’t like all [her] other pornographic activities: for the purpose of financial gain?” Pam doesn’t answer and instead we cut to the day Pam and Tommy leave for their honeymoon. Bubbling with excitement they pack up the car and begin filming the start of their trip where they spend their time dreaming about the family they are going to create. Later, when they’ve returned from their honeymoon, Tommy announces that he is putting the tape into his safe, not because of the possibility that someone may see it, but because it may contain the conception of their first child.

Then, the deposition takes a turn for the absolute worst when Pam is made to watch portions of the sex tape to identify herself and Tommy. So degrading is the act, that Pam rushes out of the room and vomits. At first, we think it is from being made to watch the tape with an audience, but then Pam touches her stomach, leaving us to wonder if she could be pregnant again. The questioning ends and is meant to start-up again the following day, but Pam puts her foot down with her lawyer. She won’t answer another question, and if he can’t make it happen she is getting new representation. 

Episode six is a short episode that presents itself as an answer to the question many may have in regards to the tape: why do it in the first place? If she didn’t want this to happen, she should never have been naked on camera at all (this is including her photos in Playboy). The question is answered almost by the episode itself: it was an opportunity to get out of waitressing, out of Canada, to make real money, to create a better life. Or maybe, because it simply made her feel good, empowered, and sexy. In regards to the video, it could be that they were simply happy, excited, and in love. Or perhaps, there is no deeper reasoning beyond just feeling like it in the moment.

Regardless, the difference between Pam posing nude for magazines and recording herself having sex with her husband, lies in choosing when, where, and to whom she is revealing herself to. Take for instance the juxtaposition of Pam during her deposition, visibly uncomfortable at the questions being hurled at her, to then flashback to the Playboy shoot, at ease and nude in front of a camera. Both are exposing situations to be in, but the one that many would deem worse (nude, in front of a camera) is, in fact, not so terrible. In that environment Pam is shown respect which allows her to find comfort, unlike in the deposition where Pam’s entire character is being violated. 

The title of this episode is “Pamela In Wonderland,” but as the contents so clearly imply, wonderland does not, in fact, exist as another place entirely—she is already living in it.