Alison Brie as Ruth, Betty Gilpin as Debbie on GLOW.
Photo by Ali Goldstein/Netflix.Ruth’s Rejection
The startling thing about the final scene, beyond Gilpin’s live-wire performance, is how quickly the power shifts. What starts with Debbie on the offensive ends with the towering alpha at perhaps her lowest point in the history of the show.
“I think Debbie kind of uses Ruth as a charging station to feel like she has control in her life, and has cast Ruth in her brain as a supporting character in Debbie’s story. Where Ruth is finally saying in this scene, I don’t want what you want. I’m not a supporting player in your story. I have to be the protagonist in my own,” Gilpin explained.
“That’s so the antithesis of what Debbie needs and wants, and it’s so jarring and shocking to her,” she added. “As someone who has certainly been the Ruth in so many female friendships throughout my adolescence, it feels wild to play the girl whose books I carried and be on the opposite end of that scene. But it helps me understand that person.”
The fracture in the Debbie-Ruth relationship started in the show’s pilot, when it was revealed Ruth had slept with Debbie’s husband. Over the course of three seasons, GLOW has tried to put their friendship back together. Thanks to their characters’ contentious history, Gilpin and Brie often don’t share many scenes together—leaving the interactions that do happen loaded with anticipation.
“It’s like running into your ex. The more charged they are, the better,” Gilpin said of acting alongside Brie. “We both sort of understand that.” But throughout season three, with the women going through the daily routine of a Las Vegas live show, Debbie and Ruth regained some semblance of their prior bonds.
“I think their relationship in Las Vegas, because of the location and they’re doing the same show over and over again, it’s like they’re having an affair,” Gilpin said. “Because they’re so far from their lives and logistics they can just pretend everything is okay and exist in this bubble where nothing bad ever happens, and they can giggle and have hamburgers and who knows when this is going to be over. I think the scene is also Debbie saying, ‘This doesn’t have to be over. We can really do this. Our friendship doesn’t have to be a secret affair anymore. I’ve found us a way.’ For Ruth to say ‘I don’t want that’ is such a rejection, and I don’t know that Debbie will ever forgive her for that. Which is so sad.”
So, What Happens Next?
The cliffhanger ending will be resolved when GLOW returns for its fourth and final season on Netflix at an undetermined date. Before the coronavirus pandemic shut down television and film production across the world, Gilpin and her castmates had filmed two episodes.
Said Gilpin of her expectations for the final season: “I want peace for Debbie, and I want peace for Ruth and Debbie. But I don’t want it until the last episode, because it’s so much more fun to play her when her life is in complete shambles and she’s trying to pick up the pieces.”
Where to Watch GLOW:
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