George & Tammy (Episode 3): With every episode that comes, George & Tammy makes it a point to assert that the show will essentially focus on the famous couple’s infamous relationship and not particularly on their music careers. The progressive decline of George and Tammy’s marriage is paced slowly for the sake of the exhaustive analysis of every significant mistake that has a heavy impact. In episode two, we saw Tammy’s predicament. Stuck in a circumstance that doesn’t particularly bestow a lot of self-authority on her, Tammy doesn’t have the privilege to consider breaking it off with George.
In this week’s episode, Tammy makes good on her promise. She stands by her man. With George showing every possible sign that he can never really get himself in order, their relationship has crossed the point where there can be any hope for improvement.
George & Tammy (Episode 3) Recap:
“We’re gonna hold on”
Swooning over the country couple is the new big thing for the people witnessing George and Tammy conjure up a storm in the industry. What’s even more striking is the glowing course Tammy’s career is taking. Soaring in the high of success, Tammy wins countless major awards, including a Grammy. George seems to have gotten a handle on his awful impulses. The power of love, however fleeting it may be, has made an honest man out of George. The man who was once a raging alcoholic is now not even touching a drop. Their brief fairytale is brightened with another good news–Tammy is pregnant.
An overwhelmingly well-dressed George paces around the waiting room with their whole band present. His anxiety about being a dad once again is manifesting as his hyper-fixation of looking good for the newborn. Tammy gives birth to a baby girl. Snatching away any control the new mother has over her own body; the doctor decides to perform a complete hysterectomy without her knowledge. In George’s loving arms Tammy drowns the horror of having such a signification operation done without her consent.
Neither their lifestyle nor their success has an ounce of altering effect on the conventional and orthodox people Tammy and George are. A new baby comes as a new hope for the couple. George now finds little Tamala Georgette Jones to be another reason–if he does need one more–to be sober. But there’s nothing more destructive than a man’s wounded ego. With Tammy being the new hotshot in the country music scene, George’s career is seeing a decline. People are more invested in their duets than in any of George’s solos. So when his happiness is blamed as the reason for his career’s deterioration, George’s demeanor sees an inevitable drop.
With the Vegas show approaching, they each find themselves in different stages of hell. Excruciating abdominal pain drags Tammy to the doctor. She learns that her hysterectomy has gone horribly wrong. All Tammy can do now is take pain medication if she doesn’t want to go under the scalpel again. Bearing the burden of George’s volatile emotions becomes more important to Tammy than her own health. But even she knows that her efforts can fall short when it comes to George’s appalling unpredictability.
Tammy babies George more than she does her children. Being coddled every step of the way makes George’s characteristic celebrity tantrums reach new, even more whiny heights. While Tammy is burying her anxiety about being a little fish in a big pond, George hides his fear of facing Vegas under the guise of silly shenanigans. Using the Vegas-bound attire to throw a fit just so that he can get out of playing in front of people who may or may not look down on him, George starts falling right back into the familiar path of destructive tendencies.
George & Tammy (Episode 3) Ending, Explained
Does George show up for Tammy?
Nobody really expected George to stick it out and hold on to sobriety. Not even Tammy thought that she can completely change who George is at his core. And even at his best, George saw himself falling from grace someday as well. An outfit fitting introduces George to the perfect opportunity to ruin his sobriety. While Tammy gears up for Vegas, George is drunk and aimless on the road. Not knowing George’s whereabouts doesn’t keep Tammy from getting on the plane. She has more than one image to maintain and a crowd of people to woo with her “hillbilly” tune.
Marveling at the gleaming sight of the big-city hotel, the crew almost forgets that half of their act, George Jones, hasn’t even shown up. The manager, however, isn’t taking George’s absence quite as lightly. Getting dolled up in the dressing room, Tammy overhears the manager’s threats. The entire weight of giving the crowd their money’s worth is now on Tammy’s anxious shoulders. Still hoping against hope, Tammy glances back one last time before going on stage alone for the very first time since she has been married to George.
Contradicting Tammy Wynette’s popularity amongst her own people, the Vegas crowd doesn’t welcome her with any warmth whatsoever. When her song is interrupted by someone in the audience, Tammy knows that all they want is George. And by singing “Stand By Your Man,” George is what she gives to them. He does come to her, however, when all was sung and done. Acknowledging his self-destruction with words for the first time, Tammy finally puts him in his place. But to what end? You may ask. When all she will do is give him a chance after chance until it is too late. This time around, their relationship is saved once again as they sing the words of perseverance in love.
Giving her everything and suffering more than her fair share of heartaches are all Tammy knows of love. From the moment she truly saw George for who he really is, Tammy knew that she would have to drain herself emotionally if she was to make him a man worth standing by. What Tammy didn’t accept is something that no vulnerable person accepts in a toxic relationship – there is no changing a man who has shown multiple times that he’s addicted to ruining his own happiness.
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GEORGE & TAMMY EPISODE 3 SHOW LINK: IMDB, ROTTEN TOMATOES
GEORGE & TAMMY EPISODE 3 SHOW CAST: JESSICA CHASTAIN AND MICHAEL SHANNON
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