Welcome To Chippendales (Miniseries) Episode 5: Have I talked about the intro theme yet? If I haven’t, let me tell you that it’s been a minute since a show’s intro had its hold over me days into watching an episode. You can almost feel Welcome To Chippendales’ grisly smile faithfully hiding behind the face that you put on. There’s almost a salacious guilt that has its alluring vines growing all over the pleasure. And at some point in each episode, the pleasure keeps you on your toes and makes you doubt how long the fun would last. Pretty soon, the claws of greed and jealousy will tear apart what could’ve been an entirely fabulous enterprise of all the hedonistic acceptance.
The tension between Steve and Nick is almost childlike in a sense, especially in episode 5. It hardly takes the two more than a second to break into a catfight right after starting to get along a little bit. If you thought the drama of a doomed rivalry could not be more entertaining than Hunkenstein, you’ve clearly underestimated Robert Siegel.
Welcome To Chippendales (Miniseries) Episode 5: “Leeches” Recap
Chippendales East is the male-strip club manifestation of Nick’s fabulousness in all its glory. The shiny new site of guilty pleasure looks better, feels hotter, and holds a more famous crowd than Chippendales ever did in LA. Steve gets an “A” for effort when he tries to put on a cool face after counting the several hundred patrons standing in the queue waiting to get into the packed-up nightclub.
An excited, albeit nervous, Denise welcomes Steve into the talk-of-the-town nightclub, and he’s elated to see Tommy Tune himself cheering on the opening act. He gets to sit back in the signature Chippendales chair and watch all of Nick’s suffocated potential come alive on stage. Trust me, it was hard not to scream out loud when a Frankensteinian doctor in a sleazy apron “created” the most flawless male specimen on the glorious stage of Chippendales New York. We finally have our Hunkenstein!
It’s nearly impossible to gauge how Steve is really feeling at the sight of Nick’s success. Is he really as happy as he looks, or is he putting on a brave face? We should be content with his efforts at this point. Nick is too nervous to witness the reception of his grand creation physically. The mad cheer he hears when he removes his earphones tells him all he needs to know. Now it’s time for Steve to congratulate Nick on the massive success of New York Chippendales.
He handles it way better than he was expected to when Nick takes advantage of the moment and insults Steve for rejecting Hunkenstein the first time. What follows is also a shock. They play with snowballs. Steve is happy as a child seeing snow for the first time, and you start hoping maybe the two will get along. But it’s not that simple when a man cradles the trauma of all the bullying he has faced all his life. Steve is increasingly triggered by Nick and calls him a bully when he continues to throw snowballs at him even after Steve begged him to stop.
The now-pregnant Mrs. Banerjee knows her man well enough to welcome him back home with a reminder that he shouldn’t be jealous of Chippendales’ success. Little does she know that Steve’s petty jealousy is the least of her worries. A man who was turned away from Chippendales has sued the enterprise for racial discrimination. After confidently denying that Chippendales does, in fact, have a VIP card, Steve goes on to convince the club bouncer that the cards never existed. His problematic approach of fighting fire with fire is finally catching up to him.
Nick has set up quite an office with Denise and Bradford in the big apple. The taste of his victory is sweetened when Denise gets a call from Phil Donahue’s secretary. Hunkenstein’s juicy impact has reached the popular show host, and Chippendales will be on The Phil Donahue Show. Back in LA, Steve is excited to witness his creation’s first feature on national television. But his smile turns grim when Nick is called Mr. Chippendales on the show and takes all the credit for the first-ever male strip club. Irene once again plays the peacemaker and convinces Steve not to go all “Steve.” Bully for Steve, Irene soon comes across the VIP cards hidden in his drawer, and she is distraught. Not being able to wrap her head around the fact that Steve took part in the same discrimination he himself has been a victim of, Irene desperately wants to believe that Steve is a good person who fell from his high horse because of one horrendous misjudgment.
Welcome To Chippendales (Miniseries) Episode 5: Ending Explained
What makes Steve fall into the dark side?
Steve isn’t fooling anyone with his new Rolex and an expensive suit. His desperation for feeling rich and important is the glaring face of every confrontation he takes part in. Insecurities pour out of Steve whenever he’s faced with the slightest trigger of feeling small or being overlooked. Dangerously problematic in itself, his explanation for the VIP cards wasn’t at all true. The cards didn’t get made to keep out black people. They got made because instead of fighting discrimination with all-around acceptance, Steve decided to join the side of the oppressors to feel superior. There’s not an ounce of good impulse in the doomed owner of Chippendales.
The devil on his shoulder, Ray, riles up Steve with the news of Nick pretending to be Mr. Chippendales on TV again. He held himself back the last time, but Nick’s repetitive audacity finally makes all hell break lose. Steve called Nick in hopes that he will apologize for stealing credit. Instead, Nick commands the respect he deserves for making Chippendales the massive success that it is. Furious at Steve, Nick decides to show him what stealing credit really looks like. A breakneck montage of Nick appearing on countless shows to be the face of Chippendales finally brings out Steve’s worst impulses.
Not thinking ahead lands Steve in a world of embarrassment. To set the records straight about who is the real mastermind behind the world’s first male striptease joint, Steve decides to go on a live television show. But he scarcely possesses the bare-minimum charm or confidence required to be an entertaining TV guest. He bombs it big time, unsurprisingly. And if that didn’t make him feel glum enough, on his way back, he glances at a poster hung by a local nightclub. Another instance of misdirected anger makes Steve lash out at the club’s owner. Sure, he started the first male strip club. But Steve doesn’t own male striptease. And that isn’t even what Steve is really angry about. The club owner has seen Nick on TV and now refuses to believe that Steve is the real owner of Chippendales. This is the deciding moment that makes way for Steve to move into the side of untamed darkness completely. This is also the moment for Ray to regret being Steve’s yes-man. Steve commands Ray to burn down the nightclub, and although he wants to believe that the boss is joking, Ray soon realizes that Steve is dead-serious. To prove his loyalty, Ray commits arson, and Steve is now officially on the path of legit crimes that will only get worse.
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