This post contains spoilers for this week’s episode of The Curse, which is now streaming on Paramount+ with Showtime.
“Down and Dirty” begins with the inevitable catastrophe that Whitney created by letting the expensive jeans store keep her credit card on file to pay for all the shoplifters. Of course, word of this has spread throughout Española, and local teens are taking advantage of the situation, to the tune of a $14,000 charge so far for all the stolen merchandise. Between that and Fernando bringing in even more armed guys to try to police the strip mall, the whole thing is an utter mess. And because Whitney is too embarrassed to fully acknowledge her mistakes in this area, she pushes back at Asher, doing a cruel, mocking, baby talk impression of him. It’s not just that they seem to be fighting constantly in recent episodes, but it’s the utterly belittling nature of how Whitney talks about Asher. If she has this level of contempt for her husband, why are they even still together anymore other than to make the show work, or perhaps to keep trying to prove a point to her parents?
In the aftermath of this nasty argument, the duo split up, each seeking the comfort of people they believe to be their friends, even though they’re anything but. But the stories prove a mixed bag, with the Asher story in particular not quite coming together.
Whitney once again rushes to Cara for comfort, and once again completely misses that Cara hates her. In this case, she obliviously crashes Cara’s date with Brett, and even more obliviously doesn’t recognize that Brett is making fun of her by adopting a stereotypical wise Indian persona while dealing with her. It’s an amusing scene, and Whitney certainly deserves to be the butt of a joke, even if she has no idea that it’s happening.
Whitney and Cara wind up attending a party together at the home of a wealth military contractor who likes to collect art. The host and most of his guests are the kind of people who stand against most of what Whitney professes to value, but she sees the event as a chance to film a good segment for the show. Or, at least she does until she realizes Dougie cares so little about it that he sent one cameraman, without a microphone. She flirts with the host and gets in his private elevator with him while Dougie’s B-roll guy films it, as she seems almost eager for the HGTV show to depict the end of her marriage.
Mostly, though, she continues to be clueless and awful with Cara. She all but begs Cara to compliment Whitney’s houses as great art, and when Cara reluctantly parrots Whitney’s words back at her, Whitney acts like she’s just received the greatest compliment in the world. Moments later, she gets Cara to finally explain the meaning of the performance art piece with the deli slicer. Cara offers a clear and thoughtful explanation, saying that being a Native person involves “slicing pieces of yourself” on behalf of other people — entitled white people like Whitney in particular. And because Whitney wants so desperately to be Cara’s friend precisely because Cara is Native — which would only reinforce the version of herself that Whitney wants the world to see — she completely misses the implication of what Cara is trying to tell her. She’s awful.
Dougie, meanwhile, essentially turns a talking head interview into a trap for Asher, asking questions about the marriage designed to make Asher look like a blind fool when the audience sees his doting answers about Whitney contrasted with her far less kind comments about him. And at one point, Dougie brings up the cuckolding fantasies, which Asher very foolishly told him about. Dougie pretends to walk it back, but it’s clear to everyone in the crew that this is real.
Yet somehow, despite having his confidence betrayed in such a public, humiliating way, Asher agrees to go out with Dougie, and even spends much of their meal apologizing for not being a better friend to this manipulative creep. As with Whitney with Cara, it’s clear that Asher is desperate for any kind of friendship. And we’ve seen in the past that Asher will lie to himself about the nature of Dougie’s treatment of him when they were kids. But it doesn’t track at all that in one moment, Asher would be enraged and mortified with what Dougie did to him, and the next be all but groveling for the guy’s continued affection. It’s very strange, even by the standards of The Curse.
As if to prove why it is never a good idea to tell Dougie literally anything, their night continues with a trip to the house on Questa Lane. Dougie wants Nala to put a curse on him, perhaps because he blames himself for his wife’s death, even if he can never admit it out loud. When she won’t do it, he breaks down in tears, pleading for this. This poor little girl is understandably terrified to have this strange, gross man in her room, sobbing, and screams in panic. After, Asher is back to being furious with Dougie, and their argument gets as cruel as any Asher/Whitney fight, if not more. Dougie accuses Asher of “cosplaying as a good man,” and Asher responds by taunting Dougie about his dead wife. Their drive home is incredibly tense, because we know Dougie is drunk, and also that he can be vengeful. Asher gets home in one piece, but when Dougie is alone in his car, he says, “I curse you.” Whatever self-loathing he felt earlier in the evening has reverted back to his usual disdain for Asher, only worse after the dead wife comment.
This all seems likely to end badly for them. Let’s just hope the individual pieces fit together better than they did in this episode.
