The Girlfriend Experience -S1E2 - Friend

Previously on The Girlfriend Experience

Between school and work, you can tell Christine puts her all into succeeding. We find out this episode that her roommate not only goes to the same school as she does, but they also used to be a thing.  Something she reminds him of when he relays an invitation from his new girlfriend, inviting her to a party. He calls her cynical, which seems ridiculous to me. She’s being more practical than anything else by trying to prevent any possible awkwardness.

At work she always defers to authority, even in the face of misogyny in a meeting, but on her on time she’s in the driver seat.

Christine’s friendship with Avery appears to be complicated, but I can tell a lot of rubbish is going to come out by the time this series is done. Sometimes it feels like Christine wants to be Avery and vice versa. Sometimes it seems like Avery is extremely jealous of Christine, yet she is the one who introduces Christine into this lifestyle by presenting the benefits: the money, the homes, and the thrill of the sex with a new man. All of which Avery has lost by the end of the episode, and leads me to wonder exactly what Avery did with her money to have nothing to fall back on when she’s dropped by her client and Jacqueline, the madam.

But damn does Christine excel at being an escort.  She snags her first client and uses that knowledge to negotiate representation through Jaqueline. We get an answer to an important question I’m sure a lot of people have: Why should she pay Jacquline when she can do this herself? Jacqueline explains she already has the infrastructure needed and it’s more  of a partnership than anything else. Of course this partnership nets Jacqueline 30% of Christine’s income.

For the most part, these men obtain Christine’s services with a practiced ease. There’s a comical moment when Jaqueline calls because a client’s credit card is declined. Then there is Ryan, a hot client who you would never guess paid for sex. Christine maintains control in every one of these interactions, except for Ryan, which again begs the question of why he’s a frequent client - so frequent he could smell the new on Christine.