The Girlfriend Experience - S1E8 - Provocation

Previously on The Girlfriend Experience, “Access”

The Girlfriend Experience | S1E8: Provocation | Starring: Riley Keough, Paul Sparks,  Mary Lynn Rajskub | Director: Amy Seimetz

Last week’s episode ended with Christine finding out who Simon Burch worked for and how that shattered the illusion of safety she had crafted for herself. In this week’s episode, she begins anew with a visit to the salon. In contrast with last week’s limited use of light, this week we are in open spaces surrounded by bright whites and blues. Christine inwardly cringes at the use of  the word “literally” from her hairstylist, and then she gets a phone call from her lawyer informing her she has to sign the disclaimer from Michael Cilic’s family or they are going to come after her with a vengeance and expose her career as an escort.

All work and no school

We are aware that things are slipping out of Christine’s control, but when her professor points this out, she goes on the defensive and insists she’s fine. Her day gets worse when she’s in the parking lot getting ready to leave campus, and she’s approached by Jack, who insists on speaking with her. He continues to get closer until she finally jumps into her car and hurriedly drives off only to stop a short while later and curse at the situation. She uses this opportunity to call Annabelle, a friend of Jack’s, and she asks her to look in on Jack due to his erratic behavior. She implies he’s dangerous and insists she doesn’t want to get the police involved, but will if forced.

After the day she’s had she decides to go jogging to let off some steam and pick up her dry cleaning, but the darkness that surrounds her only serves to reinforce her paranoia and she quickly returns home and decides to let off steam a different way, and in a sense, regain some form of power. She uses Chat Roulette to find a random guy on the internet to masturbate with. ( Is this really still a thing?)

The next day finds Christine waking up late for a meeting with a client. Unfortunately, the location is also one where David and Ben are having lunch. At first I thought she was actually there gathering info against him, but by the end of the scene she calls her client in the restaurant to cancel. David approaches her and cautions her to stop whatever game she’s playing. She’s now made more of an enemy out of David and appeared unprofessional to a client. With Christine’s personality, I’m not sure which she would consider worse.

Kirkland

Kayla shuts down Christine’s use of her password, which was picked up by IT. This is followed by Skip yelling at her for using creative language in one of the briefs she wrote for him. When David walks by, taking in her disheveled appearance, she decides to go to Erin and shows her hand in the form of the recording she has of David speaking to Ben about sinking the XHP case. Erin is shocked, but the biggest shocker of the night is when we find out that she’s also working with David and Ben.

Christine arrives home, and becomes nervous when she notices an open window. She checks her security tapes for any possible intruders. While doing this she gets a phone call from her mother about a call she received from someone asking about Christine and if she was her daughter. Jack has definitely been making the rounds. She tells her mother not to worry, but it seems she’s trying more to convince herself.

In the final minutes of the episode, Christine receives a phone call from Jack with him fully off the leash cursing her out for talking to Annabelle and calling her a cunt. David Tellis receives an email with a video of Christine and Jack having sex.