Daisy Jones & The Six, the Prime Video limited series based on the Taylor Jenkins Reid book of the same name, is out now! Despite the fact that episodes are dropping in batches, I will be recapping each and every one right here for you. From the formation of the band to its eventual collapse, we’re going along on this wild ride together.
I absolutely adored the first episode of this show, and now, as I write this recap on Saturday, I’m glad for the first time that three episodes dropped at once. I want to continue living in this sparkly world of music and drugs and friendship, even if this episode was more morose than the first.
Riley Keough and Sam Claflin are both so incredible as Daisy and Billy, respectively. I was worried they wouldn’t be able to capture their essence, but so far they’ve pulled it off fabulously. Even the younger versions of these characters were fabulous!
We open the episode with a clip from “The Merv Griffin Show”, where music producer Teddy Price is talking about how although he became a father figure to many of the kids he worked with, that was never his goal. He was just there to make records.
We then head with young Billy over to tour manager Rob’s house, where him and the band showed up unannounced to request a sit-down with producer Teddy Price and, as Rob puts it, “the keys to the city”. Of course, they have no idea what they’re doing. Rob is just a tour manager, and he can’t actually just set these kids up with a record deal immediately.
He finally agrees to give them a show at Filthy’s, a bar on the strip. The boys are delighted, but they have one more request— they want Karen to join the band. Graham is overwhelmingly excited about this, to the point where Billy has to steal the phone from him to convince her to join.
After talking to Graham, then Billy, then Camila, she agrees to go to LA and be their keyboardist. I love Karen and I’m so glad that she’s joining the band!
Elsewhere in LA, Simone is arriving home and sees that someone else is already inside. Cautiously, she walks in, fully expecting a break-in. It’s just Daisy, though, who used the key under the flowerpot to get inside.
Daisy is wearing a jean bralette to cook dinner, as an attempt to bribe Simone to let her move in. Young Daisy left home, and she needs a place to live. Simone relents, despite the food tasting terrible.
The Dunne Brothers Band is also moving into their new home. It’s gross and smells bad, but it’s in Laurel Canyon, and they were happy enough to be there. We get to see Billy and Camila hanging out in their room being cute and couply, and I love them! Finnick was my favorite character in The Hunger Games, and Caflin brings the same charm to this role.
When Karen arrives in the home, she’s significantly less charmed. The three boys are sword fighting in the living room wearing only their underwear, and they barely even say hello when she walks in.
She’s unamused, but Interview Karen shares that the gig on the strip was still something worth being there for.
When the band walks into their first show, we can see that the gig being “on the strip”, is a bit of an exaggeration. Filthy McNasty’s is a gross establishment with very few people even there to see them play. They did, however, play there for a few months, which helped them, as Interview Billy said, fall in love as a band.
All of the footage in these sections is intercut by old-timey film that Camila captured, and I love it. It adds to the documentary feel and brings a lot to the show itself.
Eventually, people did start coming to their gigs at McNasty’s, but they weren’t getting paid at all, and the record label folks weren’t there to watch. Camila spent her time as a band manager, calling different record labels and trying to convince them to come watch, to non-existent success.
Teddy Price is struggling. The past few bands he produced didn’t sell at all, and he needs to make some money or risk losing his job. His boss wants him to produce a Christmas album, and it’s clear that he’d rather do anything but.
That same night, the band is considering giving up. Billy is spiking his coffee, and Karen has proposed changing the name from The Dunne Brothers to something that suits the band better. Eddie is immediately onboard, but Billy is aggressively against it. After throwing out a few names everyone hates, Karen suggests The Six. It looks like it’s going to stick!
You know who’s having infinitely better luck? Simone and Daisy. After Simone gives her performance, she invites Daisy up onstage to play her music. With Teddy Price in the audience, Daisy strums on her guitar and sings the song she wrote. It’s really very good, and we get to hear the entire song for the first time in the whole show.
After they finish, Simone introduces Daisy to Teddy Price, and he gives her his business card. Daisy, ever the antagonist, asks what she even needs Teddy for. After all, she’s been doing fine on her own thus far. Teddy is obviously rattled, and tells her that he can “shape” her. Daisy isn’t having it! She drops the business card and walks away.
This is obviously a terrible decision, but Teddy seems intrigued nonetheless.
Graham is sitting out in his car waiting for Billy to go shopping when he sees Teddy Price walk into the store Billy is exiting. Panicked, he yells at his brother to go back inside, and Billy sprints in.
After stalking Teddy the entire time the man shops, Billy stops Teddy right outside the store. He’s most definitely harassing the man, and Teddy outright says that Billy is making him uncomfortable.
“I’m in a band” Billy says, and this is the fatal flaw. Teddy suggests Lou Adler— he doesn’t make “that” type of music. Eventually, though, Billy wears him down and Teddy hands over the card. The brothers are so excited! I’m so excited for them!
Stressed by the fact that he only has one chance, Billy can’t find any song that he doesn’t think is horrible. At Camila’s encouragement, he plays a new, slow, song that he has been working on. It’s beautiful, and Camila instantly believes that it’s the one.
And then they’re in the studio, preparing to perform for Teddy Price himself. Eddie doesn’t seem happy about performing the song, titled Silver Nail, but Billy snaps at him and they break into it.
Interview Teddy tells us that the band “knocked [his] fucking socks off”. Interview Billy informs us that Teddy “put [them] through the ringer” for months. Eventually, though, the label and Teddy agreed that it was time for them to cut an album.
It’s not just the band that’s looking at their big break— Teddy has tracked Daisy down where she works to make another plea. Daisy, disillusioned by other men who haven’t exactly been after her music, is snappy. That’s not Teddy, though. He’s unhappy with the way Daisy’s songs don’t “take” him anywhere, and he throws a tip down on the table (without ordering), puts a real song on the jukebox, and walks out.
That night, Daisy is having lackluster sex with her boyfriend and midway through, she stops to write in her notebook. Interview Daisy says it was the first time she wanted to “live up to someone else’s expectations”. Things are happening for our girl!
The interesting thing about this show is that, by virtue of it being a show and not a book, there’s so much more emphasis on Billy and Daisy’s perspectives as opposed to the rest of the band. Over the course of both of my recaps, I don’t even know if I’ve mentioned Warren’s name! It definitely takes away from the feel of a cohesive band a bit, doing more to put emphasis on the “stars”.
Things are happening for the band, and they’re recording their album and then getting ready to go on tour. Billy is delighted, telling Camila that maybe they can buy their own house when he gets back. Camila, however, has news. She’s pregnant.
That very night, they get married, looking absolutely incredible, although the only photo they have to commemorate it has their heads chopped off.
Graham teases Billy about not informing their mom she’s gonna be a grandma, and the look on Billy’s face as his brother walks away shows that he didn’t really think about the reality of becoming a dad, either. He heads over to the bar and takes one shot, and then another.
The interviewer asks the band what they remember, and Interview Billy, Interview Graham, Interview Karen, and Interview Eddie all look uncomfortable. Interview Camila, looking like she’s been crying, says “I remember everything”.
In the 70’s, Billy calls Camila and she runs over to the phone in sheer excitement. The next day, he apologizes for not calling her, having forgotten that he did at all. When she calls him, holding a “The Six” album in her hand and grinning, he doesn’t answer. Time passes, and only Karen answers the phone. When Camila asks if everything is okay and she can talk to Billy, Karen says she has to go.
I feel devastated for this woman, sitting at home pregnant, while her husband is off doing gods knows what.
Camila eventually decides to just show up. When she sees Graham and Eddie, they don’t look all that happy to see her. Realizing that something is wrong, she throws the door open to the band’s van and sees Billy inside, hooking up with someone else.
Interview Eddie speaks about the situation in a way that makes it clear he’s still in love with Camila.
Billy is such a douche! A hot douche, but a douche nonetheless. As his girlfriend sits on the bed sobbing, he snorts cocaine. Camila sees this and slaps him across the face. Channeling all of her inner rage, she tells him that he can do whatever he wants until the baby comes, but after that he has to clean up his act and show up for the baby for the rest of that child’s life.
She storms out, and Billy stays standing there, looking like a shell.
Daisy works on her music, and Billy continues to drink. He’s performing so fucked up that he’s nearly collapsing into the microphone, sounding terrible. In San Diego, he gets so messed up that the band leaves the stage early and Teddy Price shows up to tell him to pull it together.
Camila has had the baby, and Teddy is the one to inform him. Teddy loads the drunk into the car and the band looks on forlornly.
Once they arrive at the hospital, Billy says that he can’t go in and see Camila and the baby. He’s still too messed up and doesn’t want to meet her like this. Teddy isn’t having it. He tells the boy to “get the fuck out of [his] car” and Billy eventually does.
Merv Griffin Show Teddy shares that although he didn’t want to become a father, some things are out of his control. In the past timeline, he lets Billy get out of his car and they drive off together.
Meanwhile, Daisy has left a present for Teddy outside of his house, and Camila is in the hospital with her baby, alone and crying.
And that’s where the episode ends!
Write Through the Night 