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
This episode has me so fucked up! My mind is honestly swirling in so many different directions after watching this that there’s nothing much for me to say except let’s get into the recap.
Track 8: Looks Like We Made It, opens up with a series of interviews. Interview Karen and Graham share that Daisy wasn’t showing up for rehearsals, and Interview Eddie heavily implies that Billy was hoping she never showed up at all.
Daisy does, however, eventually show back up on the scene, and she immediately has some criticisms. While Billy decided to start the set with “Aurora”, Daisy doesn’t love that. She also doesn’t love the lack of “Regret Me” and “Look at Us Now” on the tracklist. Daisy and Billy bicker in front of the band for a minute, and then Karen suggests that they take a minute outside and they storm out.
Daisy instantly confronts Billy about what he said in Rolling Stone. Billy, for his part, is still pissed about what Daisy said to the reporter about him missing the birth of his child. Undeniably, both of these people fucked up, and I recognize that Billy did it partially to protect his child, but my heart still breaks for Daisy nonetheless. Billy spits that he told the truth when saying that Daisy “needed” him, and when Billy suggests Daisy skip the tour altogether, she reminds him that there’s no tour without her.
These two need each other just as much as they destroy each other.
When they get back into the studio, Daisy wins the argument to get “Regret Me” on the setlist, but Billy holds his ground on “Look at Us Now”. They’re about to kick off and start rehearsing when Nicky walks into the room, asking what he missed.
Daisy introduces him as her husband, and the band gives each other looks of equal part confusion and bemusement.
And….. it’s the opening sequence! Looks Like We Made It!
The band decided to hire Rod Reyes to be their tour manager. You may remember him from the very first episode! He’s the producer who encouraged the band to move to California when they were still playing in their hometown in PA, and who eventually set them up with their first recurring gig on the strip. It’s pretty adorable that Billy remembered him and cared enough to get him the job. Tour managing Daisy Jones and The Six is now the hottest gig in town, and Rod is reaping the benefits of his early contact with Billy.
Still, that doesn’t mean the job is easy. Daisy and Billy can’t agree on anything, fighting for separate rooms, buses, suites, and green rooms. Rod doesn’t think they’re big enough to get any of these things, but in interviews we find out that the label agreed to everything. Go big or go home!
A chyron informs us that it’s now December 1976, and the band is boarding their buses. They each say goodbye to Camila, waving (Daisy), embracing (Warren and Graham), nodding awkwardly (Eddie), and kissing (Billy). Julia, now 2.5 years old, is there to say goodbye as well.
Camila tells her husband to “go be a rockstar” and he heads off.
Night one of the show is in Albuquerque. They intentionally chose a small venue to work out the kinks without critics watching them the same way they would in LA or NYC, and Interview Karen shares that they expected the first night to be a disaster. It didn’t end up being that way though. Despite Billy and Daisy fighting during all of the sound check, they put on an incredible show.
For most of this episode, anytime we see the band performing onstage, they’re singing “The River”. Nicky watches from backstage, laughing happily. When Billy sees Daisy and Nicky together, he looks obviously upset, and sneaks out after to call Camila.
His wife is in bed next to Julia; it’s the middle of the night. She wants to go back to bed, and hangs up to leave Billy standing there by the payphone.
Meanwhile, everyone else is partying hard in Daisy’s tour bus. They’re doing coke, smoking, and generally being loud and excited.
Interview Billy shares that he wanted this tour to be different, and in ‘76 he stays in his bus alone while the rest of the band parties. Between shows, Daisy and Billy film clips for radio and greet adoring fans.
They have the #3 and #9 songs in the country and are constantly adding new dates to their tour list. They’re clearly on top of the world.
As they walk through a mob of fans, one man tries to hand Billy a baggy of weed. He stares at it, debating taking it, before Rod snatches it away. One thing about this show, and this episode in particular, is that they do an incredible job of showing how painful an addiction can be. While many shows glamorize drug use, or show someone staying completely clean once they go to rehab once, Daisy Jones and The Six leans into how messy drugs can be. One day doing coke can make you feel on top of the world, and the next it can lead to your downfall. You can wake up in the morning never wanting to drink again, and still feel tempted when someone places the drink in your hand.
Things are going well for Teddy too! As the band’s producer, he’s gotten the studio’s phones to ring off the hook. As a reward, he gets a Ferrari 308, and implies that he’ll need more to keep the band in-house.
Meanwhile, the band is still playing night after night. Daisy is leaping around on stage, flipping and twirling and screaming the words into her mic. Nicky is bonding with the band after shows while Billy goes for solo runs in the dark.
Rod is doing his best to manage the band successfully by keeping them stocked up on beer, gas, and tea straight from Thailand for Daisy. When one of the tour buses breaks, he bribes the mechanic with two show tickets to get a crankshaft within 30 minutes.
All that’s well and good, but the true struggle is managing Daisy and Billy.
When Daisy sings and Billy has the opportunity to take a break, Billy stares at her as though there’s nobody he’s ever loved more. Onstage, Daisy crowd surfs one minute (looking barely conscious) and leans into Billy the next. Nicky, for his part, is looking less and less comfortable with the relationship between the two leads.
It’s after all of this that Daisy finds herself laying in bed asking Nicky what’s wrong.
Nicky: When he’s in the room, you’re not yourself. Have you noticed that? Daisy: I’m always myself. Nicky: But you care what he thinks. And that makes you a little less you. Nicky rolls over and goes to sleep, and Daisy lays there staring at him sadly.
It’s the interview scene! These photos have been all over the promos, and I’ve been eagerly awaiting the drama that would occur. The entire band sits in front of a panel of reporters who eagerly snap their cameras and shout out questions.
They want to know where Daisy bought her clothes, to which she says they should stop asking her that or ask Billy the same thing. They ask who “More Fun to Miss” is about, and Billy says they’re just songs but Daisy says nothing is ever just a song. Eddie deflects, imploring the reporters to ask the rest of the band some questions.
“What’s going on between the two of you?” a reporter asks, and Billy replies “Who, Eddie and me?” It’s awkward, there’s a strong current of tension even as Billy and Eddie do their best to play it off casually. They might have been able to get through the interview in this way, but then a reporter asks Billy if he still thinks Daisy is a headcase.
Daisy looks across the table at him pointedly, equally curious what the answer is, but Billy just says “that’s not what I said”, deflecting in a way that clearly annoys Daisy. That’s strike 2, and the third strike comes when he states that the reason they’re not playing “Look at Us Now” is to make room for new songs.
“That’s not the reason” Daisy snaps, and Rod shuts down the whole press conference, leading to Daisy marching out.
Billy follows her, and they start screaming immediately. Daisy wants him to stop being a liar. Billy wants her to grow up. She grabs him and shoves him against the wall, and they continue screaming, their faces mere inches apart. Daisy knows Billy, and that’s what Billy is afraid of. Billy knows Daisy, and her and Nicky are not in love. After all, he knows what it looks like when she’s in love with someone. They might be about to kiss, but instead Daisy shoves him, an act lacking power considering there was no room between them for her to wind up, and then marches off.
After the show that night, Graham finds Billy throwing bottles of beer across the road and onto the pavement. Graham asks how many he’s had, and Billy says that he’s breaking them, not drinking them. He doesn’t want to talk about it, so the brothers throw the bottles together against the ground.
And the very next day, Camila arrives! She shows up looking absolutely devastatingly hot in a white power suit, and her and Billy both look delighted to see each other. Camila’s photograph being used for the Aurora cover appears to be paying off, because she has work shooting for another band coming up.
Billy wants to stay in bed with Camila all day, but Camila forces him up and to the party that’s already going on next door. Camila walks around saying hi to everyone, and then gives Daisy a hug.
Daisy: Only you could get Billy to a party
After she says it, there’s an awkward silence where Camila looks at Billy and Billy stares back. It’s eventually Daisy who breaks it, reintroducing Camila and Nicky despite them already knowing each other. It’s so awkward! It’s so obvious that while these women each have a completely different relationship with Billy, they each have their own power over him, and Daisy calling attention to that, even unintentionally, is uncomfortable.
Camila deserves better!
Other interesting details from the party:
- Nicky hands Billy a drink and Camila takes it away from him
- Daisy retells the guitar case story
- Camila slips outside for air and finds Eddie, who wants to talk about what happened between them, but Camila says they don’t need to talk about it and also nothing will happen again
- Nicky tells a story about “twin souls”, and Daisy and Billy make meaningful eye contact
The next day, Camila leaves to head back to California, and Rod drops off a giant plate of food with Daisy. She apparently skipped eating all day yesterday, and so he brought her pancakes with her mail.
The first letter Daisy sees on the stack is addressed to “Margaret ‘Daisy’ Jones”. There’s only one person this could be— her family. She throws the letter into the empty trash can, and then immediately pulls it back out again, face filling with anger and hurt. She chucks the envelope into her suitcase unread and does a line of coke.
This transitions us immediately into the night, where Daisy is still doing lines and Billy is watching.
Daisy: I see you still like to watch
Billy just stands there, but they get so close that the tension between them hurts.
From here on in the episode, whenever we see the band onstage they’re playing “Regret Me”, and Daisy isn’t doing well. Interview Billy says that he was the only one that noticed something changed, but it’s immediately obvious Daisy is struggling. While she’s been high since the moment we met her, it’s only now that she’s moving her microphone in a way that creates feedback and snorting lines onstage.
After the show, Graham is chilling in his bunk when one of the groupies who’s been hanging out with the band sidles back and tries to hook up with him. He curves her instantly, and when he sneaks around her into the public area we find out that the whole thing was a bet between Warren and Eddie. They’ve been trying to figure out why Graham hasn’t hooked up with anyone in a year. Possible options include VD (impossible) and being gay (they’d still love him).
As the boys heckle him, Karen finally breaks.
She tells everyone that they’ve been screwing since studio sessions, and Eddie and Warren instantly crack up. They cannot possibly believe it. No worries, though. Karen proves it to them by standing up and making out with Graham passionately, and then instantly push into the private room together.
Interview Graham looks so shy and happy that I melt!
Daisy wakes up the next morning late for sound check. Nicky says that Daisy doesn’t need rehearsal, but she says that she does. He pulls out the coke plate and pushes it on Daisy, who initially refuses. It’s clear in this moment that Daisy does care about the product she’s putting out on stage last night, and that Nicky only cares about being high and having fun.
The two argue, and eventually Nicky convinces her to do coke. Ugh!
In the dining area, Graham is telling Billy that he’s going to move over to the other bus to sleep with Karen. Graham is so giggly and happy!
Daisy is sitting at her own table with Nicky, popping pills instead of eating.
Billy sits down next to Rod to try to convince him to interfere with Daisy’s spiral. Rod sees it, of course, but he’s not about to tell Daisy the truth. That would only get him fired. His only advice is to talk to the husband. If anyone could talk sense into Daisy, maybe it’s him.
In a shocking turn of events, Billy actually decides to take this suggestion, and heads over to where Nicky is smoking at the table.
Billy: She’s never taken this much before Nicky: Don’t pretend like you care Billy: What the fuck does that mean? Nicky: You just want her to need you. That’s all you care about. You see, she doesn’t need you. It must kill you, doesn’t it.
And it’s on! Nicky pushes Billy back, and Billy threatens to punch him in the face. Billy clearly cares so deeply about Daisy, and Nicky’s just a jealous little child. Billy swings, and Nicky swings back but it’s clear that Billy is the far stronger one of the duo. Graham goes to interfere, but Warren holds him back. Interview Warren tells us he’d been wanting to punch that “royal prick” for a while; Nicky was finally getting what was coming to him.
Rod eventually does pull Billy off of Nicky, and Daisy storms in, yelling about Billy and apologizing to Nicky.
It’s Miami: June 15 1977.
The band says that the energy was bad from the very beginning, and that they just needed to push through. Daisy is mumbling more than singing, and when we see the world from her perspective everything’s spinning. She crashes down into the podium, and Billy yanks her offstage.
Daisy: What, did I look at you wrong? Billy: You’re fucking bleeding, Dasiy.
She’s so high that she’s giggling, not even realizing what’s happening, but when Billy tells her to go to the medic instead of going back onstage, she pulls it together just a bit. The crowd is chanting her name, and nobody is going to tell her when she’s done, especially not Billy Dunne.
She marches back onto the stage and takes the mic.
What does she start singing?
“Look at Me Now”, of course. What other option was there?
As she starts to sing, the crowd erupts in cheers and everyone else sits there perfectly still. Billy doesn’t sing, and Karen, Graham, and the band exchange looks, trying to decide if they should start playing. In the end, Billy marches off the stage and Daisy sings unaccompanied while the crowd cheers her on.
And that’s the set! Yikes.
That night, Daisy and Nicky party independently. They’re in a hotel room screaming and laughing and doing more lines of coke than could possibly be healthy. Multiple times, Daisy falls over, but each time she gets up laughing, with Nicky telling her that she doesn’t need Billy.
In a room on the separate floor (as requested) Billy debates what to do with Rod. He thinks it’s just a song, but Billy claims it’s a mutiny. In fact, he’s going to kick Daisy out of the band for it!
He’s running down the hall, followed by Rod, and pounding at Daisy’s door before anyone can stop him. It’s Nicky who answers the door, sounding panicked and refusing to let Billy in. He says that everything’s fine, and this is enough to panic Billy into shoving past him into the room.
Once inside, he sees Daisy laying in the shower, not breathing. Billy runs to her, grabbing her in his arms and slapping her face, begging her to wake up.
Meanwhile, Rod calls for a doctor to come treat a “toothache”, and Nicky packs his bag and runs away. Billy begs Daisy to awaken, kissing her forehead in a way that’s more of a touch than a kiss but still shows just how much he loves her. As he begins to cry, Daisy opens her eyes slightly.
“It’s you” she whispers, and Billy holds her tighter.
And that’s the episode!
Write Through the Night 