The Hulu miniseries Pam & Tommy has quietly been reinventing itself. After starting out with some degree of uncertainty about what it wanted to be, it has managed to establish itself as being a show that is willing to confront the true villain of the story: its own audience.

When it began, the show was primarily focused on Seth Rogen’s Rand Gauthier and his experience working for the erratic, even threatening, Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee (Sebastian Stan). Drawing from an expansive Rolling Stone piece for its foundation, it saw Gauthier set out to seek revenge on Lee by stealing a safe from his property. In the process, he came into the possession of the personal sex tape of Lee and his wife Pamela Anderson (Lily James) that he then decides to release to the world for money.

Gauthier may seem like an unlikely focus for a series that is called Pam & Tommy. Despite this, in the show’s first four episodes, the story bounced between Gauthier and the couple in the build-up to the eventual explosion of the tape into the public consciousness. The more the show sat with him, the more there was the perpetual feeling that he was only the tip of the iceberg. He certainly was an antagonist who set the central events of the show into motion by stealing the tape in the first place, though it would all end up becoming much bigger than him.

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Image via Hulu

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That is where we have now arrived in the show’s fifth episode, “Uncle Jim and Aunt Susie in Duluth,” which opened the door to what the series is really interested in. After the lengthy build-up, it saw the shoe finally drop on the release of the couple's sex tape. It has been quietly spreading around, though this is the moment where it all gets out into the open by getting mainstream attention. Notably, Gauthier and his ilk are almost entirely absent from this episode as they have gone into hiding. Even as their initial actions resonate through the story, the invasion of Anderson’s privacy has become self-sustaining without them.

The show had already been grappling with the implications of Gauthier’s theft finding an audience. After all, if no one cared to buy the tape, then that would have been the end of the story. Prior to this episode, there was the brief shot of a man attempting to surreptitiously buy the tape online, hiding his purchase from any roaming eyes. In hiding his actions, it could be that he was merely embarrassed about the sexual nature of what he was looking at. The more likely answer, and the more significant one, is that he knew his actions were wrong. Yet with the anonymity of the internet, he would not have to face any consequence or criticism for his actions even as he became complicit in the ongoing cruelty done to Anderson.

This most recent episode now shows that was only the beginning. We now see how the series not only doesn’t need Gauthier to be the antagonist, it is more interesting without him. The entire audience of those who watched the tape has now taken over the role of villain. There are now thousands of people who are not just watching the video but are making their own copies to continue selling in order for it to spread more. It is an overwhelming prospect as all of these anonymous, unnamed people collectively become responsible for an ongoing invasion of privacy. Not only is this a great deal more terrifying because of how it lays bare how widespread such callousness is, but it also marks a significant shift in the story.

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Image via Hulu

In placing the responsibility beyond just one person, the show moves beyond the typical convention of having a singular antagonist to triumph over. Even if Anderson was to find some way of holding Gauthier accountable, which we know doesn’t happen, it wouldn’t end up mattering. Instead, Anderson will have to face down public scrutiny from the world for the tape, a lack of support from her husband, and ritualized humiliation from the late show host Jay Leno of all people.

The scenes of the writers' room of Leno’s show, in particular, are interesting as the host initially dismisses doing jokes about the tape as he felt no one would know what he was referencing. Don’t let it be mistaken, he doesn’t decide against doing the jokes out of the goodness of his heart. Instead, it is a self-serving calculation as he simply waits until the story is big enough for him to be able to talk about it on his show. When he does in one of the episode’s final scenes, it marks a painfully low point for Anderson.

It is this crucial narrative pivot that helps the show avoid the pitfalls that it was risking falling into early on. By eschewing the common framing of having a protagonist face off against an antagonist, the show is on its way to becoming much more than just a standard story. Even though it was the shortest episode yet, it was also the boldest by more deeply delving into how it was not just a sole actor like Gauthier who can be easily blamed for all of it. In reality, it was a serious wrong done by a collective who gave it enough oxygen and support to continue spreading without a care for the impact it could have on Anderson in the slightest. All who watched the tape are complicit in feeding the cycle that took hold.

Looking ahead, It is likely that Gauthier will make some sort of appearance again. However, if this most recent episode is any indication, such a return will not be the focus of the show. Instead, the framework is already being laid for the focus to solely shift to Anderson as she must deal with continued disrespect from all sides. It is harrowing and haunting to see how society will turn on a person, chew her up, then spit her out without a second thought. It is becoming clear that Pam & Tammy is a story as American as can be. It shows how the lack of consideration shown to Anderson is not just one man’s vendetta, but collective societal cruelty that the show indicts us as being responsible for together.