‘The Get Down’ Recap, Part 2, Episode 4: Cocaine Disco Party Freakout

As we approach the end of Part 2 of Baz Luhrmann’s Netflix Orignal hip hop drama The Get Down, things are getting kind of crazy, and all for the better. Part 1 felt burdened by it’s subject matter, as if it was always trying too hard to show off its knowledge of the genre and give it the proper respect. While there are still some giant flaws in the series, as this season progresses they are increasingly allowing plotlines to take precedent over historical accuracy, and it makes for a much more enjoyable show.

Episode four, titled ‘Gamble Everything,’ finds the characters dealing with the aftermath of the massive angel dust overdoses at their last show. As someone who grew up at a time when people still smoked angel dust, I find their preoccupation with PCP rather amusing, especially because when I was a teenager the only people smoking that shit were longhaired whiteboys into speed metal, but like I said, never let accuracy get in the way of a good story. Getting back to the episode, the incident made Zeke realize how the band’s success is tied to the same drug industry that destroyed his parents. Zeke wants to break free of Fat Annie and Cadillac and the whole drug game but Shao expresses his concerns, considering if he stops selling for them, they might have him shot.

Over at the Kipling house, Dizzee is recovering from his overose, Yolanda drops a dime on Mylene’s sexy downtown disco performance, and Ra Ra is trying to get with the chick he met that was down with the Zulu Nation, Africa Bambaataa’s real life hip hop culture umbrella group, made up of former members of The Black Spades street gang. He visits her in Zulu Nation territory, where The Get Down Brothers aren’t welcome due to their drug dealing. However, they manage to sneak into a performance by Soulsonic Force, where Ra sees the light of Bambaataa’s positive cultural movement. Meanwhile, Dizzee sneaks out to meet Thor, telling Boo Boo, “If you an alien, you got to not apologize for being an alien,” which I guess means he’s coming to terms with his sexuality.

Mylene, in the meantime, is preparing for her big performance at the Studio 54-esque Club Ruby Con, where she hopes to nab a role in a new sci-fi disco movie and prove to her label that she can be a sexy superstar. The venue is filled with a host of decadent ‘70s temptations; literal piles of cocaine, flagrant bisexuality, and mimes. Is this a disco or an off-Broadway production of Cabaret? Back in the Bronx, the Kipling kids mother calls Mylene’s parents of her plans, precipitating a major blowout between her Pastor Ramon and Lydia.

As Mylene gets ready to perform, her hero Misty Holloway shows up at the club and throws her some major shade. She locks herself in the bathroom in a panic, but Zeke talks her off the ledge. Then, midway through her performance her Dad shows up and it’s all so upsetting she has him beat up and calms her nerves with cocaine, because, you know, THE ‘70S…DISCO….so…COCAINE, RIIIIIGHT? Zeke gets dissed at the after party where there’s more cocaine and freaky deaky white people telling her how great she is.

Over at Les Inferno, Shao has taken what Zeke said to heart, and asks Annie for a release from their recording contract. She’s not having it though, and things go from bad to pistol-whipping bad. He almost shoots her, but hears Cadillac and hightails it back to his crib where he’s so scared he shoots at anyone coming through the door. Fortunately, he’s a terrible shot. Then Ra shows up and says, “Hey that Africa Bambaataa guy and the Zulu Nation will helps us out of this pickle.”

Following his bouncer-induced beatdown, Pastor Cruz shows up at his brother Papa Fuerte’s place just in time to see him kiss his wife Lydia. Man, this guy is just not having a good night. First he gets lied to by his daughter, then has a knockdown drag out fight with his wife, then watches his daughter get felt up on a giant bed, then gets beat up by bouncers and now this! And to cap it off, his wife tells him Papa Fuerte is Mylene’s real father! Dios mio!

On their way home from the disco cocaine party, Mylene and her girl Regina decide to go defile the alter at Pastor Ramon’s new mega-church by snorting some lines off it. Unfortunately, he’s gone fully mental and is busy losing his shit inside said church. He asks God to forgive his sinful brother and wife and then blows his brains out, only for Mylene and Regina to discover his dead body. Now that’s some good storytelling.

Benjamin H. Smith is a New York based writer, producer and musician. Follow him on Twitter:@BHSmithNYC.

Stream The Get Down, Part 2, Episode 4, "Gamble Everything" on Netflix