‘Pistol’ Episode 3 Recap: Chaos And Gobbing, Wedding Bells And Abortions

In the first two episodes of Pistol, we learned how the Sex Pistols came together despite their musical shortcomings and personal differences. Episode 3, titled “Bodies,” examines how the group built their following one misfit at a time. It may be the best installment of the 6-part series and takes its name from a song off their lone album which begins, “She was a girl from Birmingham / She just had an abortion / She was a case of insanity / Her name was Pauline, she lived in a tree.” Cheerful stuff.

Singer Johnny Rotten, née John Lydon, said the song was based on a real person and Sex Pistols fan in an interview with The Guardian. The episode brings Pauline to life and uses her to illustrate how the band’s rejection of pretense and false modesty drew in damaged souls seeking community and release. When we first meet her she’s a patient in a mental institution, where she’s been raped by an orderly. Following her discharge, she has an abortion and makes her way to London, carrying the dead foetus around in a handbag, where she sees the Sex Pistols and falls in with the nascent punk scene.  

The Pistols’ gig climaxes in an orgy of phlegm, as their followers face off with belligerent long-haired bikers in a spitting contest. Here’s the kicker, they’re spitting on each other. Known as gobbing, it was a hallmark of early UK punk gigs. As the band loads out, a music journalist asks what they’re trying to say with their music. Guitarist Steve Jones replies, “Actually, we’re not into music. We’re into chaos,” a real quote from the band’s first review. 

Back at the Pistols’ rehearsal space, Jones and fellow scenester Chrissie Hynde indulge in some surprisingly graphic sex scenes for a Disney distributed Hulu series. The relationship between the Sex Pistols guitarist and future Pretenders band leader is one of many instances the series plays up in order to make it more “showbiz,” according to Jones, on whose autobiography the show is based. While the two did have a fling, it wasn’t quite the soul mating shag fest the show portrays, but as they say, never let the truth get in the way of a good story. 

Meanwhile, Rotten searches for songwriting inspiration. After seeing designer Vivienne Westwood’s infamous Destroy t-shirt, he rightfully says, “Many millions of Jews might hate a shirt with a swastika on it.” Westwood argues she’s trying to destroy the symbols of the past by making people confront them, “so that out of the chaos the future can emerge,” and besides, the shirt was McLaren’s idea and he’s Jewish. 

These are heady ideas and not without merit. Unfortunately, devoid of context, the shirt seemed at best an act of provocation, which it was, and at worst, a glorification of the swastika itself. Punk’s use of such inflammatory symbols would sadly open a back door through which neo-fascists gained a toehold, exploiting the scene as a recruitment tool. According to the show, however, it’s all OK since it inspired Rotten to pen “Anarchy in the U.K.” and, hey, guess he didn’t hate the shirt that much after all. 

While Pistol excels by turning the birth of British punk into an ensemble comedy, scenes such as the band’s songwriting sessions fail in embarrassing fashion. “Play it like a kick in the guts,” Jones moronically screams at Matlock, trying to make him simplify his high minded musical ideas. It’s the kind of thing music dramas always get wrong, believing musical creation is the result of sudden breakthroughs rather than the dull tedium of practice and repetition.  

After another gig, this time at a prison, and another shag fest, Hynde asks Jones to marry her so she can secure a visa and stay in England. “I’m not leaving London until I’ve conquered London,” she says melodramatically. While not factually true (she did, however, talk to both Rotten and Sid Vicious about a visa marriage), it does give actors Toby Wallace, who plays Jones, and Sydney Chandler, who plays Hynde, more scenes together and they do make a convincing couple, two star-crossed lovers whose attraction can’t unpack the baggage they both carry. 

Jonesy surprises Chrissy with a wedding party but ends up having sex with Pauline behind the pub instead. Later, Pauline follows Rotten back to his parents’ home where he offers her tea and sympathy. The episode ends with them premiering the new song, “Bodies” while Pauline gets her revenge back in Birmingham by tracking down her rapist and gobbing in his face (and also maybe stabbing him?).

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