‘Pistol’ Episode 6 Recap: And Now The End Is Here And We Face That Final Curtain 

Directed by Danny Boyle of Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire fame, FX/Hulu’s Pistol chronicles the short chaotic career of seminal British punk band, the Sex Pistols. Based on guitarist Steve Jones 2017 autobiography, Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol, the previous five episodes have seen the group rise from London’s working class slums to the top of the UK pop charts, setting off a musical and subcultural movement in the process. Heading into the show’s final episode, the mood darkens as the band’s breakup and the sad fates of its members loom on the horizon. 

Pistol Episode 6 opens with band manager Malcolm McLaren telling his girlfriend, designer Vivienne Westwood, he’s going to “blow up the Pistols,” that, for the sake of art, “I have to destroy them.” Westwood understands his impulse to destroy the band in order to create something new since he appropriated the idea from her. In fact, McLaren would appropriate various trends throughout his subsequent career as a solo artist, such as hip hop on the 1982 single “Buffalo Girls.” 

When we catch up with the Sex Pistols themselves, they’re about to begin their disastrous American tour in January 1978. Their US label, Warner Brothers, having put up a $300,000 bond to ensure their good behavior, has installed a crew of burly road managers and bodyguards who beat the crap out of bassist Sid Vicious whenever he steps out of line, which is often.   

Now a full fledged heroin addict, Vicious begs his road manager for heroin and becomes more and more unhinged. On tour, the band takes in the sights in the form of sex shops and drive-in horror movies. Archival footage from the actual tour shows the band battling cowboys and preachers. 

Rolling into Texas, Vicious carves “Gimme A Fix” into his chest with a switchblade and the audience covers the band in beer, coming for the violent freakshow, not the music. Frustrated by Vicious’ erratic bass playing, Jones unplugs him from his amp, not that he notices. Sick of Vicious and singer Johnny Rotten’s attitude, Jones and drummer Paul Cook fly to the tour’s final show in San Francisco.

McLaren is delighted to see the Pistols bickering on stage when he finally sees them in California. “I needed to bring you back down to street level, where you belong, to throw you into the furnace and see what remains.” He tells them he’s making a Sex Pistols movie and that they’re to fly to Rio de Janeiro to record with English train robber Ronnie Biggs. Rotten is not amused and he and Vicious storm out. Rotten later tells Jones he’s sick of McLaren’s mind games and wants to know where all the money’s going, laying down an ultimatum, saying “You need to choose. He goes or I go.”  

After weeks of violent shows in the Deep South where they were met with violence and hostility, the band plays their first show in a proper venue in front of an appreciative audience. It would be their last show until their reunion in 1996. Afterwards, Jones and Vicious commiserate about the fate of the band. Despondent, Jones asks for a toot of heroin.

At a band meeting the next day, Rotten thinks the Pistols are about to fire McLaren but the tables are turned and the singer is given the boot. He’s in for another surprise when Vicious doesn’t follow him out the door, but Sid protests that McLaren’s going to make them movie stars and besides, he’s the lead singer of the Sex Pistols now. 

Back in London, Jones’ love interest, Chrissie Hynde, has finally got her band The Pretenders together. Through a rehearsal room window, he listens to them rehearse, his face betraying admiration and disappointment at his current state. Disgusted watching McLaren film what would become The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle, Jones sneaks heroin. In Paris, the Pistols record their infamous version of “My Way” with Vicious singing, Jones telling him, “If you make it your own, people will remember you forever.”  

When next we see Vicious, he and girlfriend Nancy Spungen are in the depths of addiction, living at New York’s Chelsea Hotel. In October 1978, Nancy would die under still unexplained circumstances with Vicious being arrested for her murder. While out on bail in February 1978, Vicious would die from a heroin overdose at the age of 21.  

Jones finally sees the light after hearing McLaren complaining about the Westwood designed t-shirts they printed after Spungen’s death which read, “She’s dead, I’m Alive, I’m Yours.” With his death, they’re now unsellable. He rails against the film and Malcolm’s management. “I made you matter,” McLaren retorts accusingly. “We were supposed to matter to you. I was supposed to matter to you,” Jones says, crushed to realize McLaren never cared. 

His life back in the gutter from whence he came, Jones starts shooting heroin. After getting high, he imagines Sid warning he’ll be the next to die and Rotten appearing to make amends. Before saying goodbye, Jones and Rotten reminisce about a benefit concert they played just before their final tour, bringing good will and holiday cheer to the children of striking miners, a lone happy memory on which to end.

By portraying the history of the Sex Pistols as a tragicomedy, Pistol gets closer to the truth of the band than a straight retelling of events. It strikes an impressive balance, treating the band seriously without taking itself too seriously. It’s entertainment and should be consumed as such, full of larger than life figures whose emotional baggage explains but never excuses their behavior. As Jones was the band’s musical anchor, actor Toby Wallace who plays him is an effective and likable center of gravity. At the end of episode 6, you wish there was another season coming; however, Jones’ personal story got much darker before he finally got sober in 1990.

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