‘Daisy Jones & The Six’ Episode 4 Recap: “I Saw The Light”

At the end of the Daisy Jones & The Six Episode 3 (“Someone Saved My Life Tonight”), when Daisy and Billy actually sang together, this thing finally gave us some reason to believe. The hook the series was built around – a band doing band shit – had arrived, and even the stray banter was better. And by the events of Episode 4, everybody’s reaping the rewards. Graham, Warren, and Eddie hear “Look At Us Now (Honeycomb)” on LA’s AM pop station KHJ, Karen witnesses a 1970s millennial purchasing the Six’s revived debut in a record store, and everyone gets their cut of the publishing rights in the mail, leading to the purchase of frivolities (fur vests, extra amps), practicalities (Karen’s stock portfolio is apparently robust), and a domestic upgrade for Billy, Camila, and their daughter, who is now known as Jules. “Look at Us Now” is holding off The Eagles (“One of These Nights”) and KC & The Sunshine Band (“Get Down Tonight”) for the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100, and the band was a hasty addition to the music festival bill at Diamond Head in Hawaii. Rewards: reaped. But Billy is still butt hurt. 

In the present, the singer gripes that his lyrical genius about the perseverance of love was overwritten by Daisy as a celebration of doubt. Billy, who single handedly drove his rock band right off a cliff, has borne witness to their unlikely second coming, and still can’t find an ounce of humility. “I fucking hated that song,” his bearded self says in the nineties. (Presentation of the timeline in Daisy Jones remains really, really rickety.) “Apparently I was the only one.” 

The Six make it to Oahu, where their undercard slot on a bill that features America, the Steve Miller Band, Batdorf and Rodney, Melissa Manchester, and Herbie Hancock will be the first time they’ve performed live since the big flameout. Daisy has also arrived – separately, with Teddy Price – and after Cheech Marin (Michael Cienfuegos) introduces them, the Six launch into their set, only for the band’s new co-frontperson to crash the stage early. (Daisy has proven to have little use for Billy’s grandstanding. “Is this a pep talk for me or you? Because I’m fine.”) And despite what he sees as her stepping into his spotlight, Billy and Daisy nevertheless again sound great together. Which is why it’s all the more frustrating when he drags her creative contributions to the Six sound in a resulting media interview. 

Camila, ever the voice of reason, knows that Billy needs to get with the program. Shit, it was Daisy’s arrival that got them all back in the game. “You gotta have an ego to be a rock star,” Camila tells her interviewer in the present. “It’s what makes them good. But I wasn’t gonna let his ego stop him from becoming great.”

Daisy is also basking in the afterglow of the Diamond Head gig, despite the static. “I had this moment when I was up on stage with Billy Dunne and the rest of ‘em, where I got this, like, this rush, you know? And for 25 minutes I was the happiest that I’d ever been. And that’s what I see in your face every time ‘that woman’ calls you on the phone.” That’s right, Simone is looking for a way out of the music industry rat race in LA, but she needs Daisy’s encouragement to buy a Greyhound bus ticket and go find Bernie, her crush, in New York City. It’s 1975, and the disco grooves are rising. Hopefully Simone and Bernie can find true love under the glitterball at Studio 54.

Daisy wants Simone to be happy. But the departure of her one real pal once again sets the loneliness loose within her. She moves into the Chateau Marmont, gets frustrated trying to write new material, and wanders West Hollywood until she breaks into her childhood home and is arrested for vagrancy. Her parents moved away; they didn’t tell her. But Karen Sirko bails her out of jail. “I don’t even know how she got my phone number.”

At the housewarming bash for Billy and Camila’s new place, Graham shoots his shot with Karen at the prompting of his sister-in-law, but she lets him down easy. (Karen is on record as an enjoyer of sex, but not its messy attachments.) The white wine flows, joints are passed, Eddie points out the nearby homes where David Crosby and Mama Cass once lived, and Daisy arrives after receiving an invite from Camila, who’s really working overtime as a mediator with this bunch. The house party vibe is right for reconciliation, and once a blackout plunges the place into candlelight, Karen Sirko takes the opportunity to play “Ooh La La” by Faces on the piano. Warren shambles along on percussion, Graham and Eddie find guitars, and Daisy joins Karen on the Ronnie Wood vocal, followed by – hey, it’s Mr. Humility! – Billy Dunne. The impromptu jam session has seemingly melded Daisy further to The Six. But there’s still no clear path to what’s next.

After the Hawaii show, in a huddle with Teddy Price, Daisy said she was tired of the singer-songwriter tag. She wanted to make a record with big guitars and danceable, driving rhythms. The producer said he knew where she was coming from, that he knew some people, and that it might not be The Six. “What you are is a frontman,” Teddy told Daisy, “and they already have one of those.” For Camila, her efforts to bridge the gap between her husband and Daisy was about strengthening the familial bond the band has always shared. But Billy might not have been wrong when he said of Daisy, “I don’t think we’d survive her.” She’s a restless soul, spontaneous and creative. Is Camila’s push for Billy to work with her another boon for their alchemy as performers? Or does it lead to their ultimate end? 

“I chose to trust them,” Camila tells the interviewer in the present. “Did I make a mistake? You tell me.”

Needle Drops in Daisy Jones & the Six Episode 4:

Faces, “Ooh La La”

Eric Burdon & War, “Low Rider”

Aerosmith, “Sweet Emotion”

The Eagles, “One of These Nights”

KC & The Sunshine Band, “Get Down Tonight”

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges