American Gigolo – Season 1 Episode 6 “Sunday Girl” Recap & Review

Sunday Girl

Episode 6 of American Gigolo begins with Sunday immediately asking Julian the golden question – “did you do it?” Julian declines, telling the truth and admitting that he has no idea what’s going on with Elizabeth’s death. Sunday knows Julian’s history and believes him being groomed as a 15 year old is reason enough for Julian to lash out and strike.

Interesting flashbacks to 2006 reveal Sunday walking in on her brother Andy overdosing and nearly dying. It’s obviously quite the traumatic experience for her, and it’s a heavy burden she’s been carrying for a long time. She wanted to save Andy, but her partner, Rachel, believes he needs to go to rehab.

Sunday and Rachel fall out over this, and in Sunday’s foul mood she’s brought to the station to speak to Julian off the back of Janet’s death. This explains why she tried to get a quick confession from him. Sunday shouted at him, as we know, but her calling him a kid brings back more repressed memories, namely those taking place in 1992.

Bullied by his peers, Julian’s mother encouraged him to bide his time and strike when his enemies least expect, like a snake. Eventually he does just that, beating his bully to a pulp using a stone but almost killing him.

In the present, Panish receives a call from the kidnapper, McGregor, telling him he has 24 hours to get the money. If he doesn’t get his 3 million, then Colin will find himself in a world of trouble. Naturally, Richard decides to try and sort this out, but Michelle isn’t happy about Julian taking the fall for something he didn’t do. She rings Sunday, telling her he has proof of Julian’s innocence, namely that of Panish’s bribe.

After taking Michelle’s statement, Sunday heads on the case and speaks to the motel owner, who reveals all with Panish and recants his statement when the pressure gets too much. So that basically means Julian can now go home. The charges are dropped and Sunday reveals that it was Michelle who helped get him out.

Julian goes on to open up a little, admitting that Lisa Beck killed herself and he was with Isabelle at the time. “The only way this works is if we trust each other.” Sunday encourages, going on to apologize for the past and admitting she should have investigated harder. Julian goes on to reveal he confessed because, honestly, he had no idea whether he actually did it or not.

Meanwhile, Stratton collects the cash and throws the bag at Panish, telling him to go and get Colin back and make the trade. The thing is, the police are looking for him but before that, Sunday arrives to see Isabelle during a private event at the mansion. Isabelle drip-feeds information while Sunday goes right out and admits that Olga left Julian the Lisa Beck file on the day she was killed. Sunday believes this is all connected.

After their conversation, and when Julian heads back home again, Isabelle is right there waiting for him.

The Episode Review

American Gigolo is just starting to get interesting now and this episode does a great job investigating the psyche of both Sunday and Julian between the first confession and the events in the present. Understanding how Sunday’s troubled past with her brother led to Julian’s confession is a nice way of tying both storylines together.

This also goes some way to show why Sunday is so invested in this case and wanting to try and resolve everything properly, investigating every nook and cranny to get the right outcome.

I think it’s fair to assume by now that Isabelle is the wildcard and potentially responsible for all the murders we’ve seen up until this point.
Whether we’ll get some sort of confession from her in the next episode though is up for debate.