‘Chad Powers’ Can’t Escape Russ Holliday’s Past, No Matter How Hard He Tries

SPOILER ALERT: The article that follows contains spoilers regarding ‘Chad Powers, Season 1, Episode 5.‘

It almost feels as if we are seeing the merging of two entirely different shows while watching Episode 5 of ‘Chad Powers.’ The first part of this episode is nothing short of an extension of what we have seen so far, which means that it is full of public sex and poor comedy. But midway through the episode, the tone shifts entirely and takes a turn that is much darker and definitely more realistic. This story that starts out as a ridiculous college football story will slowly transition to one that addresses issues of identity and guilt.

The episode, titled “Fifth Quarter,” starts with Chad’s embarrassing moment as he attempts to sign a football for a boy who suffers from leukemia but instead signs his own name, Russ Holliday. His attempt to color the entire football in order to conceal his mistake makes it worse and difficult to watch. Such scenes have been awkward, funny, and have characterized the series from the beginning.

Chad Powers starts to Spiral when Fame, Guilt, and Reckless Night threaten to Expose his Secret

We see the South Georgia Catfish starting quarterback blow a major College GameDay Interview with ESPN. When asked about who his role model was for him to become a football player, he begins rambling on and off about Benjamin Franklin and electricity, so that nobody knows what in the world he’s talking about. Meanwhile, under all the laughter, we realize that Russ’s identity crisis is worsening. The Catfish are still unbeaten, at 5-0, with everyone looking up to Chad as if he were some sort of enigmatic superhero. Yet Russ, who created Chad as a disguise for himself, has trouble separating where Chad ends and where Russ begins because he gets paired up against Georgia, the same team the Oregon Duck (Russ’s former CFB Team) lost to in the Rose Bowl. We also see how he only employs half of the disguise he used on the road, going back and forth between his fake voice and his real one as he decides to completely erase Russ’s identity since Chad has to be happy too.

However, things quickly go from bad to worse when Tricia, the enthusiastic team supporter, convinces Coach Jake Hudson to conduct a “family-friendly” interview at the Hudson lake house. This is a disaster for Russ, who is then forced to stay in character throughout the interview, which takes place in front of the very people who can turn his world completely upside down – with a twist that none of us could have possibly predicted. The night before the interview, Russ goes out to a bar to let loose and ends up with a woman in his cybertruck who knows everything about his past and identity. She tells him he can stop hiding soon, but Russ misinterprets this. Instead of moving forward from his false identity, he decides to fully become Chad Powers, Russ Holliday being left in the dust. The next morning, we watch Danny sing “Reflection” from Mulan in the mirror, suggesting that Chad is indeed who he is. Danny, his friend and makeup artist, realizes that this isn’t a joke anymore. Danny refers to this as a breakdown, but Russ won’t listen. Trouble starts at the lake house. When Chad gets there, he finds out that the woman he had sex with is Wendy Hudson, the wife of the coach. Everything changes completely after this regarding the tone of the show. The light-hearted farewell scene is replaced by some tough moments. During the fake family lunch, Wendy loses it, and they talk about issues in her marriage while Jake tries to maintain his disguise for the cameras. The truth is revealed when Wendy reveals that she had sex with Russ Holliday. Ricky realizes what just happened when he saw Russ at a hotel and calls him a “stalker.” The ensuing events are very brutal because they are so real. Steve Zahn, who plays Coach Hudson, shows both anger and sadness without being over-the-top. Jake talks about Russ as “a cancer” and says that he saw that in him when he was in high school too. However, before anyone can respond to his accusations, Jake grabs his chest and tells Ricky to call 911 because he thinks that he is having a heart attack

We are left Questioning whether Russ Holliday can ever Face the Truth, or if Chad Powers has Already Taken his Place for Good

This episode is important because it allows us to see the mistakes of Russ. Chad Powers has been making us laugh at his crazy lies and disguises for weeks now. It is finally time to see what these lies mean to people around him. Wendy’s guilt, Ricky’s confusion, Danny’s fear, and Jake’s heart attack all revolve around one man who has trouble figuring out who he wants to be. However, on the other hand, the series is also not giving us easy answers. Russ is still not caught, and the Catfish are still on top. Whether or not he will get justice, redemption, or continue to hide behind Chad Powers will soon be revealed. This is clearly a trend. After all, this episode is showing us that comedy and tragedy are not at odds with each other, but instead can coexist as Russ and Chad in the same person.