Daisy Jones & The Six, the Prime Video limited series based on the Taylor Jenkins Reid book of the same name, is out now! Despite the fact that episodes are dropping in batches, I will be recapping each and every one right here for you. From the formation of the band to its eventual collapse, we’re going along on this wild ride together
It’s a new week and that means we’re back with even more Daisy Jones and The Six episodes to recap! Prime Video is using their typical formula to release shows, meaning that they batch drop 2-3 episodes each week for a staggered yet still bingeable viewing experience. While I maintain that this is my favorite way to watch a show, it’s my absolute least favorite way to recap it.
But alas!
Episode 4, Track 4 is titled “I Saw The Light”, a reference to Billy finally coming around regarding Daisy in the band. It opens with Eddie and the rest of the lesser known band boys walking outside to hear “Honeycomb” playing on the radio in some girls’ car. Karen is in a record store when she sees the girl in front of her scrounging enough money to purchase The Six’s record. She gives her the cash to cover it. Daisy is in the diner where she works and sees that somebody added the song to the jukebox!
The sheer joy in all of their faces when they hear their song playing, and people actually enjoying it, is incredible. It’s fully making me tear up right now typing this recap. In case any of you are unaware, as I was until just yesterday, Daisy Jones & The Six are on Spotify, and you can listen to their full album!
We cut to the title page, and then to Billy, who forces Camila to turn off the song when it comes on. Interview Billy tells us that he’s upset his song of hope was turned (by Daisy) into a song celebrating uncertainty.
Billy hates the song, but everyone else, including Camila, is thrilled to have a #1 hit.
As the band gathers around to cook the food Camila made, they tear open the checks they got in the mail. They each received $600 for their work, even Billy who wrote the songs, and they’re leaping up and down in happiness. While Karen invested her funds and Billy rented Camila their own house, everyone else spent it on ridiculous and unnecessary items.
They’re so happy!
After Billy and Camila left the house, the remaining four band members felt free to do ridiculous things, such as drugs on the porch in the middle of the night. The children are free to be on their own!
Interview Warren says that he really misses drugs.
Interview Billy says that he wanted to get back into the studio right away, but he wasn’t able to because people loved the song so much.
The Six were finally invited to play a show, and they piled into their van and rode off to Oahu, a festival that looks a lot like Coachella, but without the fancy outfits. While their set timing wasn’t the best, they were happy to be there.
The rest of the band drank backstage, and Billy smoked and shifted around, fidgety and uncomfortable without being able to drink. Seconds before they’re about to go onstage, Daisy shows up.
Interview Karen says “of course” it wasn’t just The Six that they wanted to perform. The plan is for The Six to do their set, and Daisy to come on and play that single song with them when they get there. The song is supposed to be 4th, but after the first song Daisy pops a couple pills backstage, takes a long drink, and walks out without Billy even introducing her.
Interview Billy says she did it on purpose, and Interview Daisy corroborates with a laugh.
When they sing together, it’s honestly magical, and I’m so happy that magic was captured in the show. I’m loving it, and so is the crowd. The way Billy and Daisy look at each other is LOVE I’m telling you.
At that point, rather than heading backstage once again, she asks the crowd if she should stay for one more, and then she does. Billy is, needless to say, annoyed. Everyone else is psyched by how well the performance went.
After the show, they’re interviewed by reporters about their “first single” hitting number one. Billy says that it isn’t their first single, they actually have an album out, but the reporter doesn’t even seem to realize. When he asks what Billy and Daisy have planned next, Billy says that Daisy singing “his song” was a one time thing. Daisy’s understandably pissed. She wrote the song just as much as Billy did!
Karen knows that they need Daisy as well. On the bus ride home, she makes a soft case to Billy to ask her to join the band.
Billy’s worried that Daisy’s a “powder keg”. He says he doesn’t think they’ll survive her, and it’s pretty clear he’s talking more about himself than the rest of the band.
Meanwhile, Daisy is using her anger about being ousted from the band before she could enter it to write music. She’s on a roll when Simone’s voice comes on the TV— with someone else lip syncing it.
Daisy leaps up to go confront the producer who did this. If you remember, this is the man who forced Simone to sit on his lap in a previous episode. Eventually, Simone convinces Daisy to go back inside, and she tells her what happened.
Too often in these situations, women blame themselves, and that’s exactly what’s happening here. Simone feels that if she had just sat on his lap for a few more minutes, maybe something would be different. Daisy defends Simone instantly, but the Black queer woman needs to get out of LA. The woman she was attracted to at the party had been from New York, and she hopes that she can get a fresh start there.
The difference between how the world treats gorgeous, manic pixie dream girl presenting Daisy, and equally gorgeous but Black, afroed, lesbian Simone, sucks. And to be honest, it hasn’t gotten much better since the 70s. Apparently, Simone has been in touch with the woman from the party, and Daisy sees how happy the woman makes her every time they talk on the phone. She encourages her to go to New York and be happy.
Interview Simone, laughing, says she did exactly that. I hope everything works out for her because she truly deserves the best!
Interview Daisy shares that she lost her only friend in the world, and thought being around other people would make her less lonely. We get b-roll footage of The Chateau Marmont hotel, and find out that Daisy moved in, although ultimately Daisy would realize it wouldn’t solve her loneliness.
For book readers, we know this is the place of many iconic parties, including the one which Mick Riva— father to the main characters in Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Malibu Rising— attended. One of the saddest parts about all of Reid books being sold to different networks (Netflix owns the rights to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo) is that the odds of overlapping characters making an appearance is incredibly low. And the overlapping minor characters are one of the coolest parts of the TJR universe!
“Look at Us Now (Honeycomb)” is #1 for the ninth straight week, but Daisy has nobody to celebrate with. She’s alone in the world, and eventually this leads to her (drunkenly) breaking into her childhood home and being arrested for it.
When asked in the interview about this, Interview Daisy simply says “people write all kinds of things about me that aren’t true”, leaving us to wonder whether or not she did, in fact, get arrested.
Regardless, we see 70s Daisy in jail, with Karen arriving to bail her out. Daisy, stuttering, tries to explain, but Karen says she doesn’t have to explain anything to her. In fact, the only thing she wants to know is why in the world Daisy had called her. After all, she didn’t even know Daisy had her phone number! Of course, Daisy didn’t have anyone else, and it isn’t until that moment Karen (or anyone in the band) realizes that.
Daisy meets with Teddy to tell him that she can already hear an entire album in her head. She wants a big band that makes you dance, and she’s not talking about The Six. That’s great, because Teddy doesn’t think The Six is right for her!
At this, our overconfident protagonist is annoyed. Why aren’t The Six right for her? Teddy says that Daisy is a frontman, and the band already has one of those.
When Billy and Camila listen back to the interview from the festival, Camila appears nonplussed. When pressed, she tells Billy that he should have given Daisy a little more credit, and he becomes annoyed.
Interview Camila says you need to have an ego to be a rockstar, but his ego was going to prevent him from going from good to great. Billy needed a push, and Camila was going to be that push.
She isn’t the only one who thinks Daisy needs to join the band. Karen is asking Graham what he wants, and Graham is hard hedging about what’s “good for Billy” being “good for him”.
The not-couple is headed over to Camila and Billy’s for a party, and they’re the first to arrive. This gives Camila the perfect opportunity to corner Graham and ask him why he hasn’t told Karen how he feels yet. Graham knows that lots of horrible things could happen if he tells her, but to Camila all of that seems worth it.
If Graham approaches Karen first, book people are going to RIOT!
It’s night time, and the party is in full swing. That’s when Daisy arrives, armed with a pineapple and a bottle of wine which she immediately drops on the ground upon getting out of her taxi.
Thus, she walks into the party with just a pineapple, a universal sign for swingers, which is an amusing touch, all things considered. According to Daisy (and Hawaiian Airlines inflight magazine) it’s a traditional housewarming gift, and she gives it to Camila, who is delighted to see her. Billy, chain smoking as always, is less than enthused at her presence.
He doesn’t understand why Camila invited her at all! Camila, however, wanted to meet her. That makes sense to me! The amount of tension in “Honeycomb” would be enough to make me question things, had my boyfriend only a year before been making out with one girl while another gave him a blowjob while I was pregnant with his child.
Making the decision to be a bigger person, Billy approaches Daisy and apologizes for the things he said after the festival. He suggests making a music video, and Daisy wants to know whether Billy wants her to join the band.
Billy: “I mean sure" Daisy: "Why?" Billy: Daisy: "That's what I thought."
Daisy marches out.
Camila follows after her. She’s excited about the way Daisy changed her life and the band’s life, and she wants Daisy to stay and see it out.
That’s when the power goes out in the house.
While Camila passes out candles, Daisy hears Julia (the baby) crying and creeps upstairs. She picks up the little girl and brings her to the party, bouncing her so that she stops crying. I’m honestly terrified that Daisy is going to do something reckless— or drop her the way of the wine bottle, but she hands the baby off to Billy and he seems grateful for this.
Karen plays the piano, and the other band members at the party break out instruments. Pretty soon, they’re in full swing, with party guests joining and whooping, filling the noise-void the blackout brought.
Daisy begins to sing, and then Billy joins her, the two of them the center of everything as Camila looks, Julia in hand.
They finish the song, and Karen and Graham run off, Karen excited about how good they all were together. Graham leans in and kisses Karen, and book people— it is time to scream!! In the books, Graham let Karen come to him; she knew he was interested, and he never pushed her to feel the same way. I shipped them HARD, but alas all that is taken from us when, with just a few minutes left in episode four of this ten episode series, Graham kisses Karen and she laughs.
Graham: “Never gonna happen for us, is it?” Karen: “I think you’re amazing”
Karen walks away, and the lights come back on. Hearts everywhere (mine and Graham’s included) splinter into a million pieces.
We do a quick check-in with Simone, who’s arriving in New York, and Graham, who is being approached by a flirty girl.
Camila joins Billy in the car where he’s trying to get Julia to sleep. She tells him that Daisy is exactly what he needs, and while he agrees, he isn’t sure if he should go there. Camila says she’ll love him no matter what.
The next day, Daisy wakes up on the floor, with Camila putting away dishes in the kitchen. Camila takes the opportunity to tell her that the band is a family, and they all take care of each other. That hasn’t been Daisy’s experience, but Camila tells her that if Daisy takes care of them, they’ll take care of her.
Interview Camila says that trust is hard, but without it she has nothing, so she chose to trust. When asked if she made a mistake, she simply says “I don’t know, you tell me”.
And that’s the episode!
