Track 5: Nancy And Sid – As this episode of Pistol begins, John (Anson Boon) gives Sid (Louis Partridge) advice for dealing with Malcolm and takes credit for getting him into the band. John believes they should ally together to avoid meeting a similar fate as Glen who offered to give Sid lessons. He tells Sid to use lacquer to keep his hair up and reminds him that he will have to learn to play. John doesn’t use lacquer because it is too sticky. He complains that Malcolm (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) wants to change the name of the song No Future to God Save the Queen. Sid complains he is making him nervous because he can’t play anything and his hair won’t stand up now. Viv (Talulah Riley) and Malcolm prepare for the Jubilee by altering a picture of the Queen. While Steve (Toby Wallace) teaches Sid to play, he realizes he is wearing Vicks VapoRub in his hair.

Sid reveals it is Johnny’s beauty secret. Steve tells Sid not to tickle it and instead punch it. He gets punched in the face for his efforts before they wrestle and fight on the floor. Sid says that was great because he likes it when people fight back instead of ignoring him. When Sid plays again, Steve says it isn’t good although it might be better. On March 10, 1977, the group goes to Buckingham Palace to sign their new contract with A&M Records in front of the press. On April 3, 1977 at the Screen on the Green, the man plays with Sid. Viv argues they’ve made a terrible mistake. Malcolm thinks they love him, but Viv says this is appetite. Johnny says Malcolm wanted them to write a song about bondage to promote his little shop. They wrote a song about submission or a sub-marine mission.

Nancy Spungen (Emma Appleton) enters and begins flirting with Sid while he plays. She follows him to the bathroom where she asks for a ride. As they ride away, Nancy goes on about other musicians as the others get tired of hearing it. They reach Sid’s room where he asks what they’re going to do now. She quickly finds out that he is a virgin. When she offers to shoot up before, Sid says he has done that before. He reveals that his mother gave him a hit for his 14th birthday. She hugs him after hearing that. Later, Malcolm tells everyone how he wants to take the piss out of the Queen’s Jubilee. He believes their song will be the national anthem for a new country founded on fury. Nancy says she finds the whole royal thing very enchanting before Johnny snaps and tells her to shut up.

He tells her that this is a band meeting and she isn’t in the band. Johnny argues that she is banned. Before he leaves, he insists the name of the song is No Future. When they receive the record, Johnny is enraged that Malcolm called the song “God Save the Queen”. Paul (Jacob Slater) thinks the name will get them noticed. Steve calls it beautiful because they made it. Sid reminds everyone that Glen made it although he looks a lot better playing it. Steve admits he never listened to the words of the songs before he was in this band. Johnny made him listen. Steve hates to say it, but he calls Johnny a genius. Johnny asks if they’d like to meet his mom. They play the song for his mom (Susan Lynch) and dad (Barry Ward). His dad laughs that they’re going to be strung up for treason.

His mom believes God Save the Queen is a better name for the song because it is more noticeable. Once they leave, Steve tells Johnny that his mom and dad are nice. Johnny wants to go to Steve’s place next. They agree to go for a quick in and out. They check out his room and see all of the stuff he nicked. Ron (Jay Simpson) enters as Johnny gives him a record as a present. Ron tells them to shut the door on their way out. Sid hits the laundry while Johnny grabs a can of biscuits. Ron asks what he is doing in his house. Johnny responds by saying he is taking a biscuit. Sid and the others grab one as well. Johnny dumps the crumbs out all over the couch. He thanks Ron for his hospitality and hopes he enjoys their musical offering. Sid jumps on the couch on his way out. Before Steve leaves, he drops his key off. As they leave,  Steve makes it clear that Ron isn’t his dad.

At The Speakeasy, Sid sits with Chrissie (Sydney Chandler) to talk about sex. Nick (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) interrupts before Bob Harris (Daniel Barker) enters. Bob talks to Nick about his show briefly as Sid changes the subject. Sid asks why he won’t have them on and whether they’re good enough for the BBC. Bob argues it is just a difference of taste. Sid hits the man behind Bob with a broken bottle. Johnny tries to calm Sid while Steve and Chrissie hide under a table nearby. Chrissie punches him and calls him selfish because he knew how bad she wanted to be in a band. He tells her that she is too good for the Sex Pistols before explaining why. Steve goes on to say she is so much better than that. Outside, Nancy tells Sid he is marvelous while he says he feels great. Johnny yells at him to remind him that he started this.

He knows what Sid is doing and warns him that it will kill him. They go to Sid’s place where Nancy bangs on the door. Nobody answers so Sid gets the hidden key and lets them inside. He opens the pajama case his mother bought him to retrieve the drugs from inside. While they get high, Steve encourages Chrissie to keep playing since it is beautiful. Steve is convinced it is going to happen for her. Chrissie would rather die than crawl back to Ohio with her tail between her legs. The Sex Pistols are dropped by their label due to the alleged assault on one of the best-loved men in British broadcasting. Helen (Francesca Mills) tells Steve that they’re a band that can’t tour or record now. Nancy comes in a few seconds later to see if Steve can hook her up with a connection to heroin. Steve doesn’t want to help and recommends screwing off to wherever she came from.

He calls her another Yoko Ono and alleges she will break up the band. Nancy asks for some privacy because she needs to share some personal things about Sid. Helen goes to bed after asking them not to steal anything. Nancy asks why he thinks Sid attacked Bob. She believes he knew everyone loved Bob and would turn on him for it. He is happiest when he is getting the crap kicked out of him. Nancy reveals she was choked at birth by her umbilical cord and diagnosed schizophrenic at 15. She has been kicking the crap out of people her entire life. Although he calls her disgusting, they end up having sex. When he wakes up, Nancy says she usually doesn’t give it away for free. Sid is special, but she thought he’d get paid more. She asks Steve for a few bucks.

During a band meeting, Sid argues it isn’t right that Nancy can’t attend. Johnny tells him not to be revolting, but Sid claims they’re just jealous because they’ve never been in love. Paul says Steve falls in love with all his mate’s girlfriends for about 30 seconds and that is about the time it takes to sleep with them. Malcolm interrupts with a new opportunity. The band meets with Richard Branson (Kai Alexander) who wants to sign them to Virgin. He wants to sign the band that the old pensioner labels are too afraid to touch. The only issue is the timeline. He explains there is no point in releasing God Save the Queen if they miss the Jubilee. He needs an album by June while God Save the Queen can be the single from the album. The band believes they can do it so they hit the studio immediately.

Johnny runs off to the pub once he gets tired of waiting to do the vocals. Nancy tells Viv that Sid is in the hospital with hepatitis and it isn’t her fault. Viv asks who is with Sid and who cares about him. Nancy tells her she should go if she is so concerned. Once Johnny finishes recording the vocals, the band tries to pick a name for the album. Steve likes “Never Mind The Bollocks” that the hotdog seller on Piccadilly says. Johnny agrees that it should be “Never Mind The Bollocks: Here’s The Sex Pistols”. Chrissie visits Sid in the hospital to warn him Nancy is a groupie. She believes Nancy will drop him the moment someone more famous comes along. Sid doesn’t care because Nancy is sexy. He shows Chrissie the list of things he likes about Nancy.

Johnny reads it to the band and admits heroin really does screw you up. Malcolm worries she is going to mess up everything they’ve achieved so Paul suggests sending her back. Malcolm wants to send her to New York although Johnny and Chrissie don’t think they can kidnap her. Johnny says Sid isn’t a fool. If he finds out, he’ll never trust any of them again. Steve reminds Chrissie she is the one who wanted to do something. She tells him he put Sid in the band and she isn’t risking jail time for it. Malcolm tells Paul and Steve it is time to step up. Later, Nancy shows up at Chrissie’s place complaining that everyone hates her. She wants to talk to Nick because he implied he could sort her out with drugs. She says she’ll visit Sid eventually.

While Nancy uses the bathroom, Chrissie calls Steve to tell him what is going on. She encourages him to kidnap Nancy or she’ll murder her. Once she returns, Nancy asks how she always knows the right thing to do like going to the hospital and making her something to eat. She thought Sid would be fun, but he is just a sweet little kid. Chrissie admits he can be sweet before asking how old she is. Nancy claims she is 19. She never expected to fall in love and he doesn’t love her back. She wonders how to know when someone loves you because the world is so full of BS. Chrissie gives her the list that Sid wrote. She refuses to read it and rolls over instead. Chrissie puts a blanket over her and reads the list to her. When Steve and Helen arrive, Chrissie says she shouldn’t have mentioned it since she is fine and sleeping now.

They give her drugs that she promptly uses to get high. Then, they try to send her back home. Paul and Steve manage to get her up to the plane. She comes running back to hug Nancy because no one has ever been so kind to her before. Sid says goodbye to everyone at the hospital. He meets up with everyone and says he can’t find Nancy. Johnny hasn’t seen her. Steve says she went back to the States. Johnny tells him your mates are what count. Steve tells Sid he did the bass on the album and it sounds great. The band’s song is number 11, but the radio won’t play it. Malcolm tells them that God Save the Queen will soon be number one and they’ll have to play it. He has a scheme to make them unignorable. The band performs on a boat on the River Thames while passing the Houses of Parliament.

Sid is surprised to see Nancy back. The others aren’t happy about that. Johnny tells Sid that she never decided to leave. Instead, Steve pumped her full of drugs, kidnapped her, and put her on a plane. Johnny blames everything on Malcolm and says Steve didn’t think for himself. He hopes they’ll look out for one another from now on. Paul calls him a cunt although Johnny thinks he is right. Once they finish, Sid rushes off the boat to catch up with Nancy. Malcolm causes a scene with the police and gets arrested. Steve says they better be number one after that. Viv’s kids watch her get arrested on television. Steve shows up at Chrissie’s because he wants to play music with her. He tells her what happened and learns they went to number one, but the radio still didn’t play them. Chrissie says she can’t keep pretending there is someone or something standing in the way of what she needs to do.

She must find her voice. Steve jokes he didn’t like her much anyway and she repeats it. He leaves after saying he’ll see her on stage. Chrissie plays alone until the episode ends.

 

Pistol Review

The fourth episode of Pistol did a good job of telling the story of the Sex Pistols without giving too much away. While it dips into pieces of the past, it often relies on the viewer to know what is happening. It is not a definitive account of everything that happened and shouldn’t be considered as such. Instead, the episode attempts to touch on many events while embellishing others to create a fast-paced, action-packed drama.

With only one episode left, it will be interesting to see how they decide to end Pistol. The overall success of the show may depend on its conclusion. This episode scores a 7 out of 10. Recaps of Pistol can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our work at this link.