7. Long-ass Pants
Gail, a twee and frumpy owner of a rival vintage fashion outlet, visits Sophia and gives her a lecture on the way she treats the clothes she modifies and re-sells. We, like Sophia, really don’t care about the clothes or how they’re treated; we’re watching this show for the angst after all. Gail very quickly tests our patience, and we’re waiting for Sophia to be characteristically nasty to her, and send her running…
But this never happens. After taking Gail around San Francisco and pointing out what a Nasty Gal consumer looks like, the two business women do some shots and then suddenly they are the best of buds. It’s bewildering, it really is.
Sophia: “Hey, you want some bow-tie pasta? I like mine with butter.”
Gail: “That’s what a child eats.”
Or at least, it’s bewildering until the end of the episode, where Gail returns home only to find that Sophia has modified the debutante ball gown she’d left behind as an olive branch, a peace offering which acknowledged their differing business models and attitude to preserving vintage garments.
Verdict: Sophia seems to be behaving out of character for the entire episode, it’s only at the end that you realise she’s still the same shitty person she’s always been. Which is a relief, cause we’ve kinda grown to like her by this point.