The Rita Flower Or "The Indelible Stench"
Hung | Season 1 | Episode 7

The Rita Flower Or "The Indelible Stench"

TV-MA | 28 MIN

Written by Emily Kapnek
Directed by Jim McKay

Ray leads Jemma through the dark to his tent. But after a night of passion, he awakes the next morning to find that Jemma left cash on the sleeping bag. Meanwhile, Tanya has hooked up with a young photojournalist, Pierce, at her local bar, who is still at her place when Ray shows up to hand over Tanya's cut and announces he doesn't want Jemma to be a paying client any more. Tanya chews him out for undermining their success by falling for Jemma and challenges him to book his own clients.

Tanya confides to Pierce that she's a blocked poet and blames her mother; he convinces her to return to her mother's house to confront her demons. In her childhood room, Tanya reminisces as they peruse her old yearbooks but they are interrupted when her mother, Vera-Joan, shows up and wants to know what Pierce is doing with an old woman like her daughter. When Tanya continues to complain about her mother later at a restaurant, Pierce pushes her to invite herself to Vera-Joan's dinner party and recite a poem. Tanya overhears Floyd chatting up a young student named Rita at the restaurant and warns her that Floyd is a fraud.

Ray heads to the farmer's market to find some new clients. He strikes out but runs into Jessica who invites him to come by for a family BBQ. He declines, saying he has plans; Ray reaches Jemma to tell her he'd like to date her for real and she agrees to a boat ride and picnic. Discouraged about finding new customers, Ray is pleased when his neighbor Mrs. Koontz offers him the use of her shower and suggests they might both have something the other wants. But after some raucous sex, Ray discovers Mrs. K meant she'd take care of her husband's citations -- not pay cash for Ray's services.

Pierce and Tanya show up at Vera-Joan's with a plate of chocolate chip cookies. After dinner, Tanya reads an angry poem with mother issues (written when she was 14) and runs out in shame when she's shown up by an African refugee guest who sings soulfully in Swahili. Later at home, however, Tanya finds herself inspired to write again.

Picnic basket in hand, Ray waits at the dock for Jemma. And waits.

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