Chad Powers Season 1 Episode 6 Review: 6th Quarter

Chad Powers Season 1 Episode 6, “6th Quarter” brings the TV season to an end, but the Chad Powers experiment remains unfinished. Despite Ricky’s heartbreak, Chad isn’t done and neither is the college football season.

After the cliffhanger of Chad Powers Season 1 Episode 5, “5th Quarter,” Coach makes it to the hospital when Russ decides to risk revealing his identity. He ends up bringing around his Cybertruck when no other cars are available. 

The tension of the scene, which starts with the look on Ricky’s face as he pulls up, rarely lessens throughout the episode. Sure, there are a few gags here and there, like Russ’s dumb blonde moment when he ask if his dad got fat because he misses him when he’s wearing a fat suit, but it’s mostly not funny.

It’s mostly God… you know what, Danny is right that metaphor is too upsetting. It’s mostly Russ dealing with his house of cards tumbling down and having to make amends.

Of course Russ’s identity was going to be revealed, that was never really a question. Ricky ripping Chad’s sleeve off to check for Russ’s tattoos, a callback to Episode 4’s Chekov’s gun when she’s searching him online, sets everything in motion.

He flees and doesn’t know what to do. When that happens, the place you go is home. Well, Atlanta in this case where his dad is filming a new movie.

The reconciliation with his dad, facilitated by Danny who sweetly stays by his side even when Russ expects him to also hate him, is simultaneously heartwarming and bleak. Russ admits he wanted to be Chad not only to play football but so he wouldn’t be so sad all the time.

RUSS: And people actually liked Chad. Chad actually liked people.

Glen Powell, for all the douchebaggery and nonsense promised in the premise, mines new emotional depths in creating such a fragile, vulnerable performance. This episode, for better or worse for its inevitable Emmys campaign for Best Comedy, is far more tears than laughs.

With the silly voice and prosthetics stripped away Russ is just a deeply wounded man who was defined by a stupid mistake he made once. Although his dad forgives him, that’s not the end of his redemption tour.

Chad Powers is an experiment in how we tell stories of redemption and what those stories say about our culture. Does Russ’s commitment to the team and genuine desire to be a better person outweigh his selfish motives and past failures?

For Ricky, the answer is no. When he shows up to the big Georgia game after missing the bus she isn’t happy to see him.

After a fake-out tender moment where it looks like the two might kiss, she slaps him and launches into a highlight-reel moment for Perry Mattfeld. The raw emotion and hurt she unleashes on Russ, who she accuses of almost killing her dad and actually killing her friend Chad, is breathtaking.

You are expecting a happy ending for this sports redemption story, but in reality forgiveness is never that simple. Russ’s confession of real feelings, something he never dared to let himself have before, is met with his worst nightmare.

The same Ricky who was kind to Russ in the elevator tells him she wishes he would have killed himself after the Rose Bowl. The same hate he’s been fighting, from himself and from the world, is now being screamed in his face by a person he’s grown to love.

He’s not actually responsible for Coach’s heart attack, despite how Ricky may feel. He is responsible for putting her in a situation where she is forced to let him back on the team because exposing him would end the program and her dad’s career.

His decision to blackmail her with those threats, instead of just agreeing to leave, marks a shift in how we see his redemption. It puts that moral clarity he has after meeting with his dad back into the gray area.

Does it matter anymore if he’s doing it for himself or for the team if he’s already caused so much pain? Even with this forced truce, how much longer can Chad keeping fooling the world?

Truly knowing what Chad Powers is trying to say about Russ and redemption hangs on what happens next. Hopefully Hulu agrees and gives us a second season to get those answers. 

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Chad Powers Season 1 is streaming now on Hulu. 

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