Dave Episode 10 Recap & Review
The season 1 finale opens with Dave attempting to pitch his newly signed record label on a single that he just recorded called “Jail.”
Hey, that’s the title of the episode!
In the song, Dave gets arrested for indecently exposing himself to children. Well, to be fair, he exposes his bare nutsack on stage at a rap concert, and there just HAPPENED to be children in the crowd. Happens to the best of us.
But, regardless of intent, Dave gets sentenced to two years in prison. The justice system is a fickle bitch.
Whilst in lockup, LD is bigtime stressed about potentially getting raped. So, to get out ahead (phrasing) of any unpleasant encounters, he proactively offers to give inmates “willing head” instead…
Shockingly, this is where the record label puts their foot down.
They are unanimously not stoked about this song. Particularly the parts detailing interracial sexual violence in prison. One African American executive actually quits the project entirely because he’s so offended, which is pretty understandable.
Dave is pissed that his new corporate overlords don’t get his vision and thinks that they’re stifling his creative control. His manager Mike sides with the label which causes Lil Dicky to storm out of the meeting. He doesn’t get how all of these business dudes don’t see the social importance of his song, and more importantly, he doesn’t like the fact that they get to tell him what to do.
From his label’s office, Dave goes to Benny Blanco’s mansion and shows the super-producer — who we met in episode 8 — his new song. Surprisingly, Benny loves it. He says that Jail is a brilliant political commentary about criminal justice and he thinks that Dave should just say fuck his label and leak the track. Blanco even goes so far as to set up a guest appearance for Dave on the super popular nationally syndicated radio show The Breakfast Club…
Dave and Manager Mike go out and grab dinner to regroup and chat about their next moves. Dave tells his redheaded friend about his Benny Blanco-inspired plan to go on Breakfast Club and leak Jail just to spite the label. Mike tells Dave that he just quit his banking job to manage him fulltime and that doing dumb shit like this will put both of their futures in jeopardy.
Dave says that he’s gotta do what he feels is right and he’s going to go on the radio show regardless. Mike immediately regrets quitting his day job.
At the airport, Dave tries to log into his Hulu account (shameless promotion) but he forgets his password. He takes a minute to reset his account info, and then he does something interesting… He fires off a text message to his now ex-girlfriend Ally letting her know that he just changed the password and that he doesn’t mind if she still uses the account even though they’re not together anymore. And then, at the last second, he adds an “I miss you…”
She hits him back with a thumbs up. Brutal.
Lil Dicky & Co arrive at the Breakfast Club studio and prepare for Dave’s big radio appearance. Mike looks around the office for food and comments that “For a place called the Breakfast Club you’d think they’d have more than just a box of shredded wheat.” Great joke, Mike.
Dave and GaTa enter the studio, Mike remains out in the lobby looking for food. Charlamagne tha God, the host of the radio show, immediately starts grilling Dave about the fact that he’s a white man appropriating black culture. He even implies that GaTa, his hype man, is just a token black dude that Dave keeps around to improve his brand/image in the hip-hop community.
GaTa gets on the mic and praises Dave, putting forth a heartfelt defense of their relationship that ends with him and Dave kissing each other. Adorable.
This sweet moment decreases some of the racial tension in the room. Charlamagne is still unconvinced about Dave’s rapping abilities, though.
And here’s where — if you’re a Lil Dicky fan — you had to have seen what happens next from a million miles away…
If you’re not a Lil Dicky fan, here’s a bit of historical context:
Back in 2015, Lil Dicky went on Sway In The Morning and dropped a pretty insane freestyle seemingly out of nowhere. It currently has 22 million views.
Then, in 2019, LD went back on Sway’s Universe and dropped yet another freestyle that racked up 16 million views.
Instead of playing Jail for Charlamagne and the 8 million listeners, Dave decides to just put on a beat by Elz and spit a freestyle. It is… wild. Dave drops some of the best bars we’ve heard all season. he basically dunks on Charlamagne and his cohost.
The episode ends here, on a highpoint, with Lil Dicky doing what he does best. Spitting well-written bars with hilarious punchlines and clever wordplay all while maintaining an air of self-awareness and humility. It’s the perfect finale, in my opinion.
They basically pulled a Sopranos and just cut to black in the middle of a scene. And it just happened to be this hype scene of Lil Dicky freestyling.
They say the hardest part of telling a story is figuring out the ending, so, I’m glad that they didn’t try to do too much with this episode. Sure, there are plenty of loose ends: 1) what’s the deal with Ally? 2) What’s the deal with Elz? 3) For the love of all that is good and decent, why the fuck did he make Jail?
That said, as far as finales go, this one was solid. High B+
They left it on a positive note and therefore left the people wanting more. I’d be shocked if Dave didn’t get picked up for a season 2. But, then again, I’ve been let down before and the pandemic is really throwing a wrench in everybody’s production schedules.
Let me know what you guys thought about the finale in the comments.
Thanks for reading,
CP
P.S. peep the Succession rewatch
