Part of Debbie-as-Liberty Belle's confidence is the result of more wrestling experience, and season two gives us even more difficult moves and matches. Liberty Belle, as GLOW's most popular face, is in the ring more than anyone else, even going toe-to-toe with Chavo Guerrero Jr. of the legendary Guerrero wrestling family (in character as Chico Guapo). The tragedy of Debbie and the comedy of Liberty Belle—who, after hip-tossing Chico Guapo, lets out a triumphant growl and tells the crowd in her Southern drawl, "I've been baking pies at home. PIES OF RAGE!!!"—have always been front and center, but this season it's obvious Gilpin is pulling triple duty with the character as her stunts (which she and the rest of her costars do themselves) get more elaborate.
Her character wears multiple hats this season. Debbie leverages her star power in the ring into a producer role on the show. She's the only cast member who even attempts to negotiate the terms of her contract, and she does so in the most Debbie way possible: in her wrestling costume, with her ex-husband—who is an agent but not, as she's careful to point out, her agent—in tow to go over the terms of the deal.
She knows the games she has to play as a woman in Hollywood in the '80s, but she still goes out of her way to bring a copy of the contract for the network head's wife, smiling as she says, "I'm sure you don't expect your wife to sit here looking pretty while we do business. She might have some great ideas." She doesn't bother with that cheery façade later when she presents the contract to Sam (Marc Maron). When he incredulously asks, "You want to be a producer?" she corrects him: "Oh, no. I am a producer."
Netflix
In many ways, Debbie and her friend turned enemy Ruth (Alison Brie) are two sides of the same coin. They're both highly ambitious women in an era when being one was difficult. Their fractured friendship, the result of Ruth sleeping with Mark in the show's first season, is the heart of this second batch of episodes. When Ruth tells Debbie about the head of the network coming on to her in his hotel room—a "Me Too" moment that feels ripped from the headlines until you remember stuff like that has been happening since the beginning of time—she's shocked when she doesn't get sympathy.
Instead, Debbie blames their show's cancellation on Ruth's decision to flee. "You're supposed to make him think that you might fuck him. Or that you desperately want to fuck him if only you didn't have your fiancé or your period or an extra set of teeth where your vagina should be," she says. "That's how this business works. Men try shit, you have to pretend to like it until you don't have to anymore."
It's a complex reaction, but Gilpin plays on that, making it apparent Debbie doesn't fully believe what she's saying and growing increasingly upset until she reveals the more personal motivation behind her feelings, spitting, "The one time you keep your legs shut, we all get fucked."
