AppleTV+’s new surrealist comedy-drama series, Government Cheese, takes its absurdity a notch higher in this week’s episode 6, as the protagonist, Hampton Chambers, receives a number of warnings from the divine about returning the money he had stolen in the previous episode. These warnings are delivered in ways that have biblical significance and clearly inform Hampton of the terrible consequences he can expect to face if he turns a blind eye to them. At the same time, Hampton is also threatened by the youngest of the Prevost brothers, Jean-Guy, as the man now approaches Harrison and lets the protagonist know that his secrets will not be safe from his family for too long.
Spoiler Alert
Does Hampton confront Harrison about the latter’s Native American obsession?
Government Cheese episode 6, begins on the morning after Hampton’s successful robbery at the Temple Hillel synagogue, as he has returned to his camp and waits for his son, Harrison, to wake up. Once the boy is up, they drive to the nearby town in order to get hold of fresh bait, since Hampton wants to take his son fishing, seemingly for the first time in his life. While Harrison might have had experience fishing, he has not done it with Hampton, and so the latter considers it to be a good exercise that can further strengthen the father-son bond that had started to form in the previous episode.
This relationship is now clearly at a better stage than before, as is evident from the fact that both Hampton and Harrison are able to address certain matters directly to each other. When Hampton teaches his son how to throw the line while fishing, Harrison retorts that he would still prefer fishing using the Chumash way, probably referring to the technique of spearingfishing. There can be no doubt that Harrison has an obsession with Native Americans, particularly the Chumash. While his admiration for the people is commendable, Harrison regularly tries to fit into their culture and beliefs and wants to consider himself a Native American, which is both problematic and unfortunate, since he is remaining ignorant about his own culture and practices in the process.
For the first time in the series, Hampton now confronts his son about this unusual desire to fit in with the Native American people, essentially questioning why Harrison brings up the Chumash at any and every possible instance. He is also quick to remind the boy that he should be proud of his own identity and be as aware and vocal about Black culture. Hampton says that their family too hails from royalty, not only to cheer Harrison up, but also because he is genuinely proud of his roots. But Harrison’s reply is not as simple as his father had wished, for he compares his obsession with the Chumash with his father’s obsession with Yahweh.
Harrison questions why Hampton tries to make himself seem like an extremely religious person, one who is always abiding by the principles and values of Judaism, while he is clearly not affected by these values at all. The teenager’s question is all the more pertinent because the scene takes place so close after Hampton has not just committed another sinful crime but has stolen from the very house of God. In an effort to divert the conversation, Hampton agrees that he finds it difficult to deal with Harrison, while Einstein is much more cooperative, and he then promises to never leave the family again or get involved in any situation that would jeopardize their bond. Once again, this promise sounds all the more fake because he has already committed the crime that can land him in prison once again, completely disrupting the familial bonds.
What does Jean-Guy want from Hampton?
When Hampton goes to the bait and tackle shop in town, he suddenly spots Jean-Guy Prevost speaking with Harrison, which immediately makes him concerned about the safety of his son. He was already of the belief that the Prevosts would come after his family if he did not settle his debts in time, and Hampton feels that it is finally time for such an extreme confrontation. However, Jean-Guy is starkly different from his brothers and also much more manipulative than them, which is why he wants to get at Hampton indirectly. Thus, when Jean-Guy sees Harrison in front of the shop, he approaches the boy and introduces himself as an old prison mate of his father. He also spots the feathers hanging from Harrison’s belt and mentions the name of Rudy, to which the boy says that he is excited to meet Rudy outside of prison someday.
This obviously gives Jean-Guy just the information he was searching for—the confirmation that Hampton has not told anyone about the passing of Rudy, let alone the fact that it was he himself who had killed Rudy in prison. But the clever Prevost does not reveal anything to Harrison yet, and instead just hangs around for long enough to be spotted by Hampton, which is what happens soon. After all, Jean-Guy does not want anything to do with the Chambers family, his real target is Hampton himself, since he still wants the design of the MagicBit drill and all the rights to manufacture and sell it. Therefore, when Hampton comes out of the store and asks Harrison to go wait by their car and then asks Jean-Guy what exactly he wants, the latter makes his demand very clear.
When Jean-Guy had approached Hampton earlier, telling him to give up his MagicBit design as a sort of payment for the loan, the protagonist had believed that this demand was being made because he did not have any money to clear the debt. Hence, he now offers to pay back the whole amount that he owes to the Prevost Brothers, as he now has the money to do so after looting it from the synagogue. But Jean-Guy is still very adamant, and the fat stack of bills does not change his mind at all. He states that he still wants the MagicBit drill and suggests that he will not hesitate to spill Hampton’s secrets to his family eventually if a need to do so ever arises.
How does Hampton receive multiple warnings, seemingly from God?
While the minor subplots are important in taking the story forward, Government Cheese episode 6, is mostly about the divine interventions, or rather the divine warnings, that Hampton experiences throughout the day after his robbery at the synagogue. The very first sign is probably an owl that he and Harrison see right outside their camp, for in both Christian and Jewish belief, the owl is a warning of impending danger. In Hampton’s case, the owl is like a harbinger of the scary warnings that he is about to receive, although he does not make anything of the bird, even when it suspiciously flies right towards him and Harrison, making them duck out of fear.
The next bizarre incident is when Hampton walks towards their rented boat in visible frustration because of his unexpected meeting with Jean-Guy and runs into the net of a fisherman just as he is about to cast it. Hampton inexplicably gets more and more tangled in the net, despite him and the fisherman trying to avoid such a scenario, and in the process, the stack of bills falls out of his pocket. The fisherman is seen greedily picking up the stack and then walking away with it, but Hampton spots him doing so and quickly chases him. Hampton beats the fisherman, even injuring him, and picks up the money that he claims to belong to him. For a moment, it appears like Hampton avoids an attempted theft and manages to recover the money, which he himself had stolen from the synagogue.
However, the fisherman’s proclamation, warning Hampton about not taking things that do not belong to him, and his cryptic demand, telling the protagonist to go to some place called Nineveh for repentance, make it evident that he is no ordinary human. This becomes even clearer when Hampton goes fishing with Harrison, falls into the lake during a tough effort to catch a fish, and then gets swallowed up whole by an impossibly gigantic catfish. Inside the belly of the fish, Hampton realizes that he is being punished by God for his crime of stealing from the synagogue, and he repeatedly begs for forgiveness. It is only when Hampton promises that he will return the money that the fish spits him out, as purposelessly as it had swallowed him in the first place, and the protagonist is able to survive and swim to the shore.
This surrealist scene is obviously a reference to the Biblical story of Jonah, who had been swallowed whole by a fish because of his disobedience of God. The basics of the story, which has had changes while being interpreted by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, state that a man named Jonah had been ordered by God to travel to the city of Nineveh and deliver His prophecy. But when Jonah disobeyed this order and instead started traveling away from Nineveh, his ship was caught up in a dangerous storm, and he asked the other sailors to throw him overboard, since he realized the true purpose of the storm. As soon as Jonah fell into the water, the storm subsided, and he was swallowed whole by a fish. He had to live two days inside the belly of the gigantic creature while contemplating his mistakes and then eventually made it to Nineveh and carried out God’s order.
In the case of our protagonist, multiple warnings, like the owl and the fisherman, deliver God’s order to him, telling him repeatedly to return the money he had stolen. Thus, when he refused to pay heed to this order, a horrific miracle took place under the water of the lake, and he was given the same order, just in a more threatening manner. Incidentally, the owl appears to him once again on the lake shore, but this time it acts more like a guide, showing him the way towards Harrison. What is particularly interesting at the end of all these unbelievable incidents is that it is still not clear whether Hampton actually decides to pay the money back, for he seems to be holding on to it still, at least for the time being.
In a realistic and logical sense, the fisherman and the gigantic catfish are both figments of Hampton’s imagination, which are triggered by the appearance of the owl, perhaps. Although we see a few men in the background while Hampton is having his altercation with the fisherman, the fact that nobody rushes in during the fight or even to help the protagonist out of the net suggests that the episode did not actually take place. His experience with the catfish is obviously not seen by anyone else and therefore is definitely a part of his imagination. Hampton seems to be fighting the two opposing instincts inside his mind. On the one side, his guilt and a tremendous fear of God make him experience such unusual and symbolic experiences, while on the other side, his desire to clear the debt in an immoral manner and also to make some money for himself in the process makes him hold on to the money still.
Are the Prevosts once again responsible for saving Hampton?
Funnily enough, the Prevost Brothers once again seem responsible for saving Hampton, although they indirectly help him this time and will probably not come asking him to pay them in return. The villainous brothers are seen arriving at the town by the lake in order to fill their personal tanker with water pumped out of the lake, which is obviously not legal. A news radio program mentions how California has been going through a severe drought, and the Prevosts have been unable to water their orange orchard properly because of this natural disaster. But instead of weathering the drought like the other citizens, the goons have now been stealing water from the lake and treating it as a private reservoir.
Having taken notice of this theft, the authorities have now put a fence around the pump by the lake and have locked up the place, with the keys to it given only to the ranger, Hank. But with no consideration for such boundaries, a group of goons working for the family, under the leadership of Jean-Guy, break down the lock and fill their personal tanker with water from the lake. When Hank comes to the scene to stop the crime, one of the goons shoots him in the leg and then takes him away to their farm. They throw one of the iceboxes at the back of Hank’s truck into the lake, maybe to make it seem like he was having a picnic by the lake and had drowned.
Incidentally, Hampton spots this very icebox when he swims up to the surface of the lake after his disturbing experience with the catfish, and he uses it to swim back to the shore and save his life. This might even end up making Hampton a suspect in the case of Hank’s disappearance, since another police officer even sees his and Harrison’s camp by the lake towards the end of the episode.
Is Bootsy found?
At the end of Government Cheese episode 5, Bootsy had suddenly gone missing after the robbery at Temple Hillel, and Hampton had had to flee the scene without looking for his best friend. Now at the very conclusion of episode 6, an old woman is seen calling the police to report a very strange incident at her house—a single boot has somehow fallen down the chimney at her house. This is most probably Bootsy’s boot, and it suggests that the man had either fallen down into the chimney or had had to hide his boots for some inexplicable reason. Bootsy had already seemed to have gotten in some trouble at the end of the previous episode, but now it is confirmed that his trouble is about to create problems for the protagonist as well. Once the police start investigating this mysterious boot, they are sure to be led to the robbery at the synagogue, and so Hampton will soon have the law pursuing him.
