The AppleTV+ sports drama series, Stick, takes a slightly conventional route in this week’s episode 6, as the development in the lives of the central characters is fairly predictable. In the previous episode, Santi had won the amateur golf tournament in an overwhelming manner and had also shared his first kiss with Zero, growing romantically closer to his caddy. There is significant development in the bond between the two youngsters, both positive and then negative, while Stick episode 6, also delves into the emerging chemistry between Elena and Mitts.
Spoiler Alert
Are Santi and Zero a couple now?
At the end of Stick episode 5, Santi and Zero had finally shared their first kiss, after their romantic chemistry kept growing ever since they first met each other. But the series takes some time to bring the two youngsters together, as is quite natural of their age. This means that even though they are quite clear and expressive about the mutual interest and also the tremendous physical attraction between them, the two have still not gotten together yet. As Santi goes for golf practice the very next morning after their first kiss, at the beginning of episode 6, he is accompanied by his caddy, Zero, and both of them simply cannot stop beaming. Although he is a bit too shy to directly ask Zero out on a date, they manage to convey their mutual interest in each other, and the boy is a bit nervous about how to go about things.
Santi directly approaches Pryce about this new development in his life, basically to seek advice on how to deal with this situation. The boy has already guessed that there is soon to be some physical intimacy between them, and so his questions are pertaining to this very possibility. Most crucially, Santi is confused about what to tell Zero when the question of his past romances comes up, for he is still a virgin who is shy to admit so. He is not technically shy about his virginity, but rather scared that Zero might take him to be too immature and inexperienced and might change her mind. On the other hand, he does not really want to lie to her either, unless it is absolutely necessary, and so he asks Pryce for some advice.
The teenager’s inaccurate beliefs about the popularity of professional golfers are also evident in this conversation, as he starts with the assumption that Pryce must have had numerous female followers and admirers during his prime as a pro golfer. Therefore, Pryce’s first job is to clarify that professional golfers do not exactly enjoy the kind of popularity that other athletes or pop-culture icons do, and he then gives his personal advice for the boy. He tells Santi that he genuinely does not feel that lying is necessarily a bad thing at all times, suggesting that lies can often help both sides out in a tricky situation. Pryce also adds that he would have lied in this scenario but also encourages Santi to make his own decision, since he does not have to follow the advice of his mentor in his personal life.
This conversation inside the locker room of the golf club is obviously a setup for a future development, especially since Pryce has been technically lying to Santi for the past few days about the recruitment of his caddy and about him giving the boy free rein over his playstyle. But for now, it only works as a warm reunion, or something very close, between the two characters, implying that Santi is starting to trust and respect Pryce once again after their falling out. That evening, Santi and Zero manage to get a nearby swimming pool all to themselves, and they soon make love in a shed, which brings them even closer to one another. In their most passionate moment, Zero admits that she is inexperienced as well, for she has a tough time trusting people, which has surprisingly not been the case with Santi. They just cannot keep their hands off each other the next morning, so much so that Elena notices something to have clearly changed in her son’s appearance and demeanor, although she cannot exactly figure out what it is.
Since Pryce already knows about the romance between the two, he bails Santi out of the situation and also spares him from practice sessions, telling him to rest up before the upcoming tournament. The boy makes use of the day off to go out with Zero on what seems like a proper date to a gaming arcade. They also get to know more about each other in the process, with Santi clarifying how he does not entirely identify as Hispanic, since he has had a very mixed-race life, which has apparently resulted in him not being grounded in his roots. But the conversation and the romance between Santi and Zero come to a sudden halt when the boy finds something specific in her bag—Pryce’s Ryder Cup ring.
What happens between Elena and Mitts?
Just like Santi and Zero’s growing romantic chemistry, a bond had been sort of developing between Elena and Mitts as well, although it was going much slower than that of the youngsters, and it had also started off on a very wrong note. Mitts initially hated everything about Pryce’s plan of going around the country attending golf tournaments, and he especially hated the fact that a group of strangers were now living inside his beloved RV. Things had gone significantly wrong when Elena’s dogs urinated in the storage box underneath the bed, which eventually resulted in Mitts getting stuck inside the box and blaming Elena for his fate. This was when the strong-willed woman had expressed her own thoughts about the situation, particularly asking Mitts to not behave so harshly with her, as he had no right to do so.
This unusual beginning had ultimately resulted in the two becoming quite close friends, and they had also started to act like support systems, to each other, at least in a very nascent way. However, their bond is shaken once again in this episode when Elena shares her plans of using the entire $100,000 she had received from Pryce to invest in helium. Having earlier worked at a store where helium cans were sold as party essentials, Elena had realized that the supply of the gas was increasingly dropping, while its demand kept soaring. She has also researched and learned how helium is used in serious industrial operations as well, like in the healthcare sector as a coolant in MRI machines and also in the national defense sector as well. Therefore, she has come to the decision to invest all the money into acquiring shares in helium stockpiles, very confident that she will make a huge profit from it.
Upon hearing this idea, Mitts is admittedly not impressed, as he finds it quite risky and unwise to put the entire fortune into just one investment. Mitts advises Elena to instead diversify her investments so that she will not make a crashing loss if things don’t work out, but she does not take his discouraging words very well. Elena is instead reminded of all the times that men in her life, like her ex-husband and then her father, had taken decisions for her without ever giving her any choice or agency, and this results in a fight between her and Mitts. Although Mitts would not have cared about anyone taking umbrage with his words earlier, he has clearly changed now, and he tries to sort things out, but Elena is simply not ready to listen. This fight eventually leads them to an extremely dangerous situation, as they get chased by a wild bear and have to take shelter on a floating platform in the lake.
This is when Elena opens up about what she feels regarding Mitts and his habit of always playing it safe in life. She states that the man has never taken any risks in his life and has always shied away from any situation that could go wrong. With a genuine concern in her voice but with a sharp tone in her words, Elena asks Mitts what the last daring thing he had done in life was, to which Mitts gives a very unexpected reply. Almost as if letting go of his inhibitions and finally doing what he has wanted to do for quite some time, he kisses Elena, expressing that he is romantically interested in her. But as Elena is tremendously shocked and cannot really say anything in response, the two become very awkward, and Mitts later half-heartedly apologizes for his action. If something serious indeed develops between Mitts and Elena, then we will surely have to wait a few more episodes to witness it.
How does Pryce start to process his trauma?
When Mitts had confronted Pryce in the previous episode, we had learned how the protagonist had never been able to move on from the grief of losing his son, Jett, to cancer. What was concerning was that he had never spoken to anyone about his feelings and the overwhelming depression he had experienced at the time and has been going through ever since. Although Pryce had assured his best friend that he was now fine and that he was not aiming to live out the joys of being a father through his relationship with Santi, the conversation seems to have had an effect on him. Pryce is more accepting of the idea of processing his traumas, at least internally for the time being, and even more so when he is suddenly reminded of Jett because of a kid’s birthday celebration in the trailer camp.
Feeling sad and alone, he calls up Amber-Linn, but she is not free for a conversation, as she is in the process of clearing out their old house, readying it to be resold, and Pryce feels even more down. At this point, a young girl named Molly merrily comes his way and wants to treat his sadness, for she is pretending to be a doctor as part of her innocent make-believe play. Because of his bad mood, Pryce declines the girl’s offer to sit by him and turns her away, only to later realize that he should have played along with her doctor play, not only to make her happy but also to help his own emotional duress. After all, he still misses spending time with his young son more than anything else, and therefore, he returns to Molly’s trailer to play with her some time later.
Eventually, Pryce has a heartfelt conversation with Elena about Jett and his grief, which is really the first time we see him opening up in this manner. He admits that he misses his son terribly, but unlike most others in his situation, Pryce does not feel hurt about missing out on the major milestones that Jett would have achieved in life. To him, the big moments that would have come his son’s way, like graduation and marriage, are not as important as thoughts of simply seeing the boy grow up. To Pryce, what he misses the most is the chance to witness his son grow from a boy to a teenager and deal with all the problems that generally come with this transition. While it is disheartening to watch Pryce in such a sorry situation, him being able to talk about his sorrows is definitely a positive development.
What Happens When Santi Finds Out About Zero’s Secret Scheme With Pryce?
When Santi finds Pryce’s illustrious Ryder Cup ring in Zero’s bag, he does not immediately ask her about it but saves the question for later. When he does mention it to Zero, though, she lies that she had found the ring outside the RV on the previous day, and although she had picked it up, she had not yet had the chance to return it. However, the truth comes out in the worst possible manner when Santi asks Pryce about the same, and the latter says that he had lost the ring at the previous golf course, where the group had been a week before. Santi finds this suspicious, and Pryce has to try his best to cover up the lie by claiming that he must have misplaced the ring inside the RV and it had fallen out on the previous day to make it seem like Zero’s story is true.
However, Santi now confronts both Pryce and Zero about the matter, and the situation gets even worse because Zero now wants to come clean to him about the secret deal she had made with Pryce. She had already been feeling bad about how Santi was being kept in the dark, and she wants to confess now all the more, as she is genuinely getting attached to him. But Santi is just not in the space of mind to listen to such excuses, and he feels tremendously let down by the two individuals he’d started growing closest to.
This is an act of betrayal and manipulation equal to what his father used to do to him, and the boy’s feelings are evident from the tears that roll down his cheeks as he talks to Pryce. He then chooses to walk away from the conversation, unwilling to hear any more lies, and it is very possible that he will withdraw from the golf tournament despite getting a solid start in it. Interestingly, the last scene in Stick episode 6, shows Pryce pleading with Santi to not walk away and to give him a chance to explain his decision, which looks exactly like the kind of situation he would have wanted to experience with his own son. Therefore, Pryce now sort of has a real chance to act like a fatherly figure, although he will have to tread very carefully and be much more sensitive with Santi, who is clearly still affected by his own childhood trauma.
