Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans Episode 6 Recap

Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Feud: Capote vs. The Swans episode 6.

Feud: Capote vs. The Swans episode 6 took place in 1978 and focused on the changing times, trends, and relationships between the characters. Feud: Capote vs. The Swans hasn’t followed a linear narrative, which has provided some interesting storytelling. Feud is inspired by the true story of Capote and his swans, so there’s a certain timeline that needs to be followed in the show. However, the series has moved around within that timeline to offer different perspectives from different Feud: Capote vs. The Swans characters.

Feud: Capote vs. The Swans episode 5 was set in 1975, just after the publication of “La Côte Basque 1965,” which ruined his friendships with his famous swans. Feud: Capote vs. The Swans jumps three years later, with Truman still trying to finish his novel about the swans, Answered Prayers. Despite the time passed, much of the pain Truman inflicted on his swans hasn’t healed. Feud: Capote vs. The Swans episode 6 showed that C. Z. was the only one who was truly able to forgive and stand beside Truman during tough times.

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14 The Swans’ Favorite Hat Shop & Glove Department Closed

The closing represented the end of an era

Feud: Capote vs. The Swans episode 6 was titled “Hats, Gloves and Effete Homosexuals.” The episode title was explained at the beginning when C. Z. and Truman went to visit their favorite hat shop, only to learn it was having a closing sale because hats had gone out of style. Truman and C. Z. were both shocked by this, not understanding how a New York City staple could suddenly be seen as irrelevant.

Later on in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans episode 6, C. Z. and Babe tried to get some gloves from a department store, as Babe was concerned about covering the bruises on her hands from treatment. However, they were informed that the woman who ran the department had left because nobody bought gloves anymore. The closing of both stores represented the end of an era, as well as made them face the hard truth that they were behind the times at their older ages.

13 Truman Turned Kate Into Babe’s Lookalike

Truman was living in the past

Feud: Capote vs. The Swans episode 4 introduced Kerry O’Shea, John’s daughter, whom Truman helped turn into Kate Harrington. Though she had turned to Truman with aspirations to become a writer, he noticed her beauty and took her under his wing in the modeling world as well. When it came time to style Kate before her first photoshoot, Truman made an interesting decision.

Rather than make her look like other young women in the late 1970s, Truman had the hair stylist give Kate’s a tight, old-fashioned updo. When they were done, both Truman and the hairdresser called Kate “Babe,” referencing his ex-friend Babe Paley, whom he considered the height of perfection. The young woman looked eerily similar to her, and it revealed part of Truman’s underlying intentions for mentoring Kate.

12 Truman Taught Kate How To Eavesdrop

Truman told Kate it was how to be a great writer

Naturally, the first thing Truman did with his new Babe lookalike was take her to La Côte Basque. Kate was visibly uncomfortable there, as she was not only noticeably the youngest person in the restaurant by years, but she looked like the ghost of someone yet to die. To put her at ease, Truman taught Kate to eavesdrop.

Though she went along with his modeling plan in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, Kate really wanted to be a writer. Truman told her to always keep her ears open, as that’s where inspiration comes, and a great writer is a great listener. Kate was hesitant to take his advice, knowing what Answered Prayers had done to his friendships and reputation. She felt that Truman didn’t believe in privacy, which he likely didn’t.

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11 Truman Ran Into Lee & Slim

Lee criticized Kate

Also dining at La Côte Basque in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans episode 6 was Lee and Slim. They were definitely the most difficult of the swans for Truman to have a run-in with, as they openly despised him, but he pretended as if nothing was wrong in front of his protégé. He called Lee over to his table to introduce them, and she told Kate to let her hair down as she wasn’t “in the daughters of the American Revolution,” a reference to her youth and Truman’s agenda that proved Kate’s suspicions correct.

10 Truman & C. Z. Went Out Dancing

Truman was trying to stay young

During Kate’s first major fashion shoot, the photographer immediately changed up her style and had her dance for the camera. He referred to “movement as youth.” Taking inspiration from this in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans episode 6, Truman took C. Z. out dancing at a club. C. Z. was not as interested in Truman’s fruitless fountain of youth plan and simply wanted to find a place to sit, proving that dancing really is for the young.

9 Kate Wanted Truman To Get Sober & Write

Truman broke his promises

Truman and Kate first began their friendship in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans episode 4, shortly after Truman went to a rehab facility to help with his substance abuse issues. He’d told Kate he would try to write and stay sober, but he wasn’t keeping his promises. Truman was drinking copious amounts of alcohol again, which affected his ability to write. When she realized Truman wasn’t going to keep his promises, Kate cried.

8 Truman Said His Career Was Being A Persona

Kate said Truman was just like John

Truman tried to explain his drinking to Kate in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans. He had been preparing for a talk show appearance and told Kate that he needed to be “on,” and alcohol helped him do that. Truman also explained that he wasn’t writing as much anymore because his career had evolved from being a writer to being a persona.

Through his work, Truman had garnered enough attention and status to become more than just a writer, and he enjoyed the fame. He told Kate the people didn’t want to just read his books anymore, they wanted to see him, and he had to give the people what they wanted. This just made Kate cry more, as she told Truman that he was just like her papa, who also struggled with alcoholism and always had some sort of justification for his abusive behavior.

C. Z. defended Truman

During a lunch between Lee, C. Z., Babe, and Slim in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans episode 6, Lee made a homophobic comment about their former friend Truman. She called him the same derogatory slur Ann had in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans episode 1. After lunch, C. Z. told Babe that Lee’s comment had greatly upset and disturbed her.

In Feud: Capote vs. The Swans episode 5, Truman told James Baldwin about the swans’ casual homophobia, but it seemed to surprise C. Z. in episode 6, who was one of the few friends Truman had left. Not only was C. Z. upset on Truman’s behalf, but on the behalf of all gay men. Even though her heart was in the right place, C. Z. ended up further stereotyping them when she told Babe about the importance of the gay best friend, which has become a major trope.

6 Truman Found A New Lover

Truman invited Rick back to New York

While at his vacation home in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans episode 6, Truman needed his garbage disloyal fixed. When a young, attractive handyman named Rick showed up, Truman was immediately smitten, and he eventually brought him back to New York with him. Rick didn’t fit in with his high society friends, as he thought Korea was in Europe and was entirely unfamiliar with Truman’s world.

However, this was part of his appeal to Truman. It not only allowed him to escape high society life, but it also allowed Truman to teach him about it. As a bonus, he helped Truman feel young again. Unfortunately, the affair was never meant to last, and it wasn’t long before Rick left New York to return to his younger, female fiancée.

5 Gore Vidal Was Suing Truman

Lee refused to testify on Truman’s behalf

During one of Truman’s past talk show experiences, he slandered fellow American writer, George Vidal. Truman claimed that Vidal had once been thrown out of the White House for drunkenness, touching then-First Lady Jackie Kennedy inappropriately, and insulting her mother. The comment ended up hurting Truman as well in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans episode 6 when Vidal sued him for slander.

Truman refused to apologize, believing he would win his case. His case almost entirely rested on testimony from Lee, who, as Jackie’s sister, was present during the altercation with George that he claimed never occurred. However, Lee refused to testify on Truman’s behalf, with more of his words coming back to bite him, as she wouldn’t help him after what he did to his swans with “La Côte Basque 1965.” After learning she wouldn’t testify, Truman still wouldn’t apologize.

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4 Jack Told Truman He Was Better Off Without The Swans

Jack said Truman wrote Answered Prayers to rid himself of them

Despite his many affairs and their fights, Truman and Jack maintained a close relationship in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans. C. Z. had told Truman about Lee’s homophobic comment, and he confessed to Jack that it had hurt him. Jack, who often gives Truman much-needed reality checks, told him that he was better off without the swans. He also told Truman that, though he may not realize it, he only wrote Answered Prayers to have an excuse to free himself of the swans, whom he was always so much better than as a person.

3 C. Z. Knew Truman Wasn’t Going To Stay Sober

C. Z. cried watching Truman’s interview

When Truman’s interview finally aired, C. Z. watched it alone at home, crying. Though Feud: Capote vs. The Swans didn’t show the interview, Truman clearly sounded under the influence, his voice slurring and his words hardly making sense as he spoke about his tranquilizer addiction. The ever-loyal C. Z. had been trying to get Truman the help he needed, but at that moment, she accepted that Truman would never help himself. She was already losing Babe, but she knew she’d be losing Truman as well.

2 Truman Got Cosmetic Surgery

Truman was terrified of getting old

Towards the end of Feud: Capote vs. The Swans episode 6, Truman visited his plastic surgeon to consult on cosmetic surgery. He’d had minor procedures done in the past, but he wanted more work done. Ironically, Truman had previously criticized the swans for their fear of aging, all while secretly harboring the same fear. He also showed his doctor how many pills he’d been taking, which included some that were illegal in the United States, and which his doctor told him could and would easily kill him one day if he wasn’t careful.

1 Truman Wrote About Missing His Friends

Truman finally returned to Answered Prayers

At the end of Feud: Capote vs. The Swans episode 6, Truman finally sat down to write Answered Prayers chapter 20. The narrator of Answered Prayers, PB Jones, was a stand-in for Capote himself. As PB, Truman wrote about the importance of friendship and how you don’t realize how special and fulfilling it is until it’s gone. While Truman may not have been able to tell the swans to their face how much he missed them in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, his regret was present in his writing.

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