“Thunder Thighs” aka “Ruby” aka Pernell Walker!
When the great crime novelist Megan Abbott signed up as a writer on this HBO series about the sex trade in 1970s Times Square, her immediate reaction to this sex worker, only being referred to in the script as “Thunder Thighs,” was “You need to give her a real name.” In a vacuum, this seems like one more anecdote about the obvious value of including women when you write about women, but it’s also key to what makes Ruby (Pernell Walker) the beating heart of “The Deuce.”…
…There are numerous other sex workers walking the stretch of 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues that gives the show its name, but Ruby embodies one of the series’ biggest themes: just how easy it is for the obvious fact of these women’s humanity, hopes, and dreams to get lost in the shuffle, once their bodies are part of the capitalist system. Without spoiling anything, the reason why the season finale is titled “My Name is Ruby” will, at the risk of sounding like Upworthy, break your heart.