Chad Powers Episode 5 recap: The tension builds as Chad’s fame threatens to expose the truth

Chad Powers
Chad Powers (Image via Disney+)

The fifth episode of Chad Powers, 5th Quarter, had its premiere in the U.S. on Tuesday, October 21, 2025, on Hulu.

In line with the usual release schedule of Hulu, the episode could be streamed from 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time (ET), which equals 9:00 p.m. Pacific Time (PT) on Monday, October 20, 2025. The series has a weekly release schedule, where new episodes come out every Tuesday, and is made available throughout all the U.S. time zones on Hulu and Disney+.

Glen Powell and Michael Waldron created the comedy series, with former NFL player Eli Manning as an executive producer. Chad Powers takes its inspiration from Manning’s popular 2022 Eli’s Places skit, where he impersonated a strange football hopeful at Penn State. The series uses that notion and adds it to a story about Russ Holliday (Powell), a disgraced quarterback who changes his identity to Chad Powers, a lovable but awkward talent on a struggling Southern college football team.

With the South Georgia Catfish having a perfect record of 5–0, Episode 5 raises the emotional stakes even more as Russ. Under the disguise of Chad, he struggles with the team’s triumph and the danger of his double identity being revealed. The ending gives rise to a dramatic and funny cliffhanger for the finale episode of the series.


Chad Powers Episode 5: 5th Quarter recap

Glen Powell as Chad Powers (Image via Disney)
Glen Powell as Chad Powers (Image via Disney)

Episode 5 of Chad Powers let both the comedy and cringe floodgates open. So, the Catfish team is not just a local legend anymore; they have become a full-on national phenomenon. Even ESPN is showing interest, and everyone is talking about Chad Powers.

And then there is a moment that is supposed to be heartwarming: a little kid with leukemia asks Chad for his autograph. Except he botches it by signing his real name, “Russ.” Then, instead of just crossing it out or owning up, he decides to paint the entire football white. The scene drags on so long that it becomes as hilarious as it is awkward.

That is just the warm-up. The ESPN interview is a straight-up car crash. They lob him a softball question about his football beginnings, and Chad credits Benjamin Franklin. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. Not even a football player! Tricia, whose job is to stop these disasters from happening, can’t believe what she is hearing.

To fix this impending disaster, she pitches a “family-friendly” segment at Coach Hudson’s lake house. The idea is to show Chad being relatable and normal, which is forced, but they have to make it work.

Meanwhile, the Russ/Danny dynamic is getting messier by the minute. The two of them are enjoying their fifteen minutes, but keeping the Chad Powers charade alive is starting to feel like Mission: Impossible. There is a 4K broadcast looming over them, and anyone who has seen high-def TV knows that makeup jobs get exposed real fast. Plus, Russ is about as smooth on camera as a cat in a bathtub.

Episode 5 leans into this identity meltdown: Russ is bouncing back and forth between being himself and Chad, even when he is just hanging around the house. Sometimes he is talking like Chad, sometimes like Russ, losing his grip on reality. And it’s not just the disguise that is failing; it’s like the boundaries between fake and real are evaporating. It is funny, but also a little tragic, seeing someone unravel this much.

Feeling like an outsider in his own life, Russ hits the bar. He hooks up with a woman he barely knows, which you already know is going to come back to haunt him. Afterward, he snaps and decides he is done being Russ Holliday. From now on, it’s Chad Powers, 24/7. Danny, who is maybe the only one actually thinking clearly, sees the writing on the wall and tries to talk sense into him. But Russ is committed.

Then comes the lake house filming, which is supposed to be a wholesome, healing moment for the cameras… except it turns into a complete disaster in record time. Chad walks in, and the coach’s wife, Wendy, is the woman he slept with LAST NIGHT.

Suddenly, this happy family charade explodes into a screaming match between Wendy and Jake Hudson. She is yelling about how Jake is never there for her, and Jake is yelling about her cheating.

Chad and Ricky are just bystanders marinating in the awkward. Then Wendy, at one moment, lets it slip that she slept with “Russ.” Ricky chimes in that she saw Russ at the hotel, and now Jake is convinced there is a long-running vendetta. He reveals how he didn’t pick Russ in high school because he could tell Russ was “a cancer.”

Russ, stuck in the Chad disguise, just has to sit there and take it. He can’t defend himself, can’t protest, just stews in the humiliation. And just when you think things can’t get any more dramatic, Jake clutches his chest and tells Ricky to call an ambulance. The episode ends with him having a heart attack.

Edited by Sahiba Tahleel