S07.E06: The Man in the Olive Drab T-Shirt

[paigow]

Axe turns to Chuck for a favour involving a common adversary. Prince manoeuvres to raise his public profile. Chuck seeks counsel from an out-of-the-box business mind. Wendy works to run employee feedback rounds, even at the cost of Prince's pride.

[paigow]

Prince should pick Triple H as his VEEP

[katenm]

2 hours ago, paigow said:

Prince should pick Triple H as his VEEP

You raise an interesting point. Prince doesn't have to choose one immediately, but shouldn't some names be tossed around? Although sharing the spotlight with anyone would prove difficult for someone like Prince. 

I don't care for Prince, but I enjoyed Wendy being outplayed by his wife. 

[paigow]

Grigor stands accused of espionage and attempted larceny - borderline terrorist act- but the charges will eventually disappear? Or was immediate deportation ordered?

[aghst]

Chuck and Axe are all buddy buddy now?  Last they tangled with each other, Axe was running away from the country and denied Chuck of probably the greatest apprehension in his career.

And since when do US Attorneys fly private to have secrete meetings with a fugitive from US justice and to see the aurora borealis in Iceland?

I don't buy that a Russian oligarch would be helping Ukraine, because his fellow oligarchs were hanged or stabbed.  Actually IRL oligarchs were poisoned or thrown out windows, the same thing Grigor threatened to do with Krakow later in the episode.

He wants to come to the US to secure billions in funds which have been frozen in the US.  He's going to go see that money until after the war, if ever.  So this plot is dumb, even if it means the return of Malkovich, though his character was dumb, making open threats on US soil.

Prince decides to do a focus group of his well-paid traders?  Brad surely knows about representative sample and data size.  Prince is going to need votes from people who don't make millions working for a Wall Street firm.

Wendy thinks she can crush Prince's confidence by getting anonymous, more critical opinions on Prince.  Instead, it makes him more confident, because Prince's ex (Andie?) knows what Wendy was trying to do and bucked up his confidence.

The TV speech is a smashing hit for Prince.

Not only that, Kate Sacker decides not to leave the firm, because now she also wants to run as an independent for Congress.

This whole season-long plot about Prince running as an independent seems to be an ad for No Labels or something.  Or maybe the writers didn't want to associate Prince or the show with one party or the other, though we kind of know which party Chuck belongs to.

Then Rhoads Sr. plot about him wanting to control his young wife and daughter, bar them from believing in God.

Seems like more of an opportunity for some dick and sperm jokes.

Chuck goes to his Asian dominatrix because he wants to spare his young stepsister the controlling tendencies of his father.  Why would he care?  He's never shown any particular affection for her.  Or for his own kids for that matter.

 

Throughout the series, Chuck has been shown to cultivate favors and leverage from various power brokers.  He banks favors and he uses them when people can't refuse his requests.

So he's willing to antagonize several people, just to do the favor for Axe, who in turn will owe him.

But it turns out to be a ruse, Grigor flies in and threatens Krakow and prevents his wife from getting his money, which is frozen anyways because of his previous actions and the fact that Russian oligarchs are having their assets seized around the world.

Then Grigor plays his part as he gets arrested and proclaims his loyalty to Russia in front of the press, which is what he wanted all along.

Former governor, Davey and the Northern Exposure guy all get to look good for the cameras as they banish Grigor again.

So they seem to be telegraphing that Chuck and Axe will join forces to stop Prince, since Wendy flubbed it.

[paigow]

10 hours ago, aghst said:

So they seem to be telegraphing that Chuck and Axe will join forces to stop Prince, since Wendy flubbed it.

Axe will end up as Ambassador to Ukraine... or in charge of rebuilding its financial infrastructure...

[Starchild]

On 9/16/2023 at 11:22 AM, aghst said:

And since when do US Attorneys fly private to have secrete meetings with a fugitive from US justice and to see the aurora borealis in Iceland?

I spent much of the last two episodes thinking "Chuck doesn't spend much time in his office, does he?"

 

On 9/16/2023 at 11:22 AM, aghst said:

Chuck goes to his Asian dominatrix because he wants to spare his young stepsister the controlling tendencies of his father.

For a legal genius, Chuck sure spends a lot of time running around chasing after other people for advice. Which usually turns out to be vague claptrap. Stupid cameos are stupid.

 

On 9/16/2023 at 11:22 AM, aghst said:

So they seem to be telegraphing that Chuck and Axe will join forces to stop Prince.

What else could this season have been about, really?

[Joimiaroxeu]

Look who's back, finally. Sorta. Hi, bye, Axe.

So does the man in the olive drab t-shirt have a SAG card now or was that video cobbled from speeches he's actually made?

Oh boy, Prince's ego got quite a one-two punch with the unvarnished focus group comments and Sacker distancing herself from him. Almost made those poorly-staged basketball shots worth it.

Dave quipped, "Chuck, in a known language, please?" Right there with ya, Dave.

Uh oh, Wendy wasn't counting on Prince's wife doing an end run around her. Guess Andy really does want to be FLOTUS.

Defenestration on gossamer wings. Nice.

Lol, that was quite a CYA press conference Chuck pulled off. His consulting a professional wrestler was cringe though. Since when is Chuck into pro wrestling? This cameo made about as much sense to me as the one with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Way too much speaking in metaphors and analogies in this episode. Can't anyone just say what they mean, plainly? My favorite related comment from reddit:

Quote

More obscure references than a mid-1990s Dennis Miller Monday Night Football game.

 

Quote

What else could this season have been about, really?

That might be reason they should've ended this show last season. This is one is  going worse than Game of Thrones IMO.

[Taget]

I'm not sure how to analyze this episode.  I am not sure I am even supposed to.  Why again am I supposed to be rooting against this Prince guy that some of the richest scummiest people on earth seem to hate?

Why is Sackler who has been building relationships for years with power brokers in the Democratic Party to run in one of the most Democratic cities in America thinking of running as an independent.

And how many times has Chuck prided himself on turning down asks from people like Axe on principle. Hell.  He torpedoed state of the art MTA improvements to deny NYC the Olympics because the rich giving gifts to the city would corrupt the public.  And he lets in Dr. Evil to blackmail a former cabinet official as a favor to a another fugitive from justice?

I've come to conclusion maybe I should be looking beyond logic to perhaps the writers guild strike.  Now normally with a story this much of a mess I'd blame Hollywood writers doing too much cocaine.,  But if they are on strike perhaps it is ChatGPT instead.  But perhaps it's a little of both.  You can get ChatGPT to write a script as if it was written after a coke and booze bender.

Now at last this episode makes sense to me.