S02.E09: The Broker

[DanaK]

Quote

While Margaret makes every employee at Crest, Folding & Wright work over the weekend on Gus' fairness hearing for a class action settlement, Todd begins investigating a secret case with the FBI where everyone at the firm is a potential suspect, on the CBS Original series SO HELP ME TODD, Thursday, May 9 (9:01-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+

 

[AnimeMania]

[AnimeMania]

I liked this episode, poor Allision, if she was billing the firm for her hours, she could have made millions.

I thought it was weird/contrived that it took Todd so long to figure out it was Folding, but I enjoyed seeing Todd's imagination eliminate all the other suspects.

I couldn't believe that Alex/Mabel/Ariel thought that Judy might be "The Broker", I don't think Judy has been working there that long and this was the first time that I remember seeing Judy in the law office.

[chitowngirl]

Poor Chuck’s fiancé-if I found out my ring was his ex-wife’s first I would have ripped him a new one! 

[DanaK]

10 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

but I enjoyed seeing Todd's imagination eliminate all the other suspects.

His imagined recreations were hilarious, especially the one with his mom. Marcia Gay Hardin looked quite glam

Fun episode, if a little manic. Interesting that Todd’s girlfriend is squatting in the building

Edited May 10 by DanaK

[iMonrey]

I assumed that all the imagined scenarios were a parody of some movie, perhaps a Hitchcock one, but I wasn't able to place it. But I had a hard time following the concept of how "the broker" could be profiting from bribing a judge if it were anyone other than Beverly or another partner, who make money from defending high profile clients. Presumably, they pay the judge money for a favorable verdict, so I don't see how that would result in monetary profit for anyone else like Francie, Lyle or Judy.

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I assumed that all the imagined scenarios were a parody of some movie, perhaps a Hitchcock one, but I wasn't able to place it. But I had a hard time following the concept of how "the broker" could be profiting from bribing a judge if it were anyone other than Beverly or another partner, who make money from defending high profile clients. Presumably, they pay the judge money for a favorable verdict, so I don't see how that would result in monetary profit for anyone else like Francie, Lyle or Judy.

They would get a piece of the pie from the lawsuits' settlements?

I am going to miss Margaret's wardrobe:

Edited May 10 by shapeshifter

[iMonrey]

Typically a "broker" serves as an intermediary, so in that scenario someone would be hiring the "broker" to pay off the judge. But that's not the scenario playing out in Todd's imagination, and he has identified the broker as the company founder. 

This plot just didn't make a lot of sense to me. Wasn't my favorite episode either. What was the male stripper doing at the engagement party? Who hired him? Neither the bride nor groom seemed to understand what he was doing there.

[Daff]

5 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I assumed that all the imagined scenarios were a parody of some movie, perhaps a Hitchcock one, but I wasn't able to place it. But I had a hard time following the concept of how "the broker" could be profiting from bribing a judge if it were anyone other than Beverly or another partner, who make money from defending high profile clients. Presumably, they pay the judge money for a favorable verdict, so I don't see how that would result in monetary profit for anyone else like Francie, Lyle or Judy.

I think that’s why they were looking for a “broker”. An intermediary who could insure separation between judge/lawyer and therefore get a slice of any monetary gain (or, perhaps merely retain his/her employment).

[Izzy85]

7 hours ago, iMonrey said:

This plot just didn't make a lot of sense to me. Wasn't my favorite episode either. What was the male stripper doing at the engagement party? Who hired him? Neither the bride nor groom seemed to understand what he was doing there.

I think Allison had him show up so Margaret could use him to intimidate the guy into talking. She pointed him out and said he was there to arrest him if he didn't tell them about the fraud. 

I don't think stripper guy understood he wasn't there to perform, lol. Allison tried to stop him.

[shapeshifter]

8 hours ago, iMonrey said:

What was the male stripper doing at the engagement party? Who hired him? Neither the bride nor groom seemed to understand what he was doing there.

16 minutes ago, Izzy85 said:

I think Allison had him show up so Margaret could use him to intimidate the guy into talking. She pointed him out and said he was there to arrest him if he didn't tell them about the fraud. 

I don't think stripper guy understood he wasn't there to perform, lol. Allison tried to stop him.

Okay. 
So there was a missing or cut line to explain that?

 

[Driad]

26 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

So there was a missing or cut line to explain that?

There should have been, although we have all seen worse cases on other shows.  Shall we call this type of error an "obfuscating omission"?

I don't mean to complain about "So Help Me Todd" specifically.  I'll miss this show, and I hope it finds a home somewhere.

[iMonrey]

10 hours ago, Driad said:

I don't mean to complain about "So Help Me Todd" specifically.  I'll miss this show, and I hope it finds a home somewhere.

Seems unlikely at this point. If it was going to get picked up elsewhere we'd have heard about it by now. There's a pretty small window between a show's cancellation and an opportunity for it to move to another network or platform.

[Johannah]

19 hours ago, Izzy85 said:

I think Allison had him show up so Margaret could use him to intimidate the guy into talking. She pointed him out and said he was there to arrest him if he didn't tell them about the fraud. 

I don't think stripper guy understood he wasn't there to perform, lol. Allison tried to stop him.

That's what I thought, too.

I don't understand how a bunch of signs in a room that Todd didn't know was rented by their firm led to that guy being the briber.  However, I thought it might have been him earlier.  Of course, my proof was about as formed as Todd's scenarios.  

I can't believe they cancelled this show.  It's so clever and fun.

[shapeshifter]

25 minutes ago, Johannah said:

I can't believe they cancelled this show.  It's so clever and fun.

I guess it was too clever.
😞

[Driad]

1 hour ago, Johannah said:

I don't understand how a bunch of signs in a room that Todd didn't know was rented by their firm led to that guy being the briber.

I don't either.  I wondered if their firm was somehow renting (paying for) two floors of the building but thought they had only one. If they could straighten that out, they would have to pay only half as much rent, which would help their financial situation.

[snarktini]

Right, with all their financial troubles having a second floor would be odd! Maybe it's not actually rented by the firm at this time, and the signs are just left over from when the firm was bigger. The landlord guy said there's a high vacancy rate so an unoccupied floor isn't odd. (Which I would think would mean he'd WANT to hang onto a tenant, not make it nearly impossible to stay.)

I hope the show stays on long enough to find out about the signs, because that's a LOT of partners to cycle through. Surely Margaret has been there long enough to know there's a history of partners who have come and gone...and why wasn't that a giant red flag when she was pursuing partnership? Are they set up as scapegoats / fall guys, like Margaret seems to be?

Was confused through a lot of this episode.

[AnimeMania]

The only thing I could think of for having an unoccupied floor, it would allow someone to have an address that seemed like it was part of the law firm but nobody in the law firm would actually see the mail. Say the law firm was on the 10th floor, someone could say their office is on the 11th floor and all their mail and packages should be delivered there.

The landlord seemed very shady and seemed in on whatever malfeasance was occurring.

It seems a little strange to have an office for Folding, someone who never comes into the office. I wonder if he even lives in the city?

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

It seems a little strange to have an office for Folding, someone who never comes into the office. I wonder if he even lives in the city?

And a business that is going out of business is said to be Folding.

[iMonrey]

17 hours ago, Johannah said:

I don't understand how a bunch of signs in a room that Todd didn't know was rented by their firm led to that guy being the briber. 

It was the gum wrapper. Same distinctive gum brand in the guy's office downstairs.

[Johannah]

2 hours ago, iMonrey said:

It was the gum wrapper. Same distinctive gum brand in the guy's office downstairs.

Yeah, so the guy had been on that floor.  Again, don't get why that means he's bribing anyone.  Suspicious to have a floor no one knows about and I guess the gum wrapper meant the guy knew about the floor at some point.  This evidence seems as tenuous as all the evidence in Todd's scenarios.

I guess the landlord just wants them out, because, like mentioned, if they have vacancies they can't fill, why not keep a tenant you know is trying to pay?

[rlc]

On 5/11/2024 at 12:35 AM, shapeshifter said:

Okay. 
So there was a missing or cut line to explain that?

 

He was the patient that Allison was treating at the beginning of the episode. He had been in repeatedly for tennis- I mean stripper- elbow.

[shapeshifter]

14 minutes ago, rlc said:

He was the patient that Allison was treating at the beginning of the episode. He had been in repeatedly for tennis- I mean stripper- elbow.

Right. I actually (miraculously?) did remember that. 
I just couldn't figure out how her patient wound up at the party if he wasn't hired to be there as a stripper by the couple throwing the party — which he wasn't, right? 
I guess Allison and Todd invited/hired him??? <--this is the part I'm missing.

[AnimeMania]

I am guessing that Allison asked the stripper to pretend to be a cop while they shook down one of the party guests. Allison may or may not wanted him to do a performance depending on how vindictive she felt about Chuck moving on with his life. It seemed like at the end she was attempting to stop his performance, but he was already committed.

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, AnimeMania said:

I am guessing that Allison asked the stripper to pretend to be a cop while they shook down one of the party guests. Allison may or may not wanted him to do a performance depending on how vindictive she felt about Chuck moving on with his life. It seemed like at the end she was attempting to stop his performance, but he was already committed.

That makes sense to me (that Allison asked the stripper to pretend to be a cop) I just think we needed to see her asking him.

I recall from his appointment at the beginning that she did not want him ripping off the pants because that was the cause of his repetitive stress injury, and then she tried to stop him again at the engagement party, but, yeah, heh, he just really loved his job.

[South]

I think that once the mission was accomplished, he decided to do Allison a solid and top-off the already failed evening.

[shapeshifter]

4 hours ago, South said:

I think that once the mission was accomplished, he decided to do Allison a solid and top-off the already failed evening.

Maybe.
With “I Can't Help Myself” playing on his boombox:

 

Edited May 16 by shapeshifter