S02.E02: Dead Cat Bounce

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Quote

Axe publicly spars with a rival hedge fund manager and with the help of a talented intern initiates a new financial play to hurt the competition.  Meanwhile, Chuck deploys his team to quickly find a high-profile case that might save his sinking status; and Wendy navigates a minefield of questioning that could result in disaster for Chuck. 

[scrb]

Sorry just can't take Jonathan from Buffy the Vampire Slayer seriously as a rival.

When Axe and Krakow were on screen together, Axe was over a head taller than Krakow.

It must be a one-time thing.

Attorney General and the company that Eric Bogosian character runs are thinly-veiled versions of real-life figures.  Spartan whatever is "finishing school for Treasury Secretaries" so that's Goldman Sachs, which of course is close to all administrations.

But Rhodes going after Boyd is one smart way to keep the war between Axe and Rhodes alive.  First of all, it's a proxy war since Axe will be helping Boyd out.  Secondly, they defer the final battles between Axe and Rhodes because when that happens and it ends, it pretty much ends the series, unless they replace either of them and the survivor continues to battle with the replacement.

I thought they had a settlement where Axe could only run a family office for several years but that settlement must have been broken up.

Meanwhile, Axe has the means to finish Rhodes but won't because he won't ruin Wendy.  Her replacement is something else.  That rah-rah macho coach is probably not going to wear well at Axe Capital, which is why Axe will want Wendy back.  Though he seems to have struck a chord with Wags.

[hoodooznoodooz]

I wanted to see more of Wendy and Rhodes's marriage counseling session . . . .

[Pop Tart]

Only two episodes in and I'm really loving this season so far. The interactions between all the characters are so sharp and every moment seems to be working to further story and character development and I like that I have to be listening carefully because it all moves through so quickly. I've actually watched both episodes multiple times because I keep catching new details and nuance. 

In this week's episode I have to say I loved the Axe/Taylor interactions the best, just because I'm finding Taylor to be such an intriguing character. Taylor seems to be a complete straight arrow, so while they may be a help to Axe now, will it come back to bite him later if he does something that Taylor notices is illegal/unethical? Not sure how that will go. Seems to be mutual respect between them now, but how will it play out? And then there's the new woman watchdog person (sorry don't remember her name) and the way that Wax may be feeling threatened by her. His interactions with the psychologist guy (a creepy jerk) were great and I loved when he went off on the idiots at the sushi restaurant and how they were all ready to try and bully him until they realized who he was. 

Rhodes is much more interesting this season having to struggle in his job and life. Last season he was just too smug all the time. Here he's having to figure out how to survive and I find that a lot more compelling. And his deputy's struggle to figure out what he's doing with his career, and how being a prosecutor isn't quite the white hat role that he envisioned is being well handled as well. 

I'm even somewhat interested in whatever business Axe's wife (blanking on her name) is going to come up with. Not because I think it will be interesting in and of itself, but because of how it might play into all the other stuff that's going on. 

Edited February 28, 2017 by Pop Tart

[roughing it]

I wish they had done some in-depth back story on Chuck and Wendy to try to understand where they come from as a couple.  They only showed the S&M stuff (which I'm sure was partly done to draw viewers in to the show).  They haven't shown much of their family life, and what we've seen Chuck and Wendy have been mostly antagonistic toward each other.  Not much to root for.

[dwmarch]

On 2/28/2017 at 7:50 AM, Pop Tart said:

Wax may be feeling threatened by her. His interactions with the psychologist guy (a creepy jerk) were great and I loved when he went off on the idiots at the sushi restaurant and how they were all ready to try and bully him until they realized who he was.

Wags, as in short for Wagner. They totally pronounce it Wax though and that would be a cool nickname. As for the sushi douches, I think the new shrink set that up. He did pick the restaurant in advance. He wouldn't have to be an expert at his job to see that Wags needed to blow off some steam.

13 hours ago, roughing it said:

I wish they had done some in-depth back story on Chuck and Wendy to try to understand where they come from as a couple.  They only showed the S&M stuff (which I'm sure was partly done to draw viewers in to the show).  They haven't shown much of their family life, and what we've seen Chuck and Wendy have been mostly antagonistic toward each other.  Not much to root for.

I'm pretty sure the first shot of the first episode of the series was Wendy's high-heeled boot stepping on Chuck.

As for their family life, they keep mentioning kids but I don't think we've ever seen them. With Axe and Lara the kids have appeared a few times (not too many times thankfully!) and they've been interesting enough - we see how Axe plays them off against each other for example and we see how Lara knows these kids wouldn't last a second in the real world if they didn't have money around them at all times. But Wendy and Chuck? They have a kid or kids... somewhere... doing something... They share custody to minimize disruption to the lives of the children they never apparently see anyhow. Now don't get me wrong, I don't think this show would be improved by introducing more children but I certainly notice they're telling us about them but not showing us.

[Pop Tart]

Thanks for the correction on Wags, dwmarch, I knew Wax didn't seem right because then we'd have Wax and Axe, but I was totally hearing it. And now that you've said it, I agree the shrink might have set it up. He made such a point of naming Wags when the fight was going to get physical, so that had jumped out at me, but I hadn't gotten as far as him maybe setting up the whole thing. I think he's going to be a real problem down the road in some way - perhaps to sow dissension between Wags and Axe, not sure.

We did see the Rhodes kids in season one. Pretty sure it was a son and daughter (with the daughter as the older). There was the time Rhodes was in the park with his son getting an ice cream cone and some guy he'd prosecuted came up to them to yell at Rhodes. And I'm pretty sure we had at a couple scenes of the kids at home, if only briefly. 

[PBSLover]

On 3/2/2017 at 6:34 AM, Pop Tart said:

We did see the Rhodes kids in season one. Pretty sure it was a son and daughter (with the daughter as the older). There was the time Rhodes was in the park with his son getting an ice cream cone and some guy he'd prosecuted came up to them to yell at Rhodes. And I'm pretty sure we had at a couple scenes of the kids at home, if only briefly. 

And when their son Kevin wanted a baseball player’s autograph.  Both sets of kids were featured.

[Duke2801]

On ‎2‎/‎26‎/‎2017 at 9:41 PM, scrb said:

Sorry just can't take Jonathan from Buffy the Vampire Slayer seriously as a rival.

When Axe and Krakow were on screen together, Axe was over a head taller than Krakow.

It must be a one-time thing.

Attorney General and the company that Eric Bogosian character runs are thinly-veiled versions of real-life figures.  Spartan whatever is "finishing school for Treasury Secretaries" so that's Goldman Sachs, which of course is close to all administrations.

But Rhodes going after Boyd is one smart way to keep the war between Axe and Rhodes alive.  First of all, it's a proxy war since Axe will be helping Boyd out.  Secondly, they defer the final battles between Axe and Rhodes because when that happens and it ends, it pretty much ends the series, unless they replace either of them and the survivor continues to battle with the replacement.

I thought they had a settlement where Axe could only run a family office for several years but that settlement must have been broken up.

Meanwhile, Axe has the means to finish Rhodes but won't because he won't ruin Wendy.  Her replacement is something else.  That rah-rah macho coach is probably not going to wear well at Axe Capital, which is why Axe will want Wendy back.  Though he seems to have struck a chord with Wags.

Right?  I kept thinking maybe we'd find out his power was all due to everybody being under a spell, ala "Superstar." 

I kid, I kid of course!  I'm always happy to see anybody from the Buffyverse doing well.  Danny Strong has definitely become one of the "success stories" of the crew (unlike Nick B....).