S02.E04: The Oath

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Quote

Chuck develops a new strategy when his case stalls; Wendy helps a tech billionaire assess a candidate for a special project; Axe considers pledging half his net worth to charity; Lara's business faces a rival; Axe and Chuck find themselves in a room together for the first time since their face off.

Let the mind games begin!   

[dwmarch]

Again I love this show because there is so much going on at any given moment. Amidst the US Attorneys fighting amongst themselves and the scheming to convince that firm they were off the hook (just to get them back on it) we have Wendy interviewing an astronaut who works for the ridiculously handsome expy of Elon Musk or Sir Richard Branson, we have Lara getting into some gangsta shit all by her lonesome (and succeeding!) and we have ethical boundaries being used as jump ropes. And who, I mean who can forget Wags, dear sweet fucking Wags getting a tattoo on his ass, waking up in a shitty motel and having no idea how any of it happened! I am surprised we didn't actually get to see the tattoo but for what it's worth I hope it was a Hatchet Man with the caption "Juggalo 4 Life" underneath.

The NFL plotline turned out better than I could have ever hoped. If the story sounds familiar, it is because there was a real life version. Jim Balsillie, formerly the uber-rich CEO of Research In Motion (parent company of those Blackberry phones everyone used to love) attempted to buy his way into the NHL only to be rejected at every turn. I remember following the story of his third bid. He wanted to buy the Phoenix (now Arizona since the team was never in Phoenix in the first place!) Coyotes since he reasonably figured that people who dwell in the desert don't give a shit about hockey. And while all the other bidders were saying that the city of Glendale would have to pay them X amount to keep the team there, Balsillie was offering them serious bank if they would STFU for a couple years, cash his checks and not bitch when he moved the team to Hamilton, Ontario where hockey is an actual thing. Despite the gigantic bags of cash he was willing to drop on the deal the response was that he should fuck the fuck off. I posted at another message board about my confusion surrounding this situation. Are there really things money can't buy? None of it made sense until I asked about it and was told that ownership in the NHL is a club you join by invitation only and Balsillie wasn't invited.

When Wendy was talking to the astronaut she mentioned how "the undiscovered country" was from Shakespeare. I was half expecting the astronaut to reply "dude, I'm like 26 years old... it's from Star Trek". (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is also 26 years old)

I will confirm with my friend who is actually in the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu community later but I imagine Chuck is that guy who shows up every couple-few weeks. If he was serious about BJJ he would not be packing any extra pounds. Maybe he's just getting started. In any case, his legal Jiu-Jitsu appears to be in order.

[scrb]

John Boy stuck the shiv into Axe about the NFL.

But Axe doesn't seem too devastated.  Instead he's going to allege that Chuck's harassment cost him the NFL franchise?

The NFL owners are a pretty conservative group.  I don't know that they'd care that much about how Axe got his money or that Axe tried to make himself look like a philanthropist -- Wags was incredulous that Axe would pledge most of his money to charity.  In fact, there are one or two owners with some dubious business dealings in their background.

And they didn't even address the fact that Lara used some gangster tactics to defeat a rival which would not be resorting to shady practices, because the startup would not want adverse publicity of any kind as it strives to launch its IPO.

[Dakisela]

And, Wags said that his tattoo was "Yosemite" -- as in Yosemite Sam!  That he used to be a big fan. 

[hoodooznoodooz]

Why, when offering to have a session with Heidecker, did Wendy describe the girls as hairless?

I'm confused. How could Rhoades meet up with the Sparten-Ives cuckold, to learn that Sparten-Ives had resumed the illegal activities, outside where someone might spot them together?

Not nearly enough Taylor. 

Edited March 14, 2017 by hoodooznoodooz

[dmc]

10 hours ago, hoodooznoodooz said:

Why, when offering to have a session with Heidecker, did Wendy describe the girls as hairless?

I'm confused. How could Rhoades meet up with the Sparten-Ives cuckold, to learn that Sparten-Ives had resumed the illegal activities, outside where someone might spot them together?

Not nearly enough Taylor. 

Agreed Taylor is a good character 

Yes Lara, good business women set up their competion for soliciting sex.  This is how businesses handle competition...?

[PBSLover]

15 hours ago, hoodooznoodooz said:

Why, when offering to have a session with Heidecker, did Wendy describe the girls as hairless?

She was assuming the girls have no hair down there. And from the guy’s reaction, she was correct.

I too am a Taylor fan and want to see more of them.

I was surprised that Axe asked to see Wag’s tattoo in his glass office.  He has a private bathroom right off his office.  The guy is a mess, I would have taken him somewhere private if I needed to see what he was talking about.  In addition, I thought Wags’ performance was a bit of a miss when he entered Axe’s office.  If it was me in the same situation, I would have been quiet when entering, ask the new gal to leave, then tell my story.

I have a costume design criticism: I hate the way they are dressing Wendy.  I don’t mind black on her but the pieces they are choosing don’t do a thing for her. I would think she would be a bit more stylish.  The black dress at the poker game was ho-hum, her tee and black pants when interviewing the astronaut didn’t work, and the black top she wore when she gave the Elon Musk guy her findings was just ugly.  The only thing she has worn this season that was pretty was the smokey blue top in the first episode. I just love her character and think Maggie is gorgeous. I suppose there is a thought process behind their choices but as a viewer, I’m not impressed.  

[PBSLover]

I am hoping this will be dealt with in an upcoming episode, but Sacker’s attitude toward Connerty is a bit much at this point without any context.  She is now openly hostile to him.  What the hell did he do?  When Connerty was speaking to Bach, he described his parting with Sacker as more of a fizzle than drama.  But girlfriend is being a drama queen.  Why?

Edited March 14, 2017 by PBSLover

[dmc]

1 hour ago, PBSLover said:

I am hoping this will be dealt with in an upcoming episode, but Sacker’s attitude toward Connerty is a bit much at this point without any context.  She is now openly hostile to him.  What the hell did he do?  When Connerty was speaking to Bach, he described his parting with Sacker as more of a fizzle than drama.  But girlfriend is being a drama queen.  Why?

I too wondered this...maybe they had s relationship off camera and it didn't end well

[PBSLover]

53 minutes ago, dmc said:

I too wondered this...maybe they had s relationship off camera and it didn't end well

That wouldn’t be written into the show.

[TexasGal]

Mark Cuban cameo - yikes!  What has he done to his face?

[dmc]

39 minutes ago, PBSLover said:

That wouldn’t be written into the show.

Maybe it will be later but they were fine last year and now they are not...  And the comment she makes to him...what bothers you more...that he move that money or that he had that much money to move...

That was a personal comment about how it bothers him that people have money and she has money

Edited March 15, 2017 by dmc

[roughing it]

On 3/14/2017 at 8:36 AM, dmc said:

Yes Lara, good business women set up their competion for soliciting sex.  This is how businesses handle competition...?

I missed what Lara was doing, other than dragging IV equipment all over the office.  Can someone please summarize?

[PBSLover]

16 hours ago, TexasGal said:

Mark Cuban cameo - yikes!  What has he done to his face?

It was his eyes.  It’s unnerving to look at them.

44 minutes ago, roughing it said:

I missed what Lara was doing, other than dragging IV equipment all over the office.  Can someone please summarize?

Go on Optimal Play thread (episode 3). It is discussed there.

[dmc]

55 minutes ago, roughing it said:

I missed what Lara was doing, other than dragging IV equipment all over the office.  Can someone please summarize?

I believe she is providing vitamin b shots or some sort of energy shot on the go to people who work too hard or get run down.  Another business was competing with her and lowered their prices.  Bobby mentioned it to her and she told him that she would handle it, she's a business women...so she set up the ceo of the other company with a hooker to knock him out of the competition.  The ridiculous part is that she thinks this makes her a good business person...she didn't even try another option first...

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Which leads me to question whether people who want IVs to improve their performance and who are often trying to counter the effects of their wild nights would care that the CEO of a company was caught with a prostitute. 

[dmc]

2 minutes ago, PrincessPurrsALot said:

Which leads me to question whether people who want IVs to improve their performance and who are often trying to counter the effects of their wild nights would care that the CEO of a company was caught with a prostitute. 

They wouldn't...I think she was blackmailing him with actual jail time if the cops saw the tape...which we both know would be maybe a week and fine of $500.00...it didn't make any sense and the funny part is I could tell if the show was trying to sell her idea as smart of what...but competition in business is common and most people don't set up sting operations

[scrb]

The dumb thing is, there are actually startups which will send doctors to do house calls from your app.

Obviously the game is to get a lot of venture capital to build up a large customer base and then go IPO for billions.

So the other service had an app. but we're to believe they only targeted rich traders who wanted to get boosters?  First of all the customer base for people willing to pay $750 is too small for a startup to care about.  Secondly, those traders are probably using speed or adderall or cocaine if they want to be boosted.

So Lara is fighting over a small market.  Sure there might be a fair number of traders at Axe Capital, which is in Connecticut?  But the better play would be to go to Wall Street and hit up all the big banks in the skyscrapers, which will have thousands of traders within a few blocks.

But like I said, they won't bother with IVs when they can pop pills or snort.

[dmc]

3 hours ago, scrb said:

The dumb thing is, there are actually startups which will send doctors to do house calls from your app.

Obviously the game is to get a lot of venture capital to build up a large customer base and then go IPO for billions.

So the other service had an app. but we're to believe they only targeted rich traders who wanted to get boosters?  First of all the customer base for people willing to pay $750 is too small for a startup to care about.  Secondly, those traders are probably using speed or adderall or cocaine if they want to be boosted.

So Lara is fighting over a small market.  Sure there might be a fair number of traders at Axe Capital, which is in Connecticut?  But the better play would be to go to Wall Street and hit up all the big banks in the skyscrapers, which will have thousands of traders within a few blocks.

But like I said, they won't bother with IVs when they can pop pills or snort.

Yep she is a terrible business woman 

[Chas411]

I feel like we missed a huge chunk of Sacker and Connertys relationship. Did he end things with her because she had money or something? That's how I'm interpreting it but the fact that nothing was confirmed makes it really confusing.

Akerman continues to be embarrassingly miscast in a role that's already badly written. 

[dmc]

26 minutes ago, Chas411 said:

I feel like we missed a huge chunk of Sacker and Connertys relationship. Did he end things with her because she had money or something? That's how I'm interpreting it but the fact that nothing was confirmed makes it really confusing.

Akerman continues to be embarrassingly miscast in a role that's already badly written. 

This is how I read it too but they haven't given us any information.

 l

[riverheightsnancy]

I was disappointed in Wendy's assessment of the female astronaut. I felt like she did not want a female to have the position. It felt personal (on Wendy's part) to me. (I say this as a psych professional). Usually there are standardized assessments that are used for these types of things, NOT just relying on a very subjective and biased unstructured interview. 

ETA: Yeah, not enough Taylor! Anyone get the feeling that, if anyone could ever bring Axe down, it will end up being Taylor?

Edited March 16, 2017 by riverheightsnancy

[PBSLover]

On 3/16/2017 at 7:16 AM, riverheightsnancy said:

ETA: Yeah, not enough Taylor! Anyone get the feeling that, if anyone could ever bring Axe down, it will end up being Taylor?

Yes.  But for now, they are too in awe of him and too new within the organization to have a handle on him.

Edited March 19, 2017 by PBSLover

[riverheightsnancy]

6 minutes ago, PBSLover said:

Yes.  But for now, she’s too in awe of him and too new within the organization to have a handle on him.

Yes. I mean, years from now. I feel like Axe will push them (Taylor) into things they do not want to do (like the gambling), and that will cause resentment and possible desire for revenge or to do the right thing. 

[DarkRaichu]

On 3/14/2017 at 3:22 PM, PBSLover said:

 In addition, I thought Wags’ performance was a bit of a miss when he entered Axe’s office.  If it was me in the same situation, I would have been quiet when entering, ask the new gal to leave, then tell my story.

I do not know about miss.  This is Wags we are talking about.  That was about what I expected for walk of shame Wags :D

Wendy had a lot chemistry with the Space CEO.  So I guess the Space CEO is dating 2 young girls at the same time (2 pictures of 2 different girls)?

Lara's storyline continued to be the weakest part of the series

On 3/13/2017 at 11:33 PM, hoodooznoodooz said:

I'm confused. How could Rhoades meet up with the Sparten-Ives cuckold, to learn that Sparten-Ives had resumed the illegal activities, outside where someone might spot them together?

Since the SI investigation was over, summoning the guy to Rhoades' office (like previous times) would look weird.  However, I agree that meeting outside in broad daylight also did not make sense

[Dakisela]

On 3/15/2017 at 2:18 PM, dmc said:

They wouldn't...I think she was blackmailing him with actual jail time if the cops saw the tape...which we both know would be maybe a week and fine of $500.00...it didn't make any sense and the funny part is I could tell if the show was trying to sell her idea as smart of what...but competition in business is common and most people don't set up sting operations

The CEO wasn't caught with a hooker, Lara arranged to have one of his worker girls solicit somebody in law enforcement while on the job and get busted for running a prostitution ring.

[PBSLover]

23 hours ago, DarkRaichu said:

I do not know about miss.

An acting/writing miss.  In my opinion.

[jvr]

Sorry, I'm late watching this episode. Agree with most of what was said but just had a few comments.

On 3/14/2017 at 4:22 PM, PBSLover said:

She was assuming the girls have no hair down there. And from the guy’s reaction, she was correct.

I took it a step further and thought she was making the comment that the women he is dating are barely past puberty. More an exaggeration of his dating way out of his age range.

On 3/14/2017 at 9:00 PM, TexasGal said:

Mark Cuban cameo - yikes!  What has he done to his face?

I thought this was a great casting choice, Cuban is exactly the type of asshole I'd expect Axe to know and talk to. hehe

I agree with everyone that the Sacker/Connerty stuff is confusing, maybe it gets some more clarification next ep which I'm about to start. I wonder why the writers chose to show the breakup this way.

On 3/16/2017 at 10:16 AM, riverheightsnancy said:

I was disappointed in Wendy's assessment of the female astronaut. I felt like she did not want a female to have the position. It felt personal (on Wendy's part) to me. (I say this as a psych professional). Usually there are standardized assessments that are used for these types of things, NOT just relying on a very subjective and biased unstructured interview. 

I completely agree! I predicted at the beginning that Wendy was going to fuck this super accomplished and amazingly intelligent woman's hopes and dreams up over some stupid bullshit hour discussion. Ugh, hated that.

The prediction of Taylor being the downfall of Axe down the line is brilliant, I so want that to happen.

I really liked the NFL storyline and enjoyed how it ended.