S04.E03: Chickentown

[PrincessPurrsALot]

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Axe has to step in when a tip from Dollar Bill goes south quickly. Chuck faces a threat to his new career aspirations. Wendy and Axe develop a plan to derail Taylor's business. Taylor receives an important guest. 

Original air date 2017.03.31

[scrb]

I guess every season, they have to show Dolla Bill doing something over the top.  This time, when a bet on chicken futures contracts goes bad, he's ready to contaminate a few hundred thousand chickens to pull off his profits.

Incredibly, Bobby and Wags are against this plot, even though they sabotaged Ice Juice or staged it to make it look like the product was contaminated.  They would take a big loss rather than engage in something shady.  It must have been some special astronomical conditions which caused Axe to act conscientiously.

But even more incredible than the fact that they did the right thing is that Bobby and Wags flew to Arkansas!

Meanwhile Bobby continues his cat and mouse game with Taylor, first hacking Taylor's firm and then using some exotic Israeli spy gear to steal some quant secret sauce, only Taylor knows Bobby is spying so they put in a mathematical error, to signal to Bobby that they want a truce.

Bobby kind of agrees but is he going to be as magnanimous with Taylor as he was in Arkansas?

Meanwhile, Chuck's campaign is being sabotaged by Connerty and Sacker -- man did they burn bridges.  Chuck has to hurt himself with a rubber band in order to glad-hand potential supporters at some political event.  But he realizes the odds are stacked against him so what does he do?

He makes a deal with Bobby, for campaign money but also do things for his campaign that only money can connections can buy, in return for future favors once Chuck has a perch again, an office where he'd hold power.

Instead of flagellating himself with a rubber band, Chuck may have to induce some puking.

[dwmarch]

5 hours ago, scrb said:

Incredibly, Bobby and Wags are against this plot, even though they sabotaged Ice Juice or staged it to make it look like the product was contaminated.  They would take a big loss rather than engage in something shady.  It must have been some special astronomical conditions which caused Axe to act conscientiously.

He makes a deal with Bobby, for campaign money but also do things for his campaign that only money can connections can buy, in return for future favors once Chuck has a perch again, an office where he'd hold power.

I think Ice Juice was the lesson in this case. That stunt really hurt Axe Capital and even though they managed to skate by, it wasn't really worth it in the end. It's also good of Axe to remember that you cannot win all the time in every single situation and even your best soldiers will once in a while stumble. And as Axe and Wags pointed out, if you're investing in chicken poisoning the chicken supply might not be the best idea.

As regards Chuck and Axe, I think Chuck has realized (as he should have by now) that justice is worth what one is willing to pay for it. He has a very strong moral center and a very black and white view of how things are supposed to be. But with everything that has happened since the start of the show, he is slowly coming around to the idea that expectations and actuality do not align nearly as much as he would like.

[quedavid]

My take is that Bobby and Taylor are working together for the take down of the Russian, We all know that Axe does not like to lose and he lost to the Russian last season. I thnk they take the truce to the next step  to make a play on the Russian while Axe helps Chuck get his revenge on the Attorney General by revealing his crimes associated with the Oil Deal in Texas and the Russian who I believe is connected to the Attorney General. Connerly and Sacker are going to get destroyed messing with Chuck and his Daddy. Chucks Dad is more ruthless than Axe in some ways and we will see how ruthless if Foley releases the dirt on Chuck.

[hoodooznoodooz]

Kevin Pollak is always fun to watch. 

[Joimiaroxeu]

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My take is t hat Bobby and Taylor are working together for the take down of the Russian

I hope so because Axe continuing to go after Taylor has gotten tiresome to me. He's big enough to take the L and let it go.

Re the whole chicken futures caper, I thought that was a lot of effort to make for a barely relevant Chinatown reference. Also, are Axe and his crew using some kind of top secret transporter technology? They were zipping down to Arkansas from New York like they were just taking quick drive around the block in Manhattan.

[scrb]

BTW, were they a little  too on the nose with the music and the scenes?

At least two songs which reference chicken in the lyrics and one about rubber bands.

And then on the flight back from Arkansas, they were eating fried chicken on the private jet.

Again the writers seem to be more interested in high-fiving each other than avoiding overdoing it with the meta.

[ahpny]

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I think Ice Juice was the lesson in this case. That stunt really hurt Axe Capital and even though they managed to skate by, it wasn't really worth it in the end. 

Indeed, just a pragmatic decision. Axe's shutdown of the "chicken holocaust" seemed to arise not from any angst about the souls of many dead chickens or the impact on people's health after consuming them. Nevertheless, on their return flight to NYC, Axe pointedly sat apart from those enjoying their bucket of chicken and wasn't eating anything. The Ice Juice matter just seemed to reinforce his recognition that getting caught doing bad things really sucks. I'm not sure he thinks doing at least some of those bad things sucks apart from the risk of getting caught.

Also, I didn't quite buy Axe's quick recognition of the "mathematical error" from Taylor's formulaic scribbles. The show has long established Axe as very bright, but I don't recall being told he commands the level of mathematical skill needed to interpret those formulas rigorously enough to find that error. Nevertheless, those scribbles would be at least somewhat understandable to many undergraduate engineers or math majors (they were basically third year calculus such as surface integrals - i.e., mathematical gibberish with respect to finance as far as I can tell). If I missed a passing statement like, "oh, Axe was a math major at Hofstra," I would withdraw this criticism.

Edited April 1, 2019 by ahpny

[MJS]

Wags did say something like, “Oh, I always forget you also know the math. What can’t you do?”

[Pop Tart]

19 hours ago, ahpny said:

Indeed, just a pragmatic decision. Axe's shutdown of the "chicken holocaust" seemed to arise not from any angst about the souls of many dead chickens or the impact on people's health after consuming them. Nevertheless, on their return flight to NYC, Axe pointedly sat apart from those enjoying their bucket of chicken and wasn't eating anything.

When Axe was talking Dollar Bill out of doing the deed with the chicken he not only talked about the Ice Juice issue as a financial/legal mistake, but also mentioned that you don't want to mess with the food chain. So he was factoring it in to some extent.

19 hours ago, ahpny said:

Also, I didn't quite buy Axe's quick recognition of the "mathematical error" from Taylor's formulaic scribbles. The show has long established Axe as very bright, but I don't recall being told he commands the level of mathematical skill needed to interpret those formulas rigorously enough to find that error. 

I too was giving this the side-eye, but in addition to Wags commenting that he does know the math, Wags also made mention the next morning when he came in the office and Axe was still there looking at the formula that he'd pulled an all nighter. So it wasn't like finger-snap quick. Axe spent a good 36 hours studying it before finding the mistake. Still not sure there's been the grounding in storytelling that makes me believe he has this level of math formula skill, but they did at least write it to make it somewhat plausible.

Funny thing with last night's episode - I thought lots of characters were acting out of character (as they have all season), Wendy sitting in and actively participating on the plotting to get Taylor, Axe being cool with Dollar Bill's major financial mistake, Rhodes being cool with plotting with Bobby to do all sorts of dirty deeds, etc. - but even given all those inconsistencies I still really liked it. I like when they're all maneuvering and getting away from the Axe vs Rhodes dynamic has given the show new energy to my mind. 

Sure I wonder why Sacker and Connerty don't seem to have anything to do but take down Chuck, but I like the plots and counter plots.

Oh and I loved Taylor and their dad - all of those scenes.

[PrincessPurrsALot]

I enjoyed the scenes with Taylor and their dad because we got more perspective on the character which is always a plus. Also, the meeting with Taylor and Axe was a good development with the more consistently rational Taylor suggesting that it was ridiculous of Axe to continue to go after them.  Axe is supposed to be a major player financially but we see him repeatedly make choices that are not smart because he has an axe to grind.  

I can almost understand Chuck being desperate enough to team up with Axe for all kinds of dirty deeds.  I can also see him looking for a way to insulate himself so that if he does become AG he can still find a way to try to take Axe down.  At the same time, Wendy being all in to get revenge on Taylor is so out of character.  She has always been one to advise not making bad choices purely because of emotional responses.  Why is she so willing to join in on the Taylor hate train? She always seemed to respect Taylor. 

I think Axe's interaction with (the increasingly insufferable) Dollar Bill was meant to show character growth.  Axe is not willing to do absolutely anything to make a buck.  At the same time, his pronouncement that sometimes you have to take a loss could be a precursor to the conversation with Taylor.  Taylor is advising Axe that he is making money-losing or limiting decisions purely to attack them, which is not a rational choice for someone in Axe's position.  Is this another time that Axe has decided that it is worth it to take the loss?  

[Pike Ludwell]

What's with the accentuated sound of chewing in the eating scenes? There's a scene last ep where Chuck was eating a sandwich and chewing loudly while talking, for an extended period. Not talking while eating has been considered rude for centuries for a reason. It is annoying as hell!! Why do they think we want to hear this? And this ep., even while taking a pill, you hear Chuck chewing it loudly. At least no vomiting scenes. But i think that's coming. These people think annoying stuff is box office GOLD! The guys in Better Call Saul also last season started accentuating the chewing sounds and throwing in lots of eating scenes in which to do it. Is this some recent trend now. like vomiting was for a while?

Edited April 3, 2019 by Pat Hoolihan

[dwmarch]

7 hours ago, PrincessPurrsALot said:

Wendy being all in to get revenge on Taylor is so out of character.  She has always been one to advise not making bad choices purely because of emotional responses.  Why is she so willing to join in on the Taylor hate train? She always seemed to respect Taylor.

In the last episode of season 3, Taylor politely, precisely and righteously told Wendy off. That evidently hit too close to home for Wendy.

[tjcletzgo]

I know I'm in the minority but I really miss Lara and the family relationships.  It gives Axe more dimension instead of just being a power-grabbing douce.  I also miss the gorgeous mansions, boats  beaches and now all we get is an ugly assed apartment and dreary workplace.  Please bring back Lara!

[Double A]

On 4/1/2019 at 8:52 AM, hoodooznoodooz said:

Kevin Pollak is always fun to watch. 

Yes - can't wait to see what his character is really up to:)

[kieyra]

“Age-weighted reference noted and appreciated”.

Yes, writers, movies existed after 1985. Thanks!