S04.E09: American Champion

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Chuck makes a dramatic move to help Wendy and Senior. Taylor goes after Axe by trying to sabotage someone close to him. Axe contends with difficulties at Axe Capital. Chuck reveals his priorities.

Dramatic moves!!!!!  Sabotage!!!!!  More high risk shenanigans from people who would really know better.

Original air date 2019.05.12

[Starchild]

My god, if I worked for either of these firms I would quit, who needs all this drama? What is it that Chuck wants so bad he'd sacrifice Wendy and his father for it? This blockchain stuff? Since when did he demonstrate care for free and fair voting before?

Edited May 13, 2019 by Starchild

[hoodooznoodooz]

Chuck’s dad didn’t really give Chuck’s son a Slinky for his birthday, right?

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Okay, the show has been going downhill but this episode really took me over the edge to hate watching.  Yet again, Axe's employees are shown to be a bunch of buffoons who are easily manipulated.  How are these the best traders Axe could gather? Are we supposed to think he is all that much smarter because he was able to work his way back through who said what to whom first?   The whole the employees do something ridiculous and axe ultimately berates and belittles them has been done to death.  I agree, @Starchild, why would anyone work for this firm?  It's a tough business but there have to be better places to work.  Yes, I know they have non-competes.  So do I.  A  non-compete cannot keep you from ever working somewhere else.  Indentured servitude is illegal. 

I am over the Bonnie character. The show has done a terrible job of writing so many of the secondary characters.  It is like they took their generic character for Axe employees and slapped a wig on it.  There is absolutely no nuance  to the characterization.  Clearly I was so distracted by this storyline that I had no energy left for Chuck's literal shit train.  

[Chaos Theory]

Anyone not think Chuck would sacrifice Wendy for his career and not even feel bad about it?  

Bonnie is awesome.  I think she is my new favorite thing.  

[janeta]

OMG Spyros needs to be fired and dragged bodily out of the building....and hopefully put in jail. I would absolutely have fired all those employees who first showed up outside Axe's office.

[Joimiaroxeu]

Saler's. Guess bankrupt Sears couldn't afford to pay for product placement.

And now I don't trust Lauren. Bet she's working undercover to build a sexual harassment lawsuit against Taylor. Why would she suddenly put a move on her boss?

That must've been some smell to cause people to vomit immediately. I don't even want to imagine.

I think this Sanford guy is a billionaire dupe. Axe and Rebecca played him like a piano.

Heh, Taylor just went Arya Stark. She's got a takedown list. Axe might be looking like the

Spoiler

Night King

over there.

[kieyra]

Rush watch: someone please tell me in what world there is a high-powered spin class that plays obscure 70s prog rock. 

God, this show.

[scrb]

Yeah I was going to say Taylor is copying Arya's list.

John Boy succumbs in the end to Axe.

OK, Wendy has to have her license?  If she stays at Axe Cap, why?  Doubt Bobby will can her for not having a license.  Plus she's worth millions already so not like she's going to have to go work somewhere else.

Then again, maybe she's become accustomed to a certain lifestyle so she's got to keep earning.  It's like last season when Bobby convinced the other guy that he can't live on a couple hundred million because he'd have to fly commercial and take away private horse riding privileges for his wife and daughter, etc.

It sounds like Bobby will try to fix it for her to keep her license.

I just don't get Salers.  Rebecca has nostalgia about the catalog so she wants to save the chain and keep soda fountains and put in cafes because coffee is so lucrative?

Hey Becca, there's this thing called the web.  Look into it!

People aren't waiting for catalogs to order.  They order online and get deliveries the same day.  They damn sure aint going to some dilapidated dept. store for the soda fountain and coffee.

[Dminches]

4 hours ago, scrb said:

OK, Wendy has to have her license?  If she stays at Axe Cap, why?  Doubt Bobby will can her for not having a license.  Plus she's worth millions already so not like she's going to have to go work somewhere else.

Any person who has worked hard to earn a professional designation would be freaked out at the prospect of losing it.  It isn't just about earning potential.  There is some personal pride there too.

Plus, who is to say that Axe capital won't implode and leave Wendy jobless?

There are a lot of questionable story lines on this show but I don't think Wendy's reaction is one of them.

[scrb]

9 minutes ago, Dminches said:

Any person who has worked hard to earn a professional designation would be freaked out at the prospect of losing it.  It isn't just about earning potential.  There is some personal pride there too.

Plus, who is to say that Axe capital won't implode and leave Wendy jobless?

There are a lot of questionable story lines on this show but I don't think Wendy's reaction is one of them.

There are lawyers and doctors too who don't practice law or medicine.

Once they move onto something they like and have no plans to return to practice, what does it matter?

Again, unless Chuck and Wendy are spending her money like drunken sailors, she probably has plenty put away.  She dresses well and has an expensive car but she's a working mother, doesn't have the chance to take private jets to sail on yachts or anything like that.

Really the only reason Wendy cares is a plot device, the latest little gambit between Axe and Taylor.  Wendy used her session notes to try to hurt Taylor on Bobby's behalf so Wendy is going to try to get her in trouble professionally.

So Wendy's license status is the latest pawn.  

[Lemons]

42 minutes ago, Dminches said:

Any person who has worked hard to earn a professional designation would be freaked out at the prospect of losing it.  It isn't just about earning potential.  There is some personal pride there too.

Plus, who is to say that Axe capital won't implode and leave Wendy jobless?

There are a lot of questionable story lines on this show but I don't think Wendy's reaction is one of them.

If she had any pride in her medical degree and her specialty as a psychiatrist she would practice psychiatry.  Unless she’s prescribing medication I don’t see anything she does as being more than a Human Resources cheerleader and manipulator. 

[ahpny]

I didn’t get what could be in it for Chuck to screw over both his father and Wendy in one pass. And as Wendy suggested, the unholy union of Wendy and Chuck’s father should be something Chuck fears greatly. And like Wendy isn’t going to find out Chuck rejected a plan that would have made her license and his father’s  project safe. No way their marriage survives that.

While much here is over the top, Wendy’s concern about her license isn’t. That’s about pride - not money or even being able to stay at Axe Cap. It is the essence of who she is - or at least who she thinks she is. 

From real life, recall that Roy Cohn while just days away from death cared immensely that his law license was about to be pulled by New York State. Those disbarring him knew it would have no effect on anyone but him and took this action, some would say inappropriately, out of spite or revenge. They cared deeply and so did he. 

While Wendy is hardly Roy Cohn, she too cares deeply about her license, which is essentially an extension of how she sees herself.

Edited May 14, 2019 by ahpny

[scrb]

Yeah I don't understand mobile voting thing, other than Chuck just wants to beat Jeffcoat and Connerty.

In fact he didn't take his current position to push for a pilot until he saw that Connerty wanted to stop it.

[Dminches]

10 hours ago, scrb said:

There are lawyers and doctors too who don't practice law or medicine.

Once they move onto something they like and have no plans to return to practice, what does it matter?

Again, unless Chuck and Wendy are spending her money like drunken sailors, she probably has plenty put away.  She dresses well and has an expensive car but she's a working mother, doesn't have the chance to take private jets to sail on yachts or anything like that.

Really the only reason Wendy cares is a plot device, the latest little gambit between Axe and Taylor.  Wendy used her session notes to try to hurt Taylor on Bobby's behalf so Wendy is going to try to get her in trouble professionally.

So Wendy's license status is the latest pawn.  

I can only speak for myself and my colleagues.  Getting a professional designation is a big deal with respect to the amount of work you put into it and personal pride.  Losing it is a big deal even if you don’t use it directly.  I see tons of people still getting continuing education even after they are retired.  I am not speaking for everyone, I am speaking for those who I know.

[Dminches]

9 hours ago, Lemons said:

If she had any pride in her medical degree and her specialty as a psychiatrist she would practice psychiatry.  Unless she’s prescribing medication I don’t see anything she does as being more than a Human Resources cheerleader and manipulator. 

Clearly she has violated the code of conduct and should have her license stripped.  However, that doesn’t mean she can’t be upset about it.

Plus, there is no guarantee this is her last job.  She could need her license in the future.

[Lemons]

3 hours ago, Dminches said:

Clearly she has violated the code of conduct and should have her license stripped.  However, that doesn’t mean she can’t be upset about it.

Plus, there is no guarantee this is her last job.  She could need her license in the future.

It bugged me that they made her a psychiatrist.  A psychiatrist diagnoses illnesses and treats them with medication.  Patients usually see therapists as the other part of their treatment.  Wendy wasn't practicing medicine, she was manipulating workers so that they earn more money for the company.  She could never go back to treating patients with illnesses, she's too caught up in the excitement of the game and the money.  

[grommit2]

On 5/12/2019 at 10:29 PM, Starchild said:

My god, if I worked for either of these firms I would quit, who needs all this drama? What is it that Chuck wants so bad he'd sacrifice Wendy and his father for it? This blockchain stuff? Since when did he demonstrate care for free and fair voting before?

Ah yes...but recall that each trader makes MILLION$$$.  They live in BIG houses.  They drive really spiffy sports cars.  They work with really cool computers with MULTIPLE monitors. Hmmm...do I hear the whisper of BIG BUCKs perhaps changing your mind?  All that MONEY!!  Piles and piles of MONEY.  Ohhhhhhh...

[Tikichick]

Wendy without a license cannot claim doctor/client privilege and therefore can be compelled to testify in court.  

[MartyQui]

I don't understand how those traders have all that time to sit around and scheme.  I worked on a trading desk for a while, and we barely had time for lunch.  They brought it into us so that we wouldn't miss a trade.

[txhorns79]

On 5/14/2019 at 10:26 AM, ahpny said:

While much here is over the top, Wendy’s concern about her license isn’t. That’s about pride - not money or even being able to stay at Axe Cap. It is the essence of who she is - or at least who she thinks she is. 

It's pride, but it's also a life jacket if she ever wanted to permanently leave Axe.  When she left before, she was able to set up her own practice.  If she loses her license, she can't do that anymore.  That said, she deserves to lose her license.   

[MJS]

On 5/14/2019 at 1:32 PM, scrb said:

Yeah I don't understand mobile voting thing, other than Chuck just wants to beat Jeffcoat and Connerty.

In fact he didn't take his current position to push for a pilot until he saw that Connerty wanted to stop it.

My guess is Jock willing to help him with the voting thing as his price made Chuck wonder what was so important about it. So now he knows it’s likely a bigger deal and more important than it appears in the surface. 

[RealReality]

On 5/14/2019 at 3:21 PM, Dminches said:

Clearly she has violated the code of conduct and should have her license stripped.  However, that doesn’t mean she can’t be upset about it.

Plus, there is no guarantee this is her last job.  She could need her license in the future.

If Wendy cared about her license she shouldn't have used her treatment notes to manipulate a patient.  Her using the notes I guess is understandable, what's baffling is her confusion at someone being called out for it.  Of course someone is going to say something.  More than any other violation on this show, Wendy's is the one that is report to the authorities.  

Anyways, as someone who is licensed, my license is important to me which is part of the reason why I don't behave unethically.  I also believe in and appreciate the ethics of my profession.  Wendy didn't do what she did because she was in financial straits or was faces with a difficult decision because she saw that someone was going to really get hurt.  

On 5/13/2019 at 7:45 AM, PrincessPurrsALot said:

Okay, the show has been going downhill but this episode really took me over the edge to hate watching.  Yet again, Axe's employees are shown to be a bunch of buffoons who are easily manipulated.  How are these the best traders Axe could gather? Are we supposed to think he is all that much smarter because he was able to work his way back through who said what to whom first?   The whole the employees do something ridiculous and axe ultimately berates and belittles them has been done to death.  I agree, @Starchild, why would anyone work for this firm?  It's a tough business but there have to be better places to work.  Yes, I know they have non-competes.  So do I.  A  non-compete cannot keep you from ever working somewhere else.  Indentured servitude is illegal. 

I am over the Bonnie character. The show has done a terrible job of writing so many of the secondary characters.  It is like they took their generic character for Axe employees and slapped a wig on it.  There is absolutely no nuance  to the characterization.  Clearly I was so distracted by this storyline that I had no energy left for Chuck's literal shit train.  

I'm way late to the game, but Bonnie reminds me of that dog character they brought on the Simpsons....poochie or something.  It was a riff on all those shows that bring on a new and over the top character a show will bring on that they mistakenly think will "spice things up". Like when they brought that kid onto family ties. 

Bonnie has been a caricature and unnaturally written from her first time on screen.  She just appeared out if nowhere and was rude and obnoxious.  I get that maybe you develop into a person who gets familiar and then you're obnoxious with your friends as a joke but she was doing that within the first five minutes.  

[Ottis]

On 5/25/2019 at 8:04 PM, MJS said:

My guess is Jock willing to help him with the voting thing as his price made Chuck wonder what was so important about it. So now he knows it’s likely a bigger deal and more important than it appears in the surface. 

I think everyone works too hard to give Chuck motive. He just wants to win. And he enjoys the battle. He will be arbitrary just to create a fight so he can battle. And he will sacrifice all, even Wendy, to win it. He and Axe are the same.