All eight episodes of Prime Video’s new show The consultant debuted on Friday, letting people play through the entire workplace saga like levels in an addictive mobile game.
The show about a workplace that has a weird new boss stars Christoph Waltz as Regus Patoff, Nat Wolff as Craig, Brittany O’Grady as Elaine and Aimee Carrero as Patti. I watched the darkly comedic series and enjoyed it, but felt like the ending kept some rewards out of reach.
What about Craig and Elaine’s want or don’t want dynamic? Is Craig still employed at CompWare? How does Regus literally have a golden skeleton? Is he even human?
These questions could, of course, be addressed in a second season. While we wait to see if Season 2 will happen, here’s what we learned from the Season 1 finale of Prime Video’s new series, based on Bentley Little’s 2015 novel of the same name.
No more creative liaison
As an encore, The Consultant follows Regus Patoff, a mysterious stranger who takes over a mobile games studio called CompWare after the sudden death of its CEO, Mr. Blood. Young employees Craig and Elaine subsequently encounter new demands and challenges, such as Patoff’s absurd and heartfelt request for Elaine to release a real-life elephant in downtown Los Angeles to promote the mobile game Mr. Blood’s Jungle Odyssey.
Elaine hires her ex-boyfriend Patrice to do the deed for $20,000, the budget Patoff allocates to her. Then, Patoff gives him only half for him in advance. In the finale, Patrice returns to CompWare to retrieve the other half.
The finale reveals that the elephant died after being shot with tranquilizers. Patoff takes his time to appear at CompWare, which is in party mode after the release of Mr. Blood’s Jungle Odyssey, then tells Elaine that Patrice’s money has been spent on the festivities.
Elaine, played by Brittany O’Grady, took over the reins from Patoff at CompWare.
Andrew Casey/First video
Undeterred, Elaine comes up with a cold plan to trick Patrice into waiting longer for payment while she anonymously warns him about the authorities.
When Patoff appeared at CompWare, he rocked the company with heartless layoffs, rushed game launches, and the like, to supposedly improve the company. At the end of the finale, Elaine approaches the boss’s office, seemingly reporting that she is the next CEO of CompWare.
The clash between Regus and Craig
If Elaine is counted as the winner in this dark story, Craig is the biggest loser. Although Mr. Blood’s Jungle Odyssey wouldn’t exist without him, at the finale party he’s totally selfless. His fiancée, Patti, appears to have left him after lying about his illness to spend time looking for Patoff. But Patoff interfered in their relationship more than Craig knows. Patti didn’t ghost her – instead, she types a handwritten text for Patoff in CompWare’s archive room.
In the finale, Craig finally learns the truth after he and Elaine manage to locate Patti’s phone. It’s not Patti who has it, but Sang’s mother who disappeared a few episodes ago, and Patoff gave her the phone.
Craig and Elaine rush to CompWare. Elaine goes after Patti and an enraged Craig goes after Patoff. He grabs a large mallet used for some activity during the party and grows closer and closer to his evil boss.
Craig repeatedly punches and shatters the glass beneath the two on the upper floor, and it’s reminiscent of Mr. Blood’s Jungle Odyssey, in which the glass shatters under the weight of heavy animals. Patoff tells Craig that his goals were met and the costs were justified, naming Craig as a “cost”.
Craig, who had received a tip from jewelry store owner Frank Florez that Patoff could somehow contain a solid gold skeleton, seems to bet on it as he smashes the glass. And Patoff ends up failing.
Craig doesn’t understand the girl
Before Patoff slips through the glass, a few party tables cushioning his fall, he tells Craig “you’re not the hero. You don’t even have the girl.” It is not immediately clear who he is talking about.
Elaine (Brittany O’Grady) and Craig (Nat Wolff) seemed like they might have been more than just work buddies.
Michael Desmond/First video
Craig’s relationship with Patti seems to end in the finale. She is seen with wheelie bags leaving Craig a key. We also see Elaine looking at a folder in the records room with Craig’s name on it.
Craig’s lies to Patti are definitely a red flag, even if they weren’t compatible. Patoff also explains in the finale that when Patti was in the records room (and apparently in some sort of trance), she helped Patoff complete her case. “She saw your weakness, your betrayal, she poured it out on every page in her own words,” Patoff says. Could he have done that to make sure Craig never stood a chance against Elaine either? If there is a season 2, we would have to see these characters return to finish what was started.
The golden interior of Regus
When Regus makes his fateful fall, one of his big toes is severed and lands in a pile of party shrimp scraps.
It is retrieved by Craig, who freezes it, boils it, and defleshes it to reveal a shiny golden bone.
So Patoff is literally made of gold. Is that why he has such a hard time dragging his body down the stairs? Does that mean he’s not human? How could it be?
It was revealed in a previous episode that jewelry store owner Frank Florez made Patoff’s golden skeleton, and the experiment essentially ruined Florez’s marriage. There’s probably a deeper meaning here, but I could also see a character like Patoff getting golden body parts at the expense of some poor man’s happiness just because that’s what he likes to do.
One thing stands out as hinting that Patoff might not be human. Florez never saw Patoff in person while he was making the bones. However, he received checks with Patoff’s signature. How could he have signed a check without a working hand?
Craig, played by Nat Wolff, discovers the golden skeleton of Frank Florez.
Andrew Casey/First video
Regus gets results
Patoff got Mr. Sang to approve his taking office by promising to secure Mr. Sang’s legacy. In the finale, Patoff had indeed reversed CompWare’s disastrous course. Sang’s mother suggests that her son is alive thanks to Mr. Sang’s Jungle Odyssey. A naked statue version of Blood watches over an animated CompWare.
“All I can really tell you about Regus Patoff,” Elaine can be heard saying at the end of the episode, “he gets results,”
Don’t think about what it took to get there.
Patoff lost an expensive big toe, but that didn’t stop him from turning to another company, Pterodactyl Robotics. A news report aired at the end reveals the death of its founder, who strove to develop the first humanoid workforce. If Patoff is in fact a robot, maybe he will finally find colleagues he can relate to better.
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