Episode Report Card Pablo G: B+ | 283 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Crashing the Stock Party.
By Pablo G | Season 1 | Episode 2 | Aired on 2011.09.28
Poor Porter Bar. Jack steps into his father's office where Carl has already downed half a bottle of bourbon. He's very self-deprecating right now. Carl: "A young man shouldn't give up on his dreams because his old man can't run a business." He thinks Jack must be ashamed of him. Jack insists he's proud of his father and they'll come out of this thing on top like they always do. On top and drunk on half a bottle of bourbon.
Daniel calls Emanda. He asks if she's up for a surprise tonight. She's down. They hang up and we see that Daniel is out at lunch with Ashley. Party Planner Ashley. She asks him if he thinks Emanda suspects anything. If she weren't Party Planner Ashley, this would seem kind of nefarious, but I give you: Surprise Party Planner Ashley.
Back at Casa Emily, Emanda watches the news on her laptop. The news is that AllCom is a stock market front-runner thanks to leaked info about a big deal with Nolan's company. Bill calls Emanda to ask if the insider info she had about this investment was Nolan. Emanda all but confirms. They hang up and Bill orders all his Wall Street monkeys to go all-in on AllCom and buy up all of their stock. This scene is so chaotic and beautiful. Bill's right-hand man (a woman) is barking out orders to their stock traders and they're going crazy while Bill watches with a smile on his face as everything unfolds in real-time on TV. The news broadcast goes live to Nolan who holds an impromptu news conference from his iPad while walking down the street. He is total esoteric CEO here. He starts his conference with, "Hello, Earthlings..." and is angry at his announcement being spoiled by leaked info. Misguided info, at that. He will be taking his contract to one of AllCom's competitors. Bill Harmon watches in absolute horror. AllCom's stock crashes. Bill snaps out of shock and goes into survival mode, telling his staff to keep their mouths shut if they value their jobs. No investor must know of the bad investment. Meanwhile, Emanda places a phone call to an investor, posing as one of Bill's employees to tell them of the big loss to their portfolio and urges them to call Harmon. She's calmly sitting with a printed out list of Bill's top investors and begins dialing another.