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American Auto Season 1 Episodes
Season 1 Episode Guide
10 Episodes 2021 - 2022
Episode 1
American Auto
Mon, Dec 13, 202121 mins
It's Katherine's first meeting with her senior team, the meeting where Katherine will get her first impressions of them. The one thing Sadie would like more than anything in giving that initial impression is for Katherine not to find out about her one-night stand with Jack from the factory, Sadie taking what she believes being decisive measures to ensure "Jack" is not a problem now or in the future for her standing in the company. The primary purpose of the meeting is for them to bring Katherine up to speed on today's big presentation: the reveal of the company's first ever autonomous vehicle, the Ponderosa, which Katherine had nothing to do with in it being developed before her arrival. That lack of knowledge about the vehicle will be a problem as Katherine knows they have to pivot from the core of the presentation with only six hours to go. But her lack of knowledge about cars, period, will let her think outside the box in that necessary pivot.
Episode 2
White Van
Mon, Dec 13, 202121 mins
After the disaster that was the Ponderosa reveal and the resulting and seemingly endless negative press, Katherine and the team have to find a way to get that disaster off the proverbial front pages. Katherine, who has agreed to a television interview without having cleared it with Sadie, believes something that comes their way will change the story: that the FBI has subpoenaed them to provide the location data of the Payne Magellan being used by serial killer Johnny Turner. While helping the FBI capture a serial killer in providing that information, Katherine learns at the most inopportune of times of the privacy breach to "a customer", serial killer or not, and the subsequent question of where Payne draws the line. They have to find a way to help the FBI while not seeming to help the FBI, all the while finding other issues in the story to spin in their favor. Meanwhile, Jack has no idea what his job responsibilities are and doesn't want to ask Katherine in looking like the fool otherwise. By the time he discovers Wesley's lowly actual position in the executive ranks, Jack has been co-opted to be Wesley's full time errand boy. Jack has to find a way to get out from being associated so closely to Wesley.
Episode 3
Earnings Call
Tue, Jan 4, 202221 mins
It's time for Katherine's first quarterly earnings report as Payne's CEO, the presentation to be done via conference call to the media. The numbers do not look good, which has the potential to make the company stock price take a major tumble, leading to Wesley and Cyrus trying to figure out how to dump stock beforehand without making it look like insider trading. With the numbers being what they are, Katherine is asked by one of the reporters what she has down the pipe to increase profits. Off the top of her head, she has nothing but states that she will have an announcement by meeting's end. In Katherine conferring with her senior staff, the only item that seems newsworthy is the near finalization of a new union contract, the few sticking points waiting for the return of their chief negotiator who is necessarily taking time off. So she assigns Elliot to finalize those last few sticking points with the union reps, he to bring along Jack as a friendly and thus non-threatening face to the union. In the process, Jack has to decide where he fits in the company structure, union or management. While Elliot and Jack are in negotiations with the union, it is Sadie's responsibility to draw out the length of the meeting to allow time for the finalization of the negotiations, small talk within a financial meeting not Sadie's strong point.
Episode 4
The $10K Car
Tue, Jan 11, 202221 mins
The senior staff is struggling with what they consider Katherine's impossible to achieve task, of which she made a high profile public announcement, that they are producing a new vehicle model, the Pika, at the retail price point of $10,000. Even with Cyrus' cuts to his existing vehicle design of only the most peripheral of items, he is only able to get the price down to $11,500. While Cyrus is able to produce a $10,000 version, senior staff knows it's crap. Sadie, who still doesn't know where she sits with Katherine, has to decide how honest she will be with Katherine, and not only about the $10,000 Pika. Meanwhile, Elliot is trying to give away his less than friendly rescue dog in it being too difficult for him to handle. Dori believes she has all the answers about what to do with the dog. And less than informed Wesley believes he can come up with a solution to the unsolvable issue of producing a perpetual motion machine.
Episode 5
Millbank, IA
Tue, Jan 18, 202221 mins
Flying out in the company jet, Katherine, Sadie, Wesley, Cyrus and Jack are meeting Ted, the company's head of manufacturing, in Millbank, Iowa where the company is reopening the factory it shut down thirteen years ago, it is the manufacturing site for the new Payne Pikas. While Wesley and Cyrus have their own personal agendas on this trip, it is primarily a ceremonial one where they will do a meet and greet with past employees who have been rehired, and hold both a community event and a ribbon cutting presided over by the Governor, Tom Harper. The reopening is seen as the catalyst for revitalization of the otherwise decaying town. With hours until those formal events, they learn that the autocratic government of the eastern European country of Bolvaria has put in a last minute bid for the location of the factory in their country. With the offer by Bolvaria seemingly too good to pass up despite the bad optics and the commitment already made to Millbank, it is up to Sadie to put a positive spin on the issue if Katherine does make the decision to relocate to Bolvaria, the whole story easier if they can make those in Millbank change their mind about wanting the factory in their town.
Episode 6
Commercial
Tue, Jan 25, 202221 mins
All in the name of at least looking like they have what is considered social corporate responsibility in this day and age, Katherine's senior staff recommends to her that the company make some sort of pronouncement to support a lesbian couple whose family was denied access to a families days at a roller rink, even though the issue is not directly related to Payne, the demonstrated support needed as little as a rainbow flag tweet. That tweet has a snowball effect on actions of the company, primarily related to a new Payne commercial that goes to air in a week and that has no obvious LGBTQIA connotation, Katherine deciding to reshoot the commercial despite the protestations of the commercial's director, Frank, who may be seen as a bigger problem in lack of inclusiveness in the company brand. The commercial reshoot itself has a different priority for Wesley, Cyrus, Elliot and Dori.
Episode 7
Recall
Tue, Feb 1, 202221 mins
The senior team is in their latest meeting to discuss acceptable ways to reduce production costs for the Pica to a profitable level. When Jack offers his first ever suggestion, namely to repurpose a part ultimately not deemed usable for the Hydra SUV, which does bring them over the finish line - much to Cyrus' chagrin who did most of the heavy lifting up to that point - it is Dori who has to pull the next rabbit out of the hat as Katherine wants to celebrate using the high end champagne she left on Dori's desk, Dori who assumed it was solely for her and has already consumed it all. Beyond the champagne issue, they have a short lived celebration when they learn that the parts are missing, which may or may not have been installed in some of the SUVs. If that was the case, it may lead to serious issues in possible malfunctions with the SUV. Beyond the issue of whether they should recall the SUV, the team enters into an all-night meeting/philosophical discussion on the value of human life. Something else that emerges from the short lived celebration is that Jack has a date with someone who is not Sadie, which leads to the continuing issue of whether there is or should be sexual tension that exists between the two.
Episode 8
Employee Morale
Tue, Feb 22, 202221 mins
Upon Jin, the CFO, announcing his retirement, Katherine learns from Sadie that senior management attrition has skyrocketed since she took over as CEO. Following a senior staff meeting to discuss the issue, Katherine decides on a multi-prong approach to discover what's going on while trying proactively to improve employee morale. Wesley takes it upon himself to lead the "fun patrol", he co-opting emotionally opposite Cyrus to be his sidekick. Elliot and Jack are tasked with reading employee emails - the senior staff emails exempt - to discover if there are any rumblings about problems, they however unable, more precisely unwilling, to avoid those emails that mention them directly. Sadie is tasked in speaking to Jin directly as a friend - the two who don't really know each other - to try and convince him to stay just to decrease the numbers of those leaving and as he is the highest profile of their ranks thus far. And Dori has to manage Katherine's new official open door policy, which in reality is still a closed door policy. Through it all, Katherine, upon finding out what's going on, has to make a decision on a decisive overall direction to stop the bleed.
Episode 9
Charity Dinner
Tue, Mar 1, 202221 mins
It's the evening of the sixty-fifth annual Payne Foundation Gala, a black tie, red carpet event. Accompanied by her fourth grade teacher husband Richard, Katherine makes it their mission to schmooze with the Board members, that is if she can even remember who they are, as she believes her job is on the line. As she further believes her heir apparent is also in the room, Katherine shows her priority between her job and her marriage. As his date, Jack has brought Michelle, the actress he met while filming the television commercial, which may lead to some unspoken tension with Sadie, who everyone notices looks much different this evening than she does at work. Elliot wants to volunteer as a mentor for the Michigan Mentors, a big brother-styled program supported by the Foundation, but he wants to do so for all the wrong reasons. And Wesley views himself as *the* celebrity among the staff in being a Payne at a Payne family function, but he will learn the true pecking order in the family itself when he is seated next to his accomplished siblings.
Episode 10
Profile
Tue, Mar 8, 202221 mins
The nationally broadcast news magazine Contour, hosted by Alan Strong, is at the office to do an on-air profile of Katherine, how it comes off which may factor into whether she keeps her job or if the Board will fire her in favor of former astronaut Charlie Altman. Beyond her own preparation for the interview which focuses mostly on things she doesn't know about cars, which is everything, other potential problems for her include thoughts of the staff: geek Cyrus may actually prefer another geek like Charlie Altman running the company; Wesley believes the interview will also be about him as a Payne; and Elliot mistrusts the media and wants to oversee all that happens to ensure everything that is said in front of the cameras is as neutral as possible. A question that Katherine doesn't anticipate could derail the entire interview, the staff suggesting a Hail Mary to help her save her job.
