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American Auto Season 2 Episodes
Season 2 Episode Guide
13 Episodes 2023 - 2023
Episode 1
Crisis
Tue, Jan 24, 202322 mins
The early days of the crisis surrounding the company's decision not to issue a recall of the Hydra in light of the defective pawls installed coming to light publicly is shown. One possible option is still to issue a recall just to be on the safe side and despite the financial cost to the company. Ian, the crisis manager hired, expects the crisis to be short lived as he would be able to nip the problem in the bud, some aspects out of his hands as Sadie "sort of" volunteers to handle the press conferences in light of his recommendation that it not be Katherine. The other senior staff display how they deal with the stress of the situation, the one person who doesn't seem to be affected by the stress being Katherine despite her job probably on the line if the team can't quash the bad publicity and the resulting tumbling share prices. The initial view of the team is predicated on the fact that nothing bad has yet happened to a customer of the Hydra because of the defective part, which if that were to occur would probably change the face of the crisis.
Episode 2
Most Hated CEO
Tue, Jan 31, 202322 mins
While the fire has finally been put out and the recall completed with ultimately no one injured or killed due to the defect, Katherine and the company still face a public relations crisis in she being the most detested CEO in the US, she being the fodder for jokes especially by late night talk show hosts, the most constant barrage coming from Seth Meyers. Part of Katherine's strategy is a social media one, she however finding it difficult to appear authentic. As such, she hands off her Twitter account to Dori so that Dori can be that authentic voice of Katherine. Wanting to create some buzz around Katherine's neglected account, Dori creates a few fake followers. With Jack being a useless assistant in this matter, Cyrus steps up to take Dori's idea to the next level by creating a whole Katherine Twitterverse, her multiple fake followers who have back stories and thus other connections within Twitter. As such, Dori and Cyrus may lose sight of their end goal in their competition with each other in who can create the best fake Twitter account. Meanwhile, Ian suggests that he and Sadie brainstorm ideas for a more visible image campaign for Katherine. In Ian throwing Sadie under the bus to Katherine in their first subsequent meeting to pitch ideas, Sadie learns straight from the horse's mouth that he, clinically diagnosed as narcissistic with psychotic tendencies, doing so on purpose in order to steal her job. Sadie ultimately has to figure out a way to fight back to keep her job, while not coming across as being whiny or bitchy but still with the end goal of results for Katherine which she would reward.
Episode 3
Celebrity
Tue, Feb 7, 202322 mins
After Kevin Costner pulls out of his contract as Payne's celebrity endorser due to the pawl issue hitting him personally, the senior management team has to decide what to do to fill this void. If they decide to go back to the celebrity endorsement route, their options are limited to nil for much the same reason. An unexpected source believes he may be able to get a celebrity endorser in being "friends" with said celebrity: Andy Richter. While the team does whatever it needs to to woo Andy in their desperation, he in return seemingly keen to do it, it is something that Andy says off-the-cuff that makes them believe they can do better than him after they have basically offered it to him. Meanwhile, Jack has been invited to interview for the management training program. A few things missing from his work history may prove to be glaring problems going into the interview.
Episode 4
Cost Cutting
Tue, Feb 14, 202322 mins
The senior team is brainstorming ways to cut costs to pay for the recall. While closing a factory is the most obvious solution but the white elephant as no one wants to mention it, Jack suggests an idea he doesn't really mean but which catches the team's attention as one they can most easily spin to their advantage: remove the chafe in the executive ranks. Katherine fine tunes the idea by dictating that each section is to fire one executive. While Elliot, Cyrus and Jack go over the "how to fire an employee" manual as they are tasked with doing so in their respective sections, Wesley and Dori, somewhat seen as being chafe themselves among senior management, believe they can nickel and dime the company's way to the necessary savings. As the firings proceed, something that comes up in Jack's meeting leads to the team realizing a common thread between the majority of those let go, something that may pose a problem for Katherine as she is preparing to justify the cost cutting measures to the media.
Episode 5
Going Green
Tue, Feb 21, 202322 mins
In talking about what he's learned in his management class, Jack is able to convince Katherine that the company should invest more in green technology if only to spur interest in their stock, with the expected end result of an increase in the stock price. A media release solely with scant details of the amount they will invest in green tech but not in what does do the trick of an immediate bump in the stock price. But they discover that they have to put some substance into the information with the possibility that the price could drop even more than than it increased and just as fast if they don't do so. So Katherine, Sadie, Cyrus, Wesley and Jack head off to Silicon Valley to speak to some green tech companies about possibly investing in their companies. With time on their hands, Katherine indulges Wesley to meet with an old friend, Chase Brody, who has a start-up green tech company. Their initial skeptical feelings about Chase's pitch turns on a dime, they, unaware, triggering an avalanche in which they have the potential of getting caught without even knowing it.
Episode 6
The Letter
Tue, Feb 28, 202322 mins
A group of employees have written an open letter voicing their concern about the company's lack of a pro-abortion policy, including the issues of the company currently providing donations to politicians with anti-abortion sentiments, the signatories who see a women's right to choose being equivalent to women's equal participation in society, and what supports the company would provide for employees choosing to have an abortion. While Katherine believes she's as enlightened if not more so about women's issues in general being a woman of an age where she can at least remember the fight for gender equality starting in the 1960s and being a female CEO, she does not want to deal with the issue as CEO, preferring such discussions remain each person's own views behind closed doors. She, however, is confronted by one of the signatories before she even knew there was the open letter. Katherine is surprised by one name among the signatories. Sadie convinces Katherine at least to meet with the signatories to acknowledge that they have concerns, but not to commit to any action. However, Elliot believes it is his job responsibility to draft that currently non-existent post-op policy. Wesley takes that notion of a male leading what is a female-centric issue to the extreme. With all these balls in motion, the issue gets muddled in the world of political correctness versus what almost everyone is guilty of, namely a little hypocrisy.
Episode 7
Young Designers
Tue, Mar 7, 202322 mins
In what is supposed to a be a stress-free fun outing while doing some community outreach, the senior management team goes to a design fair at Russell Elementary School, which just happens to be Jack's alma mater. However, a number of issues arise that make it not the fun outing they were hoping. Jack is paraded in front of the students by one of his old teachers, Mrs. Simms, who wants to use him as a success story of what hard work can achieve. Jack has to decide how truthful he will be in how he actually worked his way into management at Payne. While most of the car designs on display are the stuff of child fantasies, one looks remarkably similar to a design that Cyrus has been five years in the making, those similarities which he and Elliot have to decide how best to handle in a legal sense. But what may be the worst is that Katherine is seen making some statements in a video posted to social media concerning a part of world which she knows nothing about that Payne is doing business in, that statement seen as somewhat defamatory. The problem is is that every other subsequent statement she makes to rectify that initial statement, all caught on video posted to social media, in turns raises the ire of another country or region as the case may be.
Episode 8
Hack
Tue, Mar 14, 202322 mins
The computer system at Payne has been hacked, the anonymous perpetrators ransoming the data they've stolen for $20 million in bitcoin payable by the end of the day, or else they will release the data. The heads of IT, Bill and Eric, report that their security was able to boot the hackers out of the system before they stole too much data. While everyone in the senior team outwardly states that the security of customer data is of utmost importance, they really are most concerned about any of their personal data haven been stolen and potentially released. This issue places Katherine and Elliot at loggerheads with each other, especially when taken into context of how much trust they place in middle-aged and conservative looking Bill and Eric as their cybersecurity. Because of the hack, Wesley wants to show the others how he secures his own personal wealth. He discovers that it is a little more secure than he would want. And unaware that the computer systems have been shut down temporarily by Bill and Eric, Sadie and Jack, alone in the basement in the testing lab, are seemingly locked in with no way out as that shutdown has disabled their key cards and rendered the building a cell phone dead zone. They have to find a way to pass the time in what ends up being a very confined situation.
Episode 9
Night Out
Tue, Mar 21, 202322 mins
It's the end of the work week. Just as the senior staff is about to go home for the weekend, they are ambushed by Katherine who suggests they all go out for drinks together, out of work socializing which she has never suggested. Regardless of if any of them have set plans for the evening, no one wants to decline the offer if only for professional reasons. As strained as the evening is for each of them, none wants to make the first move to leave. In addition, they all can see that there is a certain desperation in Katherine's demeanor. When they shift the gathering from a bar to Katherine's house, they all discover why she is so desperate for their company this evening. This new information at their hands does not lessen the strained conviviality and their want to leave. Can anything lighten the mood to what Katherine probably needs especially this evening?
Episode 10
Passion Project
Tue, Mar 28, 202322 mins
The senior staff notices that Katherine is demonstrating a new enthusiasm for things in which she normally would not be interested. They all know it's because of the divorce. One of the things she dictates is for Dori to do some redecorating around the office. One of the things that Dori proceeds to do is take down the photographs of Wesley's ancestors adorning the hallway. In he vehemently being against Dori's move, Wesley will discover who between him and Dori has more clout in the matter. Another thing Katherine has done is purchase some AI software to license for their use that the staff had generally decided was too expensive for its usefulness. In the general discussion about how realistic Jessica, the voice of the software, is, Sadie and Jack make a bet on whether Elliot, who knows nothing about the software, would be able to tell if Jessica is a human or a computer. When Elliot cannot distinguish Jessica from a human, Sadie and Jack then have to decide when they will tell him the truth, especially as lonely Elliot seems to have made an emotional connection with "her". The person who believes he has the most to gain from Katherine's new outlook is Cyrus, he thinking it time to show her the car design he has been working on for twenty years on his own free time, the car encapsulating his entire design philosophy. But to truly sell her on the design, he feels he has to make her think that it came out of her own mind.
Episode 11
Funeral
Tue, Apr 4, 202322 mins
Katherine has authorized the memorial service for Wesley's grandfather, former CEO Franklin Payne, to be held at corporate headquarters. Besides family and company senior executives, others in attendance include ex-staff that used to work under Franklin, and some of the biggest names in the automotive business. Among the family and senior executives, the only person who truly does seem focused on Franklin's memory is Wesley. Wesley's family members are preoccupied about what to do with the money they will get by selling the company shares they will inherit from Franklin, that block which comprises control of the company. Katherine gets wind of what they are planning on doing, that block being sold off en masse which would mean an immediate drop in share prices, Katherine only having a month left to get the price to the target or else her job and that of the senior executives. As such, she sends the senior executives on a divide and conquer mission with Wesley's family to control what they plan to do with their shares.
Episode 12
Dealer Event
Tue, Apr 11, 202322 mins
In the goal of getting the stock price to the preset target, the senior staff is putting all their Payne jobs in the sole basket of the Pika, which they need to sell to the dealers who have the power of how many to order for their respective outlets. The plan for the dealers' trade show is for Katherine to drive out onto the event floor in a Pika, pop the trunk out of which one hundred cute, furry pikas will jump out, followed by Sadie giving a slide show presentation on the vehicle itself. Veteran Wesley and neophyte Jack will do the schmoozing with the dealers themselves. In the actual process of that schmoozing, each has a differing result. The one thing Wesley and Jack are able to find out in talking to the dealers makes Sadie need to make some last minutes tweaks to the presentation, which she does with Cyrus and Elliot's input. But they may all have a bigger problem in Katherine's feelings about having what end up not being pikas but rather rabbits as those cute animals.
Episode 13
Judgement Day
Tue, Apr 18, 202322 mins
It's judgment day where Katherine has to get the share price to the target or else she and the senior staff will all lose their jobs. They are three points below the target by the start of the trading day, but it's also the day the Pika goes into direct online pre-order, and Katherine and Wesley will be appearing on the business show Margin Call to promote the vehicle in they putting all their hopes on these pre-sales. What Cyrus doesn't know is that he too will be on the show to answer any technical questions, which may be a difficult thing for him to do with a straight face in his abhorrence of the car. As an external force causes the stock market to take a downward turn, Katherine and the team have to come up with Plans B, C, D and so on to save their jobs. As they have to continually move down the alphabet, is there a time for them to admit defeat?
