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The Games Season 2 Episodes
Season 2 Episode Guide
13 Episodes 2000 - 2000
Episode 1
In the Public Interest
26 mins
The organisers address the troops to bolster morale. However the team find themselves facing a hostile and unhappy group of workers. As John, Bryan and Gina try to duck and weave the curve balls thrown their way, John reveals his ten-point plan that will ensure a smooth Olympic Games for everyone.
Episode 2
Addressing the Troops
26 mins
The organisers address the troops to bolster morale. However the team find themselves facing a hostile and unhappy group of workers. As John, Bryan and Gina try to duck and weave the curve balls thrown their way, John reveals his ten-point plan that will ensure a smooth Olympic Games for everyone.
Episode 3
Land Claim
27 mins
An aboriginal community has a claim to the land under the Olympic shooting range, beating them there by about 40,000 years. An American special ambassador points out that the health of Australian aborigines is the worst in the world, and insists on an apology from the Prime Minister, hoping that "the games go ahead as planned". Gina tries unsuccessfully to interest the media in the Olympic torch relay as it proceeds down the west coast, far from Sydney. To compound matters, our new friend "Sid" distracts Nicholas from his meeting with the ambassador long enough to hit him with a threat of trademark infringement. "You can't call them that." A mining company CEO from Western Australia proposes to turn his company into an ISP, and offers Games organizers shares in exchange for some promotion and results during the Games. This is just in time to plug the hole that Sid has created, and Nicholas wastes no time making the connection. Gina sorts out the national disgrace, producing a video tape of John Howard making an emotional apology on behalf of all Australians for their treatment of the aboriginal population.
Episode 4
IOC Man
27 mins
An American IOC delegate invites himself to Sydney to check things out. {Clarke, John (II)@John} seems fed up with "corrupt" delegates violating the proper procedures, and orders Gina to give him nothing beyond the minimum required by the Geneva Convention. Bill Ten-Eyck, the IOC man, charms Gina, who gives him a whirlwind tour, while John is left to announce to the public that the 100,000 trees planted by the Minister, as a show of of his deep and abiding commitment to the environment, will not be replanted after a hailstorm (itself part of the environment) destroyed them all. But John approves when Nicholas says that the Minister has finally agreed that the Games should be for all of Australia, not just the host city. Even Shagger the Gumnut Kangaroo is to be re-branded "Australia's soft toy." The IOC man sees through this, and explains that it's likely to be a prelude to making the entire country pay for any Games budget shortfall. He should know. Brian is seen nursing some tree seedlings in the office kitchen.
Episode 5
Inquiry
27 mins
Nicholas asks the team to attend several government inquiries into various scandals associated with the Games, but selects them apparently based on their "total and comprehensive ignorance" about the topics. John goes to see a barrister to prepare for his inquiry, into the purchase of artworks, though John is unclear what this has to do with running the Olympics. (He said Nicholas's performance at a previous inquiry, into the ticketing cock-up, "was like watching a Zeppelin fall out of the sky".) The barrister hears John's frank assessment of how the town works ("You can always tell when something's occurring, can't you?") but shuts him down and instructs him how to give non-answers to any question. The same advice makes its way to both Gina (hotel prices) and Brian (sale of the database). When their respective days in court come, they do their best. In the audience, Nicholas and the barrister don't look pleased.
Episode 6
Pommy Visitor
28 mins
We see Nicholas on the phone with the Treasury, trying to get a ruling on an obscure accounting question, asking about cars and furniture. John and Gina take a van to the airport (the courtesy car having mysteriously vanished) to pick up Neil, a visitor on secondment from the London 2012 bid committee. Neil's first impression of Sydney is a two-hour delay in baggage and customs and an apparent security breakdown in that nobody asked him about his gun. Back at the office, Nicholas tries to get John to sell and replace all the furniture, on the basis that the "look committee" thinks it would buck everyone up in the final stretch. John is skeptical and even after Nicholas explains the actual, financial reasoning for the move (there is one, sort of) neither John nor Gina will touch this assignment. But Neil makes himself useful and cracks on. By nightfall they are all sitting on the floor, eating take-away chips and watching the TV news, featuring Nicholas, who is looking very uncomfortable. Neil gets a salute.
Episode 7
Immigration
27 mins
A visitor from Mulravia says she was promised a job in return for a favor her father, the head IOC delegate for Mulravia, did for Sydney when the vote for 2000 came up. John tries to avoid seeing her, but ends up looking foolish. Bulgarian wrestler Todor Stoyanov is seeking political asylum in Australia from ethnic persecution at home and Nicholas, for some reason, is expediting matters. When he asks John to sign a letter in support of the application John pushes back, sensing a trap. Gina is shocked to discover a press release, over her own name, promising to get most Olympic visitors through customs in fifteen minutes, and goes off to the airport to investigate. The 12 million dollars for improvements has been spent, but not on the customs service. While there she learns more about Mr. Stoyanov. John has insisted that he talk to "the plucky Bulgarian" before signing anything, so Nicholas produces one, but he's not up for much of a chat as neither John nor Nicholas speaks Bulgarian. When Gina and a reporter arrive back at the office (where two more asylum seekers, from Somalia, are also waiting), the team presses Nicholas for details and learns of his scheme to ensure overwhelming Olympic gold for Australia by strategic immigration. Gina, threatening to expose him to the press, orders Nicholas to unwind his madness, and the episode ends with our wrestler submitting to a rather chilly press interview through an interpreter.
Episode 8
Job Search
26 mins
The games are getting closer and so are the problems - in particular traffic management and opening ceremony leaks. Gina, Bryan and Nicholas have started to look for future employment after the games are finished, but John comes out on top.
Episode 9
Strike
27 mins
Bryan demonstrates to a skeptical John how companies can take financial advantage of the Olympic Games organising committee. Gina's attempt to embarrass the minister by causing a strike during the Olympics backfires when the trade union official involved caves in to Gina's aggressive negotiating style.
Episode 10
Solar
27 mins
The team find a way not to accept the loan of Picasso's Guernica painting for display during the games. It seems that the games organisation has been generating electricity (via solar panels) which causes much discussion about how the buying and selling of power should occur.
Episode 11
Sponsor and Media Discontent
27 mins
Sponsors are disappointed with the small number of tickets they've received. John then upsets the media with some disparaging comments about them and he is suspended. An athlete changes her name to Pepsi, which upsets the sponsor Coca-Cola.
Episode 12
Four Corners
27 mins
When Four Corners threatens to broadcast a secretly filmed meeting at which John and Bryan suggest that the rich in Australian should pay their fair share of tax, the minister's secretary (Nicolas) tries to convince the team that he can have the program stopped if they all come and work at a soon-to-be-created department (The Office for the Introduction of the Republic) that he is going to manage. A revised program does go to air-implicating Nicolas in the formation of a bogus department in order to buy people's silence.
Episode 13
The End
26 mins
When an act for the closing ceremony (The Seekers) turns out to be unavailable, the team stand in as understudies during a rehearsal. John Farnham provides personal instruction to another understudy-the team's secretary (Tim) who has obtained a place in the opening ceremony. The series ends with the minister's secretary and the team scoring "the best seats in the house"-an aircraft ride out of Australia during the Olympic Games. Comedian Tony Martin makes a subliminal cameo as a barman.