While MacMillan closes and the deal as he usually does, Clarke drinks far too much and let’s his insecurities and emotions get the better of him. Successful in getting the meeting as well as temporarily impressing MacMillan, Clarke is again and immediately out of his element as they both sit with the Japanese Businessmen to make a deal. With a reminder that the new PC must dramatically reduce it’s weight, Clarke conjures up a plan to incorporate an LCD screen into their design after he witnesses the smaller and lightweight applications of the technology through a product that his father-in law is now selling in their electronics catalog. In their initial interactions, Clarke is generally indifferent towards his wife’s father but realizes he must engage him in order to form a relationship with the Japanese-based LCD company Kuzoku. It’s more of the same: Clarke celebrated a small developmental victory and MacMillan interrupted with his grandeur vision and more seemingly impossible demands. On queue, MacMillan immediately discontinues his celebration by reminding Clarke how far they are from their goal. As with the previous episodes, this one begins with a smile on Clarke’s face as we see him successfully boot their emerging PC using Howe’s BIOS code. ![]() Gordon Clarke continues to stumble through this season as the character that doesn’t seem to grow or learn from his experiences. Will the changing rapport with her boss affect her limited role with the company? Or will it eventually push her towards permanently joining Cardiff Electric? Whatever the career outcome may be, expect her relationship with her husband to change dramatically. With Gordon continuing to disappoint her with his inconsistency and apathy towards their family life, one could see the justification for Donna’s flirtation. So far though, her career is still in jeopardy as she struggles with her role at Texas Instruments and a complex relationship with her boss. As we learned from the fallout of last week’s episode, Donna is quoted in the Wall Street Quarterly article, another sign that her engineering prowess will play an integral part of the show’s overall arc of building a revolutionary machine. We are treated to a painfully flirtatious late-night phone call between Donna and her ex-flame/boss that could signal trouble for the Clarke family. While the last two episodes centered around her innovations and willingness to help her husband (and Cardiff Electric), this time subtle hints are given as to where her character may be heading. ![]() There is one character that keeps me coming back every week and that’s Donna Clarke, the beautiful and cultured genius wife of the increasingly pathetic Gordon. “Why do I hate all the main characters?” or “Why do I care how this story plays out?” With all these same tropes playing out week after week, the revelatory payoff of each character’s paternal woes doesn’t even come close to answering the real questions posed by its viewers. You can expect when you tune in each week that Joe will manipulate a situation with a potential client or business interest, Howe will rebel against someone in the company and Clarke will blur the lines between his work and family life while jeopardizing the stability of both. ![]() The combination of character flaws in Macmillan as well as the textbook behavior of Howe and Clarke seemed to have trapped the characters into a routine of bad judgment that must be explored in EVERY episode. What have we seen from Joe so far? He has scars. Instead of a character that struggles when compromising his morals, or a character that surprises you with empathy from time to time, we get Joe Macmillan: a 1-dimensional anti-hero whose actions are becoming more and more predictable as the season progresses. The clues and cookie crumbs dropped throughout the first half of the season were not enough to leave me curious or invest in the mystery of Macmillan’s troubled past. We knew Joe MacMillan’s father is an IBM employee, and that fact plays into both his complex hatred and need to defy the behemoth company. The paternal arcs played out in this episode came as neither a payoff nor a reveal for those following since the pilot.
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