Gauntlet 2.7 - Hangover

Gauntlet : Hangover
Genre : Sports / Drama
Showrunner: Antoine Fuqua
Writer : Matt Parker

Cast: William Fichtner, Josh Duhamel, Trevor Jackson, Eric Roberts, Kat Graham, Jessie Buckley, Tom Wright and Jaimie Alexander

Plot: Jefferson Thomas (Trevor Jackson) wakes up on a couch. He looks around and finds Nikki (Kat Graham) asleep in her bed. He looks at his phone and notices several missed texts and phone calls from Gwendolyn. He sneaks out of Nikki's apartment, careful not wake her. Once he's outside he calls Gwendolyn (Jessie Buckley) back. She tells him she was worried since she expected him to come over after the game. He apologizes to her and says he went out with some teammates, but had forgotten his phone in the locker room after the game and just had to go to get it back. He says he can come over later on if she wants to spend some time together. She says that she'd like that. Thomas then begins walking toward the night club to get his car back.

Coach Ken Heath (William Fichtner) is sitting his kitchen alone eating breakfast and watching the news when he sees a story about Jefferson Thomas reportedly getting into a scuffle with security at a night club last night. Heath quickly finishes his breakfast and immediately heads to the team facility. When he gets there he sees there are already a couple of news vans outside. Reporter Natalie Cornish (Jaimie Alexander) is there and approaches Heath as he gets out of his car in the parking lot. She asks him if he's heard about Thomas' night club incident. Heath tells her that the team intends to investigate what exactly happened that night and they take the alleged incident seriously.

When Heath enters his office, his phone is already ringing. He unplugs the phone and puts his head down. Then his cell phone starts ringing. He answers it and on the other line team owner Leonard Palmer (Eric Roberts) immediately begins asking if he knows what happened. Heath says he doesn't know much yet, but is going to look into it. Palmer tells Heath to make the situation go away. Jefferson Thomas is the team's best player and they can't afford to lose him for any extended time.

Tim Collins (Josh Duhamel) pulls into the team facility parking lot and is surprised to see news vans there. He walks up to the door and Natalie Cornish asks if he heard about Jefferson Thomas' bar brawl. Collins tells her he hasn't heard anything about anything like that and that he's just there to look at some game tape. She then asks him how it feels to watch a win from the bench. Collins glares at her and says no comment. Collins finds the facility empty aside from Heath running on a treadmill. Heath invites Collins to work out with him. Collins spots Heath on the bench press. Heath says he's trying to burn off some stress with another fire around to put out. Collins asks what happened and Heath explains that video surfaced this morning of Jefferson Thomas getting into a drunken scuffle at a night club. Collins says that isn't good for the team.

Jefferson Thomas makes it back to the night club where he finds a few parking tickets on his car. He gets in and drives over to Gwendolyn's place. When he gets there he finds her furious that he would lie to her about last night. He's confused by what she means, and she shows her the night club video on her phone. He tells her he was with some teammates and there was just a misunderstanding with security, it wasn't a big deal. He didn't even know there was a video of it.

Heath receives a phone call from AFA Commissioner Vernon Wallace (Tom Wright). Wallace tells Heath that the league is going to conduct an investigation into Jefferson Thomas' night club incident and that if wrong-doing is found, he may face a suspension since the league takes any accusation of violence seriously. Heath tells Wallace he understands and is hoping to figure out what exactly happened himself.