Showtime - Treason
Genre : Drama / Comedy / Sports
Showrunner: Steven Soderbergh
Writer : Chad Taylor & Mo Buck
Cast: Barry Keoghan, Dacre Montgomery, Cooper Andrews, Zoey Dutch, Anna Gunn, Clayne Crawford, Tom Hopper, Alan Ritchson, Paul Rust, Toby Huss, O'Shea Jackson Jr, Samara Weaving and Rachael Harris
Plot: Paul Martin (Toby Huss) stands in the ring with his protege Cain Khan (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) and his valet Honey Moon (Samara Weaving). Martin is holding a trash can with TCW’s championship belt on fire in it. He gives Khan his MWA title belt and they name Khan the official unified champion. The crowd doesn’t care and doesn’t listen at this point, it looks like Paul underestimated TCWs strong cult following and devoted fan base. They taunt the crowd a bit, but once the cameras cut they quickly head to the back to avoid the raucous crowd.
Before they come back in the locker room, the TCW faithful are looking everywhere for Diane, but no one can find her. Brad (Clayne Crawford) recruits his usual acolytes the Bruiser brothers (Tom Hopper and Alan Ritchson) to confront Cain Khan and Paul when they come back, because they can’t shit over TCW like that, not while they’re still around. Diane is in fact hiding in the luxury boxes as she looks at the disgusted crowd, crying. She has the ticket sales numbers in front of her. It’s lower than the Astrodome show. Not only did her fusion with Paul hurt her business, she fears she will lose part of the locker room too. As Paul, Cain and Honey Moon disappear behind the curtain, she leaves her seat and cleans up her face, before heading back to the locker room to do some damage control.
Brad Wolfe is ready to fight Cain Khan right here right now and he throws a fit of rage when he sees him. He has to be restrained by Tom and Don Jackson. Wolfe threatens Paul and he says he will come to regret this. Thunderjack (Dacre Montgomery) who has remained quiet about all of this, approaches Cain Khan and he punches him in the face. A brawl breaks down in the locker room while Paul hides in his office. Loto also gets involved, but he’s just trying to separate everyone. Dicky subtly tries to give weapons to the TCW wrestlers, but Cain Khan is such a physical specimen that they are barely able to hit him. It looks more like a schoolyard scuffle now. Ben (Barry Keoghan) watches on alongside Sweet Tea (Zoey Deutch) and Honey Moon, sad to see that his mentor is now gone and when people think back on this event, they won’t remember his match with Bill, but rather Paul and Cain burning the TCW belt. Sweet Tea says she will remember it because he was so good and he thanks her for the compliment. Diane enters the locker room and orders everyone to be calm. It doesn’t work, so she has to get inventive. She steals a steel chair from Dicky and she smashes the office’s window. Everyone stops and looks at Diane. Paul comes out of the office, asking what this was all about. She says they need to talk. The locker room is completely silent now, divided into two sides. Wolfe, the Jacksons, Loto and Dicky are on one side, Ben, Cain and the women are on the other side. Brad tries to enter the office, but Diane hurls at him to stay out of the office. He insists, but she sends everybody home. She promises that if she finds out someone fought with another wrestler, they are fired. She enters the office and locks the door. Paul wants to start talking, but she refuses to until everyone is out.
As the wrestlers leave the locker room, they are harassed by a journalist named Gwen Szymanski (Rachael Harris). She asks them if they are willing to give an interview where they talk about the wrestling profession. Everyone denies the interview and she says she will be there at their next show in case someone changes his mind.
Paul and Diane sit in the office with a lingering silence. No one wants to budge first. Paul finally does, saying that it was clearly what needed to be done. She vehemently disagrees, pointing out the declining ticket sales and the hostile crowd reaction. He says that this is just the leftovers from Santana leaving. They need to establish Cain as their top star. Diane stands her ground and says she is sick of being two-timed and people going behind her back. This "alliance" was supposed to be a partnership not a dictatorship. Paul defends his decisions, saying that MWA had to establish dominance at first because they were the most well-known brand. Diane makes an off-hand remark about how no one knows them compared to APW. This irritates Paul but Diane says that it's true. She says that the smaller companies like them are going to start scraping for the leftovers until there is nothing left as APW continues to go national. She ponders which MWA wrestler will be the first to defect. She has clearly gotten under Paul's skin at this point and he storms out.
As he leaves the arena, he finds that not everyone has left. The backstage crew are still waiting to put down the ring because Ben is still working hard at training certain moves. Even after the previous tiff, this causes Paul to crack a smile. He approaches the ring and watches Ben hone his craft. He asks why he isn't leaving the building and signing autographs for all the young girls waiting outside. Ben, continuing training, laughs this off and says that is for Thunderjack, not him. Paul tells Ben that he likes what he saw out there. He knows the later events might have overshadowed the match but he thinks that Ben raised his profile a bit. Ben thanks him for the kind words. Paul lastly mentions that he needs a contender for his MWA Television Champion, Mark Cruz. He then mentions the time and says that he has to be going. Ben continues training.
In a rare occurrence, we follow Ben to his small apartment and follow a day in his life. He continues to watch wrestling tape and eating healthy meals. A few days pass and we see him continuing to do the same thing. It is clear that he is starting to feel a bit lonely in a foreign country at such a young age. He goes to a payphone and dials a number he has written down. It is Bill. They briefly catch up and we find out that Bill has recently landed in Japan. Ben catches Bill up on the kerfuffle and mentions what Paul said about the TV title. He asks Bill if he should take a side and Bill says to take things slow. All promoters are carnies at some point, so you're choosing between the lesser of two evils. Ben thanks him and says he can't wait to watch his tapes from Japan. Bill ends their conversation by asking Ben if he's asked the girl for her number yet. Ben blushes and says he doesn't know what Bill is talking about. Bill says he knows exactly what he's talking about and advises him not spend all of his life in the backseat. You've got to take the wheel sometimes. He hangs up the phone and Ben ponders those final words and exits the payphone.
Before they come back in the locker room, the TCW faithful are looking everywhere for Diane, but no one can find her. Brad (Clayne Crawford) recruits his usual acolytes the Bruiser brothers (Tom Hopper and Alan Ritchson) to confront Cain Khan and Paul when they come back, because they can’t shit over TCW like that, not while they’re still around. Diane is in fact hiding in the luxury boxes as she looks at the disgusted crowd, crying. She has the ticket sales numbers in front of her. It’s lower than the Astrodome show. Not only did her fusion with Paul hurt her business, she fears she will lose part of the locker room too. As Paul, Cain and Honey Moon disappear behind the curtain, she leaves her seat and cleans up her face, before heading back to the locker room to do some damage control.
Brad Wolfe is ready to fight Cain Khan right here right now and he throws a fit of rage when he sees him. He has to be restrained by Tom and Don Jackson. Wolfe threatens Paul and he says he will come to regret this. Thunderjack (Dacre Montgomery) who has remained quiet about all of this, approaches Cain Khan and he punches him in the face. A brawl breaks down in the locker room while Paul hides in his office. Loto also gets involved, but he’s just trying to separate everyone. Dicky subtly tries to give weapons to the TCW wrestlers, but Cain Khan is such a physical specimen that they are barely able to hit him. It looks more like a schoolyard scuffle now. Ben (Barry Keoghan) watches on alongside Sweet Tea (Zoey Deutch) and Honey Moon, sad to see that his mentor is now gone and when people think back on this event, they won’t remember his match with Bill, but rather Paul and Cain burning the TCW belt. Sweet Tea says she will remember it because he was so good and he thanks her for the compliment. Diane enters the locker room and orders everyone to be calm. It doesn’t work, so she has to get inventive. She steals a steel chair from Dicky and she smashes the office’s window. Everyone stops and looks at Diane. Paul comes out of the office, asking what this was all about. She says they need to talk. The locker room is completely silent now, divided into two sides. Wolfe, the Jacksons, Loto and Dicky are on one side, Ben, Cain and the women are on the other side. Brad tries to enter the office, but Diane hurls at him to stay out of the office. He insists, but she sends everybody home. She promises that if she finds out someone fought with another wrestler, they are fired. She enters the office and locks the door. Paul wants to start talking, but she refuses to until everyone is out.
As the wrestlers leave the locker room, they are harassed by a journalist named Gwen Szymanski (Rachael Harris). She asks them if they are willing to give an interview where they talk about the wrestling profession. Everyone denies the interview and she says she will be there at their next show in case someone changes his mind.
Paul and Diane sit in the office with a lingering silence. No one wants to budge first. Paul finally does, saying that it was clearly what needed to be done. She vehemently disagrees, pointing out the declining ticket sales and the hostile crowd reaction. He says that this is just the leftovers from Santana leaving. They need to establish Cain as their top star. Diane stands her ground and says she is sick of being two-timed and people going behind her back. This "alliance" was supposed to be a partnership not a dictatorship. Paul defends his decisions, saying that MWA had to establish dominance at first because they were the most well-known brand. Diane makes an off-hand remark about how no one knows them compared to APW. This irritates Paul but Diane says that it's true. She says that the smaller companies like them are going to start scraping for the leftovers until there is nothing left as APW continues to go national. She ponders which MWA wrestler will be the first to defect. She has clearly gotten under Paul's skin at this point and he storms out.
As he leaves the arena, he finds that not everyone has left. The backstage crew are still waiting to put down the ring because Ben is still working hard at training certain moves. Even after the previous tiff, this causes Paul to crack a smile. He approaches the ring and watches Ben hone his craft. He asks why he isn't leaving the building and signing autographs for all the young girls waiting outside. Ben, continuing training, laughs this off and says that is for Thunderjack, not him. Paul tells Ben that he likes what he saw out there. He knows the later events might have overshadowed the match but he thinks that Ben raised his profile a bit. Ben thanks him for the kind words. Paul lastly mentions that he needs a contender for his MWA Television Champion, Mark Cruz. He then mentions the time and says that he has to be going. Ben continues training.
In a rare occurrence, we follow Ben to his small apartment and follow a day in his life. He continues to watch wrestling tape and eating healthy meals. A few days pass and we see him continuing to do the same thing. It is clear that he is starting to feel a bit lonely in a foreign country at such a young age. He goes to a payphone and dials a number he has written down. It is Bill. They briefly catch up and we find out that Bill has recently landed in Japan. Ben catches Bill up on the kerfuffle and mentions what Paul said about the TV title. He asks Bill if he should take a side and Bill says to take things slow. All promoters are carnies at some point, so you're choosing between the lesser of two evils. Ben thanks him and says he can't wait to watch his tapes from Japan. Bill ends their conversation by asking Ben if he's asked the girl for her number yet. Ben blushes and says he doesn't know what Bill is talking about. Bill says he knows exactly what he's talking about and advises him not spend all of his life in the backseat. You've got to take the wheel sometimes. He hangs up the phone and Ben ponders those final words and exits the payphone.
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