‘Beef’ Season 2, Episodes 4-6: Against the Grain

Blowing out budget on metrics that look great till the CFO sees them. That's bull spend. And marketers are calling it out in... Dashboard Confessions! I remember telling my boss, it'll be good for the brand when leads were slow. Yeah, it wasn't. Cut the bull spend. LinkedIn lets you target by company, job title and more. Advertise on LinkedIn. Spend 200 pounds on your first campaign and get a 200 pound credit. Go to linkedin.com slash lead. Terms and conditions apply. BELL RINGS Hello, welcome back to the PressTV podcast. I'm Jordan Robinson. I'm Rob Mahoney. I have a very serious announcement to start this podcast, Rob. Hit us. We've been through a lot of trials and triumphs, you and I. We're still each other's biggest fans. Please respect our privacy at this time. And most of all, I can't wait to see Rob sink birdie after birdie the back night of his life. You know what? I'm gonna need a new photo. I'm gonna do a complete rewrite on the caption. I don't accept. It's beef part two of season two. We're here to do episodes four, five and six. And then we will drop seven and eight later on this week. And that is how you cover binge television on the PressTV podcast feed. We simply love it. Episodes one through three, that episode's already up. So you can check that out. Also, of course, like we did the pit finale. We've done a couple of euphoria episodes. Anything else you want to say about the feed in general? Rob Mahoney. Yes. If you would like to email us about beef or any of these other shows, you can email us at prestigeTVatspotify.com or you can come check us out on Instagram and TikTok and whatnot at prestigeTVpod. There's a very special family photo up on the Instagram right now. It warms my heart. It really does. It's going straight on the fridge. All right. So we're gonna do the same thing we did last time. We're doing categories again and stuff like that, but we do want to have a bigger general discussion before we get into that. So we've got three episodes here. Two of them are sort of shorter, almost mirror episodes. We get episode four is Ashley and Austin in the hospital. And then episode five is Lindsay and Josh and the loss of Burberry, which we're going to talk about in a second, you and I. What did you make of that sort of setup? It was sort of an unusual, you know, to one couple in one episode, one couple in another episode with a little crossover. I like the focus of it. I thought these were pretty good episodes overall. I'm enjoying where we are with the season as a whole. I will say there are some points in the plot machinations now where it's like, I just don't fully believe that these people would be trying to be friends, even in the ways that they are kind of trying to be friends. But I just like these actors being together, delivering these conversations so much. I'm just along for the ride. Yeah. So we'll talk about sort of the reshuffling of the pairs that we get over the course of this episode. But this is sort of that end of season escalation weirdification that I was sort of alluding to in our first part. Obviously you and I have not seen seven and eight yet. I don't know where we go from here, but already we have like Ashley's hospital experience, which involves not only the dream sequence of waking up from surgery, but before she goes into surgery, sort of like weird stuff happening with the patients around her. You get Josh's drug trip in episode six. Woosh dies. Woosh is just straight up dead. Woosh is fully dead. And doesthedogdie.com. Yes, Rob as a dog guy. How are you doing? I'm fucked up. Robbery, the first. Well, let me say this first. Someone who recently moved to Los Angeles and has a dog and has had many like near miss coyote dog encounters. Really? I mean, I'm just terrified at this point. I mean, they're all around. They're prowling, especially, look, I'm not proud of my current sleep schedule, but the last we're going to take a trip out of the night with the dog, sometimes happening well after midnight. The streets are dead and quiet. Everything is chill. Coyotes are Roman? Oh, they're prowling. Wow. I'm a little concerned about my own burberry situation. I would like to think that I would be capable of the Lindsay-esque grab the coyote, whip body slam, revenge kill, if such a thing were required. But I also don't want to kill this coyote. I don't want it to attack my dog in the first place. Rob, I know how you feel about your dog. I believe you would pull a Lindsay. I think I'd be capable of like incredible strength and resolve in that particular moment. Where are you in general? So, you're a dog person, I'm a cat person, but we care about pets in general. But where are you in stories where a dog is in peril or a dog, are you out? It doesn't seem like you're out. No, no. How do you feel about it? It definitely ratchets up. And I will say, I think some of it is just the shock of if you are an animal person, seeing that on screen is very jarring. But also, it's so unusual for that exact reason that you barely ever see it followed through to this extent. So, I was just like jaw dropped, that they went to the lengths that they did with burberry and the coyote. I thought for sure he was going to make it through surgery and be an adorable cast. But no, this is not that kind of show. This is not that kind of dog. Everything is falling apart, including our guy, Burberry. I've been really worried for you because you and Deb were sharing sort of burberry, social media videos and stuff like that. And I was like, oh no, I already knew what happened to Burberry. Well, I'm glad they let him have his moment on the red carpet. What's your philosophy on Burberry the second, like naming the second dog the same name as the first dog? I wouldn't recommend it. I have taken to calling him Michael Kors instead. I think there's lots of options on the table, but he can't be Burberry. Louie Vuitton, a little LV moment. Sure, why not? Michael Kors, excellent stuff. Okay, so in terms of reshuffling the alliances, right, we have it was Josh and Lindsay versus Ashley and Austin. Yes. And now it's a little bit Ashley and Lindsay versus Josh and Austin a little bit. Stronger on the former. Yes. Lindsay and Ashley seem to be developing an actual bond, granted one that came from a she's all that type, like I was planning to manipulate you, but actually I've come to really appreciate our friendship. They kind of both had that conversation. Yes. I will say, Ashley is very much like, fuck Josh, I hate that guy, right? And she has very personal reasons too. Austin's a little bit more like, why do you think Lindsay wants to be friends with you? Yeah. Is she on the up and up? What is she up to? So it's a little less like fuck her, but it's a little, you know, that's not Austin style anyway. But I also think Austin doesn't seem as receptive to Josh's advances. It's a little like a business arrangement. It's a business arrangement. It's like, I'm trying to get in with my boss. Yeah, I'm like trying to help him chat GPT his way through the construction of this cold plunge. But then when he leaves, it's very much like, what the fuck was that? And some of that is the drug trip. I think some of it is just they're not quite on the same wavelength in the way that Lindsay and Ashley are at this moment. I think it's interesting to watch what episode one through three were like a generational divide. Now we're on a gender divide. Right. And what's so interesting is like this show is, I really like the season a lot. And I think the writing is really, really sharp. And it is so sharp that, you know, it might not be immediately obvious to me, but on second one, like the fact that Lindsay and Ashley are talking about fertility and Josh and Austin are talking about, hey, what happens if you want to fuck someone who's not your wife? Could not be more on like very stereotypical gender lines if you tried, but not in a way that feels sort of like, wrote empathetic. Like it all seems very, I mean, it's all still very sharply funny and really natural. But I think it's interesting for a show like this, especially when season one, you know, was about sort of strangers colliding. And, you know, these, these couples are strangers, but inside of the couples, there are these dynamics. And so to reshuffle the deck and reshuffle the dynamic that it is sort of men versus women, versus gender generation versus generation. I think that's a really, you know, you talked about the Rube Goldberg, you, is a way you describe sort of the, the various ways in which this plot is turning. And I think this is a kind of fun, unexpected way for the plot to turn. Definitely. Some of it, again, like strange credulity for me just a bit. This isn't a show where like I need to be on board with every single beat. I don't think, I don't think beef is ever asking you to believe that this is how normal humans would ever react. Certainly not. I think it's less a normal human thing and more like take Ashley, for example. That's a character we have seen really hyper fixate on some like really small social interactions, right? Like she just like analyzes and she's in her head and she's like a little, a little neurotic in the way she gets bogged down and some of that stuff. When Lindsay tells her, after she just went through this, went through this like harrowing situation at the hospital, I guess it's a good thing you got that health insurance then is like a borderline like inhuman thing to say to someone in that circumstance. And I'm a little surprised like Ashley didn't take that more personally. To be fair, Lindsay doesn't know how bad the deductible is on her health insurance. No, but it's like the idea of I'm going into a hospital with pain. I'm not taken seriously. I collapse and I wake up with an ovary removed. And it's like, well, I'm glad you got to pay for it. But there are also ways in which I think my interpretation in that moment, that's entirely fair. I think my interpretation in that moment is Ashley is feeling such tremendous guilt over her involvement in the burberry of it all, that she's just sort of willing to let Lindsay say a bunch of shit. And she's just like, yeah, I deserve this, whatever this is. The self punishment. I deserve this. Fair enough. I wanted to ask you about and they do like Josh has this conversation with Austin where he was like, this was my plan while you were on the drugs. I was going to get the video, but I really like you, man sort of thing. And then Lindsay has a very similar over champagne, not, you know, toad hallucinogens has a very similar conversation with Ashley. You were sort of saying you kind of buy the Lindsay Ashley bond, especially I think because they're doing crime together, which is always a nice bonding experience. You buy that more than you buy a potential Josh and Austin alliance. Yeah. Which is, I think a little odd for where I would have expected to be just because Austin feels like the kind of guy you could sort of pull on over on. He's way, you know, we have this like himbo category that we just saw. It is like kind of light on the himbo inside of these episodes. So he's right. He's why is it up? I love it. Something I was thinking about, you saw the the Park Chanwalk film, No Other Choice, that came out last year. I know, I know. I loved it. I know. I love that movie. And I was just thinking about it a lot, especially like in Ashley's like B and E moment. Not just the sort of like clam jam blood in the OJ sort of situation, but sort of like creeping around someone's house and doing things and then escalating beyond where you expected. Get that control. Like Park Chanwalk, obviously like has the whole vengeance trilogy. Like vengeance is something that he's been interested in, but No Other Choice, not to like get too far into weeds about that. But that is like, that is someone who starts the movie kind of normal and winds up escalating, escalating the lengths he will go to to get a job. Again, you're not supposed to believe that anyone would actually behave this way. No, but it's like, what if a person did entertain every intrusive thought that came into their head? And that's kind of where we are in this, in this season. And I really like it. And I don't know if there's other movies that come to mind like that, but I think what I've decided is that genre is really for me. Yes. I'm just sort of like watch someone normal, complete and it works even better over, over like the course of a television series. Watch, you know, especially if you go back to the beginning and you watch, they're sending you up for this, but you watch Austin and Ashley who are just sort of like, we're so sweet and nice and in love and rich people are weird and we would never do that or we would never do that or all this sort of stuff like that. And then just a few episodes later, Ashley's doing all the shit that she's doing and Austin's knee deep and trouble and all this sort of stuff like that. I appreciate it. Austin's moment of like post blackmail clarity, though, of like, if you looked at what we've done, we're not great. Don't look great. Does not look great. Yeah, yeah. But I think the contrast, whether you're talking about Parks work or these kinds of shows, it's the absurdity of these like heightened reactions to normal, personal, intersocial things and then like larger thematic imposition on what that means or kind of where you're taking that. Like that's the delicate balance. Or I was like, can you say something very grounded and human with this like elevated crazy behavior? Exactly. And I think, I mean, we got an interesting email from a listener who did not enjoy the first episode and is like out on B season two. That's fine. And his point was sort of like, A, people don't really behave like this and B, I don't really like these people. And I'm just sort of like, I don't expect to like these people or watch them behave like normal humans are supposed to behave. I don't know why season one would give you that expectation. Fair, fair enough. Quick question for you, Rob. Does the color of the Gatorade impact the quench? What do you think? I think it does impact the quench. Does it? I certainly do have preferences. I think we all do. But mine are polar opposite from Ashley's. Okay. Great to know. I don't really drink Gatorade at all, but were I too? Yes. It would be red or blue for me every day of the week. So you're pretty aligned with Ashley. Yeah. She's, she's a red, maybe this is like a better for Mars. One of her being a situation. Yellow or never. I have yellow first and foremost every single time. But it looks like like fluorescent piss. Like why would you want to drink that? Because it tastes delicious. But you really think it quenches better than red or blue does? Here's the thing. Red does not quench effectively for me. This is almost like a lemonade conundrum where it's like. I'm conditioned to all sorts of like soda, love soda related sugar levels. I can drink Diet Coke all day lemonade for some reason. It feels like so sweet that I just feel more thirsty after drinking it. And I have the same, I have the same reaction to red Gatorade specifically. Okay. Is it quite okay? Why am I, I guess I'm just weighing in on like the colors I naturally, the not found in nature colors that I naturally gravitate towards. And like I'm always in for a red like, but that's usually, that's a little bit more candy based than it is something. I mean, it's just a little fruit punchy in this case. But blue is the color we can all come together around the least natural color. That exists. Is it like a blue razz? Is that what it is? Well, there are usually like polar ice or whatever. So honestly, who the fuck knows what the actual flavor is, but it tastes refreshing. And then there's like, was it a green? Is that the fourth option? Is it purple? Oh, purple. Also similar like glacier freeze or what? You know what? Again, they're, they just, they're making stuff up. Sick Arctic burn bro, but it'll quench the thirst. Sure does. All right. Further question for you. Is zero normal on the pain scale? I'm glad you brought this up. Can we just jump straight into our himboeus moment now, which unfortunately for actually, I think it's tilting bimboeus moment with this particular exchange. Thinking that five is average on the pain scale. I don't know, Rob, but I'm going to push back on this. Okay. Meta from Mars, one for the Venus. And I'm going to say this. I want to hear the argument. I want to hear the argument. You and I both live our lives with like slightly chronic back pain. Of course. So isn't a little bit of pain just kind of normal. But her argument was like, what are you supposed to do when you feel good? And she was like, zero would be good because I'm swinging anti pain. And it's like, I don't think this is the way it works. It certainly doesn't work. Letter box negative five is suddenly miraculously all of my chronic pain is gone or something like that. But there's no, I don't think we're getting into the negatives on this particular scale. I think zero is I'm in a bit of pain. Isn't that what I think zero is whatever your status quo is. That's that's zero. So then unfortunately for us at our, at our ages, kind of Oppenheimer low key, low key pain. Do you, do you have a philosophy on the letter box part of this though? Like on a five star system of evaluating a movie, what is average? Can I tell you why I'm a bad letter box user? You don't rate anything. I do rate, I do rate things. You don't put stars on there though. No, that's not true. What? I just don't use letter box that often. That's all. But when I do use it, I put stars on it. Okay. But here's, here's the thing is like, I feel bad. Cause like, what if people see that I gave something a one star and they worked on it or something like that? You can only be yourself. I kind of give most things a three. Three is the bottom? Kind of. And then like, if I really loved it, it's a five and you know, you can do a four and a half or a three and a half or a four. Like that's my, it's like three is my zero for letter box. Unless it's like, I'm deeply offended by it or something like that. Yeah. I do think the idea that two and a half is an average movie. Not the way I think about it or certainly if you're watching a lot of two and a half star movies, maybe you need to change what your average movie is that you're consuming. Every year, one of my nearest resolutions is I'm going to really use letter box this year. I think 2026 is your year. It's already April, man. It feels late. There's still time for you. It feels late. There's still time. I always mean to be a better letter box user, but if you're on letter box, go find Jo's account right now. Follow. Joe wrote this, I think. Joe wrote this. Spam some likes, comment on some of the reviews. Rob, what's your, what's your user? No comment. I'm just trying to get your numbers up. Trying to get your numbers up, Joe. I actually have like, what's kind of sad is I have like actually, not a sizable, but I have like a decent following a letter box. I'm like, all these people, what are you expecting for me? I'm not showing up for doing anything. I feel very bad. But they're delighted when you do. Is midnight the middle of the night? Rob. This gets back into our sleep cycle. For me, it's four in the morning, the middle of the night. Okay. It depends on what you're asking for eating purposes. I do think midnight is the middle of the night. Okay. For a pet? I mean, if you're feeding your pet at midnight, something has gone off schedule. I, okay. I have an automatic feeder for my pet and my, for my cat. And the whole point of that is for her to disassociate me. She's a very food motivated cat. And she like, I don't want her to come to me. It's like that robot over there is what gives you food, not me. That's the whole point of it. This is how I know you're not a dog person. Cause it's like, that's the only reason my dog loves me is because I feed her. So I need, I need that. My kind of thing, she's extremely codependent. She only likes me and no one else. It's, I've done a very bad job of raising my cat. But anyway, she, uh, it goes off early. Like it goes off, I think at like five or something like that. So she doesn't try to wake me up. Right. It goes off early. So she doesn't have a chance at like six or seven to paw at me and be like, where the hell is my food? Right. Does your dog wake you up for food? No. Okay. She knows, she knows better than that. She knows, she knows the rules. So the middle, so midnight is the middle of the night. But more we say it, it's like, it's definitely early in the night. Just if you're, if you're just clocking out the hours, Rob, it's not early in the night, but I could, I'll give you two is the middle of the night. That feels fair. That feels like a fair compromise. We did it. Blue Gatorade. Two AM is the middle of the night. Anything else you want to settle? Um, zero is, is a normal on the pain scale. Whatever your normal is. Okay. Do you want to talk about transactional relationships? This episode makes me want to, whether I would like to or not. Okay. So this is, we're new ish LA people. Right. So we're new to a town that is like an industry town. Oh yeah. So most of the people we meet are connected to in some way, the industry that we are somewhat connected to. And so by virtue of that, in a way that it was never true for me in the Bay Area, there is this approach that you can, you weren't in like crypto. What was going on? Not a tech problem. They need to break it to you. Um, there is this like approach that certainly I would not say not everyone, not the majority of people I've met in LA, but certainly more than I've ever encountered in my life of this, what can you do for me? Sort of approach that people have in this town. Have you experienced that? Is that something that feels new to you or? I haven't experienced that so much here. I mean, I think we've all experienced it one time or another. And we need, I think a German word for that very specific, like soul falling feeling of like you're having a conversation with somebody at a mixer, at a party, at a wedding, whatever, and you can feel their eyes drift from you behind you to find the next person that they want to be talking to. I mean, it feels terrible. Do you feel like that happens to you less? Cause you're so tall and it's like hard for them to sort of like find someone. I don't think that's true. I would like if that were the case, but it comes for us all. I just, I really, when, when Josh was talking about if I do this for Troy, maybe will Troy help me later? Gave me real like welcome to LA sort of energy. Last one at least, sort of before we get into our categories, do you have an MVP of this or an MVP moment of this stretch of episodes? It's a great question. Honestly, like the main core ensemble feels really balanced to me. I don't feel like anyone is necessarily outshining. I would say for this stretch of episodes, if I had to pick one, it'd probably carry Mulligan. She kind of has the most to do in a lot of ways. The most despair over Burberry. Right. I think in particular her like. The most murdering of Coyotes. Yes. Yeah. You know, she's got the action. She's got the emotion. She's got like the I'm mapping out a search grid based on where the light last shown last to find Burberry. Pretty impressive. Genuinely. Also a depression fleece in the mix. Like, yeah. We're doing it all. And by the end of these episodes, the main kind of like machinations that are accelerating the divorce or intensifying the divorce. So I would say she's probably mine for this stretch. Comedy with the giant present, getting hit by a child. The snake prop comedy was also very good. How are you feeling though? Do you have an MVP? There was a moment. So I think over it's hard because when I when I've been taking notes and sort of going back through and awarding things, Charles Meldon is coming up a lot. Like Charles Meldon is carrying the comedy in a very significant way. Which is very key. And the conscience, I would say. They're all amazing. But, but I think Kaylee Spani for and I said this before, but there's a moment in this stretch, I think it's episode six. Yeah. Where Eunice comes into the office and is like trying to get the, the invoices. Right. The forbidden invoices. Um, and, you know, they're doing the whole like, I love your style. I love your style. Let's go shopping. But when she first comes in, Ashley like pops up to hug her and you, the way the shot is framed, like Eunice's, the back of Eunice's head is to the camera. So you get Ashley smiling at her and then going in for the hug. So her face comes around the other side and it's a completely different. I fucking hate you face. And she gives her like a brusque slap or two on the back. Slap on the back is. And then she comes back across the frame to the other side and it's pasted back on. I was like, that's some good shit from Kaylee Spani. Kaylee Spani's got it. She's really good. In so many different ways. And just like one of these actors who I would, I would just hesitate to pigeonhole her into anything. I would love to see her in just like the widest variety of roles possible over the next five years because of this sort of like transformational potential. We didn't talk about a Romulant, like alien Romulants. Like what was your, what was your experience watching her in that? I mean, she was dope. And that's a perfect example of like, would I have picked her for that role? I wouldn't have known to, but I'm glad somebody saw it. Yeah, I agree. Uh, or anything else in a sort of general way you want to talk about before we get into our category? Let's get into it. All right. Each character's worst decision, starting with our guide, Josh. I think Josh's worst decision in these episodes is to say over text, I heard you met David, you're welcome. Like that's a text that ruins your life. Horrible. He was already in trouble when Dr. Allen came in and was like, Hey, if you could have gotten to me sooner, I could have helped you right away. But then the gloat. I think the turning gloat gets me during the same time. I think they're like, but I don't think he, I don't think he meant it that. I don't think he's aware. That's the thing. Yeah. I think there is an obliviousness in that moment where he kind of thinks he maybe didn't do the best thing because of the whole waiting room situation. And we're going to talk more about that. But I think this is him thinking he made a half measure to reconcile it and doesn't fully realize how fucked a thing that is to say. I have trying to leverage Ashley's medical care in the blackmail scheme. Like that's just doing that in the first place. We're in the emergency room. Like have a moment to think before you decide to make that the time to bargain. This is where I want to double dip because you and I had a conversation in last pot about what makes a manipulation diabolical. This is fucking diabolical. Okay. Right. Like this is crossing the threshold of, you know, this is a bad thing, but then specifically using that leverage to try to get the video deleted, spinning it into this person you're trying to squeeze suffering life altering consequences because of the precious hours that she was sitting in this waiting room too long because of your shit. I mean, that's diabolical. So, okay. Last, last time we were sort of disagreeing about the definition of diabolical and I was like saying it more about the intensity of it. And you were saying more about like the longevity or the steps inside of it. I think it's both. Yeah. It's like the, the intentions themselves obviously need to be twisted. Yeah. And in a very particular, like cruel sort of way, like, you know better, you know, this is a meat, like a terrible thing to do to somebody in a bad moment and you're choosing to do it like Josh does here. But then also I think the implications have to be more than just like it was a tough conversation for them, you know? In that sense, your answer is better than mine. My answer for that, for the diabolical manipulation category is Ashley pretending to have pain from her surgery that she doesn't have just to get to the conversation. Tea. Tea, chamomile and the big mug. Like girl, no. Well, let's just go fully down the manipulation chain while we're here. I do want to give like special honorable mention to the guy at the shelter who brings out the Dockson and is like, by the way, this is not an okay shelter. That should be illegal. You should not be allowed to do that. It's our guy from Stranger Things just doing his business. I would say also the entire Ava Gambit. So like Lindsay and Ashley working as a duo on the golf course. Really good. I enjoyed it. I mean, this is the thing, like we love a con man story, a con woman story. This episode really turns into one. And when like your target is a rich dummy, I can't be mad about it. I'm in favor of it. Ava deserves everything she has coming towards her. She's the only person in the story dumb enough to be happy, you know? It's like, and yet not so happy that she won't find flaws in herself that she desperately needs to fix. We live in a capitalist society. If we can buy happiness, we will. Let's go back to worse decision. Lindsay's worst decision. I think it's going to a kid's birthday when you don't even talk to the parents anymore to try to fish out marriage or sorry, divorce advice. Free divorce advice from Meredith. Free divorce consults in a way that, like I was saying, kind of escalates everything that's happening around the divorce. I think Meredith, what really saved that scene for me, I mean, it was a good scene, but what really saved it for me was Meredith's like laugh when she was like, you have to get into the bouncy house now. This is the transaction. This is what you have to do. Really good. How did we not get that? How did we not get a carry-cune on the trampoline-esque moment from Lindsay here? Let the Wu Tang play. What was, there was something kind of uncanny about the back. I couldn't tell if like all of that was happening in the background was actually there or if they like green screened some of it. I couldn't quite tell. That's a great show. It didn't bump for me, but I'd be curious to revisit it. Some of the foreground stuff was real, but I thought maybe some of the background stuff was not real. I couldn't tell. Austin's worst decision. Well, did you have a separate one for Lindsay? I think we're aligned on that. Okay. For Austin, I think, I think it for Austin, it's just allowing this PT thing to go on this long. When do you pull the plug, Rob? Is it when an Olympian walks in? I mean, there are certain things you can't fake and one of them is the rehab of Sunni Lee, a fucking national treasure. Like there's just no way, like she knows so much more about her body than you. And this may be if you are reality inclined with this show, the idea that an Olympian would go to a random country club to find their like team of PTs would literally never happen. Certainly someone of Sunni Lee's caliber, but Austin had to eject at some point before this. This is, he's way over extended. He's basal metabolic rate. Yeah. Yeah, it's hard to pick one thing for Austin in here because it's just like he's in a, he's in a bit of a free fall of his own making. So. He's going to really hurt somebody. It's one thing if you're just like helping people stretch. And if it's Josh, then we're not that worried about it. But Nor Yunus, who clearly like doesn't need any particular help in this way, but even if Chairwoman Park gets in a session, like she could really injure her. When Austin's like, if you want to talk sometime before dinner in a public space and you just like, nah, I'm good. That's not what I want from you, my guy. A conversation is not what I'm after. It's pretty great. The scintillating repartee. Not what she's fishing for. Honestly, I would enjoy a long conversation with Austin. I think you would find it really fun. All right, Ashley. Yeah. How could it not be the break in that leads to Burberry getting out? It's got to be. I think sneaking into the house to get some revenge. Orange juice, the atrocious included. If that's what you want to do, I'm not going to say fine. Orange juice, the atrocious. Did you move on calm with this for a longer? There's a blood orange joke in there somewhere. I'm not going to make it. Okay. Do you want to reconsider doing the charades for Sidney Smeedy and you for it? For this, I absolutely do not. I will not be, you know what? We're just going to keep it moving. But yeah, like leaving the door open in the way that she does, leading to Burberry's death, which she clearly takes very hard in addition to us unacceptable. Really tough. All right, whitest white nonsense. It's got to be the lady next door, right? That's a really good one. Get to the Hispanic walking down the street. That's me. You're Greek. Even just my son set this up for me. Now he lives with a woman and he married a woman in Guam. Are you Polynesian? I she's just. Very good. She takes the cake. She takes the chestnut pate. I think you're right and she's on my list, but number one of my list is Lindsay apologizing to the coyote for being on its land before she goes. Land acknowledgement to a coyote is wild. Before killing it is the ultimate white lady move, I think. Also Lindsay, I mean, with love and respect to Burberry. Lindsay running down the street yelling, cry, yelling, Barry, mummy loves you while squeaking the monkey. That felt fairly Caucasian to me. All of that. Her in the woods at the end before the coyote just yelling treats into the woods for sure. But I don't want to spare Josh from this too, because when they're searching, he's driving around yelling, Burberry, it's your father. This show is so good. It's very good. Oh, and last but not least, I will say Meredith, who is being bothered at her own child's birthday party, but nonetheless has time to tell her horrible child. Everyone is in charge of their own body in a way that felt fairly Caucasian to me. Gentle parenting. Yeah. Somebody has been oversubscribed to Instagram feeds. Yeah, I would rough it up that parenting. I'm good old Jimmy is what I would do. So yeah. Yeah. All right. A24 riest moment. I think this is just the fact that Burberry actually dies. And I say that because A24 for all of the like, I don't know, the ways that they can be satirized now in the lane that they've kind of drawn themselves into in terms of the sorts of things they produce. When they want to get nasty, they get their hands dirty. It's James Franco sucking off a machine gun. Like it is neo-nazis running through a club. It's it's a priest putting on an explosive vest. Like they'll get their hands dirty in a way that some other production companies like want to faint at. They want to gesture to the darkness, but like they're like, let's do it. Classic A24. I love that. Um, the ants are back, though. The answer not only are the ants here on on Josh's coffee table, but Ashley has a whole the ants streaming in and out of the tarot trap. And then they're all like, all dead. Yes. Like that's the time lapse ant crawl. Yeah. With poison. You know, I did think everyone involved in this story at this point is just not concerned enough about the ants. I love a tarot trap. They're very effective. Yeah. But even then it's like you have an ant graveyard and like nobody's exactly sweeping that stuff up. And then when Josh sees a bunch of ants streaming in around his food, he just like quashes one quietly and emotionally. Rob, you know why? Why is that? There's rotten the mulch. There's so much rotten the mulch. And they're just ignoring the problem. I agree that they're ignoring the problem, but if you busy yourself by cleaning up the symptoms that surround the problem, sometimes it makes you feel better. Oh, is that better? I don't. It makes you feel better. Is it better? Remains to be seen. I will say also the vending machine full of red Gatorade felt very A24 to me. The hospital dream sequence. And then when Lindsay looks at the older woman enjoying her dessert and her newspaper like sort of wistfully like. Could be me. Could be me. Yeah. Without a man of my life. I love this future for me. That felt very A24 to me. Very A24. Also literally very A24. The whole like Bufo trip that Josh goes on, which somehow I would say takes him to like the very specific dark void from under the skin. Do not bring any drugs into my life that take me to that place. I'm not interested in going there. Would you do toad hallucinogens? Is there a circumstance you would? I think I would. What if Trose Melton was there to tell you? Yeah, I would need a Melton style guide. Melton on chat GPT. No, see that actually has experience and doesn't just not even convincingly seem like you need a Bufo Sherpa. Yes. So you mean a guide? A real Bufo bro. Yeah. And he pretends to be one, but he's not one. That's who I never want to meet in my life. A Bufo bro. No, absolutely not. Like 10 times worse than a ayahuasca bro. Oh, that's for sure. And that's a bad, that's a bad vibe. Okay. We've already talked about diabolical manipulation. Realistic shot fired during an argument. There's a lot of candidates for this one. I think there's going to be a lot of candidates for every bunch of episodes we do. But I think it's the way that Berberies escape turns into Josh and Lindsay like taking very direct aim at each other. And I have written down specifically, you do this, you always need someone to blame. So you distort reality to build some absurd narrative. Yikes. In that same argument, it would be Lindsay bringing the literal receipts when she goes, oh, you fucked up. You fucked up. Wonderful. Brass doorstop. Or if you got him fucking idiot with the date on it. And then Josh, on the other hand, imitating your accent, doing the like, not so, not so, not so. Yeah. Like getting really petty inside of that. And that argument will come back up in other categories, obviously. But that's, it was a tremendous performance. The ramp up of the pettiness between them has been wonderful and kind of culminating for me in the Lindsay like, I'm going to fuck every guy over five nine at this club. Very good. Again, just knowing exactly what dagger to pull out to ruin the person you're with. All right. We've, you've already touched on some himbo, himbo-iest, himbo-iest stuff. Remind me what you called the JFK runs on our love story coverage. That's a trauma jock. Yeah. Austin going on some trauma jocks to avoid Lindsay post-sordery. Him saying it's a broken system foe show. And then when the aforementioned Olympian comes into his facility and he goes, what ails you and strikes a sort of like thinking man post? Yeah, very good. What else do you have? As far as other like himbo-iest stuff, I think just having to recite the Gatorade sequence to himself as he walks down the hall. So he doesn't forget it in 30 seconds. I would do that though. Would you? Yeah. I think, I think you could remember. No, my memory's bad. You couldn't remember the list of four flavors? I would recite, I might not have recited it out loud, but I would recite it in my own head. Yes. Wow. Red, blue, yellow, no purple, maybe. Red, blue, yellow, no purple, maybe. But I would also like to think that I like my, I would already know my partner's preference, Gatorade preference. That's the damning detail. Yeah, absolutely. Anything else? Trying to call, trying to call plunge into a goal plunge? Look, I think it's natural to be a little intimidated if you are pretending to be a profession that you're not incredibly under qualified and then met with Suni Lee. Yeah. And being told that you're now responsible for her rehab and treatment. You're going to say some dumb things. Feels reasonable to me. Name drop slash celebrity cameo. I'm going to say it again. They got Suni Lee on the show. So an incredible cameo I was not expecting. Did it top Barry Davis for you? I think it does. And like, I'll do respect to Suni Lee. Very much like athlete acting, like pops in. Ditto Michael Phelps. Ditto, you know, like, yes. Deliver in some lines. Very brief appearance, I imagine. Wooden, woodish. Yes. Yeah. But they're doing their best. And in this case, I found it genuinely shocking in a very funny way. Not Childish Gambino sharing the missing Burberry post. That one is very funny. Not Troy's Hunzimmer call. Also great. Not literally hot chip showing up after you call that hot chip. I wanted to save that for another category. And then actually my favorite weirdly in the name drop, not actually showing up is when they're giving Ava the hard sell on the trip and Ashley pulls out the like Shakira and he goes Shakira, like repeats it back with reverence. To be clear, as far as celebrity endorsements go, if you told me Shakira did almost anything, I'd be like, it must work. I'll do it. It like it makes sense. The hips don't lie and neither does Shakira. You know, OK. Most cutting critique of Gen Z. I actually thought they went a little lighter on the Gen Z. Yes, the gender and some of that is what you're talking about. Right. We've shifted from generational to a little bit men and women being juxtaposed. I my question for you is, is it a critique of Austin or of Gen Z that he is such a pushover that he gives up the one flavor of Gatorade that that feels like an Austin that's more of an awesome thing than a Gen Z thing. In that case, I'm going to go with Ashley's like being performatively very open. But as you said, we'll just like feign pain to get out of any conversation. She doesn't want to be a part of that's a great one. You really think Gen Z is an avoidant generation. Not to play the stereotypes, but like that to me is the social version of like pretending your neurodivergence so you can have more time on the test. Not saying everyone's doing that. I'm saying some people might be doing that. Okay. I think Austin going straight to chat GPT for all of his needs. But Lindsay does it too. Does she? When did she go to chat? So when she goes to talk to her friend about like her friend Penelope is getting divorced, she was like, she looked up on chat. She might be entitled to future wages. Cross generational. Okay. We're all dead. Not knowing what a deductible is. That's that's every young generation. I like I really like that. I remember when I was like, explain it to me slowly. Sometimes I still need greater insurance systems explained to me. The daily check on the phone as like a relationship repair. Is that a generational thing or is that cross generational? That might be a generational thing. I suspect that's just like a certain kind of relationship period and a certain kind of person in that relationship period. But also is the precipitating event for that just that he wasn't totally forthcoming about the unit situation. And it's weird because she's the one who took his phone and used it to text units and he knows that. Yeah. That's not a secret. I love the whole thing where she like, she, you know, we're all very cognizant of the recently deleted. It's come up a couple of times. She goes in there. He goes in there to look for it and it's gone. But then he very quickly has unit like detective, uh, you know, Austin on the case, he puts it together pretty quickly. So gotta give him credit. Yeah. Just really shedding the himbo reputation left and right. Elder millennials. I, I do think it's lighter in the broad strokes, but throwing yourself ceaselessly into work because you don't know how to process your emotions, only to then realize that all of the relationships in your life are transactional and like the very delicate architecture you've built around everything that you are is crumbling around you. Who could relate? If you show up at a manic state and ask everyone how the scones are, I will have some questions for you, Rob. I do think overall we talked about Josh's hairstyle. It's getting increasingly harried. Like whatever party is happening in the back is not a party I want to be attending. Um, Lindsay saying, uh, you find yourself as a 40 year old without the faintest idea of who you are. Oh yeah. Um, I have a bonus here. Yes. Which is William Fickner is technically a boomer. I looked it up. He's not even Gen X. He's a boomer. Just straight boomer. These apps are killing us, man. The truest thing said on this show. Okay, boomer. Like, but complimentary. Okay, boomer. But in association, dordashing yourself a meal every night does feel like a very millennial thing to do. All right. Needle drop. See, I think this has to be like, okay, Lindsay wandering around town in agony, looking for Burberry as Josh has jet-setted to the ski chalet to wear a fur vest as he synthesizes with hot chip. Who gave him that fur vest? Where did it come from? I like to think one of the members of hot chip had it. Or do you think Troy just has like a closet full of fur accessories? Honestly, you know, he does. There's a whole like room of skis, all the equipment necessary. Of course, the first. The fur, the fur room in the chalet in Park City. Those are that saying. Okay, great. Oh, and also the way that that episode then bleeds into a Father John Misty outro. Father John Misty real love. That's it for me. All right. Pop culture reference. Here's the thing that I've been dying to text you since I saw it. Oh, no, you've been... I think I know what it is. What do you think it is? I think it's the Tafkan Maverick bullet train situation. Is it not? Almost, but not. It's the Mescal, Mescal night. Because that is something I would quite literally die to attend and or throw. I had written down, we might need to get the whole prestige family together for a Mescal, Mescal night. I would love it. And after Sun is definitely included in the experience of the Mescal, Mescal night. Have I ever told you that in college, my friend and I used to throw what we call the Bale features, which were two Christian Bale movies back to back. We went through his entire filmography that way. I love a pun name inside of a movie event. That's my favorite thing to do. So Mescal, Mescal night. I was like, uh-oh. Do you... Is Josh my soulmate or am I Josh? On the pun front, I've attended two like movie marathon screenings. One Denzel Washington called the Denzel watching thon. Great. Went to Tom Cruise one, Cruise control. Great. Great. This is how I know we're kindred spirits though, Joe, is I and some friends would celebrate Leonardo DiCaprio's birthday every year, November 11th, with you come in costume as a Leo character. At... We started out watching like two to three Leo movies. It has become over time now, almost not existent, but like maybe we watch one. And we would usually order pasta because he mentioned in like a teen people magazine interview. When did you start doing this? I can't even remember. You were a teenager. I want to say it started with when Jay Edgar came out. So this has been a minute. So not a teenager, but into adulthood. Yeah. And what a great and exciting project for you to start with. I'm animated by many things. So did Caprio? Yes. The great problem though was in the same interview he mentioned of this is like teenage Leonardo DiCaprio was being interviewed saying... Pussy Posse era. Yes, absolutely. To Caprio. Said his favorite food is pasta, so we got to get pasta. And then he said his favorite drink is frutopia, which is very hard to find now. I think we successfully did it one time. We sourced some. It did not hold up well, but if you have frutopia out there, I'm interested in buying it. If you have frutopia. I genuinely, if you have a frutopia hookup. Rob was like to stop smiling. That's the whole reason we've done this podcast. Is there a fun name for your DiCaprio? There's not. This is what I'm realizing. I fucking missed the boat on that. Okay. PressHGV at Spotify.com if you know what Rob should name his DiCaprio events. Yes. Yeah. I, it's my literal favorite. There should be like a tie and food theme, a fun name. Naturally. And a movie of some kind. The reason I was wondering if it happened when you were, started when you were a teenager because you were able to cite a teen interview with his favorite food is. That's just good, deep research. My friend, I'm not like a, I actually do not give a shit about the royal family, but when we were teenagers, my friend, Hillary and I, every year used to make all of our friends celebrate Prince William's birthday as a joke. We would make a cake and then we would watch royal themed movies on Prince William's birthday. This is a great bit. I know. Bits are fun. Movie marathons are fun. Party planner Joanna Robinson. Heimberg's all around. Mescal Mescal night is so good. Again, I think it might have to happen for us. Let's do it. All right. I love that. But yeah, the Top Gun Maverick moment, so good. Also Zero's Oppenheimer was also a great, shots fired from, from our girl. I also think as far as like relationship critiques and snipes go, having secret resentment because you couldn't go see Top Gun Maverick because your partner had COVID. There is a reality to that. And also your hatred of bullet train where you just like, what a downgrade from Top Gun Maverick to bullet train. I mean, that's your guy. He's not my guy. I just like him better than you like him. Okay. David Leach, Joanna Robinson. And then I'm one super fan of David Leach. My, actually my, on the Atomic Law and DVD case is a pull quote from my review. I think that's the only DVD case I'm on is the Atomic Law DVD case. You're not going to dodge the allegations on this summer. No, I guess not. Sorry to say. All right. Eat the rich. What do you have? We're eating the rich this week. I actually think Troy does an extraordinarily nice thing for Josh in these episodes, in terms of whisking him away and trying to get his mind off it, organizing. A chalet party. A chalet party on a moment's notice. Hot Chip on speed dial. But that's the thing, like getting a hot chip and a full party within, I don't know, two and a half hours. How long does it take to fly to Park City? Yeah, like a couple of hours on the PJ. They were wheels up in 40 minutes. Very short flight then to the chalet. The turnaround on that is pristine rich people shit. I have to wonder that, well, there must be a private airport outside of Park City because the, it takes a minute to get there from the Salt Lake City airport, but there's probably a, there's probably something. For the PJs. For the PJs outside of Park City. And along those lines, I did look up Joe, the Yamazaki 25 year whiskey single malt that they drink. Would you like to take a guess at how much it costs a bottle? A bottle, not a glass. Let me, let me give you, I mean, just off the top notes of sandalwood, persimmon, some umay, some ginger. How much do you think one bottle of Yamazaki 25 year old single malt whiskey costs? Four figures. Yes. $7,000 a bottle. That's why Josh is like, yeah, you know what, I will have some. And, and fair enough, what I was really judging, like honestly, under worst mistake, I kind of think going to Park City when your dog is missing and not yet declared dead. And he's like, we're all grieving Burberry in different ways. And Lindsay's like, I'm actually out here looking for Burberry. Was a pretty big mistake. I do think, oh, shit, we're in your chalet. This is not Bodewell is like a great line. Here's where I'm eating the rich. I'm eating the rich in the steam room. And here's why. Eucalyptus steam, honestly, 10 out of 10, it's a great experience. And I, I too have been to a spa where the eucalyptus steam was not eucalyptus thing. And I didn't complain, but that is like a different. You thought about complaining. No. You registered the complaint internally. I was just like, this isn't the same without the eucalyptus. It's not it. But here's what I hate about the rich people who attend this club, how they're always asking for free shit from Josh. Can you comp this, his doctor friend, right? Like, you know, can I get a free round of golf, not during peak hours. Okay, during peak hour. Also that's four people, right? Yeah, exactly. And like all the, you know, the people in the steam room, Josh is like, I'll comp this, I'll comp that. I'm just like, these people have more, these people can afford $7,000 bottles of whiskey and they are constantly cheaping it up. It's eat them, eat them up. This is the secret about rich people. Is they all want free shit? Eucalyptus steam, you know what I mean? All right. Last but not least, livin' out with the beef. We're just straight back in the pit. This is an episode of the pit. Okay. When Austin was like, where are the Filipino nurses? Princess Perla, where are you? Anything you want to say specifically? I'll say this, not to like harsh the mellow or whatever, but as part of like my whole health thing last year, I had an uforectomy and that's when I learned what that was. So when I saw Ashley on the table and they're like, uforectomy, I was like, oh, fuck, they're taking her ovary out. Like I know that specific word. And so when she woke up and they're like, everything's fine, I was like, this is the fucking, like even before it became like very clear, it was a dream. I was like, this is, there's no way she's okay. $27,000 debt over a dijourno. Here's- Well over a maybe hot pocket. No, they're eating dijourno as they're talking about their debts. That's disgusting. Chicken bacon ranch hot pocket. Wouldn't recommend. And I would say, after we signed up for her to help with our finances, cancel that. The writing is very good. That's very good. The writing is very good. I do think just the general extended comedy routine around the insurance industrial complex, it is a broken system for show, as you mentioned, Joe. Even just like they can't target you, there's laws and stuff. All of these ways in which they are trying to wrangle, being in the hospital, paying for being in the hospital, Ashley's like, it's kind of heartbreaking, but also kind of funny, how much she's being told, like we removed her over and she's like, how much did it cost? It has to be the first reaction to basically everything. This is covered. That's a billing question. While she's like under anesthesia. It's a billing question. It's heartbreaking. But the terrifying parts of being in the hospital, also kind of living out in their own way, this is a more hellacious ER environment than anything we saw in the pit. The moment where Ashley is looking across at the person in the other bed, and they're like four different bodily fluids pooling at their feet. That's what I mentioned, the like the A24 sort of like, what were those fluids? And then when the 5150 walks by, like, tit out, just being like, it's too late, like what's happening? I miss that on the hymn. Well, tit out. Tit out. Yeah. Just the one. I miss that on the hymbo category. Austin trying to pull the like 5150. She's the 5150. That's not. Well, as we discussed on the pit, who like the greatest villains on that show have been over the course of season two, is the blonde nurse the greatest villain on this show? Kinda. But maybe also Josh withholding medical care. Josh very bad. Yeah. Ashley's dad, not the greatest villain, but like sucks. She's saying absentee Gen X is kind of interesting. What's going on with her mom? I don't know. We will get a consummated contact with her mom this season, I would think, right? I hope so. Is that why she's like latching onto Lindsay in an interesting way? I don't know. Wouldn't be surprised. I don't know. All right. Anything else you want to talk about in this stretch of episodes? I am eager to see how the greater concerns about chairwoman parks businesses. We haven't touched on that at all, but like, you know, that's, I mean, she had someone killed. She had, so if I'm tracking this correctly. Yeah, let's talk about whoosh. Whoosh is her first husband's, her ex-husband's son with another woman. That is my understanding. The question I had when she was having that conversation with him was like, he was like, well, then I wouldn't exist. But like the way she responded to that, I was like, was there overlap? Was this a child that he had with another woman while he was still married to her? She seems to have a lot of regret around, you know, he seemed to have been like maybe the love of her life in some way or I don't know the nature of their divorce, but that all seemed quite messy. And then she had, she has looked out for him in his life. I love that when she was like, you know, you look more like your mother, like right before she like, awesome. Also, here's the thing about, the reason I was surprised by that, I wasn't surprised that like she wasn't going to promote him to VP, that he was in trouble. It was the alacrity in which she had that because like when did she make that call? He got hit on the way out of her house. Does she have a little button under a table that she, you know, she's like a matlour button that she pushes and she's like, a truck comes speeding by? 100%. Those people are on speed dial. This is like a very powerful woman who is not fucking around. But is that truck just idling around the corner and just waiting for the button to be pushed? I guess there is like a non-zero chance. Actually, there's not that it's pure coincidence that it's not chairwoman, park orchestrated, has to be her. She definitely killed that hippo. Just with the swiftness. Yeah. He went out full of lasagna. I mean, I would like to if I'm gonna pick a time, there are worse times to go. And so, yeah, Woosh is her not son, son of her ex-husband who is at least as far as we understand now not related to her in any actual way. I don't believe so. And Eunice is her translator and aide and like confidant in the way that those translators tend to be, but not actually like biologically related to her. But they were all sleeping and staying in the same house. Right. And Woosh had the invoice information, but Eunice has a clue as to what like is on the case about what's going on with this malpractice. She is actively snooping in a way that Woosh just had to have the evidence like thrown at him by Ashley basically. And I do think if there were an investigation, right, into chairwoman, park, sprotter, enterprise, vis-a-vis Dr. Kim's medical practice because of a wrongful death in Korea, would they really be like interviewing Woosh? No. Eunice, yes. Woosh, I don't know why Woosh is on the, you know, the inquiry list. Other than maybe there's some impression. Well, because he's involved in the clinic because he was like, well, but getting people to go to the clinic and going with them. But at that point, it was like under the table, I would have think like relatively quiet. Maybe. Maybe he was on commission or something in like a more formal capacity than we've been led on. But I guess credit to the sole police for being incredibly thorough. We know that they are. We know that they are. Okay. Yeah. But chairwoman Park, I'm interested to see how that all angles of this. The story, I'm really excited for episode seven and eight. I think how those elements of the story continue to impact what's going on with Josh and Lindsay and Austin and Ashley. So we're going to Korea, like our Lindsay and Ashley and Ava going girl's trip on the PJ. We've already been so. No, but like, are we like, is the whole story going to Korea? I would love it. I would love it too. I really hope that's the turn it's taking. You can only stay at the country club so long, you know? Let's get out, let's stretch our legs. I think we've lingered too long at the country club. Too much eucalyptus steam up the nostrils. Maybe so. So to recap, if you have access to Frutopia, please let Rob know. If you have an idea of what he should call his annual Leonardo DiCaprio celebration. Yeah, 11-11. Follow up question. Can you please now list? I'm so sorry, I did not do my due diligence. Yeah. What are the various DiCaprio characters that you have shown up as over the years? I'm so glad you asked. Yeah. Definitely one as him in the basketball diaries. Definitely one as him in catching me if you can, specifically when he shows up to the airport and is waiting outside and tilts up his sunglasses just so to gauge whether the police are there. I knew it was going to be a catch-up. I mean, gotta be in there. Actually, I know we've talked about this before because I've shown you one of the costumes, which is a Vanity Fair photo that he took in which his neck is wrapped by a swan. The swan photo, I don't know that you told me what event it was, but you did tell me. I've seen it. You dressed up as DiCaprio with the swan around your neck. I have seen that photo. As one does. And that's because we had to open it up. Over time, it's like there's only so many roles despite his massive filmography. Like you got to broaden your horizons. And so it became, if you can find a photo of Leonardo DiCaprio and emulate it, the world is your oyster. Whether he's talking about pasta or not in that interview. It might be. Is the swan around the neck, is that the best DiCaprio costume that has happened or has one of your friends out shone you in any way? I mean, it's definitely my best. I made the swan. So like, I mean, that's, these are the levels I'm willing to go through for Leonardo DiCaprio. Friendly in order to DiCaprio, apparently. You're a very special person. Thank you. All right. So yeah, please get back to Rob about Frutopia or naming his DiCaprio event. Thank you to Devon Aldo for their work on this episode. Jacob Cronat, thanks to Ky Grady. Thanks to all of you for listening or watching us. We'll be back with seven and eight sometime later this week. And more euphoria continues apace. Can't wait. See you soon. Bye.