Mulligan – Season 1 Episode 4 “The Stamp Act” Recap & Review

The Stamp Act

Zhao reaches the shore, ready to board his yacht but his “employees” have alluded to the fact that money is no longer being accepted as a currency. The crew deserts him and there is nothing he can do.

LaMarr bursts into Matty’s room and discusses various options to offset the ambitions of the stronger sex in the present day. He is worried that since there are 2 women for every 1 man, they will take over the world. Matty gives the example of his five sisters, all named Megan, who fought over the one ticket he bought for them.

LaMarr uses the same theory to offer only one woman among them the chance to feature on a stamp. Braun isn’t interested (as expected) but the others are on board with the idea. Zhao is taken into custody by a soldier for “burning his money” in the open and creating a mess.

Lucy goes to Braun’s lab and asks her to go to a play, Annie. But Braun cites an example from her past to prove how women tend to grow closer in male-dominated spaces. Matty is bonding with Axtarax since the alien doesn’t know cliched human jokes and finds his stupidity funny.

Braun recalibrates TOD to sound like a female and Lucy takes him instead. Zhao has trouble adjusting to the new reality, as he has been asked to sweep the streets but creates a mess. LaMarr rejects his pleas for help, instead asking Zhao to make himself of worth to LaMarr and receive his help in return.

Braun has had enough of the ladies gratviating towards the stamp contest and gets herself in the midst as well. But what will the metrics to judge the winner be?

Lucy and Braun are at loggerheads trying to come up with a fair metric. For the pageant, Matty asks Axatrax for Goldfarb’s jokes, a comedian on Cardi-B. Zhaot tries to jump in the rover and make his way to the yacht but doesn’t know how to swim. He nearly drowns, saved by the vision of President Xi telling him “he can do anything.” LaMarr is relishing the wedge between Lucy and Braun, but the scientist isn’t taking the battle lightly. She plans on using nanobots to embarrass Lucy but the box is empty.

Searching for more weapons, she stumbles upon a shocking discovery. Her experiment, which she cited earlier with chimpanzees, was actually an experiment on Braun and her colleague, something that LaMarr is doing now. Matty’s opening act with Cardi-B jokes is a stinker.

He goes to Axatrax backstage, who opens up a full-blown analysis of his childhood. Matty had emotional issues from his childhood, never getting attention or validation from his sisters or mother. But Axtarax has an idea. He places himself among the crowd and lets Matty make jokes about him, which pleases the crowd.

Braun comes running back and announces her discovery to everyone. All the women realize the plan and turn against LaMarr. They all feature on the stamp but he gets the last laugh as their images are in the shape of Chuck Norris. It is his image on the stamp at first glance.

Zhao has meanwhile realized what he needs to do to get back on top. He steals a bike seat from a spin class and becomes partners with the newsman – just one man on the bike, since there are no papers, screens, or electricity. He can do whatever he wants now, like defaming LaMarr without restriction. Beneath all of this, Axatrax has built a machine to annihilate the human race… but no one knows about it.

The Episode Review

Every episode of Mulligan now ends with a sort of security blanket for the writers. When things get slower or they need narrative ammunition, they will have explosive stuff in their arsenal. I feel the writers’ room has done a decent job of creating a predictable rhythm for the show; you know exactly what you are going to get, which does provide you with a sense of comfort.

Zhao seems set to become a regular character in the proximate universe and that is certainly a good thing. He is hilarious and a purebred nemesis of LaMarr, which will keep him in check. We saw Axatrax’s good and bad sides in the episode. It also brings to the surface that there is an attempt to make the characters more than just jokes and one-liners.

Even though Mulligan hasn’t latched on to the existential vein yet, small doses of crisis are sprinkled delightfully throughout.