The Consultant – Season 1 Episode 1 “Creator” Recap & Review

Creator

Elaine Hayman, Sang-woo’s assistant, is giving a tour to kids from Glendale Middle at CompWare. It is a gaming company. Sang-woo was 13 when he created his first game in Busan called ‘Skittle Daddy’. He is the founder of this company and is only 20 years old.

Craig is a coder and his partner is Patti. He and Elaine are not in a relationship but are friends. While the children meet Sang, he is killed by Tokyo with a gun. That night, Craig can’t sleep and goes for a run. He goes into the office and finds Elaine there, taking out the camera they installed in the fire alarm. Craig fetches his stash of weed from the drawer. Elaine is switching over to Lobster. But Craig doesn’t have anything lined up.

Patti, Craig’s fiancee, wants him to switch careers. Craig wonders if “the devil really made him do it” (referring to Tokyo). They find Regus Patoff in the office. Elaine and Craig are dumbfounded as to why Regus is in the office. Craig helps him on the stairs and Elaine asks his purpose. Regus mysteriously says his “contract starts in the morning” and that he is there to complete Sang’s work as per “the arrangement “. He also mentions consulting on business with Sang, which further confuses the duo. Regus barges into Sang’s office. Craig says that CompWare is shutting down and there is no business “to consult on”.

He calls a full start meeting the best day in the morning. Regus gives a set of papers that confirm his narration of purpose. Sang’s only living relative – his mother who speaks no English – is now the owner of CompWare. The entire staff comes to the office and waits for Regus in the hall. Regus comes out and addresses them. We can’t glean much from what he says. Just that he values the employees and is excited to work with them. Elaine’s offer for the Lobster job is revoked.

Regus mysteriously does not know what the company sells. He discussed “wider concepts” with Sang. The clock has struck 10 and an employee, in a wheelchair, who was working remotely, is not let in by Regus, despite being at the entrance and a second late. Craig says there is no information about Regus on the internet. He is a ghost. Elaine says that all the recordings are kept on a server by Sang and they can access the videos if they can get the date on which Sang signed the contract with Regus to put him in charge. She sneaks into the office while Regus is literally sniffing the employees to locate the annoying smell. He finds it eventually.

Elaine also finds a business card belonging to someone called Viktor Kulzer from Hilltech Corp. Viktor’s signature is also there on the contract. She pretends to clean the windows when Regus comes in. He also says he has “eradicated” the source of the smell that was bothering them. Elaine meets with Craig to see the video and realizes that she was out of town that week. Dana was substituting for her. Ghislaine informs Elaine that Iain, the person with the rancid smell, is being fired by Regus. Elaine goes into his office to clean up the blood. She engages in conversation and says that Regus cannot fire the employees for frivolous infractions.

He asks about her job profile and responsibilities and asks Elaine to deal with Iain. But if Iain smells again, she will be fired with him. Iain brings up a crate of Sparkles Soaps to have a bath in his office. Craig discovers something shocking in the video footage and Elaine reads an article about the death of Viktor, from the business card. Sang actually did not have an appointment with Regus. He came to see Sang out of the blue.

The video has no audio and Sang signs the contract within fourteen minutes of meeting Regus. He then proceeds to mysteriously perform an act of oral sex on Regus. The episode ends with an image of Regus playing one of Sang’s games in his new office nonchalantly.

The Episode Review

Episode 1 of The Consultant immediately creates intrigue. It keeps the cards close to the chest for now, deciding to keep us aloof from the show’s central conceit. We cannot gauge much but Christoph Waltz already seems like an innocuous-looking megalomaniac antagonist who will be difficult to bring down.

The circumstances of Sang’s death present a great challenge in themselves. There is a lot to unpack yet in the story. Episode 1 has posed many fascinating questions, the answers of which can be potentially even more mysterious.