The Franchise (2024) – Season 1 Episode 5 Recap & Review

Episode 5

Episode 5 of The Franchise begins with Pat telling Anita he needs to take Peter for a cameo in Centurios 2, due to a plot hole. Anita has to agree since this is their reckoning for Eric’s behaviour in the previous episode. As for Pat, he is far from done and orders Anita to add Chinese farming machinery as product placement in Tecto.

On the Tecto set, Eric films a hospital scene where Tecto cries over his dying wife and is annoyed by the sound guy rolling his eyes at the scene. Daniel tells Dag that the studio will likely cut this scene later on. Anita arrives on set and breaks the news about the product placement, showing Daniel a bright red tractor.

When Dag delivers Adam’s chicken, they get to talking and she ends up comparing his performance to a sexless potato, in the best way. He asks her to have lunch with him later.  

Meanwhile, Daniel offers Eric options for shooting the tractor but he doesn’t like any of it. Daniel then mentions that the studio will be cutting Eric’s hospital scene, but they can’t if he puts the tractor in it. This convinces Eric, who simultaneously has Daniel and Dag put a screen between him and the sound guy. He also tells them to take the guy’s scarf because it is annoying him.

While having lunch with Dag, Adam tells her about a fecal transplant that Jonah Hill recommended to him. She’s the right demographic for him, he says. Dag agrees.

Back on set, the sound guy has now been moved into a van away from Eric’s field of vision. The team shoots the hospital scene with the tractor in it this time. Peter returns from Centurios 2 but he’s been spray painted and the colour isn’t coming off, so Daniel reluctantly sends him home.

Meanwhile, Mollusc Man tells Steph about how he had to miss his honeymoon and his wife isn’t returning his calls. Steph also describes being annoyed by an “arrogant shithead,” seemingly referring to Eric.

A loud sound announces the arrival of another, bigger tractor which also has an excavation basket. After hearing that they incorporated the previous tractor, Centurios 2’s director sent his tractor to Tecto because he has “strong feelings” about China. This infuriates Eric and he badmouths China on the mic and sends both tractors back.

Dag later goes up to Adam and tells him her “package” is waiting for him in his trailer. He’s aghast when he realises she’s done a poo in his trailer and tells her this was not how the process goes. Anita arrives and shows everybody a Variety article that describes Eric’s views about China. They assume the sound guy leaked his audio while he was railing against the country.

Pat video calls the team, absolutely fuming, and tells them they now have to incorporate a product of baby milk (known for possessing hazardous amounts of mercury) for China. Mollusc Man is given a chance to have his own dialogue and promote the milk.

At the end of The Franchise Episode 5, Eric and the others all look disheartened while filming the milk scene and shooting it as many times as Pat — still on the phone — demands. During the credits, we see an apology video to China from Eric and Peter.

The Episode Review

The Franchise Episode 5 sees the fallout of Eric’s outburst on the Centurios 2 set and things seem dire. Anita and Daniel have to cater to Pat’s every whim and it makes the episode fairly one-sided. It’s an odd choice to have this go on right until the end, where the team gets no opportunity to stand up for itself the entire episode. You end up expecting some kind of turnaround but it never comes.

That said, the episode’s take on product placement and how it leads to fairly ridiculous movie scenes is quite on point. It starts out as quite the conundrum but I enjoyed watching Daniel figure out a win-win situation regarding the hospital scene and the tractor.

Dag and Adam’s little side business, on the other hand, isn’t quite that entertaining even if you are into toilet humour. As a side note, Steph seems to be getting tired of Eric’s antics and Mollusc Man is riding the high of getting dialogue, both of which are refreshing changes to their characters.