The Franchise (2024) – Season 1 Episode 8 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

Episode 8

Episode 8 of The Franchise begins with Anita getting a panicked call from Pat, who tells her that Shane has fallen sick and can’t speak. So Pat will be speaking on his behalf at Comic-Con. He asks Anita to edit Shane’s speech for him and Anita sees a comment that she wasn’t supposed to: “Tecto pulled??”

On set, it is Peter’s last day and he is scheduled to shoot Eye’s death scene. He’s generally in a good mood because he’s expecting a call from another franchise helmed by Bryan Singer. Adam is pumped as well because a GQ fashion article featuring him is coming out soon. Dave, the VFX artist, approaches Dan and asks for a much-needed holiday. Daniel graciously agrees.

Meanwhile, Dag is worried she’ll be arrested for the bridge fiasco and sent to an Armenian prison. The panic gets worse when Anita arrives and tells Dag and Daniel about Tecto being possibly pulled. Daniel and Anita decide they need to bypass Pat and directly appeal to Shane.

Daniel suggests changing the tone of the movie from dark and serious to light and fun, even bringing out a notebook full of doodled storyboards — basically turning it into his version of the film, not Eric’s.

Daniel says they can recut the entire first act of the film to show Shane and the others. They jokingly call it the Kumar cut and order poor Dave to get back to work, giving him six hours to animate Daniel’s storyboard. Of course, they will need Eric while speaking to Shane so Daniel is tasked with convincing him.  

Daniel and Dag approach Eric but he is upset about finding a shoelace in his food. He’s also worried that his entire career will go down the drain if Tecto fails and Daniel is unable to bring the issue up. So, Daniel tells Jaz to organize the film’s recut without telling Eric.

In order to shoot Eye’s death scene, the team has built a fake model of Peter’s head to depict its explosion. As Peter is asked to mimic the exact expression of the model, he finally loses it. He insults the entire crew and smashes the fake head. He’s about to storm off but isn’t able to because of a loud alarm.

Jaz informs everyone that a man with a knife is loose outside and the crew is locked inside the set for their protection.  As they wait it out, Peter does get the call from Bryan Singer but it’s bad news. He doesn’t have a role. Adam’s GQ article comes out and he begins to worry because people on Twitter say the sweater looks like a dress…which it does but Daniel tells Adam it doesn’t.

All of a sudden, the crew can see the man outside on one of their cameras. It’s Dave! And he doesn’t have a knife but a pen which is lodged in his own leg. He’s also near losing it though and demands that this film be named after his daughter Emily. In his rant, he ends up revealing the Kumar cut which comes as a huge shock to Eric.

Daniel tries to explain to Eric that he was trying to save the movie but Eric grows angry and insults Daniel. Jaz informs the others that Dave has left the set area and the lockdown is lifted. As they go out, they see Dave driving away with the DIT truck which contains the film’s recut.

As a last-ditch effort, Anita says just the three of them should talk to Shane, without Eric. She, Dag and Daniel get on the call with Shane, except they are talking to Bryson and Shane is off-camera. They explain the new version of the film, which Dan describes as a buddy movie. Daniel gives an impassioned speech where he says he believes Tecto can restore the franchise. Shane gives no response and they get off the call with less hope than before.  

Pat then gathers the crew around but just as they believe they’ve got the axe, Pat reveals that Tecto has been “pulled forward.” Centurios 2 is suspended because of controversy around the male lead actor being a pervert. Tecto will now be the studio’s summer tentpole film. They have triple the budget and half the schedule!

Separately, Pat tells Anita that the decision was between Anita’s film and another one. Their passionate call with Shane swung the vote in their favour after all.

Daniel informs Dag that the demolition guy has been arrested for the bridge fiasco and she won’t be going to prison. But as everybody celebrates, Eric tells Daniel that he doesn’t trust him anymore and fires him, despite the film being saved due to Daniel’s efforts.

At the end of The Franchise Episode 8, Daniel gets in his car and is ready to finally go home and spend some time with his son when Pat comes by. He surprisingly reveals that Shane is impressed and is giving Daniel an offer. The studio wants him. What will it take?

The Episode Review

The Franchise Episode 8 is as snarky and witty as the rest of the episodes. The finale takes Peter’s animosity and Dave’s growing frustration to a peak that upends Daniel’s efforts to save the movie behind Eric’s back. There’s a nice intermingling of previously established elements here and you are almost eager to see Tecto come crashing down. But at the same time, Anita’s misinterpretation of “pulled” was an easy prediction to make.

While the HBO show continues to have sharp writing throughout, the plot is marked by a lack of emotion. Of course, it does point out a lot of flaws and hypocrisies within superhero movie franchises but also…that’s all it does. This finale keeps the ball rolling, showing that the cycle continues. Daniel could possibly be the next Eric.

But how much do we know about Dan? Or Anita? Or Dag? Or the relationships between them? Why does Daniel like superhero films this much? Why did Dag even apply for this job in the first place? Daniel did do a bad thing but that ended up saving the film, this is an interesting point to explore.

But the series isn’t interested in doing that. There are no emotional stakes here and as this finale brings the season to a close, it is hard to feel invested in the story, much less look forward to a Season 2.