WeCrashed‘s penultimate episode deviates from its norm and opens with what could only be described as a cold open. It begins with a video from a fictionalized YouTube series called The Prof G. Show that explains to viewers what an IPO (initial public offering) is and why exactly the WE company needs to give into the IPO and finally go public, as its board of investors has been trying to get Adam to do for weeks now. It is certainly a choice to start the episode off this way, as The Prof G. Show has never been mentioned in the series and its sudden introduction is jarring enough to make one question if they’re watching the right show. In fact, one might think they are actually watching an ad for a future AppleTV+ series.
Prof G. explains IPOs in a way that is easy for the everyday viewer to understand — it is the moment when a company goes from having its shares only owned by private investors and employees to allow for the public to buy into the company, making it a part of the stock market. He also explains that this is the moment that will decide WeWork’s future, as to how well it does once it becomes public has the power to make or break the company.
However, Adam is continuing to resist going public with the company and still looking into trying to get more investors. Who does he turn to next? None other than GOOGLE, who immediately turn him down because it makes no sense for a tech company to buy into a shared office space company. Adam’s choice to waste his own time as well as GOOGLE’s shows the audience just how desperate he is to try and keep majority ownership of his company. Even the GOOGLE employees he meets with suggest taking the company public.
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The bulk of the episode revolves around the fallout from the argument he and Rebekah had during last week’s episode, where he essentially told her she wouldn’t have been able to do all of the things she had tried to succeed at if not for him. This includes her current passion project, WeGrow, the school she decided to create after realizing that traditional schooling was just not the way to raise children (in her opinion). As head of WeGrow, we see her complain about the most insignificant things, from one of the teachers wearing shoes that are red and have laces to another teacher not having the right pitch when singing with students. It is almost as though she cares more about trying to maintain an image of perfection than she does about actually making sure the students are actually learning useful skills.
As Rebekah tries to run her school successfully, she’s riddled with texts from Adam asking her to reach out to him. It seems as though she’s had no contact with him since their argument, which is pretty easy for her considering that he’s never really home, gallivanting around the country — or the world in some cases — in his attempts to stop the company from going public.
The highlight of the episode is when Rebekah goes on a podcast to discuss WeGrow. She says that it’s not a school, but rather a “practice and new approach to life”, whatever that means. She also has a breakdown in the midst of the podcast when the interviewer asks her if she feels hate. In a tearful response, Rebekah says she doesn’t hate, but she does feel empathy and sadness towards any cruelty — particularly against animals, children, and the planet. She also says that if people learn to be more conscious and share more, it will make them more fulfilled as individuals. The scene itself is over the top, but the performance from Hathaway is not, as viewers can see the layers to Rebekah’s meltdown, and how at its core, it’s really about her argument with her husband.
The argument comes to its head when Adam asks her to help write the company’s S-1 with him — the legal document a company presents to the world as its mission statement when it goes public and into the stock market. They go into the office together and when he brings her a latte that is actually a cappuccino, she rips into him. Rebekah tells him that he is coddled by his staff who are afraid to correct him, that he claims she has only taken what he’s given her while not acknowledging what he’s taken from her and her family, such as the million dollars her father had given them when they’d gotten married, or how he’d taken her beliefs and made them into a “shiny wrapper to package his bullshit”. How he’d even taken her words as the company’s mission statement without ever giving her credit for them. It’s a satisfying scene to watch, considering that everything she says is absolutely true. While her contributions to the company are not as grand as Adam’s are, if it were not for her endless support from the start of their relationship, he probably would have never gotten as far as he has.
The pair reconcile and use the company’s S-1 as their first real joint effort together for the company. When the two present the completed S-1 to members of the company’s board, they’re met with staunch opposition, because it’s nothing like what an S-1 is supposed to be. According to Cameron, they’ve turned the S-1 into a children’s book, to which Rebekah responds that she knows what an S-1 is because she worked on Wall Street (for three weeks). Adam reminds everyone that as the owner of the company, he still has the final say on what goes in the document. As all of the legal requirements are included, he’s actually backed by Bruce, much to Cameron’s chagrin.
At this point, Adam’s partner in all of this – Miguel – has been mainly sidelined in the process, completely replaced by Rebekah. When he manages to get a proper look at the S-1 and realizes that he is barely mentioned in it as a part of the company (a stark six pages compared to Adam’s 169 pages and Rebekah’s 20) he leaks it to the public. The episode ends with Prof G. catching wind of the document and uploading it to his website, where the Wall Street Journal gets a hold of it, signaling the real beginning of shit hitting the fan as the series moves towards its final episode.
Rating: 7/10
