‘American Auto’ Recap: ‘Funeral’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

AMERICAN AUTO -- "Funeral" Episode 211 -- Pictured: Jon Barinholtz as Wesley Payne -- (Photo by: Greg Gayne/NBC)

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 211 of ‘American Auto’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.

Something that a fair majority of people will not acknowledge, is the sheer fact that they were lost for quite some time in their lives. Lost in the sense that they were directionless and without purpose and simply went about their day and got by to the best of their abilities. And they won’t admit to that, because in the eyes of modern society, that is a sign of weakness and failure. For in America, one should always be pushing forward and chasing the American Dream with a focus and vigor unparalleled by their peers. But that is… a silly thing to be ashamed of. Because everyone goes through that phase in their lives where they just… coast. But eventually they do find focus and they do find purpose and change course.  
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It just takes the right kind of wakeup call and well, that process is of note today, simply because it was put on display in a creative manner in the next episode of American Auto on NBC. A feat that ‘Funeral’ accomplished by putting the team in a precarious place. For as the Payne family gathered at Payne Motors for the wake of Wesley’s grandfather, some troubling news came to Katherine, through Wesley. In that, now that the Payne family’s last major tie to the business was moving onto the afterlife, the family was in charge of his shares and well… they were ready to sell. In fact, the whole wake was abuzz with what everyone was going to do with the money and that terrified Katherine for one simple and chilling reason. 

In that… the stock price was finally back up and everyone was likely keeping their jobs. But if the family dumped the shares onto the market after the funeral… the price would go right back down and that would cost her and the team their jobs and that prompted her to make quite the ask of the team. Wherein she needed them to talk the family out of selling, a plan that worked, but was quickly torpedoed by quite the surprise from Payne’s former CFO. For Jin now worked for a Saudi Arabian hedge fund and was in attendance and was authorized to make quite the offer. Where his firm would purchase all the family shares, all of them, well over market value. Which would save jobs and keep Payne afloat. The team just had to talk everyone into selling and they did, and that… didn’t sit right with Wesley. 

Because he spoke often in this episode about what Payne meant to him, and what it should mean to the family, and as this episode continued belong it became clear… that death had given Wesley a wakeup call. One that taught him that just being the everyman and enjoying a good time and waiting to see what was going to come along… wasn’t sustainable anymore. He needed a true north; he needed something to focus on and Payne Motors was it. Because it meant the world to him, and he finally understood his legacy and the majesty of being a member of the Payne family. And the thought of the family business being run by a hedge fund was too much to bear and in a stunning moment, he figured out the password to his crypto drive, and bought out the shares, making him the majority shareholder. 

Which made for quite the amazing episode. One that saw Wesley grow up and embrace so much right before our eyes, and that was just incredible to see play out and it set the stage for an interesting lead up to the season finale. Since Wesley is now technically, Katherine’s boss, and good relationship or no… that could lead to conflict and of course… it’s now a race to save jobs. But while we wait to see what comes of that… we really can celebrate this story. Because it was endearing, deep and funny to boot. Mainly because Cyrus’ ability to anger the head of every major auto maker on the planet was pretty incredible, not to mention, the sell/buy sequence was just amazing to watch play out and well, all this episode does is leave us hungry for more. So, we can see what this bold new chapter in Payne Motors is going to look like. Until next time. 

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