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We’ve reached the end of Comedy Central’s extremely funny and well-done series, Corporate. The series finale episode was titled “The Wind of God” (which I accidentally attributed to the previous episode which was titled “Fuck You Money”. After 3 years, Corporate signed off with another exquisitely done take down of corporate mentality and the growing anger towards corporations who are seen as way too powerful.
The episode opens with a scientist giving a speech about how much he and his team all dedicated so much time, missing births of their kids, to the creation of a hurricane machine. As they begin to count down to pushing the start button on the machine, a man bursts into the room telling them the project has been canceled by Christian and security walks in. The man giving the speech gets upset over not being able to turn on the machine after all they did.
In his office, Christian eats food laid out all over his desk as he watches reporting by recurring character Karen James (Toni Trucks) about the outcry over Christian’s hurricane machine. After public outcry over reporting of the weapon by a reported named “Bonan Marrow”, he shut it down. They talk about the growing calls for Christian to step down and begin making fun of his other failed projects.
John walks into Kate’s office, throws a bible on her desk and makes her swear on it. He begins to tell her he’s been having doubts about Christian. He realizes he may be blindly following a mad man. Kate tells him the board of directors is holding an emergency meeting and she’s going to make a play against Christian. She asks John for his support.
Matt and Jake walk through the office and Jake questions how he ever wanted to be like Christian due to the outcry. Matt agrees and says he is no longer bothered by the fact that the company is evil. They say they’re lucky to be where they are in the company because no one can blame them, and they get free bagels. They walk into the meeting room and there are no bagels. Jake curses and Matt calls the company evil, changing their opinions instantly. Christian rolls in a cart full of bagels and everyone cheers. Kate and John give each other a look and he hypes up the bagels. Just when everyone thinks they can get one, he pours a pitcher of coffee on all of the bagels as everyone looks on, crushed. Christian asks if they’re going to eat the bagels. He says apparently a lot of people don’t appreciate what he does for the company. He demands from everyone complete and total loyalty. He tells them if there are any doubters to speak now or forever hold their peace. As he finishes the statement, he lets a giant fart out, causing him to lose grip on the tablet he was holding. Everyone gasps at what they witnessed and then the tablet hits Christian in the foot and he falls to the floor. John passes out.
He comes to again in Kate’s office telling her he’s finally seen that Christian is the devil and it’s been in his name the whole time (Deville). Kate asks if she has his support and he agrees. John throws his bible down on Matt and Jakes desks and he and Kate tell them they’re making a play against Christian. They tell them they will be senior executives and make tons of money if they join them. Jake and Matt tell them they’re happy where they’re at and that they see how stressed out the two of them are always. Matt and Jake are happy with the little responsibility they currently have. Kate tells them like it or not they’re gonna have more money and power. They force Matt and Jake to join them, slapping Matt and begin destroying their office.
At the hospital, Christian is going to recover from his foot and butt injuries, but they want to keep him overnight. The doctor says they cleared the entire floor for him due to his controversial status. He leaves Christian with the nurse, nurse Richard, who we see used to work for Hampton-Deville until he made a tweet about a hurricane and got fired, bringing the series full circle. He tells him how he hit rock bottom and blamed Christian for everything, then he found God and became a nurse. He then says when he saw Christian was admitted to the hospital, it was all a part of God’s plan so that he can do some good and make Christian pay for all the evil he did. He injects him with a syringe, knocking him out.
Kate and John invite a small inner circle into the boardroom to build a case against Christian for them to present to the board. They go over all his bad ideas like 9/11 remember day and the hurricane machine. Matt wheels in another white board and reminds Kate that she was in on the hurricane machine meetings too. She realizes that he’s right and Christian’s going to want to take them down with him. They check to see what is in writing in emails that he can pin on them. They realize Kate and John were the first to get the ball rolling on the project. They further realize every one of them is on the email thread, except Christian. They realize if Christian goes down, they all go down.
Tied to the bed, Christian wakes up and the nurse has food for him. Christian calls for help, but no one else is on the floor. Richard begins to pretend the fork is a plane and flies the food in his own mouth, taunting Christian. He then begins to say the plane is going in for a crash landing and stabs the fork into Christians foot.
Everyone in the boardroom begins to lose their cool when they can’t decide on what food to order. They’re cranky from not getting bagels in the morning and begin yelling at each other, sending Matt and Jake to go out and get them food. As they leave, they talk about not having power sucks and now they want to have it now. Jake then realizes they do have power right now. They could go to Christian directly and tell him about their power play and that he’d promote them.
Back in the boardroom, John goes over more emails which implicate them all again in another scheme which could be used against them, and again doesn’t implicate Christian. Kate, now completely loopy, begins to realize Hampton-Deville isn’t evil, it is just a corporation. She asks everyone what a corporation is. John answers, spit balling, that it is a group of people… Maroon 5… to which Kate shouts “Maroon 5! What the fuck is Maroon 5. It is an imaginary concept made up by a sociopath.” She further says they’re the ones who do all the work, and maybe they’re the ones to blame.
In the hospital, Christian is withering in pain as the nurse is about to kill him. Suddenly Matt and Jake burst into the room and realize it is Richard. They go and hug him with the scalpel still behind his back. Christian begs them to get him out of there. They untie him and walk him out. As they leave Christian is paranoid looking around. Matt and Jake reveal the coup to Christian. He sits down outside the hospital and reveals he has had a change of heart. He tells Matt and Jake that he forgot what a corporation is — it’s good people like them. He asks them if there’s anything he can do to win them all back.
In the office, the whiteboard now reads “corporations are gods we serve”. Kate announces they’ve all come to realize they have to quit their jobs and Grace says they’re going to have to move to the woods and live off the land. Christian walks into the room, still wearing the white hospital gown with Matt and Jake behind him as angelic music plays. He says he knows what they’ve all been doing and it’s okay. He says how yesterday he told them there was no Hampton-Deville without him, but in fact there’s no Hampton-Deville without all of them. He asks for their forgiveness and Matt and Jake reveal platters of bagels and spreads. Like savages they all rush the table and grab food.
The sun now coming up, Christian announces to the room he has to thank Matt and Jake. Instead he calls them Jake and Bradley and tells them they’re no longer interns, they’re now junior executives in training, their current jobs. Christian brings up his farting in the meeting and they all laugh. Grace tells him that they were all scared before to talk about it. They all recreate Christian falling to the ground and laugh together. Christian says, “sometimes life can be so painful you just have to laugh!”
In another location, the scientist who was fired breaks into the building and powers up the hurricane machine. Security tries to get into the room to stop him from hitting the start button. With a smile on his face, the man pushes the button, triggering the system.
What a great way to end the series. The episode was filled with lots of callbacks to earlier episodes and featured many recurring characters throughout the series. The final look at what a corporation is as a whole was a great way to put an end cap on the series which took on all different kinds of topics. This season was exceptionally great, and I wish we were going to get more at this caliber. The season provided so many great moments for every character to shine. I will miss Corporate and the dark, bleak yet unexpectedly optimistic (at times) world they created to analyze the world we as viewers live in. Make sure you check this series out!
You can stream Corporate on Comedy Central’s website or app.
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