The Offer (2022) Episode 9 Review, Recap & Ending Explained: Apart from delivering the best shot of the miniseries (Al Ruddy looking down at a broken orange on the dark gray asphalt), Episode 9 of The Offer (2022) took a particularly explosive turn. The threat of Joe Gallo (Joseph Russo) running the production of The Godfather (1972) into the ground by extracting all the money and preventing the crew from going to Sicily was looming large. And with Joe Colombo (Giovanni Ribisi) in the hospital, it seemed like help was off the table. But right when Al Ruddy (Miles Teller) gave up on Sicily, Caesar (Jack Cannavale) arrived to shoot Gallo up and ensure that the production went smoothly. That’s not how it really happened, historically speaking, as Gallo was killed in April 1972 while The Godfather released theatrically in March 1972. So, consider this a case of taking creative liberties for the sake of dramatic flair.
Checkout The Offer Episode 8 Recep and Review
The Offer Episode 9 Review:
While everyone will be enamored by the whole Sicily sequence, the most important topic that this episode brings up is the case of the studio cut versus the director’s cut. It’s difficult to determine how much of the general audience knows about this but the studio always prefers a smaller cut of a movie so that they can fit in more screenings in a day. They rarely care if it benefits the story or not. They just want to make more money. But a longer cut doesn’t necessarily mean an indulgent cut that’ll alienate the audiences.
It usually means that, if done well, it will give the audiences an immersive experience. It doesn’t matter if the general consensus is that the audience’s attention span has reduced. The studio has to lead the way and improve the audience’s taste instead of succumbing to it. Right now, we’re seeing a return of lengthy, well-paced (which is the operative word) movies and audiences are loving it. But as seen in The Offer, it’s a tough concept to hold on to when the pressure from the studios to revert to a smaller cut is so high.
In addition to that, the two other things that are worth pointing out are Matthew Goode (of course) and Colin Hanks. Barry Lapidus (Hanks) has been a consistently present in the show and Hanks has done a good job of hinting how annoying his character is. But it’s in this episode where he really gets to sell it. He is so impactful that there’s a fair chance that you’ll have violent thoughts that you’d like to express on the screen you’re watching this show. And that’s definitely a win for Hanks. This is career defining work by Hanks and he deserves all the applause coming his way.
Coming to Goode, this man just never gets stale. He has been a loud, eccentric presence throughout the previous eight episodes. By now you’d assume that he has run out of tricks. Yet, here he is pulling at your heartstrings while showing Evans’s (Goode) heartbreak, wowing you by making surprise entrances and filling you with wholesomeness through his chemistry with Miles Teller (who is fantastic, as usual). We like to say that awards don’t mean anything and they probably don’t. So, instead of those trophies, Goode should be rewarded with similarly amazing roles for his performance as Bob Evans.
The Offer Episode 9 Recap:
The episode opens with Ruddy exchanging American Dollars for Italian Lira and then going to the location for shooting in Sicily, along with Bettye (Juno Temple), Gordy (T.J. Thyne), Dean (Eric Balfour), Francis Ford Coppola (Dan Fogler), and Al Pacino (Anthony Ippolito). Coppola talks about his grandfather Francesco Pennino, who was a composer, and how he compared returning to his hometown to getting familiar with an old instrument. Coppola says he feels the same way in Sicily. They meet up with the local AD (Assistant Director) and have lunch at this place. Bettye asks about Evans and Ruddy says he hasn’t heard from him ever since his late night theatrics. When Bettye inquires if Ruddy is going to call him, Ruddy distracts the discussion towards the delicious food.
While they joke around and talk about lighting the shots, the AD brings in someone called Bruno who is apparently going to make sure that the crew doesn’t need any permits for the production. Ruddy is extremely thankful to him for that. When Bruno tells him to meet the next day, Ruddy gets anxious and asks the AD if he’s by chance a part of the mafia. The AD confirms that he’s and he runs the whole place. Given what he has been through, Ruddy takes his team and gets the hell out of the town of Corleone. Instead, they decide to go to Taormina, which is another town nearby, perfect for shooting the movie according to Dean and more or less free of the Cosa Nostra’s (Sicilian mafia) influence. The only problem is that it’s near the airport, which means there’ll be a lot of sound, and Coppola is clearly not happy about it.
Back on the Paramount Studios lot, Barry Lapidus, unhappy with Evans’s absence, barges into his office to see huge piles of letters and scripts. He catches hold of Peter (Josh Zuckerman) and asks him about Evans’s whereabouts. When Peter says that he’s working from home, Lapidus announces that he’s going to take over Evans’s office and hold a meeting with Peter to discuss ongoing and future productions. Meanwhile, The Godfather’s skeleton crew reaches the spot and Coppola and Gordy finally agree on something: how great the location is. And while they scout the place, Ruddy and Bettye search for some espresso. In fact, Coppola decides that the espresso shop can be a great place for the scene where Michael (Al Pacino) meets Apollonia (Simonetta Stefanelli).
They meet up with the owner of the cafe, Angelo (Sebastiano Pigazzi), who is apparently smitten by Bettye and vice versa, and offers him the chance to let the place as a location for the movie. Angelo says he’s going to do it for 50,000 Lira. Ruddy promptly agrees, shocking Bettye, who asks Ruddy if they’ve that kind of money. While counting the cash, Ruddy explains that the Lira is cheaper than the American Dollar and that means they’re paying only $35. Ruddy puts Bettye on casting duty to pick their Apollonia. After going through several unworthy candidates, Bettye actually takes Angelo’s help and describes Apollonia to her. When Simonetta (Sole Bovelli) walks in and Angelo has the same reaction that Michael has in the movie, Bettye realizes that they’ve got their Apollonia.
Later that night, the crew has dinner and they seem to be in high spirits. But Bettye drops the bomb on Ruddy that Evans is apparently going to be fired by Bluhdorn (Burn Gorman) because no one has seen him in days. Ruddy decides to go back to the USA after the car stunt (yes, the car stunt where Apollonia dies) to try and fix this situation and hand over production duties to Francis for the rest of the time they’ll be in Sicily. On the day of the scene, things go well, with a healthy dose of hilarity because the explosives don’t go off on time. And when they do, the cast and crew who didn’t anticipate its intensity are surprised by it. However, there’s no time to revel in the awesomeness of it all as Ruddy and Bettye have to get to the airport to catch the airplane back to the USA.
Ruddy meets Bluhdorn who gives him an earful because of Evans’s absence. Ruddy is offended at Bluhdorn for bad mouthing Evans. Bluhdorn tells him that he’s well within his rights to be angry at Evans because, despite everyone’s cautionary remarks about Evans, Bluhdorn trusted him and now he’s paying for it. Bluhdorn says that he knows Evans has that spark but his days of getting a leeway for everything are numbered. Bluhdorn informs Ruddy that Lapidus has taken over the office in LA. So, Ruddy rushes to Evans to get him up on his feet. That’s when you get to see Lapidus’s idiotic behavior as he shuts down movies and prospective movies left, right and center under the garb of giving people what they want to see. And a shocked Peter watches as Lapidus utters the same business strategy that production houses are saying presently: passing on “vanity projects” and green lighting cheap, business driven stuff.
Ruddy visits Bluhdorn who is drinking himself almost to death and doesn’t let Ruddy in. Caesar gives Ruddy a call at his office and asks him if he and his associates can attend a screening of the movie. Ruddy informs him that he isn’t going to be able to donate the proceeds to the Italian-American Civil Rights League, like he initially promised. Caesar says that Colombo didn’t expect him to, so, it’s water under the bridge and tells Ruddy to keep him posted about the premiere. Bettye reminds Ruddy that he can’t bring gangsters into the premiere as he goes to meet Lapidus in Evans’s office. As expected, Lapidus starts ranting about the money being spent in Sicily, showing a cut of The Godfather, and Evans.
Coppola returns to the USA and starts working on a cut of The Godfather with someone who looks like one of the editors, William Reynolds. Coppola, Ruddy and Bettye watch it and Ruddy is incredibly happy with it. Coppola feels confident enough to show it to Evans and Ruddy starts thinking about how he’s going to get Evans out of his hibernation. Lapidus interrupts Peter’s meeting with Alvin Sargent (Allen Marsh) and absolutely ruins the conversation between them. Ruddy enters Evans’s house through one of the open windows and catches him drinking and smoking while watching a movie in his private theater. Ruddy gets Evans talking about his issues. He tells him that he’s there for him because he cares about him, that The Godfather needs its godfather, and that Evans can bounce back from this situation. Ruddy gives a speech that’s eerily similar to Maverick’s (Tom Cruise) – a movie Miles is in with Cruise – “It’s not what I am. It’s who I am” conversation.
Peter, Lapidus, Ruddy and Coppola have a meeting with the marketing team and they show up with the most horrible designs that Lapidus just loves. Ruddy and Coppola are of the opinion that they should use the cover of Mario Puzo’s (Patrick Gallo) book as the poster. Lapidus probably says the most idiotic thing ever by comparing the marionette strings to the Swastika, to drive home the point that audiences are going to think it’s a Nazi movie. Ruddy tries to knock some sense into Barry and then the truth comes out. Lapidus is messing with the marketing because he isn’t happy with the cut of The Godfather and he thinks it is 45 minutes too long. Then the argument about maximum plays per screen comes in (something that we’re seeing even today). And Lapidus keeps going on and on about how the longer cut is going to earn less revenue and he won’t have that. Peter tries to mediate the argument but it goes sideways as Lapidus threatens to cut 30-minutes out of The Godfather himself.
Coppola is dejected as he hacks his own film to bits in the editing room. Peter talks to Lapidus about his approach and tries to knock some sense into him by telling him that he isn’t doing his job well. But Lapidus isn’t one to listen to reason and Peter learns that the hard way. As Peter leaves, the one shot of Lapidus sitting beside the horrendous poster designs for The Godfather says so much about studio executives who think they know everything about the business. Later that night, while leaving the office, Lapidus runs his eyes through Evans’s accomplishments and has a brief moment of realization that he can’t replace Evans when Sheila (Annie Funke) mistakes Lapidus for Evans.
Bluhdorn meets Ruddy the following day and he says that he has done a great job on the movie and that Evans is done. Bluhdorn says that they’re putting Lapidus in charge. Ruddy says that they need Evans. Bluhdorn doesn’t listen to him and leaves. Ruddy and Coppola attend another meeting with the marketing team in the presence of Peter, Barry and Bluhdorn. As they get into an argument about the shorter cut versus the longer cut, Evans makes a surprise entrance to tell Lapidus that the audience doesn’t care about the business. Evans rejects the poster as it doesn’t represent the film. He says that audiences are actually turned off by busy key art and they don’t connect with the movie. He actually recommends using the book’s cover as it creates mystery. He even rubbishes the shorter cut and says that Coppola’s cut is perfect. And then Evans tells the golden rule: “We can’t chase after what we think audiences want to see, we have to show the audiences what they need to see.”
While Bluhdorn and Barry have a conversation, Evans, Coppola, Ruddy and Peter catch up outside the office. The only note that Evans does give Coppola is about the horse head scene and the music in it. Ruddy thanks him for coming back. Bluhdorn throws the ball in Lapidus’s court and he buckles. Lapidus admits that Evans is good and that he should be at the helm. Bluhdorn passes on this information to Evans in his usual dramatic way. Even Evans is surprised by the fact that Lapidus advised Bluhdorn to keep Evans. Bluhdorn tells Evans that Ruddy is getting a chance to rewrite his history and he better not disappoint him this time. Evans tells Ruddy that they’re going to go with the longer cut. Ruddy is ecstatic. But Evans tells him that this needs to work because if it doesn’t, they’ll find themselves chained to a rock with Bluhdorn pecking at their livers every day. Ruddy assures him that it’s going to work.
The Offer Episode 9 Ending Explained:
Evans goes back to his favorite restaurant and instead of going to the table where Peter and Sargent are sitting, he goes towards Lapidus. Ruddy recruits Bettye for a special purpose. Bettye lies to Eugene (Tony Robinette), the person in charge of the safekeeping of the reels, to get said reels of The Godfather. She flies with it and Ruddy to New York. On their way though, Bettye informs Ruddy that she’s thinking of leaving her job as his secretary and becoming an agent. Ruddy goes silent and Bettye assumes the worst. Ruddy says that he knows that Bettye can do anything she wants but he always thought whatever he would do next, Bettye would be there. So, he’s contemplating what he’s going to do without her. Bettye says she wants to be something more than just a man’s sidekick and explains why she wants to be an agent.
They reach New York and it’s revealed that they (technically) stole the reels for the special screening of The Godfather for the gangsters and the mafia. Ruddy talks about keeping a low profile because every known gangster is in there and, for once, he doesn’t want to be seen associating with them. The gangsters pull his leg about not letting him make it through this screening. Then the movie begins. Everyone is absolutely transfixed and completely involved. They briefly commend Lenny’s (Lou Ferrigno) performance. They express sadness over Apollonia’s death. They gasp. They laugh. They cry. And when the movie ends with Michael Corleone becoming the Don, they give it a standing ovation. Caesar says that it’s probably the best movie he has ever seen. Ruddy pays Colombo a visit and promises to show him the movie as soon as he gets better.
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