Sumith Prasad
Created by Tony Basgallop, Amazon Prime Video’s thriller series ‘The Consultant’ follows the aftermath of the murder of Sang-woo, the founder and head of video game publisher CompWare. A consultant named Regus Patoff arrives at the Los Angeles-based company with a contract signed by Sang before his death and assumes the office of the late founder. Patoff becomes a subject of immense interest to creative liaison Elaine and senior coder Craig, who suspect that the consultant is not who he claims to be. Their investigation leads them to the past of Patoff, making one wonder about his creator. Well, let’s share our thoughts regarding the same! SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Mystery Behind Regus Patoff and the Commissioning of the Golden Skeleton
Craig’s investigation to unravel the mystery behind Regus Patoff leads him to Milani, one of the latter’s acquaintances. She lets him know that the key to solving the mystery that revolves around Patoff lies with Frank Florez, a jeweler. Craig meets him, only for him to reveal that a group of supposed doctors made him create the parts of a golden skeleton and bought the same using cheques signed by Patoff. When Craig realizes that his fiancée Patti is locked up by the consultant, he confronts the latter and breaks a panel of glass underneath him when he stands on the same, making him fall to the ground floor. One of Patoff’s toes gets severed and Craig dissects the same, only to find a golden bone, seemingly made by Florez.
Since Craig finds a man-made golden bone inside one of Patoff’s toes, it is evident that the consultant is not a human being but a robot/machine. Florez’s customers bought 206 bones, the average number of bones in an adult human being, in gold to make a robot. Since the orders were given and received by doctors, a group of highly talented doctors was likely behind the endeavor of creating Patoff. But why or how did a group of doctors spend around $25 million to make a golden skeleton? Even if the robot was created by the same doctors, an individual or group might have offered funds to commission the gold.
Patoff is a consultant who “adopts” companies facing shutdown in months or weeks due to financial turmoil to transform the same into establishments with financial security and commendable turnover. Since he doesn’t ask for a single dime to provide his services, the consultant’s creators must be the advocates of capitalism who wants to ensure the prosperity of privately-owned companies. One of the most recognizable features of a capitalist system is the priority of a company’s well-being over the rights and needs of its employees. The most prominent change Patoff brings to CampWare is this change in priority.
In his pitch to Sang, Patoff says that CampWare is overpaying its employees with money and other services while the same group is underperforming. Patoff eliminates such a predicament by instilling competitiveness in the employees and killing their compassion and cooperation. These subtle changes are fundamental to any capitalist establishment. Thus, Patoff’s creators are aiming for an ideological change or transformation within a company rather than the monetary results such a change would bring. Since the creators of the consultant are not at all bothered about money, it is safe to assume that they are heavily wealthy and potent enough to ensure the deaths of several previous heads of the companies.
The creators of Patoff can be the members of a secret society that advocates capitalism and tries to eradicate employee-oriented workspaces that lean towards anti-capitalist values. Craig accompanies Patoff to a pub while they get bonded, only for him to return to the place to retrieve his original clothes. When he opens the pub’s door, all he sees is an office space filled with cubicles. The secretive and supposedly non-existent gathering of Patoff and his peers makes it clear that the existence of a secret society that comprises wealthy and influential individuals cannot be ruled out. If that’s the case, the same group might have commissioned the gold for experts to build the consultant.
Read More: What is Regus Patoff’s Real Name? Who Does He Work For in The Consultant?
