The Studio, the satirical comedy series on AppleTV+ that has been rightfully gaining quite a bit of popularity, presents a slightly different episode this week, storywise, at least. Unlike any trouble with external directors or actors, like in the previous episodes, the contention this time is between two internal employees at Continental Studios, Sal Saperstein and Quinn Hackett. Because of the race, and eventually the war (as suggested by the episode’s title) between the two characters taking over, Matt Remick takes the backseat in episode 5.
Spoiler Alert
What makes Sal and Quinn rivals in episode 5?
The Studio episode 5, begins with Matt Remick arriving at the Continental Studios on a relatively busy day at the office, not because of the studio’s own schedule, but because they have been renting out their sets to other production companies. Continental has been struggling financially recently, and so they have rented out their sets to Netflix for a series they have been making, as it is an effective way to earn some cash. Therefore, Matt and his employees have to go through some heavy traffic and lack of parking space at their own office, which naturally irks all of them. Matt is clearly not too fond of Netflix, but his mood is immediately lifted when his assistant tells him that Chris Hemsworth is visiting LA and had called to have some martinis together. However, since Matt’s schedule is completely full at the moment, his assistant has had to turn down the invitation, much to his frustration. The protagonist clearly tells her to immediately reserve any free space on his schedule for an informal meeting with Chris, since he loves the actor so much.
This conversation between Matt and his assistant clearly shows that he has not been seriously thinking about the plans that his two executive friends had shared with him earlier and the ones that they are banking on heavily for their own professional betterment. Sal Saperstein, one of the leading executive producers in the studio, has been having a professional conversation with the American director Parker Finn, whose horror franchise, Smile, has convinced him that a similar film can bring in good collections. Therefore, Sal has come up with the idea of a low-budget slasher horror film titled Wink, in which ghosts will wink (instead of smiling, as in Smile) before killing people. He is absolutely aware that the film will be a cheap rip-off of Smile and its sequel, Smile 2, but Sal is convinced that it can still be a hit with the audiences who look for mindless horrors, and so he has chosen Finn to direct the rip-off of his own film.
On the other side, Quinn Hackett has been eyeing a promotion for herself, as she wants to be more involved with the running of the studio. After having worked as Matt’s personal assistant for a few years, she had recently been made a creative executive, but Quinn is convinced that she can be a good executive producer and at least do a better job than Sal. Therefore, she has been in talks with another budding American director, Owen Kline (Funny Pages), for a low-budget slasher horror film that he is interested in making. At the beginning of the episode, Kline’s agent calls Quinn and questions her intentions, as well as her ability, about fixing a meeting between the director and her boss, Matt Remick, since she has not been able to do anything much about it yet. Quinn reassures that she will soon succeed in ensuring that the project gets the green light from the studio and sets about to have a word with Matt about the same.
As both Quinn and Sal are aware of the other’s plans regarding the next Continental Studios project, the two executives soon clash against each other, as they both try to get Matt’s approval. Matt initially sides with the Wink project and asks Quinn to assist Sal in it, which further makes her determined to pitch Kline’s low-budget horror. Therefore, when Sal and Matt have a discussion about meeting Parker Finn, Quinn calls the project ‘lame,’ an adjective that is known to trigger Matt into changing his mind. As the head of the prestigious studio, Matt always fears making substandard films that will be seen as mindless cash grabs, and so he immediately questions whether Wink is a film worth making. Quinn chimes in about how Owen Kline is a promising new director whose first project had not only been released by A24, but it also had the Safdie brothers as executive producers and had been selected for Cannes.
This is enough information to make Matt want to meet both Kline and Finn, and this marks the beginning of a great war between Sal and Quinn, since the studio will only select one project to pursue. This battle takes the shape of the typical differences between totally consumerist cinema and more cerebral arthouse projects, with the two characters finding conviction in the two vastly different styles of cinema. Sal has always been open about how he perceives cinema essentially as a business, and so he believes that mainstream entertainers are the way forward. He has always been batting for the side of movies, which is the popular mainstream American term for films, and is quick to point out how formula films like Fast & Furious always end up doing significant business, no matter how superficial they are. On the other side, Quinn is much more dedicated to serious cinema, and although she is not as blindsided by such films as Matt, she definitely wants to strike a fine balance between good business and appreciable films.
It can be argued that Sal’s perspective is partly right, especially in the context of the current financial duress of Continental Studios, and he also tries to establish himself as the senior executive in this feud, since he has been working longer at the studio and also holds a higher position than Quinn. But the creative executive has a different opinion, which is why she keeps defending herself and her association with Kline. Given the indecisive nature of Matt, it is no wonder that the situation soon escalates to a concerning level, which would potentially harm the studio.
Who Ultimately Wins In The Battle Of The Executives?
As Quinn refuses to give up on the prospect of the betterment of her career, she plans a sabotage to ensure that the film she is bringing to the table will get selected instead of Sal’s. She sneaks into the office in the late hours and tells Petra, who is responsible for maintaining Matt’s schedule, that she will be working till late for some specific project. Once Petra leaves, Quinn hacks into her computer, which is not a complicated job at all, since the assistant has the simplest of passwords on her computer, and it is also mentioned on a note stuck right on the monitor. She then tampers with the schedule and erases Matt’s meeting with Finn, which is about to take place the next day, and leaves it blank. Thus, when the next day rolls in, Petra notices the blank space in Matt’s schedule and arranges for a lunch meet with Chris Hemsworth, as he had asked her to do earlier.
This creates utter confusion, as Sal is ready to introduce Finn to Matt when the latter states that he will be away for his meeting with Hemsworth at the specified time, which leaves the executive producer in an awkward situation with the director. Finn now questions whether Sal can ever arrange for a meeting with his boss, and the latter has to lie about a horrible accident having taken place on set because of which Matt has had to cancel the meeting. He still manages to convince the director to have another meeting on the next day and promises that Matt will surely be available. Sal obviously figures out who the perpetrator is behind this mix-up, and he marches towards Quinn’s office but sees that she has already arranged for a meeting with Kline during this short while, and so he decides to sabotage the very discussion, only so that the project is not selected.
After first making remarks about how young Owen Kline looks, Sal starts to ask some tough questions of him, beginning with what he will do if his directed film gets a low score in the screening test. Kline is a little surprised by such a question, as these are seemingly not discussed in cases where an executive from the very studio approaches a director to make a film. He still answers honestly that he will take the positive feedback from the screening and consider implementing some changes in his work. Sal further berates him now, saying that films that receive low scores in the screening test are either canned completely or are reshot to a great extent, which generally changes the very point of them. Although Quinn tries to defend him by asking for Matt’s help, the studio head actually finds Sal’s grilling quite interesting and therefore is not convinced by Kline’s responses.
The unusual meeting also leaves Owen Kline extremely frustrated, and he leaves the office, clearly stating that he does not want to work with Continental Studios or Quinn. Sal celebrates this as a personal victory and is rather disrespectful towards Quinn, calling her a lowly employee, which makes her even more determined to sabotage his project. The next day, Quinn leaves a golf cart in the designated parking spot of Sal, which means that he has to hang around for a long time, and she calls the security guards to the place, saying that someone is holding up traffic by not parking. As the security officers force Sal to drive away, for they do not know who he is, he has to drive around the whole studio looking for a parking spot, which makes him very late for the meeting with Finn.
Finally, when Sal arrives at the office, a whole ten minutes later than the scheduled meeting time, Finn is already too frustrated, and he walks out by angrily stating that he will make Wink with Paramount. Thus, by the end of the war of the executives, they both manage to successfully sabotage each other’s works, which results in neither of the projects coming to Continental. While Matt might not be too concerned about this, or he might not even be completely aware of it, this surely ends up hurting the studio, as their plan of making a successful low-budget slasher horror is now completely cancelled because of a lack of options.
What is the deal that Quinn makes with Sal?
To make matters worse, the executives cause even more trouble because of their feud, as Sal now confronts Quinn for sabotaging his meeting, snatches away the burrito she has been eating, and threatens to throw it at her. Instead of reacting maturely, Quinn instigates him further, which results in Sal actually throwing the food towards her. But Quinn ducks, and the burrito goes on to hit an assistant director driving a golf cart in the face, which leads to him blindly driving into a live set and causing extensive damage to it. Very soon, the management team and the HR team reach Matt’s office to launch an investigation into the matter, since it has caused very serious losses for the studio. This now means that both Quinn and Sal are suddenly in trouble, and they both need to work together in order to get out of the mess.
For the first time in The Studio episode 5 showed us glimpses into the personal lives of Quinn and Sal, which gave us further insight into the characters. Along with Sal’s vengeful acts against her, what had angered Quinn most was the fact that he patronized her and wrongly tried to establish hierarchy over her. Sal had stated that creative executives in his time never dared to go against their professional seniors, proving how he was unwilling to let things change for the better in the work environment. Quinn’s overly ambitious nature was also evident from the fact that she let her personal life get hampered because of it. Therefore, when Sal comes to make a truce with her, she refuses to save him from HR trouble and claims that she will tell them about how he had actually tried to attack her with the burrito, which would land him in even more trouble.
However, Sal clearly cannot afford to lose his job, as he is a divorced man who has to pay alimony, and he fears that his two daughters are not intelligent enough to do anything significant in life, meaning that he expects to have to support them throughout their lives. Thus, Sal now apologizes to Quinn and reveals that he had been working against her only because he felt that she considered him an unsuccessful executive who was not worth much to the studio. He soon has an emotional breakdown, which makes Quinn realize that she has been quite insensitive as well, and so she agrees to cut a deal with him.
Quinn agrees to report the whole matter as an accident during the HR investigation in exchange for the promise that Sal will help her pitch film plans that she will bring to the studio and also to now get access to Sal’s parking spot, which is indeed very valuable. The Studio episode 5, ends with Quinn driving up to the parking spot, which is right in front of the office building, while Sal is driven to the place in a golf cart, confirming that their deal has been executed, meaning that we can expect to see the two executives work together on projects soon.
