The season finale of White House Plumbers follows the aftermath of E. Howard Hunt’s (Woody Harrelson) wife’s death as well as the trial following The Watergate Scandal. As Hunt tries to mourn his wife Dorothy (Lena Headey), he is interrupted at her funeral by G. Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux). Liddy demands they talk before the trial. Liddy has shown a lack of empathy in previous episodes; usually it comes across as recklessness; however, as he continues to agitate Hunt at his wife’s funeral, it comes across as selfishness. When Liddy is finally done harassing Hunt, he moves on to trying to manipulate two of Hunt’s children to get possible information on what their father has been doing. Though Hunt and Liddy both do their part in pretending their friendship is genuine, as more and more things unfold, so do their true feelings for each other.
Throughout the season, there have been significant mentality differences between Hunt and Liddy, which at times has caused tension, and finally, in this episode, it slowly comes to a head. Liddy admits to Hunt that he has had thoughts of killing him, and Hunt lets that comment go. However, when Liddy continues to ask Hunt questions about the case and Hunt’s opinions on the death of his wife, Hunt snaps at Liddy and then reminds him that they’re not having a meeting at the moment; they’re at Dorothy’s funeral. Instead of apologizing for his inappropriate behavior throughout the funeral, Liddy just walks away. This scene is true to their characters, seeing as Liddy is always acting heartless and thinking of work 24/7, and Hunt has always been able to show compassion and take a break from thinking about work to some extent.
While Hunt deals with his new crisis of being a single parent, Liddy has private conversations with White House Counsel John Dean (Domhnall Gleeson). Liddy tells him that he fears Hunt’s stability, meaning he worries Hunt will not be able to keep what he knows to himself. John Dean suggests keeping Hunt calm and make him aware of the deal he is working on forming for Liddy and Hunt. The deal includes living expenses of $30,000 per year plus legal fees, jail time in a nicer prison, and a presidential pardon in two years. Liddy doesn’t think it will be enough for Hunt, so he volunteers to kill him; however, John Dean tells him he cannot break another law.
As the trial continues, Liddy and Hunt start to disagree on how they should go about it, especially when John Dean turns over all of Hunt’s files and property from his locker except the files with John Dean’s name on them. By doing this, John Dean has gotten rid of any evidence connecting him or The White House to the crimes, which will pin everything on Liddy, Hunt, the men referred to as the Cubans, and James Mccord (Toby Huss). Little by little, Hunt loses faith in the chance of him not going to prison, and Liddy continues to disrespect the judge and disrupt the trial. The Cubans get sentenced to a provisional forty years; Liddy gets sentenced to twenty-five years, which he laughs at; Hunt is sentenced to a provisional thirty-five years; and, James Mccord is sentenced to one year in prison. In the end, forty-nine people were found guilty of crimes related to The Watergate Scandal and had to serve prison time. Hunt, Liddy, and Mccord all spent less than five years in prison, and Hunt and Liddy never spoke again after an argument and Hunt being moved to a minimum security prison.
Rating:6/10