In Mulligan, Senator Cartwright LaMarr becomes the vice president of the new world after the alien attack, hoping that he will get a chance to reshape the country according to his conservative beliefs.
After watching Matty Mulligan save the world from the aliens and become a hero in people’s eyes, Senator Cartwright LaMarr grabs the chance to make him the leader of the surviving humans.
LaMarr makes Matty the president of this new world, even though Matty is not fit to run a country at all. It is revealed that LaMarr has a motive of his own for giving Matty the position of president.
LaMarr plans to have the good-looking Matty and his First Lady, Lucy, give hope to the people while he becomes the brain and makes political moves behind everyone’s back.
LaMarr’s various attempts to reshape the country
To shape the country the way he wants, LaMarr lies to the people of the nation and always finds a way to distract them from the real issues.
For example, when people revolt against Matty for stealing a generator from a zoo, LaMarr thinks of distracting them by announcing Matty and Lucy’s marriage. Lucy expresses her feelings to Matty beforehand, so LaMarr’s plan doesn’t work out.
Many times during the show, Lucy becomes a big obstacle in LaMarr’s path. Unlike LaMarr, Lucy actually feels responsible for the people of the country as she makes efforts to serve them.
Matty is so in love with Lucy that he only listens to her, which bothers LaMarr, who takes measures to keep Lucy busy with the White House’s more traditional roles, like decorating the White House, but Lucy doesn’t really fall into his traps.
When he learns that the new census suggests that women outnumber men, he tries to distract the female population by introducing frivolous competitions where women will be pitted against each other because he believes women can’t run a country and they should be treated as inferiors.
Dr. Farrah ends up figuring out what LaMarr is trying to do, and she makes the save at the right time, uniting women in the process. Matty continues to listen to Lucy, who also convinces him that they don’t need money when LaMarr brings Johnny Zhao to start a new currency.
On Easter, when LaMarr realizes that traditional religion is losing its meaning in this new world, he introduces everyone to a doomsday prophet named Dave, whose predictions somehow turn out to be true.
LaMarr’s past and his goal
When Lucy and Simon seek LaMarr’s approval to produce solar energy, they learn a lot about him. He suffers from a heart condition and requires an LVAD machine to pump his blood.
Though his LVAD machine is dying and needs a recharge, LaMarr declines Lucy and Simon’s proposal to use solar panels to generate electricity.
Lucy and Simon manage to convince him after retrieving an old photo of LaMarr from the archives. This photo reveals that LaMarr voted for the Democrat, Jimmy Carter, in the 1980s elections. To keep this a secret, LaMarr allows them to use solar energy.
In the eighth episode of Mulligan, from the president’s book of secrets, LaMarr learns that everyone he respected in the president’s cabinet secretly despised him. They were never going to give him a chance to be the leader.
Now, even in this new world, LaMarr continues to find ways to take control, but Matty listens to the likes of Lucy, Simon, and Farrah.
The plan of Matty’s friends to hold elections and introduce transparency in government infuriates LaMarr. All LaMarr wants is to rebuild America with real Americans running the country.
Things turn in LaMarr’s favor when some Americans show up on a ship at the end of Mulligan. They recognize LaMarr as their vice president, giving LaMarr confidence to hold elections.
Also Read: Mulligan review: Satirical comedy picks up way too late
