The Consultant (2023) is a dark comedy workplace thriller about a strange man who steps in to help a floundering gaming company succeed with the help of disturbing solutions. The series is streaming on Prime Video.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Elaine and Craig work for CompWare, a gaming company that develops mobile games and was created by Mr. Sang-woo, a 20-year-old Korean technical genius.
When a child from a group of visiting students shoots Sang-woo point blank in his office, Elaine and Craig’s futures are thrown up in the air along with the company’s.
One particular night when Elaine and Craig find themselves at the office, they are visited by Regus Patoff, a strange man who introduces himself as a consultant who was hired by Sang-woo to assist with all business matters.
He walks up to Sang-woo’s cabin and makes himself comfortable as he shows Elaine and Craig the contract which dictates his terms. The next day, Regus gets to work by eliminating the option of remote work and laying off employees that he feels aren’t useful enough.
Elaine acts as the creative liaison at the company, although that is a position she gave herself to seem more important. Craig is a coder who wants to design his own game but was never able to convince Sang-woo of any of his ideas.
The two of them are extremely suspicious of Regus but when they look him up online, they do not find a single shred of information. Elaine goes through Regus’s stuff and finds out when he signed the contract with Sang-woo and also learns more about his previous employer.
Regus consulted for an artificial limb company in Moscow where the CEO also died under mysterious circumstances shortly before he joined. One of the strangest things about Regus is his aversion to height and the trouble he has going up the glass stairs.
They check the secret surveillance footage that Sang-woo had installed and observe Regus and Sang’s first meeting which only lasted for minutes before the contract was signed followed by Regus receiving oral sex from the company founder.
When Sang-woo’s mother arrives, Craig and Elaine believe she’s coming in to take over since she owns the company now. However, Regus works his magic and makes sure Mama Sang “disappears”, much to Elaine’s worry.
Elaine finds out that the company has a records room with physical files on every employee and tries to get into it. She finds the key in Regus’s office while Regus is out for a drink with Craig.
Regus takes Craig to a swanky club with a dress code where Craig meets a woman named Milani who has several artificial implants. Later on, Craig finds himself traveling with Regus as they transport someone gagged and bound in a cover and thrown into their vehicle.
Craig frees the person who turns out to be Milani and she tells him to find Frank Florez if he wants to know more about Regus. Regus says that he was testing Craig to find out if he could trust him and Craig failed the test.
Elaine goes into the records room and finds extensively detailed files on every one of them in the office. She’s extremely freaked out by this but the next time she tries to enter the room, she notices that Regus changed the locks.
Craig decides to fake illness and investigate further into Flank Florez. He secretly installed stalker ware in Regus’s phone while giving him access to a new game that he designed and acquired Frank’s contact.
He also lies to his fiance, Patti, who ends up at the office to surprise him but is disappointed when she finds out that he lied to her. She has a strange interaction with Regus and he appears to have a lasting impression on her.
Regus continues to cause chaos and unease in the office with his methods. Craig meets Frank Florez, a jeweler who claims that he never met Regus in the flesh but was commissioned to make an entire skeleton made of gold, bit by bit.
Once his work was done, everything in Frank’s life began to disappear starting with his business and ending with his wife. He also explains that Regus Patoff is a made-up name you get from the abridged form of the “US Registered Patent Office”.
Elaine and Craig had pushed his game as an option to bring in funds since Regus claimed they had six weeks before they went under and when Craig was out “sick”, Regus signed off on the game and made the other coders finish it, leaving the stalker ware in the code.
Elaine begins to buy into Regus’s words and works towards the betterment of CompWare. A look back into the past reveals that Regus approached Sang-woo and pointed out the impending demise of the company before offering to establish his legacy during that meeting.
Patti begins to suspect Craig after she sees that he wasn’t really sick and she goes to meet Regus. She isn’t seen for a few days after that and no one is aware of where she went.
Elaine discovers a glitch in the game that frustrates players so much, they end up hurting themselves. The game reaches the marketing stage and Elaine promotes a ridiculous stunt involving a wild elephant and Regus pushes her to make that a reality.
Elaine’s “descent into darkness” progresses when she contacts an ex-boyfriend, Patrice to help steal the elephant and drop it off in the middle of Los Angeles. Craig doesn’t hear from Patti for days and begins to worry about his relationship.
In truth, Regus has her in the records room in some kind of trance as she types out the employee files for her. Elaine convinces Patrice to carry out the job with only half the payment upfront but when he shows up to collect the rest, Regus and the money are nowhere to be found.
The Consultant (2023) ending explained in detail:
Does Patrice get his money?
Elaine tries to contact Regus but he ignores her calls as he attends a meeting with his next client. Patrice refuses to leave until he gets paid and hangs about for the office party later that night for the launch of the new game.
When Regus eventually arrives, he tells Elaine that he spent the second half for the party so they have to deal with Patrice another way. Regus hints at getting rid of him altogether but Elaine has the idea of turning him in to the authorities since he’s on parole.
Regus goes to his office and has a conversation with Patrice, eventually freaking him out enough that Patrice leaves without more of an issue.
What do Craig and Elaine find out?
Craig arrives at the party even though he clearly looks like he doesn’t want to be there. Elaine is still working during the party, keeping an eye on the numbers as the game reaches a million downloads.
Craig reveals that since the game was completed without him, the stalker ware was never removed so now they have the personal date of everyone who downloaded the game.
The two of them meet up later and think about heading out when Craig gets a message from Patti in Korean. It translates to a request for more money and when they track down the phone, it leads them to Mama Sang.
She says that Regus found her a place to stay and taught her English before giving her the phone. Craig and Elaine rush back to the office to find out what happened to Patti.
What is Regus Patoff’s fate?
When Craig and Elaine confront Regus after the party is long over, he tells them that Patti is working for him in the records room. Craig tells Elaine to get her while he deals with Regus.
Elaine goes down to the records room and frees Patti from her trance before they rush back up to Craig. Craig faces up to Regus who tells him that he doesn’t have it in him to do what is required.
Craig references the gold in Regus’s skeleton as he grabs a hammer and starts hammering the glass floor that Regus is standing on. Regus tells Craig that he isn’t the hero of this story and won’t even get the girl.
Craig lands one final blow as Regus falls through the glass to the floor below, severing a toe in the process. Craig, Elaine, and Patti rush out of there after pulling the fire alarm to call the authorities.
They assume that Regus is dead but a trail of blood reveals that Regus managed to drag himself away from the scene.
Sometime later, Elaine is approached by the authorities regarding her connection to Patrice and the elephant heist. She points the blame at Regus before explaining that he was a stranger who came in and accomplished his job of making them better.
Elaine finds herself as the new boss of the company. Patti and Craig mutually split up as Craig confirms that Regus has golden bones with the toe that he swiped.
Regus makes one last visit to CompWare and admires his accomplishments before moving on to his next assignment as the suicide of the CEO that Regus met earlier hits the news.
Also Read: 50 best Netflix thriller shows – Ranked