In episode 6, Travis is deserted by his team as a video of him getting in an altercation with a driver goes viral. He seeks Emil’s support and guidance. Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber is streaming on Voot Select.
Recap
The episode starts with slides informing the audience about Elon Musk and Travis joining Trump’s economic advisory team. This backfires on Uber, seeing Trump’s migrants laws and Muslim Ban. People openly boycott Uber. Various magazines and newspapers dig into Uber’s controversial past and publish articles about it.
A video goes viral, defaming Travis more. In the video, Travis is seen with many escorts, travelling in a cab. The driver confronts him about dropping the price. Travis denies this and gets in a fight with the driver.
Travis and Emil are drinking, and Emil comforts him by saying that it was the driver’s fault and that he should be grateful that he has a job in the first place. Travis claims that they need to get the driver-less cars out in a maximum of 18 months.
Gabi is upset after seeing the video. She decides to move out after seeing that there’s no change in Travis’s attitude. Travis calls her selfish and immature.
Travis wants Uber to be investigated by the famous lawyer Eric Holder, the first black attorney in the United States. This PR team thinks this is a bad idea, but he ignores them.
There is a driver strike in JFK. Uber decides to turn off surge pricing. Dan O’Sullivan, a left-wing journalist, tweets his opinion about this decision and initiates the hashtag ‘delete Uber.’ The hashtag starts trending.
Austin, his employee, is furious about it and asks him to leave the council. He just mocks her. But she reasons that the majority of the drivers are immigrants, and most of the users and employees are left-wingers. All of whom are mad at him. Uber faces massive revenue loss.
Meanwhile, Google refuses a settlement and wants to take Levandowski to court. Bill and other board members ask Travis to remove him from the team but Travis refuses. Emil finally removes Levandowski.
The PR team learns that some reporters know about the Karaoke night in Seoul. Travis and Emil had taken Gabi and some of the company’s female executives to an escort bar on a company jaunt. Emil calls Gabi and asks her to not make any comments about it, but she refuses.
Uber has lost around $14,000,000 in revenue by now. The ‘delete Uber’ hashtag is still trending in Uber. Travis finally decides to step down from the economic council. He travels to Los Angeles to meet Eric Holder and read the investigation findings.
The reports by Eric are awful. It contains all the incidents of racism, sexism, intimidation, hacking, lying, sexual assault, sexual predation, and much more.
Travis’s parents get in a boating accident. His mother dies on the spot, and his dad is hospitalized. For the first time, the audience witness Travis showing some real emotions.
Holder recommends removing Emil from the company. Bill asks Travis to do this to show people that he is taking responsibility. Travis meets Emil and informs him about it. Emil isn’t happy and gets mad.
The board convinces Travis to go on temporary leave, away from everything for some time. The episode ends with the launch of Uber 2.0 and Travis giving a speech to all his employees about the new and improved Travis 2.0.
Review
- In this episode, the viewers witness Travis facing repercussions for his actions for the first time. It was satisfying to watch people hold Uber accountable for their actions.
- Travis rudely breaking up with Gabi and calling her selfish gives the audience another idea of how many shells of a person he had become. He worked on a single goal- to earn profit.
- The series also tries to show the evident ‘bro culture’ in the corporate world and how, more often than never, white men take advantage of the power they hold over others.
Rating: 3.5/5
Also Read: Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber season 1 episode 5 recap & review: The Charm Offensive