The catalyst for Gideon’s de-throning as head of the League of Evil Exes comes when Matthew wins a fight against him and, as a result, takes over ownership of all his assets. This quickly turns Patel into the billionaire a-hole, while Gideon ends up becoming besties with Lucas Lee (Chris Evans) and spends his time playing Twister and paintball while a Vampire Weekend song plays. Matthew, meanwhile, turns into a narcissistic jerk who ends up playing Scott in a musical about his life — one that becomes the setting for a final showdown involving the evil exes and an even older version of Scott. Unlike real rich guys’ attempts to make art, though, the play actually goes well, and the crowd ends up carrying Matthew out of the theater and dubbing him “The Bad Boy of Broadway.”
The billionaire-ification and resulting fragile ego of Matthew Patel are part of a much larger trend in TV and film that takes more than a little inspiration from real-life tease-worthy rich guys like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. “Succession” skewered Musk and famously eccentric billionaires like Daniel Ek with season 4’s Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård), while last year’s “Glass Onion” put a Musk-like entrepreneur in the center of a murder mystery that played on his many character weaknesses. In the sweet and surprisingly self-reflective world of “Scott Pilgrim Takes Off,” though, power changes hands quickly and even the villains are more fun than evil. When Gideon admits he wants his power back, Matthew gives it to him, and the pair hold hands and share a joyful laugh that turns hilariously sinister.
