Mr. Blog's Tepid Ride

September 5, 2011

Last week, in the most anti-climactic episode ever, the Teutuls signed a settlement finally giving Senior the shares of OCC that he wanted. Paulie added the condition that he gets the Black Widow bike and after only a few minutes thought Senior agreed. The tease for this week’s show seems to be some kind of battle over the bike. We’ll see.

The show began with Senior being informed by his lawyer that Paulie was going to pick up the bike and expected it to be running. It has just been sitting around and needed maintenance. Senior got pissed that he found that out at the last-minute. “Typical Paulie last-minute,” he growled. He thought the bike would be turned over as-is and blamed Paulie for changing the rules. The person he should be mad at is the lawyers. That should have been hammered out already.

This week PJD finished the Fist bike while OCC started a Power Probe bike. Power Probe makes electrical testing equipment and presented Senior with a customized tool, which he will never use since he barely does any work on the bikes anymore.

Six minutes in, like last week, Jason Pohl appeared on-screen to act like somebody. He called the Power Probe tool “a product we use everyday.” Really? “I have a lot of people here who use it.” He has a lot of people there who use it? He does? He gets worse every week. And remember the problem with the lousy handlebars he designed last week? He blamed the mechanics for the “confusion” over the handlebars. Let’s be clear, and this came straight from Rick, there was no “confusion,” Jason’s design was impractical.

Paulie and Vinnie went to OCC to get the bike. They asked Mikey but he decided not to go. However, he did bring Paulie a black widow cake to celebrate. The bike was in the showroom and so were a dozen or so gawkers taking pictures of them. Senior sent outa kid to tell them that they had to go through the whole shop to take it out. Why? Just to stick it to them.

Senior paid his son a backhand compliment. Going to OCC himself was “a sign of humbleness.”

He also said that Vinnie was in a hurry to get out “like he had cheeseburgers waiting outside.” Why should Vinnie want to stick around? To see him? After the way Senior treated him like shit? Vinnie did all the work and got all the crap. I wouldn’t want to see Senior either. And Senior taking a shot at someone’s weight? Sorry, not everyone has suspiciously inflated muscles like he did.

Eventually Senior stopped watching them on camera and came out and shook their hands. They exchanged some small talk and Paulie and Vinnie left with the bike. No fireworks, no excitement, no big deal.

Of course Senior said that “Paulie didn’t look me in the eye,” and it was “a sign of feeling guilty.” This guy can’t leave well enough alone. Every lawsuit has been settled, the bike was exchanged, and he can’t let it die. A couple of days later Senior was still grumbling and said the he didn’t like Vinnie and acted like he was Gandhi for shaking Vinnie’s hand. Then for no reason he said that he “gave him everything he asked for and he still isn’t interested in being a family again.” I’m not sure if he meant Mikey or Paulie but it doesn’t matter.  Can you blame either one?

And Mikey still has no intention of seeing his father, and after this episode, never mind all the others, I don’t blame him.

The last third of the show was about the bike build, and Power Pro really got their money’s worth the way Mike Ammirati slobbered over their tools.

There was a little more talk about OCC having to move and Rick said they should just go back to the old shop since Senior put a new roof on it. Senior told him since it was next door to PJD Rick could go over there and build bikes on his lunch break “since nobody there can.” I guess he forgot how he got smoked in the Cadillac Build Off.

The Fist bike with its biometric starter came out great, but the Power Probe bike was gaudier than usual. It was red and yellow with lightning bolts and a lot of extra accent lights and almost looked like a Hulkamania bike,  but I have to admit they nailed the theme. And (coincidentally? I think not) it had an unusual push button starter.

At the OCC unveil, Senior couldn’t make it so who was the first one introduced? Jason. He did all the talking and though he gave credit to everyone, he talked like he was in charge. And who can blame him the way Senior treats him?

Paulie worked, almost literally, to the last minute before the unveil, and Paulie gave Vinnie the honor of riding the bike on stage. Part of this episode was about the history between them. They showed some clips from the very first episode where they worked on the Black Widow bike, the first build they did together, and you can see how they developed a friendship. Compare that to Senior who over the years has lost everyone close to him.

NEXT WEEK: Paulie designs a Gears of War 3 bike.

Tags: American Chopper, black widow bike, Free Rick, Gears of War, Gears of War 3, Jason Pohl, Junior, Mike Ammirati, Mikey, OCC, Paul Jr, Paul Sr, Paul Teutul Sr quotes, Paulie, PJD, Rick, Rick Petko, Senior, Senior vs. Junior, Vinnie