"Chester A. Arthur is shitfaced. Stumbling out the back of a raucous bar in the wee hours of the morning, two hats stacked on top of his head, eyes shut so tight he can't see the wall he's about to walk into, the recent Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States (played by Nick Offerman, a master of drunken mimicry) only manages to find a ride home by the less-than-benevolent graces of a supporter he keeps mistakenly calling "Cousteau.""
"Charles Guiteau, played with craven magnetism by Matthew Macfadyen, has been bending Arthur's ear all evening, spinning an accidental kindness - when Arthur saved Cousteau/Guiteau from being arrested - into a genuine opportunity. You see, Guiteau wants to work on Arthur's campaign. Back in Chicago, he was inspired by the top of the ticket, James Garfield ( Michael Shannon), and now he dreams of "making an impact" just like his future president. If that means going by a different name - one that's not tied to the thefts, debts, and untold lies he's sown from Illinois to New York - then a different name he shall have."
Chester A. Arthur staggers drunk from a bar, disoriented and reliant on a supportive stranger he keeps calling "Cousteau." Charles Guiteau relentlessly courts Arthur, transforming an accidental rescue into a bid for political work and offering a reinvented identity to escape a history of thefts, debts, and lies. Guiteau idolizes James Garfield and promises to "make an impact," while Arthur, impaired and susceptible, entertains the possibility. Both men's tactics and compromises expose parallel moral paths: violent coercion and familial betrayal become equivalent manifestations of ambition, blurring ethical distinctions in their political pursuits.
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