'Stick' Season 2 Episodes 1, 2 Recap: Do Pryce And Santi Part Ways?

The Apple TV sports comedy series Stick has returned with a 2nd season, where we follow the journey of golf sensation Santiago ‘Santi’ Wheeler once more, along with that of his coach and guide, Pryce Cahill. After having been pushed out of the sport because of a public meltdown following the death of his young child, Pryce had taken time to heal himself and then help young Santi find his footing in the world of golf. Now, in season 2 episodes 1 and 2, Santi still waits for his turn to become a professional golfer, while Pryce proves that he still has a lot of golfing magic to show to the world.

Spoiler Alert

Why hasn’t Santi gone pro yet?

Stick season 2 opens with an update on Santi Wheeler’s golf career, as he has only been improving since his brilliant performance at the Ready Safe Invitational. Now, Santi is invited to participate at the Dove Charity Pro/Am Invitational event in Georgia, and he shows up with his usual group. His relationship with Zero is still going strong, and she continues to be his caddie as well. Santi’s mother, Elena, had started a romantic relationship with Pryce’s best friend, Mitts, in season 1, and they are happily together. About 6 months have passed since the Ready Safe Invitational, and Santi is just as impressive at the pro/am invitational in Georgia as he was earlier. He finishes 3rd in the final standings, impressing everyone with his performance, which makes him the most talked-about youngster in the sport. But a genuine question remains, among fans and critics alike, about when Santi Wheeler will go pro.

According to most people who have been following his amateur career, Santi already has the skills and temperament to start his professional career, but has no such plans at the moment. This is entirely because Pryce does not want him to go pro yet, for he believes that the youngster is not mentally ready to make the jump. Instead, Pryce wants Santi to pursue his education, graduate from Indiana University, and only then pursue a professional career in golf, after 4 years. Santi is obviously not very happy with this advice, and even though he has gotten himself enrolled at IU, the youngster still questions the decision from time to time. Even during the event at Georgia, this topic keeps coming up whenever Santi and Pryce are together.

To begin with, Santi reminds Pryce that he would have already made quite a lot of money at this point had he turned pro, and could have earned even more over the years. As Pryce motivates him with the assurance that money will keep coming as soon as he turns pro, and that it should not be the main motivator, Santi reminds him that it was once his own idea to exploit the teenager’s unusual talent to hit the jackpot. Pryce admits once having planned to do so, but then talks about how he now genuinely cares about the boy, which is why he does not want him to live the gruelling life of a professional golfer right now. But Santi is not just interested in the money, and he mentioned it first only because he thought that Pryce would be more interested in it. At one point, he even suspects that his mother might have convinced Pryce to take this decision for him, as she might have preferred him to finish his education first and only then become a golfer. Santi is totally invested in the sport, and he is also adventurous enough to see what heights he can reach as a golfer, which is all the more the reason he wants to turn pro quickly. His overwhelming performances as well as the praise that he gets regularly naturally push him towards pursuing his goal. 

But Pryce’s advice clearly comes from a very personal place, and he is only looking out for Santi by keeping him from going pro right away and instead focusing on his education. When an IU faculty informs him that the teenager has been slacking off, Pryce takes the tough call of talking about it with Santi and once again trying to push him to stay dedicated to college. After all, the protagonist knows that a failed career in any sport can make one disillusioned about life, and if they had dedicated all their time and effort to pursuing the sport, then they can be totally lost in life. Pryce had experienced all of this first-hand, and so he does not want Santi to face the same. At one point, during a heated argument, he admits that he does want to look out for Santi and ensure that the teenager does not make the same mistakes he had made in his youth. But Santi remains adamant about turning pro very soon, and this soon becomes the main point of contention between the two characters. 

How does Pryce’s date go?

With Pryce Cahill finally back to a healthy life at the end of season 1, he is now ready to experience all the aspects of life that he had ignored in all these years. As he has come to terms with Amber-Linn having left him and found love somewhere else, Pryce is seen hanging out with the pair at their house. This is where Amber-Linn suggests that he goes on a date with a woman from her work, as she genuinely wants her ex-husband to find a romantic connection once again. She wants to set Pryce up with her coworker, Beth, who is divorced and has plenty of time for romance now, as her children are all grown up. Although Pryce is initially quite reluctant to go on dates, Amber-Linn and her husband hype him up, talking about how Beth is a pickleball player, and is, therefore, just as competitive and fit as him.

It is clearly only to please his ex-wife that Pryce agrees to go on a dinner date with Beth, which turns out to be the most boring and awkward affair for the poor woman. Pryce is his usual weird somewhat-weird self, which obviously won’t impress everyone. He talks about the inherent cruelty in nature, which freaks Beth out a bit, and so she makes an excuse to go spend some time in the washroom. This is when an old friend (not really) of Pryce shows up and takes a seat at the table. Once his golfing partner and then his rival, who’d had a really bitter relationship with him in the past, Clark Ross comes to the restaurant only to speak to the protagonist. Funnily, or maybe unfortunately, Beth is happier to come across Clark Ross, whom she recognizes from his insurance advertisements, than she is to have spent time with Pryce. This short but significant failed date attempt proves that Pryce is not yet ready to get back into the dating game, or that he needs to meet someone who would be able to put up with his quirky personality. 

What does Clark want from Pryce?

Clark Ross eventually reveals that he had followed Pryce to the restaurant and has been keeping an eye on him for quite some time, as he was looking for the perfect time to approach him. The fact of the matter is that Santi was not the only one who had thoroughly impressed the golfing world at the Dove Charity Pro/Am Invitational, as Pryce had also participated in it. Although Pryce initially had no plans to do so, he picked up his clubs once again after so many years only because of two unruly amateur golfers who bet that he wouldn’t be able to perform. While the rude men believed that Pryce would act unhinged once again after missing shots just like he had in his infamous viral video, what actually happened during the event was far from it. 

The protagonist aced every shot and finished the course way ahead of others, even taking some risky but calculated shots along the way. Like everyone else watching the event, the amateur Pryce’s performance had caught the eyes of Clark as well, who now approaches him with a concrete plan. Clark wants to bring Pryce out of retirement and aims to not only have him play golf once more, but also become the oldest player to return to the sport and then win the US Open. But Pryce is not convinced by this plan at all, and he cites his reasons, the first and foremost one being that he is in his 50s, and therefore too old to play golf again. 

Clark makes it very clear that he is only interested in the great amount of money that can be earned by promoting such an inspirational story. For this reason, he tries his best to hype up Pryce, reminding him that this could end up being the best comeback in all of sports history. Despite being turned down multiple times, Clark actually keeps pursuing Pryce and even follows him to Los Angeles when Santi is invited to another invitational event. He perhaps senses the underlying interest in the protagonist as well, who had only earlier spoken to Santi about how his career might have reached new heights if he could have held on to his emotional stability at the time. 

Is Jeremy Pierce going to be this season’s antagonist?

Stick season 2’s opener introduces a character named Jeremy Pierce, a sports agent by profession. Jeremy makes acquaintance with Santi and Zero in the first episode, and forces himself into their conversation a number of times to become a part of the group. Santi also relates with him only because Jeremy is only a few years older than him, and so he naturally does not give off the same protective vibe Pryce does. Instead, he is much more fun to be around, especially because Jeremy is acquaintanced with a lot of celebrities because of his profession. It is he who invites Santi to Los Angeles for the invitational and then takes him to a party and introduces him to Michael Jordan as well. All of this is clearly part of a scheme to ensure that Santi signs a contract with Jeremy, who is sure to be the antagonist this season.

After all, Jeremy directly tells Santi that he will be stuck forever in Indiana if he doesn’t move out now and take advantage of the hot streak in his amateur career. The agent takes advantage of the genuine interest that the teenager has in turning pro, and he doesn’t seem to care much about his well-being. There is already a demeaning attitude that Jeremy has towards Pryce, almost suggesting that the veteran doesn’t know much about the modern form of the sport, particularly the promotional and brand-building side of things, which is why he does not consider him to be a good agent to represent Santi. Jeremy’s strategy ultimately works out perfectly, and he is able to hype Santi up to the extent that he chooses to go pro.

Do Pryce and Santi part ways?

After another brilliant showing at the invitational event in Los Angeles, Santi is convinced that he is wasting time by continuing to play as an amateur. While Jeremy played a big role in this decision, the agent has also successfully turned Santi against Pryce. This is why the teenager rather aggressively questions the protagonist about his logic behind stopping him from turning pro. When Santi finally announces that he is definitely turning pro and there’s nothing anyone can say to change his mind, Pryce accepts his decision and gives him the permission to do so. However, this is when Santi gives everyone at the table a shock by clarifying that he is going to do so without Pryce’s help, meaning that he has already made up his mind to hire a new agent to represent himself, most obviously Jeremy Pierce. Thus, Pryce and Mitts do part ways from Santi, Elena, and Zero, at least for the time being, but the protagonist does not spend any time sulking. Instead, he shows up at Clark’s hotel room, having made his own shocking decision of his own. At the end of Stick season 2 episode 2, Pryce informs Clark that he is indeed ready to come out of retirement and become a professional golfer once again. This conclusion possibly sets up for an explosive situation later in the season, when Pryce and Santi, the guru and the student, might end up having to play each other in some pro-golf competition.

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