Thanks to Thursday night football, tonight was the last we get to see of Superstore until January. That's a shame because Superstore has really come into it's own over the course of this second season so far, becoming one of the funniest shows on television right now and I'm going to miss it while it's on hiatus. Thankfully, we got not one but two episodes tonight that were packed to the brim with comedy, good character moments, and a couple of major developments that left me excited to see what happens next.
The biggest development in these episodes belongs to Amy, who finds herself having to finally confront the problems in her marriage. This starts in Seasonal Help when Adam gets hired as a temporary employee. Right off the bat there's issues as Adam embarrasses Amy at the staff meeting by calling her by her pet name "bean" and revealing that she used to sleep naked. This frustrates Amy and the frustration only continues when they're on the floor and Adam takes Amy's suggestions on how to do things better as criticism.We haven't seen a lot of Adam over the course of the show, but what we do see speaks volumes. He's a nice guy, but he would rather work on his constant stream of projects and dreams than actually help support his family and he's very defensive. His and Amy's marriage isn't a good one, but when Glenn has the audacity to imply that and it becomes clear that everyone else thinks that too, Amy sets out to prove them all wrong by becoming very affectionate towards her bumbling husband. This leads to the two hooking up in the photo lab, though not before Adam tries to start another fight when he learns Amy lied about Cloud Nine having a Large-Format printer back when he was trying to get his travel agency off the ground. They still hook up but it becomes clear that putting up appearances isn't going to fix the problems in Amy's marriage or bring the spark back and Amy is forced to deal with this truth when she gets sick on Black Friday and becomes concerned she's pregnant.
The smartest thing Seasonal Help/Black Friday does is not make Amy's marriage woes about her relationship with Jonah. He's the one that suggests Adam get a seasonal job at Cloud Nine and he becomes a support during her scare when he inadvertently overhears Amy trying to get a pregnancy test but he's not an active player in Amy's story. Amy's marriage woes aren't because she's pining for Jonah or because Jonah helps her realize that Adam isn't right for her but are because of problems that existed long before Jonah came into her life at the show's beginning. It makes the story of Amy coming to terms with her unhappiness her story, not one that's shared by anyone else and her unhappiness is something that she gets to discover on her own. When she realizes she isn't pregnant, she becomes relieved even though she always saw herself having two or three kids. She stops herself from saying maybe she just doesn't want them with Adam, but when she finally gets the chance to tell him she's not pregnant and blurts "I'm not happy" instead. She corrects herself quickly but there's no hiding her problems anymore.
The Amy storyline that runs through Seasonal Help/Black Friday is weighty and heavier subject matter than the show typically deals with and the show maximizes it's effectiveness by sandwiching the stories between bigger comedy stories. Seasonal Help has Jonah turn a friendly wager over which of the terrible temp workers will quit first into a serious competition that has everyone going to extreme lengths to get their chosen temp to quit first. This leads to a very funny montage of the staff going all out to win the bet using tactics that range from Dina making her temp scrub the parking lot to Mateo and Cheyenne sexually harassing the book-reading temp they both hate to Mertle trying to knock her pick Opal off a ladder (Opal is the oldest person at the store at 90 years old, which Mertle is not happy about.). It's much more extreme than Jonah had expected, but since he upped the stakes of the wager and actively encouraged Isaac (played by a very welcome Steve Agee) to quit kicking it into overdrive, he can't complain. It turns out Jonah has a bit of a gambling problem, a welcome detail that helps expand his character beyond the "privileged white boy hipster" box he's usually put in. The dark comic twist of the plot though is when Jonah wins the bet and learns that the majority of the seasonal workers were hired from a "Last Chance" program at Glenn's church. These are troubled people trying to turn their lives around and Jonah and the rest have been messing with that. This leads Jonah to do the right thing and give Isaac the 200 dollars from the pot he's won but the heartwarming sentimentality of the moment is severely undercut when Isaac immediately makes a deal to go buy meth. There are lots of shows out there that try to tack on a feel-good ending when there's not one to be had, but Superstore is not one of them. You will not find false sentiment here.
As out-of-control as the bet in Seasonal Help is, it has nothing on Black Friday. The opening sequence of a massive line-up outside the store at 3AM and still-green Jonah being the only one excited about the day help establish what hell this holiday is for retail workers. Then after setting up Amy's pregnancy scare, everyone's hatred of this day and Glenn being on Xanax to relax, the doors open and we get a taste of merciless deal-hunting customers running amok. Almost every scene becomes packed with frantic motion from something or another. Cloud Nine essentially becomes a warzone and just when you think you know where things are going, the real cause of Amy's sickness is revealed when the entire staff comes down with food poisoning from something at the pre-opening potluck. The mass food poisoning takes an already fraught event to even greater comedic heights as over half the staff has to go home and the rest are all sick and miserable. Eventually they all wind up in the break room as customers run wild, sniping at each other. Jonah tries to rally the troops but a Xanax-taking Glenn cusses him and everyone else out in the episode's funniest moment. Eventually Garrett suggests they bail and everyone agrees, even Dina.
The thing about Superstore is that it isn't a very sentimental show. It's a cutting look at the stresses and disappointments of working retail and it tends to undercut the nice moments when they pop up, as demonstrated in Seasonal Help. This is to the show's benefit though because when they do go the sentimental road, it feels earned. Garrett spends most of Black Friday trying to avoid working on a register by stretching the announcements out as long as possible (His trick? Recounting the plots of every Tom Hanks movie.) mostly to spite Dina. He's also the one that suggests they all just bail and go home. When everyone moves to leave though, he's the one who gives the pep talk that Jonah with his generic "all in this together" sentiments couldn't give. The thing about Garrett is that he hates his job but it's his job so he does it, even if it's only the bare minimum (which it usually is). He's not going to stop doing his job even if it is Black Friday and even if no one else is with him. So as Busy Earnin' plays in the background, Garrett goes on the floor alone, gets behind the register he said he wouldn't work and gets to work, inspiring everyone to finish out the day. It's a strong character moment for Garrett, adding new depth to a character that has been happy to stay the same up to this point in the show. It's also the most moving scene that the show has done since the season 1 finale and watching the characters push back against the chaos that their lives have become on this day feels cathartic. The triumph of the moment and the relief when the store finally closes can only last so long though. Amy's confession of not being happy to Adam is a stark reminder of that.
That confession alone is enough to make the wait for January hard but then the show throws another twist. Dina and Garrett hooking up is a twist that isn't super surprising but feels like a natural development that the show's been building to since as early as the Olympic Special. Garrett's attraction to Dina during Halloween was played as mostly related to her costume, but you just knew the idea of something happening between them was too good for the writers to pass off. Given that the relationship between the two is prickly at best, I'm curious to see how this will play out come the New Year. It's a terrific capper for a terrific mid-season finale and combined with Amy's compelling marital drama, it leaves you wanting more. We'll have to be patient though. After all the Black Friday havoc, I think they need time to restock.
Memorable Moments
-Best Interstitial(s): For Seasonal Help, a short woman struggles to reach an item. A tall man seemingly grabs it for her, but then takes it for himself. For Black Friday, a brawl between two grown men in a aisle that seems aimed at young girls.
-Glenn spends Seasonal Help auditioning for someone to play Santa Claus. When it turns out the job doesn't pay money though, he's left with warehouse worker Cody who promises to be the "best BLEEP-ing Santa".
-After a simple but grueling Megan's Law search, Glenn narrows the candidate field from over 12 to 6. Then he gets a text and it becomes 5. It's a super dark joke, but a very funny one.
-Jonah's elaborate betting system gets simplified to "pick one". "It's a pari-mutual betting pool with live odds, no rake, and I'm open to exotic bets, okay? You know, exactas, trifectas, quadrellas, or 'quaddies.'"
-Amy and Adam rehash an old fight. "No, Adam, your business failed because nobody uses travel agencies anymore due to a little thing called the Internet". "Oh, here we go with the Internet again, huh? Yeah, because it exists."
-No one gets prescriptions filled on Black Friday so Tate spends the day working on his screenplay. "It's about a pharmacist, obviously, who invents a pill that allows you to use all of your brain". "Oh, like 'Limitless.'" "Not like "Limitless"! All right. Why do people keep saying it's like "Limitless"? It's inspired by 'Limitless.'"
-Brett continues to be one of the best minor characters without saying a word. Here he simply throws Jonah's video camera that he's documenting Black Friday with in the garbage.
-Cheyenne and Mateo have a lot of fun little moments together in these episodes with the best being when Mateo learns Cheyenne is "war profiteering" the store's Pepto Bismo supply.
-Garrett's speech in full: "Yo, I don't like working here. But it's my job. I do the bare minimum, but I don't do less than that. And I'm not about to let a bunch of deal-hungry rubes trash our store and make me feel bad for Dina, which I did not think was possible. So I'ma get out there, and I'ma finish my shift. And yeah, I'ma cut corners, and I'ma phone it in, but it'll never be said that Garrett McNeill did not do just enough to not get fired."
-Cheyenne brings Black Friday home. "Attention, shoppers, the store is now closed. Not, like, "Bring your items to the front" closed. I mean, like, "Get the hell out." Thank you. Oh, also, if anyone happens to find a little green hair thing, it's mine".
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