-Superstore isn't a heavily serialized show by any means. There are ongoing storylines and arcs that pop up here and there and little Easter eggs for devoted viewers (Like tonight's callback to Sandra's birthday at Dave & Busters, which she invited everyone to a few episodes back) but for the most part you can pretty much jump into any episode and easily figure out what's going on. That's true of Wellness Fair, which stands on it's own while bringing a couple big storylines to fruition, but I can't imagine watching Wellness Fair without watching all the episodes of build-up that preceded it. It's a hilarious capper to the Jeff/Mateo secret romance and Jeff/Sandra fake romance story that pays off a lot of things beautifully and a strong example of the benefits of light serialization.
-The action is kicked off when Amy, who's called in sick for work so she can see a movie with her daughter, sees Jeff on a date with Mateo. Since Sandra has been pretending to date Jeff for several weeks now, Amy naturally assumes Jeff is cheating on Sandra and despite Garrett (Who knows the truth of the situation but declines to tell her.) telling her to just stay out of it so the situation doesn't get out of control Jurassic Park-style, she confronts Mateo who discretely tells her the truth about the situation. Realizing how bad this would be for Sandra if the truth got out, Amy decides to not say anything. Unfortunately one person overheard Mateo, and within seconds Marcus is running around telling everyone he can find that "Mateo's banging Jeff and Sandra's insane", so Amy tries her best to contain the situation and it all explodes spectacularly. America Ferrara tends to be at her funniest as Amy when she's desperately trying to dig her way out of a situation only to make it worse and worse. So of course she was on fire tonight as Amy keeps piling lie on top of lie to convince Myrtle and the gang that Sandra isn't a maniac, until the entire store is convinced that Sandra is pregnant with Jeff's baby and might have an abortion.
-As I alluded to above, Wellness Fair is the culmination of multiple ongoing storylines and arcs that have been percolating through this season of Superstore and it works because of how well the writers have fleshed out the world of Cloud Nine. We have spent over 25 episodes getting to know these characters, how they respond to each other and how they respond to situations and that familiarity adds greater heft to both the comedy and the emotional beats. So things like Amy throwing on lie after lie to Marcus, Myrtle and Justine or Jonah and Glenn having a big argument about abortion in the middle of the store work better here than they would have in the first season because we know these characters well enough to understand why they're reacting to these situations the way they are.
-Glenn feeling inadequate about himself compared to Jonah is something that came up a few times in the first season (Most notably in Magazine Profile) but hasn't been explored much this year. When Jonah is surprised to learn that both he and Glenn wanted to be doctors at one point though while setting up for the store's wellness fair, Glenn takes offense at the implication that he isn't good enough to be a doctor. This leads to a funny story where Glenn keeps trying to prove his worth to Jonah, even though it's apparent that Glenn has much less knowledge about things like maintaining a healthy lifestyle (He's shocked to learn that the two litres of fruit juice he consumes a day isn't the best choice.) or riding a stationary bike than Jonah does. Mark McKinney and Ben Feldman play off each other terrifically and that chemistry allows them to get through a potentially tricky scene like their abortion argument with ease.
-The abortion argument comes out of nowhere (Through the natural and could feel very out of place, but it works because writer Owen Ellickson focuses on the absurdity of the situation and how out of place it is, rather than the argument itself. Jonah and Glenn are both men who are in no way qualified to speak about the toll childbirth or abortion takes on a woman's body and the middle of the store's wellness fair is certainly not the place to be having this discussion. It doesn't matter who's right because both of them are wrong here and the episode uses this, along with the sudden drop of Glenn's blood sugar thanks to him quitting juice cold turkey, as a catalyst to the big meeting scene.
-As I noted a couple weeks ago, Superstore has pretty much nailed the art of doing an employee meeting scene and while this one doesn't reach the heights of Valentine's Day, it comes pretty damn close. All the secrets and lies that have been piling up get unraveled one by one, as a confused Sandra assures people that she isn't pregnant before admitting that she isn't dating Jeff and went along with a misunderstanding to get attention, Mateo finally admits that he's dating Jeff so he can get some attention, Dina reveals that she and Garrett have been having casual sex, and Amy reveals that she's never seen Jurassic Park. Each revelation flows into the next one with a chorus of gasps, a barrage of jokes, and a nice wave of momentum until everyone's forgotten what they're supposed to be focused on in the first place. It's wonderfully choreographed by director Alex Reid who finds time for lots of great little moments in between each reveal without losing control of the scene.
-For all the chaos and disarray that came out of Amy's decision to meddle, the story ends on a positive note that suggests it was all worth it. Sandra's happy that she doesn't have to keep up this lie and continue amassing credit card debt anymore, while managing to emerge from this situation not totally humiliated, which is very impressive and welcome. Meanwhile as Jeff and Mateo have a whispered private conversation in a change room, they realize they don't actually have to do this anymore because their secret is out. After weeks of carrying on in secret, Jeff and Mateo proudly strolling out of the change room holding hands as Mateo proudly tells a customer "He's my boyfriend" is one of the more emotionally uplifting moments Superstore has ever done and is a wonderful payoff to this portion of Jeff and Mateo's story.
-Dina trying to prove that Amy faked her illness isn't the most original story in the world but it ties into Amy being unable to leave things alone well at the end when Amy's gentle mocking of Garrett's casual sex with Dina leads Garrett to blow up her spot and tell Dina she called in sick so she could go to Lego Batman. Lauren Ash's "What in God's name is Lego Batman?" is probably the funniest line delivery of the night.
-Best Interstitial: Sandra terribly photoshops a picture of her and Jeff in Paris.
-This Week in Mark McKinney is a Treasure: The scene of him trying to ride the exercise bike is a masterful bit of physical comedy but the best Glenn moment in this episode is him trying to come to terms with the fact that bland, normal-looking Jeff is gay. "I just don't get it. If you can be gay, that means anyone can be gay".
-Marcus, Myrtle, Sandra and Justine are in a Wine Club together, which sounds like the start to a great web series.
-I'm assuming there's a lot more scenes of Artemis Pebdani as the nurse at the Wellness Fair just lying on the cutting room floor somewhere. It seemed weird to cast someone as funny and well-known as her in what amounted to a bit part.
-Best joke of the episode: The mass shock and outrage that ensues when Amy admits she's never seen Jurassic Park.
-Second-best joke of the episode: Sandra can't get her deposit back on the carriage she hired to take her to "King Jeff" as part of the ruse so she gets in it and asks to go to the frozen custard place at the mall.
-Garret delivers an important announcement: "Attention, shoppers, Cloud 9 is not offering breast exams as part of our Wellness Fair. We have not hired someone to do that, and if we had, it would not be a teenage boy in a Twenty One Pilots T-shirt. Shop safe."
-Jonah's incredibly hurt reaction to learning Garrett didn't tell him about his casual sex with Dina is really funny. The low-key Jonah/Garrett bromance is maybe one of the best dynamics Superstore has and it makes for a really effective quick joke here.
-Fave Jeff moment of the episode: "So I checked. We don't seem to have any training videos about not discussing abortion at work, because we just thought it was so obvious, but you guys managed to surprise us, so good job".
-Again excellent episode all around.
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