-It began with a throwaway line in the second episode about going for the eye of the storm in a tornado. Then there was a reference to the store getting an 'F' in tornado preparedness and it being like a house of cards. Then a reference to it being 8 years since the last tornado drill. All season long the show had been throwing in references to how unprepared Cloud Nine would be in a tornado until finally a tornado struck last night. It's a brilliant pay-off for a joke we didn't realize was being set up (Unless you happened to see the episode title in advance), and it's only one part of a terrific finale of Superstore that brings a lot of things full-circle before ending on a comically bleak note that leaves a lot of things up in the air (Good thing we know season 3 is coming).
-Before we get to the Tornado though, there's a lot of fun to be had with Glenn trying to figure out who to lay off in a story somewhat reminiscent of The Office's Halloween, but with more jobs on the line. Justin Spitzer, Mark McKinney, and all the Superstore writers have done a great job making Glenn a very different kind of boss from Michael Scott, but if there's one massive similarity the two have, it's their inability to be the bad guy who makes unpopular decisions. That leads to Glenn being more Michael-esque than normal in this episode, but while still making choices that only Glenn would make. Like him trying to rank all the employees on a scale from 1 to 10 and immediately trying to expand the scale to 11 when he refuses to bump Elias down to a 9. Or how he tries to sell his plan of making everyone vote on who they should fire as doing something together as a family. Or how he keeps wishing for divine intervention to avoid firing people. All of these jokes work better than they would have if this storyline had come earlier in the store's run because of how well we've gotten to know Glenn and how his mind works.
-I've been praising the "Meeting Room" scenes of Superstore all season and Tornado finds a great way to fit one in, as Glenn attempts to make everyone decide who should get fired for him. It's a ridiculous scene, and like all of the best meeting scenes, it finds room for great little character moments amidst the escalating chaos. From Jonah contemplating the difference between Democracy and Mob Rule to Sandra joining everyone in writing her name down as someone to be fired to Glenn's sudden exit from the room when he attempts to just make a run for it, it gives the episode an opportunity to really load in the laughs before the more serious Tornado material hits.
-The thing I like about the lay-off plot is that when the time comes to actually fire people, the show doesn't bother pretending any of our series regulars are in danger of losing their jobs but it doesn't just pick people we've never met before either. Marcus has become one of the more prominent supporting players this year, and Justine and Cody are both recognizable faces who have gotten a fair amount of screentime. Even if some of the lay-offs get undone by the tornado (Which will almost definitely happen), it doesn't take away from the fact that Glenn was able to pull it together and do what he had to do, even if it meant losing people that he (and we) like.
-Mateo making alliances to save his job based on increasingly tenuous connections (We start with Asian/Polynesian and LGBT then move down to Dave Matthews fans and Catholic) that he has no intention of actually following through on is the perfect little Mateo plot, that makes use of the cutthroat side of the character's ambitiousness in a way we haven't seen much of this season. Of course the reason we haven't seen much of it becomes clear when an angry Cody confronts Mateo and tells him that nobody loves him and he'll die alone. There was someone who loved Mateo and who brought out a softer side of him but Mateo pushed him away and now he's back to his base instincts. Mateo's phone call to Jeff telling him that he does love him is a rare vulnerable moment from the character and a powerful capper to Mateo's arc for the season. Here's hoping those two crazy kids can find their way back to each other next year.
-The show does a really good job building to the Tornado all episode, starting with the constant rain, going to the severe weather warnings on a TV that a customer switches the channels away from to the eventual alarm and everyone's confusion about what's actually going on or what to do. Comedy can be tough to do with something as life-threatening as a tornado so the episode holds off from it for as long as possible, allowing the lay-off plot to come to an end and then throwing in a good amount of jokes as everyone braces for it (The return of the customer who obsesses over the most pointless aspects of the product he's trying to buy is a welcome touch. He won't let a thing like a lockdown keep him from figuring out what "2 for 1" razors means when each package already has two razors). Then when the tornado actually comes, it's played mostly straight with a few jokes, but also several scenes of the store being destroyed to bring home how terrifying this all is. A natural disaster is hitting the store and it genuinely feels like it, which is quite a feat for a half hour comedy to pull off.
-So like The Office, Superstore's 2nd season features a big kiss between the two romantic leads. The circumstances and context for the kiss though couldn't be more different. Jim and Pam's kiss is the final capper to a season's worth of pining, increasingly flirtatious banter and pent-up feelings finally spilling out when it becomes clear that things can't continue the way they had been. Jonah and Amy's relationship is different. There hasn't been pining or open talks about their feelings, only the awkwardness that came from the moments where they had to confront the idea that they might have feelings that they shouldn't have. Their kiss comes from a moment of crisis, huddled up with the diarrhea medication after Jonah rescues Amy from falling debris. It's motivated by impulses that the two of them have never been willing to admit were there. That makes the kiss feel much more natural and organic than if they had tried to act like there had been a cohesive Will They/Won't They going on all season. With Amy returning to her family after the storm though, her marriage potentially saved by surviving death, the pieces are in place for Jonah to experience a more traditional "pining for Amy" arc next year. If Superstore chooses to go that route, that is. They're usually more afraid than that.
-Garrett and Dina's undefined sleeping together reaches a head this week as Garrett becomes increasingly flustered by the fact that Dina doesn't seem to value Garrett above any of the other employees to the point where she would flip a coin to decide whether to give the last safety helmet to Garrett or a new employee who she just met. Any time we get to peek past Garrett's "Too cool to care" shell is always a good time and his growing frustration, culminating with him admitting that there may be an emotional component to him sleeping with Dina is hilarious from start to finish. The "Glad you're not dead." "Likewise." exchange the two share at the end is also the perfect mixture of funny and oddly sweet.
-Sandra choosing to leave Carol to potentially die (She doesn't) after an episode worth of Carol calling Sandra a slut for "stealing" Carol's boyfriend Jerry and lying to Jerry that Sandra gave over ten men in the store Herpes is a very dark moment for that character, but Kaliko Kauahi makes the moment work. Hopefully we get more of an exploration of Sandra and Carol's working relationship in season 3 because that look the characters share after the tornado suggests there's a lot of material to unpack there.
-Season 2 begins on a store without it's employees. It ends on the employees without their store. That's masterful storytelling right there.
-Justin Spitzer talked to Variety about the show's second season, the kiss, and why they decided to have a tornado destroy the store in the first place (It involves Universal Studios). It's a good read.
-Best Interstitial: Tie between The Final Countdown playing as customers wait in line in the darkened locked-down store and the fireman trying to rescue a mannequin in the aftermath.
-This week in Mark McKinney is a treasure: Glenn's befuddled and bewildered reaction when the tornado stops seconds after he prays to Allah. If this is setting up a "Glenn has a crisis of faith" storyline in season 3, I'm all for it and if not, it's still incredibly funny.
-We're introduced to Alisha, a new associate who got invited to Cheyenne's wedding over Marcus (They were keeping it small), gets appropriately pissed when Jonah casually calls her sexy, and wins the coin toss for Dina's spare helmet.
-The way Mateo slides away from Marcus after Marcus attempts to evoke the alliance is masterfully done.
-In one of many little pay-offs to jokes set up throughout the season, Cheyenne finds the "green hair-thingy" she lost back in Black Friday amidst the debris of the tornado.
-"Oh shit". So Brett finally speaks. I don't know if the show would actually kill off Brett but if they do choose to not bring him back next year then what a way to go.
-Of course a billboard falls through another one of Glenn's cars. Of course. I think that's now the 4th car of his that's been stolen/wrecked over the course of the show. Wonder how many he'll lose next year.
-Jonah inviting Mateo and Marcus to go get a beer and Marcus' elated reaction to said invite was a very funny pay-off to a year of no one wanting to hang out or do anything with Marcus, despite his best efforts to be part of the gang. Here's hoping at least some of those lay-offs get reversed in season 3 because it would sting to lose Jon Barinholtz from the cast.
-"You're not a slut Justine, stop trying to seem interesting". Here's hoping boring old Justine makes the cut for season 3 too.
-"So do we have to come into work tomorrow?" And with that line from Garrett, we're officially done Superstore's second season. This has become one of my favourite shows on television and I really enjoyed seeing it come into it's own this year. So at this point all that's left to say is bring on season 3!
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