Halloween makes for good television, especially when it comes to sitcoms. It gives shows an opportunity to dress up, cut loose, and get a little spooky and the results are seldom disappointing. Halloween Theft doesn't do a lot with Halloween, beyond put the cast in costumes and let it be a backdrop for Dina going into authoritarian overdrive and for Amy's motivations this week, but there's just enough Halloween spirit to elevate an already good episode of Superstore into a great one.
In these recaps of Superstore, I often compare Dina to Dwight Schrute from The Office. It's an easy comparison to make. Both of them are abrasive oddballs in positions of authority, obsessed with rules and order, and who have little regard for their fellow employees, often making their lives harder. There's a couple of key differences between Dwight and Dina though that tonight's episode of Superstore make abundantly clear. The first is how they relate to their managers. Dwight always had a great love and respect for Michael and that allowed Michael to keep him more or less in line. Dina has no respect for Glenn, who is a massive pushover so she's much harder to control or stop. The second key difference? Dina has boobs, which are suddenly put on full display in Halloween Theft.
The costumes Halloween Theft puts their characters in make a lot of sense from a character standpoint. From Jonah's "trying too hard too be clever" Brexit costume to Amy's "totally loves Halloween" Cleopatra to Garrett's "suave and stylish" James Bond to Glenn's "fun but very impractical" Hot Dog, you can tell a lot of effort was put by the writers into what the characters would wear. Of course, Dina has no desire to dress up for Halloween and her main concern is monitoring who's buying things like toilet paper and shaving cream so the writers develop a simple but clever way of getting her into costume: having Sandra dress up as Dina and the rest of the store saying they could twin. This leads to Dina in a incredibly distracting and ridiculous sexy cop costume. The sexy cop costume is maybe the episode's best joke this week and props to Lauren Ash for being willing to go for it. She goes all out this week, not changing a thing about how Dina conducts business despite being in something more revealing than she typically wears. Watching her interrogate and chase people down in the costume is ridiculous and makes every scene she's in funnier. The disconnect between how Dina looks and how she acts causes a lot of problems for Garrett this week who finds himself suddenly attracted to Dina. He knows her personality is terrible but his caveman brain can't help himself. It's always funny to see Garrett off his game and while this is probably just a one-time scene, a possible romantic connection between Garrett and Dina could be promising. In the meantime though, this is a good story for Garrett who's inability to act normally around Dina makes him a good suspect for her investigation.
The funny thing about the titular Halloween Theft that a lot of the stories in this episode become connected to is just how minor it is. A box of irregular produce scheduled for destruction has gone missing and Dina won't let any employee leave until she knows who did it. The low stakes heighten the absurdity of the situation and allow the writers to focus on the jokes, like a great sequence of Dina interviewing many of the employees with Jonah annoyingly interrogating himself and Glenn struggling to sit down in his hot dog costume (The other costume sight gag gift that keeps on giving of the episode). We never find out who stole the fruit because it doesn't matter. This lets us keep the focus on Glenn and his struggles with an assistant manager who doesn't respect or listen to him. When Amy and Mateo (Who want this situation to be over so Amy can trick-or-treat with her daughter and Mateo can go on a secret date with Jeff) get Glenn to take them to the Chesterfield Cloud Nine so they can secretly replace the missing produce, Glenn is struck by the many "differences" between the two branches but mostly he's struck by the great relationship the Chesterfield Manager and Assistant Manager have. Him ultimately stopping the investigation is a similar beat to him stopping the drug testing a couple weeks back, but the key difference is he never approved the investigation. By stopping it, he's asserting himself as manager and fighting back against Dina. Hopefully this leads to a shift in their dynamic and a more assertive Glenn going forward. It'd be a shame if they walked back the character development because assertive is a good look for Glenn.
The investigation is the biggest story this week and most of the other plots relate back to it, but Jonah and Cheyenne have their own story as they have their first significant interaction. At first they have nothing in common, until they discover a shared love of gossip. It's a story that's been told before by other shows with characters who don't really have much reason to interact (Community did it 4 episodes in with Jeff and Shirley) but it's given a bit of a twist here when Jonah finds out everyone thinks he has a crush on Amy. Just as Garrett is thrown off by Dina's outfit and forced to evaluate his feelings, Jonah is thrown off by this information. However he may or may not feel about Amy (And he's adamant he doesn't have a crush on her), he didn't realize other people were drawing their own conclusions. Amy meanwhile has one goal in the episode: go trick-or-treating with Emma. Her plans are dashed however when Emma wants to go to a party with friends instead. Amy thought she had one or two more years left before Emma started to move on from her but that time has already slipped away. It leaves her in a vulnerable space but Jonah's efforts to listen to her are derailed by a co-worker doing lewd gestures in the background, keeping him too concerned about how his friendship with Amy looks to actually help her. In the end he manages to invite her to see "Nosferatu" with him and Garrett (And Dina, who invites herself), but it's become clear he won't be able to shake this anytime soon. He's gonna have to confront his feelings, whatever they may be, sooner rather than later.
All in all, Halloween Theft felt like a return-to-form for Superstore after the slight let-down of last week's episode. It was full of funny stories that were based in character and seemed to go somewhere in the end. Even the slightest story, Mateo trying to go on his date with Jeff has a pay-off when Cheyenne bears witness to Jeff and Mateo driving off together. With Cheyenne's newly revealed love of gossip, that relationship might not be able to stay secret for very long. It also was probably the best showcase for Dina yet in establishing what makes her a unique character. There wasn't a whole lot of Halloween in Halloween Theft, but the episode was definitely a treat.
Memorable Moments
-Best Interstitial: A rare two-part interstitial as Mertle encounters the grim reaper, who she later chases.
-Dina briefs the store on possible things to look for. "Let's watch out for people buying toilet paper, eggs, shaving cream, ketchup, your squeezables, your squirtables. Everything is a weapon today, okay?" "What about guns?" "Those are fine."
-Dina is dubbed "Booge". Boo Scrooge.
-Dina interrogates Sandra. "You don't have the courage or the intelligence to have stolen anything." "Then why are you even talking to me?" "I just wanted you to know that."
-Dina interrogates Brett, who's dressed as a burglar. "There's something about you I just don't trust".
-At Chesterfield, bedding is where jewellery should be, the lights are (apparently) dimmer and the aisles are (apparently) narrower. What a mess.
-Assertive Glenn is terrific. "So if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go home and cut myself out of this hot dog costume and make love to my wife! If she's up for it."
-The best part of Jonah's Brexit costume is his confusion that no one has asked him about his costume.
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