I'll have to admit I wasn't looking forward to this episode of Superstore. Though I'm Canadian, I've been following the U.S. election very closely for the last year and have gotten pretty exhausted over the whole thing, which has become a toxic, depressing mess. So the prospect of watching Superstore do an election-themed episode wasn't super appealing. Thankfully, Election Day wound up being being worth it as the show avoided trying to engage with the actual election and the Donald Trump of it all. Instead, it used the election as a backdrop to tell a bunch of stories that moved along the various character arcs and storylines of the season in a funny way. Outside of a throwaway joke from Mateo, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump didn't even come up by name once.
What did come up was the in-universe race for State Senator, as Cloud 9 Corporate sent out a voting guide that serves to not-so-subtly promote the incumbent Senator who supports the "right to work" (anti-union), while also not-so-subtly demonizing his opponent (who has never gone on record as being Pro-America). It's a clear case of Corporate trying to promote their own interests and agenda, which naturally doesn't sit well with Amy and Jonah, continuing their quest to push back against Corporate for worker's rights that the start of the season set up. Despite the fact that no one else cares or finds the voting guide a big deal and no one really reads work memos anyways, Amy and Jonah decide to make their own pamphlet and start going around convincing people to vote for the pro-labour candidate. This leads to a montage that's mostly inconsequential but does lead to the return of Jonah's "working class" voice, which is always funny, especially when it works on the warehouse guy Jonah talks to. Just when the story seems to be running out of steam though, it takes an unexpected turn when Naomi, a girl Jonah's been seeing shows up much to the surprise of Amy.
Because I never miss a chance to compare Superstore to The Office, Naomi as a character reminds me of Katie, the girl Jim briefly dates in season 2 (Who was played by Amy Adams of all people, right before she became a big deal.). Katie was someone Jim dated so we as viewers knew that he had a dating life outside of pining for Pam. She also made Pam jealous a bit for reasons Pam couldn't dare say. Naomi seems to be serving the same function on Superstore. Since Amy is married, it doesn't look good for Jonah to be pining for Amy so Naomi serves as a way for us to know that that isn't the case. Maybe my initial impression is wrong and Naomi will become an interesting character in her own right with a purpose beyond "Jonah's throwaway girlfriend" (which is what Katie became for Jim), but for now she's mainly there to turn this story from a "Amy and Jonah fight corporate story" to a "the state of Amy and Jonah's connection" story, as Amy finds herself pushing away from Jonah once Naomi comes in and recruiting a rethumbed and dull as ever Marcus to help her instead, while Jonah clocks out and goes home. In the end, Amy and Jonah's candidate wins the election and Amy is elated at the little victory, but only has Marcus to celebrate it with. Things feel off and Amy knows it, even before Marcus misreads things and tries to kiss her twice ending things on a funny but poignant note. Jonah having a girlfriend has triggered feelings Amy didn't realize were there and now she has to start to reckon with them and what they mean. It's a good development to end the story on and I look forward to seeing how it plays out as we head into the mid-season finale episodes next week.
Meanwhile, the spectre of voter fraud comes up for Dina and Glenn in the funniest possible way. After pushing back against Dina last week, Glenn is continuing to clash with her as he asserts his authority as manager. Seeing Glenn stand up for himself was the best part of last week's episode and it's good to know that that wasn't a one-time deal. Of course, Dina isn't going to take Glenn's new attitude lying down and when she gets in the way of his attempt to bring the poll workers (One named Sid in particular) some coffee, the coffee winds up spilling all over a ballot box, wrecking 53 ballots. Glenn and Dina try to dry the ballots to fix them, but Glenn winds up sending them all to the wind when he tries to speed things up with a fan and both of them panic over having accidentally tampered with the election. The whole story is delightfully absurd as they go from trying to hide the evidence of what they've done (Especially when they learn the penalty for voter fraud is a $10000 fine and 5 years in prison, not prism as Glenn thinks Sid said) to trying to catch each other confessing on tape (as advised by Marcus, who wound up in prison briefly when his mom did that to him for a lesser sentence) when they worry Cheyenne has overheard them talking about it. This leads to a beautiful scene of them both trying to have a "casual conversation" that eventually devolves to them trying to mimic the other's voices. Meanwhile the poll workers notice 53 ballots missing and laugh because that's way less missing than last time. All of Glenn and Dina's scheming and fretting has been for nothing but they're too caught up in their own struggle to even realize it. It's a clever note to end the story on, and a good reminder of how rare and irrelevant actual voter fraud is in the grand scheme of things.
Mateo also gets caught up in a struggle that winds up being for nothing, as he becomes concerned Dina will figure out he's undocumented if he doesn't have an "I Voted" sticker, something he can't get because he can't vote. After introducing the idea of Mateo being undocumented in the Olympics Special last August, it's good to see it return here, especially with undocumented citizens also being a pretty big issue in the election right now. The episode winds up handling it pretty well too, not making a big deal out of it or an "issues episode", but just having it as something to motivate Mateo through the episode. Mateo winds up confiding in Cheyenne, which also allows her to reveal she knows about him and Jeff in a natural way, setting Cheyenne up as a confidante for Mateo. Mateo/Cheyenne is one of the show's better character pairings so an opportunity for more of that is very welcome. What we get here is delightful, from Cheyenne's misunderstanding of what an "illegal alien" is to the "I Votted" sticker Cheyenne makes for Mateo and his reaction to it. His quest to get an "I Voted" sticker from the poll worker who's fiercely guarding them only becomes heightened when Cheyenne mistakes Dina trying to see if she knows about illegal activity as a hint that Dina's onto Mateo. Ultimately Mateo buys a sticker from a disinterested Garrett but by this point, Glenn and Dina are much too concerned with their own drama to care about who voted or not. It's a clever way of tying in the two stories, having Mateo's fretting be for naught, but also showing why it's something Mateo is rightfully concerned about. A character being an undocumented citizen is something you don't see on TV that much and it's nice to see it being explored here.
Ultimately Election Day was just the palate cleanser that the actual election cycle needed, telling a smart funny episode that managed to avoid getting entrenched in complicated or toxic politics. It's just another reason to love Superstore and another reason that I will miss it dearly when it goes on hiatus after next week. We're getting two episodes next week though, so here's hoping we go off on another high note.
Memorable Moments
-Best Interstitial: Nascar driver Jimmie Johnson cameos as he outraces a child through the aisles to the Muzak croning "Surrender".
-Glenn tries to top Dina for having his head in the game. "I've been here since 4:00 a.m. I've already had three meals". "It's not even 7:00. That's too many meals."
-Marcus gets a lot of play this week and he's delightful. His desire to be part of the gang with Jonah, Amy and Garrett and trying to make drink plans is terrific. "Hey, are we still on for drinks tonight?" "Please stop asking us." "No." "We never were." "Ah, cool. Well, we'll figure it out later."
-Also terrific: Marcus literally picking up Mertle to try to get her to the polls.
-Mateo's indignation at no one knowing who James Brolin is is probably the episode's best Mateo moment.
-Dina tries to make her and Glenn's alibi more specific. "Okay, we were in your office because you were telling me about the affair you've been having with your dental hygienist. She likes when you dance for her." "I do not want to be having an affair!" "Do you want to go to jail?" "No!" "Then you've been dancing for Shelley!"
-Glenn asks Marcus about his chances in prison. "Baby face. Kind eyes. Soft skin. Cute tummy. You'd be very popular." "Oh. Well, that's good." "No, that's bad. That's very bad."
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