-It's been a couple weeks since the last new episode of Superstore but Integrity Award did a strong job keeping the season's momentum going with another funny installment filled with great jokes, solid character development and an expertly deployed setpiece.
-When we first met Amy in season 1, it became quickly apparent that she was the kind of person who took care of other people at the expense of her own needs, the one who was responsible because she felt she had to be. In season 2, Amy's arc has been her learning to be assertive about what she wants and take care of herself. It's been very satisfying to watch her progress throughout the season and her arc reaches a big turning point tonight as we meet her parents and find out why she has to be so responsible in the first place.
-Tony Plana (Who was also America Ferrara's dad on Ugly Betty) and Marlene Forte were terrific tonight as Ron and Connie, who in just a handful of scenes became fully-fleshed out characters who felt like they could exist outside of Amy (I would actually totally watch a spin-off about Ron and Connie, particularly if it meant more of Ron's celebrity portraits). They aren't terrible parents, in fact they seem like terrific people, but they just don't know how to prioritize tasks or manage their time wisely or get the things done that actually matter. This has caused Amy to have to be the one who's always getting things done. The problem is that this has created a cycle where Ron and Connie have no need to get organized or hurry up for once because Amy has always kept them from dealing with the consequences of their actions. The only reason Amy is even there at all is because they didn't bother to get a truck for their move, causing Amy to take one of Cloud Nine's delivery trucks. So when Amy makes the decision to sneak away and leave her parents to clean up their own mess for once, it's rightfully played not as a selfish act but as a triumphant moment of growth for the character.
-The show continues to take it's time setting up a Jonah/Amy romance, which suits me fine. It has a lot of fun tonight with the two of them just being friends, as Jonah takes advantage of this opportunity to learn all about young Amy and finds out that the two of them have a lot in common and would've been friends as kids (Not that Amy wants to admit that). And when Amy is pushed to her breaking point, Jonah is there to support her and help convince her that the right thing to do is leave. America Ferrara and Ben Feldman continue to have terrific chemistry together and I could easily watch another season of them just dragging out their attraction for each other before I got tired of it. The end beat of the story with Amy ignoring a call from Adam felt a little unnecessary though, like it was only their because the writers didn't trust us to pick up on Amy and Jonah's growing bond on their own.
-Glenn and Garrett are two characters who play off of each other very well but they don't get a lot of actual stories together. Integrity Award fixes that as Glenn's campaign to win the upcoming Cloud Nine Integrity Award (And the unframed certificate and All-You-Can-Eat Buffet Luncheon that comes with it) is threatened when Garrett rescues a veteran's dog that was trapped in the snow. We've seen Glenn act insecure and petty before but it gets taken to a new level tonight as Glenn tries to belittle and underplay Garrett's good deed at every turn, and getting Cheyenne (Who nominated Glenn without any provocation from Glenn) to expand and enhance the details of her nomination for him. It's an ugly side of Glenn that we're not used to seeing but Mark McKinney plays it terrifically and naturally so it feels consistent to Glenn's character.
-When Garrett comes in with that dog, it initially seems like the whole thing is an act he's pulling to win the integrity award and mess with Glenn but it turns out that Garrett has no interest in the award, he was just genuinely doing something good for once. He even keeps trying to help Glenn out and direct the attention he's getting elsewhere until Glenn finally pushes him too far and he begins accepting nominations out of spite. It's not that Garrett cares about the award that much, it's the fact that Glenn is undermining one of the few good deeds Garrett has done and it hurts. Colton Dunn is always terrific as Garrett when he's just in deadpan trickster mode, but he does equally well showing off the vulnerable side of Garrett.
-Mateo's misadventures trying to fix things around the store so Dina thinks Jeff is obsessed enough with Mateo to give him special treatment is a fun story that serves as a fun parallel to Sandra sending herself all those elaborate Valentine's gifts a few weeks back. It turns out Mateo's real relationship with Jeff isn't as exciting to the Cloud Nine employees as Sandra's fake one so Mateo is desperate for the same kind of employee validation about his relationship that Sandra got. Dina's manipulating Mateo when she suggests Jeff doesn't care enough to give him preferential treatment and Mateo knows it but he goes for it all the same because Dina has tapped into an actual fear Mateo has. Hence Mateo trying to be a one-man fixing crew, which becomes harder to sustain as Dina's demands get more and more ridiculous (Her vision for what the store could look like in three years is hilariously over-the-top).
-A good rule of thumb for if a bug bomb appears in a sitcom is that it's going to backfire spectacularly so I was ready for Mateo's effort to debug the break room to go awry. I was not ready for him to set off ten at once, forcing a store-wide evacuation. The way the whole thing slowly builds is masterful. There's just enough of a delay from seeing Mateo with the bug bombs to the reveal of the spreading toxins that we almost forget about the whole thing, making it more funny when the whole store starts getting affected.
-The episode ends on a bit of a cliffhanger as Mateo is informed he'll have to transfer stores in order to keep his relationship with Jeff going. Since it seems unlikely that Nico Santos is leaving the show, it looks like the Jeff/Mateo romance is near it's breaking point. That'll be a shame because it'll probably mean less Jeff and his delightfully odd normalness but hopefully Jeff will still pop in now and then if only to be a district manager
-Best Interstitial: A couple makes out in the middle of the check-out line until they're asked to move by a customer, so they move a couple inches and get back to making out.
-This Week in Mark McKinney is a Treasure: The whole Glenn/Garrett story was full of great moments but I think Glenn's reaction to the windows on his car being shattered again takes the cake this week. "Why can't I just have a car?!" Sidenote, I did not see the reveal that Glenn was the owner of that poor car coming even though I totally should have because bad things only ever happen to Glenn's car.
-The runner-up best Glenn moment though was his increasingly befuddled reaction to Garrett feigning ignorance at how an all-you-can-eat buffet works. "Oh, I see, so it's all you can eat on your one trip to the buffet". "No, you're you're not getting it. It's multiple trips". "What size plate do you have to bring with you?" "They have plates there!"
-The Vladmir Putin painting that Jonah is wrangled into buying from Ron was a terrific visual gag.
-Another great visual gag is the shrine to Scott Wolf that young Amy has set up. This also leads to the great tag as it turns out that Amy is still obsessed with Scott Wolf and that Jonah's celebrity crush back in the day was Alyssa Milano (Which of course it was).
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