Last week's cliffhanger left us with Carol leaving The Breakdown to work for Morning Wined Up, and I was a little disappointed by it. My hope was that it would 1) be over quickly and 2) make great use of Rachel Dratch. It was certainly over quickly (though it just took us to a similar cliffhanger) but it was seriously lacking in Dratch. It fulfilled half of what I wanted and I guess I'll take that, but it ended up doing something worse: it wasn't very funny! I'm going to be honest, this was one of the weaker episodes Great News has produced. I just didn't laugh much! I hope you did.
Feeling confident about her new job, Carol decides to pursue the fast track, shooting straight for the top after a year of being an unpaid intern. She crashes a pitch meeting for Morning Wined Up and announces her ideas despite being told PA's don't go to pitch meetings. The great thing about television is the fact that scenes like this can exist and make us all feel inspired, because the reality is she would've been fired on the spot. Sorry for being
Katie and Greg, meanwhile, are dealing with their fallout from last week's kiss. Katie decides to take the "cool girl" route, undoing Carol's ultimatum for Greg the week before and assuring him he doesn't need to rush and make a decision between her and Cat. She's cool with it! She's totally fine with it! Everything is great in Katie's world! She'll wait! (Spoiler alert: she was not okay, nor would anyone be when they catch a guy trying to escape through a window to avoid talking to them after kissing). Greg takes this to heart and truly does not rush his decision. He's very relaxed, which drives Katie insane. I genuinely thought they'd reveal Greg was taking drugs of some kind to explain his annoyingly chill behavior, but it turned out he was just being an awful person. How relieving.
Following the last week's legal standings with The Breakdown, Katie and Greg meet with a lawyer (the great Tim Meadows, who should've been in 50 more scenes) and he tells them their best course of action is to avoid reporting on billionaire Fenton Pelt. It's 2018, and facts don't matter anymore. Greg uses this to relax even more, while Katie uses it as fuel to investigate further. Chuck, who was suspended at the end of last week's episode, sneaks back into the office and joins forces with Katie. After all, he was fired as an anchor, not as a reporter. But he should probably be fired as a reporter as well, because he's the opposite of good at it. He's bad at it. Honestly there's nothing worse than realizing you're horrible at something you used to be good at, so I felt for Chuck here. But he really shouldn't be a reporter.
When Carol returns to The Breakdown to announce her promotion to TV star, Katie checks it out and sees she's actually just the Morning Wined Up punching bag/fool. She goes to tell Carol that they're embarrassing her, which backfires by offending Carol but sets us up for the final few minutes. Katie gets the courage to tell Greg to make a decision, Chuck spirals and almost makes a ludicrous report on Facebook Live, and Carol quits Morning Wined Up live on air when she realizes Katie was right. It looks like she's heading back for her old family at The Breakdown, but instead...she reminds them they didn't respect her either, and quits working altogether. Another cliffhanger leading us into next week's season (series) finale.
Look, some parts of this episode clicked and some (most) didn't. But hey, that's TV for you! The episode succeeded at moving the plot along, but it lost some laughs along the way. Rachel Dratch and Tim Meadows were horribly underused, and there was an offensive lack of Portia. I look forward to next week's finale, where I assume the gang will convince Carol to return and the legal battle with Fenton Pelt will come to a close. I hope it's great and I hope it means Jim Rash returns. I'm honestly going to miss this show, underwhelming episodes and all.
My episode grade: B-
(I know I said I didn't laugh much, but here were my favorite jokes. They're all Carol, and one Portia. Can you tell who my favorite characters are?):
-"4:30 am? That's crazy! Well sure, I normally I get up at 3, but then I gotta watch 9 hours of TV." -Carol hearing what time she has to report for work at her new job
-"When asked for comment, the president said, 'The president went that way. I'm just a little boy.'" -Portia reporting the news
-"I think it should be on HPV2." -Carol trying to use a TV
-"My blazer is from Chico's Urban Menopause collection. It's reversible." -Carol
-"Well when the words jumped out at me at the beginning, I can't read that fast. That's why I always miss my exit on the highway." -Carol on why she thought Star Wars was scary
How did you feel about the episode? Am I completely wrong and it was actually hilarious? Do you think assistants should burst into meetings with ideas? Would you kiss a turtle that looks like Enrique Iglesias? Is Carol coming back to The Breakdown? Let me know in the comments!
See you next week for the definitely-not-series-only-season finale!
