The Mythic Quest employees release some intense, bottled-up emotions in this engaging, bottled-up episode. Read on for my review of “Please Sign Here”:
The Mythic Quest office inhabitants were required by corporate to fill out a packet containing a quiz that assigns each employee an animal that matches their work style. All they had to do was to fill out the quiz, sign the results page, and submit it to Carol in HR - Simple! Or so you'd think. Because this is the Mythic Quest team, of Sue, Rachel, Dana, Ian, Brad, Jo, and David all refused to sign off on their quizzes for various reasons, and so our episode opens with Carol forcing them to stay at the office until they do.
So, why didn’t this very specific motley crew sign their results?
Well, Ian didn’t sign because he wanted to find out what Poppy got on the quiz - he got lion, and it’s clear he wants to rub that in her face. But when he discovers that she was dispensed by Corporate from taking it, he than chooses not to sign out of pride.
Brad, meanwhile, refuses to sign “for the data” (but really just because he’s Brad). Jo, meanwhile, doesn’t sign because Brad took her packet away; “She’ll sign when I sign." Jo accuses Brad of stealing her packet out of jealousy - Brad got a mouse in the assessment (he says he answered randomly) while Jo got a shark.
David didn’t sign his quiz because he got a “wolf” result and is now living by the idea that he’s a smooth and cool rulebreaker.
Rachel for her part, refuses to sign in the name of social justice - protest against a work-sponsored placing of people into certain boxes. She might also just be mad about being pegged as a Baboon on the quiz, but who knows? Dana, on the other hand, is open with her displeasure towards her result - she insists that she is a wolf, not an otter.
With the ensemble's motivations set, Carol’s showdown with the stubborn posse - and their showdowns with one another, because you can't put this lot in the same room without expecting a blowout - begin. As a true shark seeking her prey, Jo attacks first, exposes the secret about Brad and his pet pig that she had learned in last week’s episode.
Also coming out in the foil; Rachel doesn’t know as much about Dana as she thought. After a remark from Ian, Dana admits to her girlfriend that she’s vying to apply to the computer science program at Berkeley to become a programmer. Both Berkeley and computer science are far away from what Rachel expected both from Dana in their relationship. Rachel, upset, signs her page and leaves. Dana also signs, just around the same time that Poppy arrives to take the test to appease Ian.
A few more revelations that emerge as the employees continue to bicker: Ian knows about Poppy’s sex dreams about him, and David only got his result because he got the scoring system backwards. He hastily signs and dashes away in order to preserve his “wolf” status.
After a standoff that looks like it’s straight out of a National Geographic documentary, both Brad and Jo sign their tests and leave. With Sue having long left (to tend to the Zooming-in C.W., who doesn’t need to sign his assessment, but does desperately need to take harassment training), it’s just Poppy and Ian left to sign.
Poppy’s test is scored and it turns out she also got the lion result, infuriating Ian. The two pour over each others’ tests, nitpicking the answers to prove that the other is not a lion. When they reach the question about being held back by their fears, exasperated hostage Carol suggests they expose their greatest fears to one another to prove how vulnerable they each are.
After some prompting, Ian admits that he’s afraid of losing relevance, and that Poppy is the “younger smarter lion” come to replace him. Poppy, however, reciprocates by saying she’s afraid of singing in public - a distinctly shallow confession, leaving Ian's brutal honesty out to dry.
Disheartened by Poppy’s clear “alpha lion” behavior, Ian signs his test, finally letting Carol go free. After she leaves, Poppy (kind of) apologizes, admitting that she’s been having trouble working on her own and doesn't know what to do without Ian.
However, he replies with the same brutal coldness she afforded him: ”I don’t believe in you. And you will fail without me. And the best part of it is, you know it too.” Ian says, before leaving Poppy alone in the office.
Wow! Boy, does this show shine in the bottle episodes. Seriously, who thought that shows needed “basic” episodes? A Mythic Quest full of intense, focused character studies would far surpass one where we only get nuggets of gold like this every once in a while.
There were a lot of revelations this episode (and a lot of secrets revealed that I definitely expected to be held closer to the vest). What was most surprising to you? And what did you think of “Please Sign Here?” as a whole? Let me know in the comments!
