Skip to content

zwolanerd

I guess I just like liking things

I don’t feel like we learned anything about the characters this week that we didn’t already know. We might not have ever heard Ted talk about taking the high road, but he’s certainly demonstrated his desire to do that time and again. Linda being “bad”? Didn’t really feel like a departure for her. And Veronica was Veronica, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.  And the only thing missing from Lem and Phil’s devious behavior was a scientific basis for it.

The best part of this episode was seeing another Ted. Up to this point in the show it’s felt like Ted’s team was the only team doing what they do, even if they clearly couldn’t have been because we constantly see other scientists and people running around. I didn’t much like Pete as a person, but it’s hard to separate out how much of that is “Pete’s a jerk” from “I like Ted, so I can’t like Pete.” It’s probably about 50/50. It was a nice moment to have him and Ted be able to share a moment over their daughters’ shared interest in the dolls with the overwrought stories, but it’s more comfortable to have a straight-up nemesis, so we can’t linger on that too long. It’s funny how Pete being a jerk brought out some jerkiness in Ted, but I really got a kick out of Ted’s immediate “I’m not proud of that” and “I actually had a very nice conversation with Pete’s mom at the Christmas party” comments. Ted’s flawed, sure, but he’s mostly not.

It strikes me, all of a sudden, how strange it is that I immediately sign on to the Veridian ideas when they’re presented. I mean, how ridiculous is the idea of kids (or soldiers) floating above a magnetized field of some sort?  Pretty ridiculous. But I don’t question it or any of the other Veridian projects because I’ve accepted that this is what Veridian is and that’s what Ted and his team need to do.  There’s a life lesson in here somewhere about how I should approach things, I bet.

Linda and Veronica working together again is always enjoyable. Linda always wants to have her boss’s approval and Veronica is always trying to figure Linda out, because Linda’s life experience is so vastly different from her own. My two favorite moments in their interactions are Veronica silently standing behind Linda and then, later, when Veronica peers at Linda as though she’s trying to look into her brain to see what’s going on. That second bit actually suffers from the little bit of dialogue they put to it, as I think the stare gave us all the info we needed there.

My favorite part of Phil and Lem’s storyline is after they’ve initially tricked Patricia into thinking she broke the panel but then told her what they’d done. Immediately Patricia tells them they’re going to pay her $500 in extortion money. In that little instance I could see a Patricia that bullies the guys, only in a different way than Veronica.  It was just this little look at a possibility, but they didn’t decide to go that route. I have no trouble believing that Patricia would’ve gotten that money from them if she hadn’t hit on the fight idea. I do wonder where that fight idea came from, though.  Patricia is a complex person.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Rose, because Rose is still fantastic, and her leading the negative charge in the testing room was great.

Bits and pieces:

  • “Now every child can have hours of repulsive fun.” – Phil
  • “Has waving your hands ever sold me on anything?” – Veronica
  • Is it just me, or does Veronica say the word “anything” strangely? She says it twice in this episode, and it sounds kind of like “en-uh-thin” to me.
  • “Can’t we develop one product that doesn’t end up being used to kill people?” – Linda (of course)
  • “Phil, they cancelled your gym membership because no matter what class you were in, you did jazzercise.” – Ted
  • “Every time you smoke a cigarette Santa Claus kills an elf.” – Linda
  • “Smart enough to stay skinny.” – Veronica, proving again she’s not ready to be in charge of children
  • “Oh, and don’t ever do that, either, or the Tooth Fairy will put other people’s teeth in your mouth.” – Linda
  • “Pete, why don’t you show Chet what our team has come up with. It may  not sexualize children, but we think every kid’s gonna want to wear one of these.” – Pete’s Veronica (IMDb calls her “Kathleen”)
  • “Zing! Bang!” – Veronica
  • Chet’s faces after the “Zing Bang” comments from Veronica are a wonderful bit of business
  • “The high road leads to Pansy Town.” – Veronica
  • “You guys have more brains than a zombie Thanksgiving.” – Ted
  • “Then I am ready to leave the monastery and avenge my parents.” – Veronica
  • “I just buy expensive shoes made from very soft animals.” – Veronica
  • Linda is the Testing Coordinator for their department, but haven’t we heard a different title for her before?  I’m guessing this is just a small part of her overall job.
  • “It’s not a boob vest. You’re a boob vest!” – Ted
  • “You should always do what adults tell you to do, especially when they give you candy.” – Veronica, who really shouldn’t be around kids
  • Veronica calls Linda “Flava Flav.”
  • “It looks dangerous, like it could kill a Jonas Brother.” – Rose
  • “I’m starting to feel like a Bond villain.” – Linda
  • “You never know when we might need an elderly dwarf.” – Veronica

Commercial:

Veridian Dynamics. Doing the right thing. It’s important. What does it mean in business? We have no idea. We know what wrong is. Actually, no, we don’t, because we’re a successful company, not some boring ethics professor. Veridian Dynamics. Right and Wrong. It means something. We just don’t know what.

Ideas/Inventions mentioned in this episode:

  • Magnetic gear so kids can experience weightlessness: The Floater, The Astro-Nut, The Dream Glider
  • Corpse-eating Battlefield Robot (make sure to wave your hands when you say this)
  • Fat-free cinnamon rolls

Coworkers named/seen:

  • Pete Gilroy, Ted’s counterpart
  • Patricia
  • Chet!
  • William, the ethical testing guy
  • Kathleen, who didn’t get named in the episode, but seems to be Veronica’s counterpart

Next week: S02E10 – Lust in Translation

Tags: ,

Written by: