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Veep – Running Review: Selina Has an Ironic Personal Incident

The latest episode of Veep picks up right where we left off last week, with Selina proud of herself for avoiding disaster in the interview and saving herself at the end with a load of made-up crap. Selina, having lied about the spy incident during the interview, now appears to be a hero at the top of her game. The VP receives news regarding leaks from a whistle-blower early on in the episode, and we later find out that Selina is aware of his identity, knowing that it will cause great drama for the President too. The content of this episode seems to be timed ironically with the whistle-blower news going on right now and all of the characters are very serious throughout the episode.


Selina's nemesis Danny Chung is present again in this episode; he makes a speech and even releases a "What I'm Listening To" playlist on Spotify, causing Selina to think she should do the same. This moment provides a bit of comedy when she and the rest of the staff are trying to think of songs that would be good to include in such a playlist. It really makes us wonder whether people actually do listen to the songs that they publish in these types of playlists. In another odd moment that completely changes the course of the episode and further embarrasses Selina, she quite literally walks through a glass door. After the incident, Dan makes a comment about how she seems to have become a living metaphor for her career, and he and Amy in particular seem to be caring less and less about Selina and the position in which she finds herself. They are both shown attending Chung's speech as well, perhaps jockeying for a job with him, and willing to abandon Selina for the sake of their careers.

Veep

Due to the whistle-blower, the President is under attack throughout the episode, and Jonah finally does something right as he goes back and forth, advising Selina on what to say and do in regards to the President and his status as a leader. There is even mention of a possible impeachment and Selina is instructed from Jonah to stand behind the President and to give him her full support. This gives her difficulty of course, given her low opinion of him, and it certainly makes audiences wonder what made her run with him in the first place. She announces to a national audience that she will be running, which causes confusion about whether she will be running for President, and Amy and Dan call it an insane idea. Either she is insane or she is planning to run for President (according to Amy), and I would have to agree. She is definitely not stable enough and does not posses the leadership qualities necessary to run the country.


After walking through the door, Selina has glass in her hair and all over her face. She suffers some severe cuts on her face but fortunately she was not seriously hurt. As a result, she is confined to a hotel room in order to recover and is forced to miss out on the donor meeting she was scheduled to attend. While Gary is up in the room with her, trying to comfort her, he accidentally gives her a medication that interferes with the anti-depressants that she has been taking. As a result, she becomes completely high and is not acting like herself, agreeing to do things for Gary and Mike that she clearly would not do otherwise. The medication, and possibly just her ignorance as a character, has her mocking Russell Crowe for his roles in Gladiator as well as The Terminator (the latter is a movie in which he obviously did not act). This is a nice way to throw in a pop culture reference; these have been less noticeable in recent episodes. The topic comes up when Russell Crowe is, ironically, given the presidential suite in the hotel, and Selina is complaining have how she should have received special treatment.

Veep

In order to sidetrack rumors of her possible run for the presidency, Selina agrees to participate in a run for charity. Despite her cuts and overall poor physical condition, she finishes the race well; Gary even participates alongside her and is communicating with the rest of the staff in order to ensure that she competes in the race the right way. Jonah hurries to the race in order to tell her what to say during the interview set to take place as soon as she finishes the race. Her response is a bit odd, making it hard to tell what she actually means. It's then revealed that the whistle-blower is from the State Department and Selina's office is in real trouble.


Selina has a serious talk with Amy at the end of the episode, during which she tells Amy that she refuses to run with him again. She fears that she will be implicated in the charges being bandied about, and she does not want to have to deal with the consequences that are sure to arise. With the season finale airing next week, audiences will have to stay tuned to see what will happen with Selina and company and the country they're tasked with running. Selina does not seem fit to run a country and it would make sense for her to bow out in the way she's suggested she will. Amy and Dan have sensed this for a while too, and it seems as they are looking for a possible position with Danny Chung. The comedic elements of this show have been steadily decreasing and we see few of them in this episode, with the exception of Selina acting goofy while she is high. Julia Louis-Drefyus' acting is excellent but the acting of the supporting cast lacks its usual quality. However, it's nice to see Jonah do something positive for once and not act like a complete idiot for the entire episode; he even seemed likable.

Thoughts and Quotes

-- Gary: "They're calling you the no BS VP." This is an ironic statement since Selina's statement to the interviewer was complete BS and everyone in the office knew it.

-- In reference to one of the donors that will be helping Selina's campaign, Mike says, "He's got money to burn...not that donating to your campaign is burning money." Nice one, Mike; it does seem that donating to her campaign is equivalent to burning money, as her career continues to plummet.

-- After walking through the glass door, Selina says, "I feel like one of those old used footballs that they fixed up for the kids at the orphanage." It appears that the Vice President is human after all; everyone is capable of acting clumsily once in a while.

-- Selina has just walked through a glass door and Dan certainly makes quite the ironic statement when he says, "That woman has become a living metaphor for her career." He does not seem to show much compassion for her at this point; in fact, he seems to want to move on. Selina should have been able to see where she was going, but instead she unknowingly walks into danger; this is an apt metaphor for her career as of late.

-- Dan shows his frustration with Jonah for being right when he says, "700 days of working with us, you've been right once." Jonah is usually a jerk, but he actually seems to do a good job of being halfway decent in this episode, and it's too bad that nobody seems to appreciate his efforts.

-- Selina: "Forget it. I'm not going to run with him in two years. I'm not going to be his Vice President. I'm finished. I'll come back in six years and I'll save this party from itself."

-- Jonah: "As a senior White House official, I am commandeering the situation, Mike." Jonah comes in and finally does something right. Good job, Jonah.

-- Mike: "You just broke his brain, Amy." He is making a reference to Jonah and the stupid look on this face after Amy tells him off in regards to the incident with Selina.

Rating
7.1

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