The latest episode of Veep takes viewers back to where we left off at the conclusion of the hostage situation. The next scene cuts to Selina, Amy, and Gary, who are riding in a limousine and discussing an upcoming event that Selina refers to as the teen prayer breakfast thing. She is making light of the situation and acting uninterested, particularly when making a joke about how weird she thinks it is that people are even religious as teenagers. She suggests that it is often the parents that make their kids participate in religious events, and she can't figure out why someone of that age would be interested. She goes on to say "why don't they just smoke some pot or something?" which clearly indicates her relaxed view on drug policy and how it is important for people to be able to enjoy the time that they have when they are young, rather than being concerned with religious activities.
After returning to the office, Selina finds out that there is a photo of her that that has been leaked by the White House and is now spreading around the Internet. However, the photo is not the one that she had approved. The leaked photograph is of her on the conference call that she had with the White House in order to get the hostages to safety. This creates a serious situation and makes her look bad, especially after Jonah comes in the office to tell her that the picture has been turned into a meme, showing her looking down at her phone in multiple situations that users have created. Selina has no idea what he is talking about and tells him to speak English as he continues to talk about social networking sites such as Reddit and Tumblr, none of which Selina understands. This incident particularly shows how people in power have no privacy, and that once something gets out, the participants have no control over what will happen to their images; Selina realizes that she has become a total mockery, and she questions Jonah, wanting to know how long her humiliation will last.
This episode is titled "The Vic Allen Dinner," and after the meme situation winds down, the show focuses primarily on a benefit dinner where Selina is to present and sing a song. Dan and Mike are instructed to write a comical song for her to sing, and they end up selecting a song with a number of political references to foreign nations and policy opinions. She sings this song to the tune of the hit song "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" by Paul Simon, and she enjoys a good reception from audience members. Unfortunately, outside of the room, she finds that many people do not approve of the comments she made. Julia Louis-Dreyfus surprises audiences with a pleasant singing voice, although the song contains fairly annoying lyrics, and she receives mixed responses after the dinner concludes.
Selina discusses the status of her staff with Amy, thinking that her staff members might need extra attention in order to stick around. She asks what it would take to keep Sue around, and Selina immediately gives her a raise and decides to take Gary and his girlfriend out to lunch in order to relate to him on a more personal level. This goes terribly as his girlfriend describes what she does and makes a joke about foreign policy. She talks about a previous job that she had in relation an offer that she had, causing Gary to quote The Godfather. This seems to be one of the only jokes present in a bit of a disappointing episode in terms of comedy (the episode has more drama than usual).
Yet again in this episode, she gets attacked on social network websites for an event that puts her in a bad light. Jonah publishes the video that was made of her singing at the dinner to various social networking sites, and his action gets several negative responses from different leaders and organizations. Selina learns about this misstep while on Air Force Two, realizing that it must be Jonah's fault and proceeds to kick him off the plane in a fit of rage. The Vice President seems to have put up with enough of Jonah and may be ready to get rid of him. We clearly see her frustration as she throws all of her papers on the ground and slams the door. The rest of the staff seems to dislike Jonah and he has an incredibly annoying personality on the show, indicating that he be get forced off the show soon.
This episode sprinkles comedy in between multiple dramatic incidents, but Selina suffers a couple of hard hits to her reputation and public appearance in this episode. Additionally, Julia Louis-Dreyfus displays excellent acting when she takes charge and removes Jonah from the plane at the end of the episode, showing her incredibly tough personality as the Vice President. She gets into some tough situations, but they seem realistic, as a number of people with power have run into problems due to things that they have said or done being released to the public in recent years. This type of political comedy continues to entertain, and whether a large amount of comedy is featured or not, the fun and exciting cast provides great entertainment that will likely keep audiences returning for a long time.
