Entry 021 - Sports Night 118 (The Sword of Orion)
In which fidelity gets a hip check or two
SERIES: Sports Night
EPISODE NUMBER: 118
TITLE: The Sword of Orion
PREMIERE: 23 Mar 1999
WRITING CREDITS: David Handelman & Mark McKinney and Aaron Sorkin
DIRECTOR: Robert Berlinger
DRAFT SCRIPT: HTML
Oh, hello, Mark McKinney! Welcome to the land of Sorkin! I trust you won’t make the mistake of labelling a draft script as the “final draft”?
… Shit, I got here too late.
To be fair, though, this episode is much like episode three in that the changes between “final draft” script and actual final product are relatively few — but changes are still there, nonetheless. When will Mr. Sorkin learn?
As far as the episode itself… it’s a weird one for me. The primary story arc set up in the previous episode inexplicably goes on holiday for this episode, only to come back immediately in the next episode. If I had to guess, that discrepancy might have the same underlying reason as Isaac’s removal from last episode (you still have two weeks to figure out why), but that’s purely speculation on my part. As for what’s left in this episode storywise, we get what feels to me like a mixed bag: one storyline given immediate promise which gets trampled on in later episodes, and another storyline with a questionable setup that’s given better energy in later episodes. I’ll have to decide later whether that makes this episode a good one or a bad one — for now, let’s step through the episode.
DANA: (V.O.) Previously on Sports Night…
JEREMY: I was just wondering whether Dana would have a problem, uh, if I took a few days off next week.
Wait, what? We haven’t previously seen this! I haven’t even seen this scene in an earlier draft script! What gives?!
DAN: Five minutes to air.
CASEY: Best words in the English language.
DAN: Aren’t they?
CASEY: Yes.
DAN: They’re the best words in the English language.
CASEY: Cinq minutes avant d’etre en direct.
DAN: Those are the best words in the French language.
CASEY: Yes.
DAN: Oui.
CASEY: Cinco minutos para salir al aire.
DAN: This is what I’m talking about.
CASEY: There’s an internal clock.
DAN: There is.
CASEY: It’s like athletes.
DAN: It’s just like that. When that gun goes off —
CASEY: When the bell rings —
DAN: It’s game time, my friend.
CASEY: You can take it to the bank.
DAN: Most beautiful sound in the world?
CASEY: Funf minuten bis sendungszeit.
DAN: Well, now you’re just showin’ off.
Man, Peter and Josh are so good…
As I mentioned last entry, this sequence was lifted entirely from a draft script for last episode, with a few extra lines sprinkled in on either side of each translation. It’s almost like Mr. Sorkin knows how to reuse dialogue he’s written that’s gone unreleased…foreshadowing detected
DAN: Natalie.
NATALIE: (off-screen) Sir.
Why is Natalie’s response mixed so low here? It’s almost like whoever did audio post-production for the show saw the wisdom in not having Natalie call Dan “sir” for the first time since the beginning of the series but couldn’t be bothered to remove it entirely. Perhaps they wanted to avoid the wrath of a certain writer? “No, no, it’s still there, listen!”
DAN: Did Orlando Rojas pitch this afternoon?
NATALIE: That’s a good question.
DAN: Thank you very much. Did he pitch this afternoon?
NATALIE: I do not know.
DAN: Thank god none of us work in sports.
“Yes, we are fundamentally a news-gathering organization, but we’re not very good.”
DAN: Maybe he’s just busy.
NATALIE: Yeah.
CASEY: Maybe he met another woman and forgot all about you.
Dude?!
NATALIE: Maybe I’ll jam a number two pencil up your nose.
CASEY: Maybe he’s just busy.
Apology accepted, Case.
CHRIS: This is a heads up, we’re two hours in front of Baja California right now.
Oh, good lord, Carol, where did you go? This statement is so obviously incorrect! Baja California would be four hours behind in the scenario presented, not two!
WILL: We’re three hours in front.
ELLIOT: Baja California isn’t on Daylight Savings Time.
KIM: Everybody in the country’s on Daylight Savings Time.
Carol, you’re killing me! Have you never heard of Arizona? Or Indiana, for that matter…foreshadowing detected
CHRIS: Baja California isn’t in this country.
DAVE: California isn’t in this country?
CHRIS: Baja California isn’t in California, it’s in Mexico.
DAVE: Baja California’s in Mexico?
CHRIS: Yeah.
DAVE: What kinda stupid-ass…
I guess Dave slept through all his history lectures in school? What’s currently the American state of California was previously part of Mexico and referred to as Alta California to differentiate it from Baja California (upper vs. lower, loosely). When the US grabbed a large portion of land from Mexico, they took the former but not the latter and dropped the Alta prefix. It’s basically the opposite of why there’s a West Virginia and not an East Virginia — I don’t suppose Dave thinks West Virginia is in Virginia?
DANA: I’m pumped.
WILL: Thirty seconds to VTR.
DAVE: Live in 90.
DANA: I’m pumped.
…
DANA: You know what you should do?
NATALIE: What?
DANA: Get pumped.
NATALIE: Yeah.
DANA: I’m pumped.
…
DANA: Dave, are you pumped?
DAVE: What the hell is she —
CHRIS: She’s pumped.
DAVE: You’re pumped?
DANA: I am.
I’m getting the sense she’s pumped, are you?
CASEY: Alyson, did you know I speak four languages?
DAN: You speak three languages.
CASEY: I speak four languages.
DAN: You speak French, Spanish, and German.
CASEY: I dabble in a little English.
And if past episodes are any indication, you have a finer grasp of English than Dan does!
RETURNING Verbal Tic: Musical theatre appeal
Running count: 5
CASEY: We’ll show you why McKenzie Blane falls mainly on Tulane and we’ll do other things that rhyme as well.
Missed opportunity to continue the parallel with a story on the Carolina Hurricanes playing somewhere in New England.
REBECCA: I took an elevator up twelve floors, Dan, what did you want to tell me?
DAN: I wanted to tell you that Orlando Rojas is pitching this afternoon.
REBECCA: You couldn’t tell me that on the phone?
DAN: You don’t like it when I bother you at work.
Very cute, Dan — you found the loophole of taking her out of her work entirely. Now let her go.
REBECCA: Hey, is it okay if I hit you in the head with this big book?
DAN: That’s Casey’s.
REBECCA: Oh — Casey, is it okay if I hit Dan in the head with this big book?
CASEY: Yep.
One of these days you’re gonna have to follow through on one of your empty threats, sister.
DAN: She doesn’t know who Orlando Rojas is.
CASEY: He’s a pitcher.
DAN: He’s pitching this afternoon.
CASEY: Orlando Rojas?
REBECCA: You guys, seriously, I’m just gonna sit down in the middle of the room and cry.
Cut before Rebecca’s line here is a reprise of Dan’s being “pumped” about Orlando Rojas, which Casey and Dan riff on for a few more lines. Time became a squeeze, I suppose…
DAN: Eleven years ago he pitched a perfect game.
REBECCA: A perfect game?
DAN: Yes, ma’am.
REBECCA: And a perfect game is good?
(DAN and CASEY exchange a look)
DAN: Listen, I know there’s a lot of jargon but some of these are pretty self-explanatory.
And the sarcasm just flies directly over their heads — shame on you.
As written in our “final” draft script, the exchange about Rojas’s perfect game was much further along during Dan’s solo pestering of Rebecca. Written at this point instead is simply a note from Dan that Rojas is a lefty. Good choice, in my opinion — with its move here, the response to Rebecca’s sarcasm is accompanied by a non-verbal exchange between Dan and Casey that adds a nice touch to the proceedings. If only Casey had stopped Dan from his condescending response…
DAN: How could you have been married to Steve Cisco all those years and know nothing about sports?
…
REBECCA: You think Neil Armstrong’s wife was an expert on astro-propulsion?
DAN: I think she’s heard of the moon.
For what it’s worth: five years prior to this episode, Neil Armstrong divorced his first wife and remarried, so Rebecca’s offered parallel was perhaps more on-the-nose than she intended.
DAN: What do you do exactly?
REBECCA: You know exactly what I do.
DAN: You’re a market analyst.
REBECCA: Yes.
DAN: What does that mean?
REBECCA: I analyze the market.
DAN: Keep going.
REBECCA: It’s hard to understand, Danny.
DAN: Oh, I’m a very smart guy, Rebecca.
REBECCA: I analyze conditions and trends and make recommendations to protect and improve this company’s position in the global financial community. That’s what I do.
This last line from Rebecca was completely rewritten between “final draft” script and the time of filming (further proof the word “final” dooms a writer). The line as written in the script is considerably longer that what we get, and even has specifically notated that the line is split between two different areas of the Sports Night offices. That explicit reset makes me think that the line was shortened after blocking, where it became clear the exact pacing didn’t match the set as expected. I honestly find that a little strange if so, considering how well Mr. Sorkin typically paces walking scenes, but I suppose it’s not beyond the realm of possibility.
RETURNING Verbal Tic: Résumé recitation
Running count: 7
REBECCA: … I happen to be a graduate of the Wharton School. (DAN laughs) What?
DAN: Could you say that part again? “I happen to be a graduate of the Wharton School.”
Abort, Dan.
NEW Dialogue Motif: Wit/cunning and guile
REBECCA: Have people ever tried to kill you?
DAN: Yeah, but I defend myself with superior wit and guile.
“The pen is mightier than the sword, after all.”
DAN: Watch the game with me.
REBECCA: Nope.
DAN: It’ll be great. I’ll tape it and we can watch it later tonight.
REBECCA: Nope.
Here we go again: a hard ‘no’ from Rebecca, and yet Dan still won’t stop. Will you never learn, my guy?
RETURNING Verbal Tic: Résumé recitation
Running count: 8
DAN: See, you may have attended the Wharton School, but I graduated from a little institution called Dartmouth — and I took Psych 101, and on one or two occasions I went to class, so I know all about the likes of you, Miss Missy. You’ve built yourself a wall, a wall of pain — a wall whose bricks are made of pain, and whose mortar is made of tears, and whose… what’s the other one? There’s bricks and mortar and —
REBECCA: That’s it.
DAN: Really?
REBECCA: Just bricks and mortar.
DAN: There isn’t a third thing?
REBECCA: No.
Abort already, Dan!
NEW Dialogue Motif: For I am X
DAN: I’m gonna tear down that wall, Rebecca — bit by little bit.
REBECCA: Okay. Bye.
DAN: I’m gonna tear it down! For I am Dan — Doer of Good Things Where Women Are Concerned.
All evidence to the contrary.
NEW Dialogue Motif: My man has come back to me
NATALIE: (indicating JEREMY) My man has come back to me!
No, seriously, Nat — what the fuck happened to that plan to compartamentalize your relationship outside of work?
NATALIE: You’re back.
JEREMY: I’m sorry I didn’t call last night.
NATALIE: Or the night before.
JEREMY: Right, but —
NATALIE: You wanna know how good I am? I’m not even gonna ask why you didn’t call.
JEREMY: Thank you, ‘cause what I really gotta do [right now is get a hold of —]
NATALIE: [Why the hell didn’t you call?]
Thank you again for the reminder we’re watching a comedy show — this little trope of “I won’t X, but X” to my recollection does not appear in any of Mr. Sorkin’s later works, and as cute as it may be it honestly puts me off a little because it makes out characters to seem more insecure than they really should be.
NEW Dialogue Motif: One of those things
JEREMY: You know, it was just one of those things.
NATALIE: I get it.
JEREMY: Do you?
NATALIE: Yeah.
JEREMY: Thank you.
NATALIE: Why the hell didn’t you call?
Get me out of this scene.
NEW Dialogue Motif: The thing about me is…
CASEY: See, the thing about me is I’m well rounded.
DAN: Yes.
CASEY: For instance, I speak many languages.
DAN: Yes.
CASEY: And I can juggle, play a little piano.
Really? You talk a big game there, Casey, let’s actually see it.
DAN: I want people to walk in the door right now.
(people immediately start entering the room)
DAN: Look at that — power I didn’t even know I had.
Eh, I’d have been more impressed if you made it start raining suddenly.foreshadowing detected
DANA: Will, you’re sitting in Isaac’s chair.
WILL: I thought Isaac wasn’t here.
DANA: We don’t sit in Isaac’s chair when Isaac isn’t here.
monkaS
DANA: I’m feeling really good about this meeting so far. I’m serious, I’m getting a really good vibe from this meeting so here we go. Ready? Elliot, item one —
DAN: Dana?
DANA: This meeting sucks.
You should be careful with those mood swings while Casey is around, Dana, you know how he likes to blame nature.
DAN: I want to share a sports experience with Rebecca, and I don’t want to know anything about this game.
CASEY: That’s a bit problematic.
DAN: Why?
CASEY: As I understand it, it’s our job to get the information and report it to others.
“Though we’re not very good at it.”
NEW Dialogue Motif: Kill me now
DAN: I’ve got all that covered.
DANA: Can we get started?
DAN: First of all, you take the Orioles game. Elliot, you reroute the LC Wire so that I’m not getting American League scores in my office. Kim, please pass this along to the staff and have them establish a signal they can give me if I’m approaching danger. Once the American League wrap-up starts, I need to be outfitted with a blindfold and a Walkman, and just to be on the safe side, Dana, you better put a Heftybag over the floor monitors.
DANA: Kill me, kill me now.
That is quite the elaborate plan, Dan, but I see one immediate problem with it: you and Casey share an office. If Elliot reroutes the LC Wire not to send AL scores to your office, then how will Casey be able to take the Orioles game or generally do the AL wrap-up?
RETURNING Topical Signature: Boat racing
Previous instance: Sports Night 103
DANA: What’s the Governor’s Cup?
DAN: It’s a sailboat race from New York to Nassau.
JEREMY: Ten years ago, a 68-foot Merit Class yacht called the Sword of Orion, which was favored to win, went massively and inexplicably off-course and into the path of winds gusting up to 90 miles per hour with 30 foot seas. The tactician, who was the son of the boat’s owner, was thrown overboard and drowned. The rest of the crew was saved four days later. I’d like to do a feature. I thought I could piece together what happened on the boat. I’m going to do interviews with four of the crew members. I’ve got two of the captain’s logs as well as other support information. What I’m having trouble with is getting the right charts. I need the right charts and I need to learn how to read them. I’m confident I can, that I can learn how to read them. Anyway, I’d like to do a feature, Dana.
This speech we get from Jeremy? It’s longer than it was in the “final draft” script! (Yes, I’m going to beat the dead horse for as long as it’s relevant.) In the place of its elongation was Jeremy brushing off a question from Casey on how his trip was. Delaying Casey’s first ask was a good choice, I’d say, as it serves to keep Jeremy’s motivation for wanting to do the feature a little more up in the air before the first C-break.
By the way: the Sword of Orion was a real racing sailboat, but almost all of its details were changed for the story as told herein. The tragedy that befell the Sword of Orion occurred during a yacht race from Sydney to Hobart, not the Governor’s Cup, and that tragedy happened not ten years ago… but roughly three weeks before our “final draft” script is dated. Mr. Sorkin purposefully backdated recent events for this episode, a decidedly risky choice considering investigations into the events of that fateful race were still ongoing.
REBECCA: … I never said I was gonna watch it with you.
DAN: It seemed like you secretly wanted to.
REBECCA: I didn’t.
DAN: There was an understanding.
REBECCA: There wasn’t.
DAN: There was a tacit understanding.
Fuck you, Dan, she straight up said no! Lay off her!
REBECCA: Why is this game so important to you?
DAN: Orlando Rojas is pitching.
REBECCA: And he’s really good?
DAN: We don’t know yet. He’s been out for two years after shoulder surgery and rehab. I’ve interviewed him a few times, you’d like him a lot. He’s really one of the good guys.
That’s… really saying something, actually, a sports reporter’s refering to an athlete as “one of the good guys”. For the most part, you’d expect sports reporters to be either largely neutral or superficially chummy with athletes — they are, after all, the subjects of most of their stories — so to have Dan openly refer to an athlete as something more than that speaks to something ineffable that mysteriously goes unexplained in this episode.
REBECCA: What team does he play for?
DAN: The Orioles — an oriole is a kind of bird.
Dude?
NEW Dialogue Motif: Nothing/no one I don’t hate
REBECCA: There’s nothing about you I don’t hate.
I’d say that’s an apt response to his insulting her intelligence like that.
DAN: And yet you’re mysteriously drawn to me.
Shut up, Dan.
REBECCA: Nothing happens if they win the game?
DAN: No.
REBECCA: They don’t go to the championship?
DAN: No, actually the season hasn’t started yet. It’s what’s called an exhibition game. They play about thirty of them before the season starts as a tune-up.
REBECCA: Then why does everyone care who wins?
DAN: Nobody cares who wins, but if Orlando Rojas can put some innings together, he may not get cut from the team as quickly as most people think he’s gonna. There’s really nothing like seeing a guy realize he’s not done yet.
For what it’s worth — while Orlando Rojas was not a real baseball player, the story Dan trots out about the man is not too different from that of another pitcher which came afterward. After a rather shaky recovery period following surgery on his knee, Randy Johnson would go on afterward to become the oldest pitcher to pitch a perfect game (“not done yet”, indeed). Afterward, despite having all the justification in the world to build an ego over it, he instead spent most of the post-game interview gushing about how great his catcher was. “One of the good guys” seems like an apt description for him as well, doesn’t it?
DAN: Should I stop trying to sell you?
REBECCA: Yes.
DAN: Really?
REBECCA: Yeah.
DAN: Okay.
Finally.
DAN: Let me try to sell you.
Fucking goddammit…
CASEY: Hey, Jeremy, did, uh, something happen on this trip you wanna talk about? Something happen at home?
JEREMY: No… just, my parents are getting divorced.
CASEY: I know.
JEREMY: So… I mean, it is what it is.
That’s a semantically null sentence, my guy.
Also, good lord, Jeremy, you really want to shit on Casey’s attempt to connect with you like that? Is this supposed to be payback for Casey’s doing the same to you fourteen episodes prior? You hold a hell of a grudge, if so.
DAVE: You frighten the people who work in graphics.
DANA: No, I don’t.
DAVE: Yes, you do.
…
DANA: I’m so nice to them.
NATALIE: That’s one way of looking at it.
DANA: What’s another way?
NATALIE: That oftentimes you express your displeasure with their work in ways that make them want to take their own lives.
(sigh) Good god, do I really need to reprise my own displeasure with Dana’s characterization? Her character just keeps getting shoved down the toilet whenever I start to see a glimmer of something worth my time.
DANA: Show me 30 — you’ll see how nice I can be.
CHRIS: 30’s up.
DANA: Oh, that blows.
CHRIS: (into headset) Yeah, she’s not wild about it.
NATALIE: Back here in ten.
This exchange where Chris translates for Dana got severely truncated from how it is in the “final draft” script (at some point I’m going to get tired of clowning on the “final” label, but that point is not now). Just as well, I’m already sick and tired of Dana’s behavior from the first line that gets translated.
DANA: Is Jeremy very close to his father?
NATALIE: Jeremy worships his father, he’s the sweetest man.
+1 to audience awareness, it seems — Jeremy’s mood through the episode has so far been unexplained explicitly, it’s clearly not just the divorce.
NATALIE: He’s not telling me something.
You and us all, sister!
NEW Sorkin Name: Celia
DAN: These fingers wrap around these two seams. It’s called a two-seam fastball. Now, don’t throw that until your arm is good and warm, Celia, don’t be a hero.
This scene introduction is not at all present in the “final draft” script (maybe I should be keeping a counter of the number of times I point out the “final” label at this point) — it’s what we get from having the mention of Rojas’s perfect game moved up to the first act.
REBECCA: This is my office, this is so totally my office.
DAN: You guys, I think Rebecca wants you to leave.
She wants you to leave, too, buster! Get out of there already!
DAN: You really won’t watch a baseball game with me, huh?
REBECCA: Not tonight.
Oh, fuck me — all this time we’ve been operating on a hard “no” and now it’s morphed into “not tonight”. Dan is getting rewarded for his behavior and it really shouldn’t be that way. Get me out of this scene…
JEREMY: Listen to what Milton says in Paradise Lost — he’s basically saying that Orion becomes an instrument of divine wrath, perfectly controlled by God, to thwart those who would defy him who “treadeth upon the waves of the sea”.
Er… we really want to imply this sailboat was sunk by divine intervention? Once again, this episode was written only a few weeks after the real life Sword of Orion sank off the Australian coast, so throwing in a narrative like that is potentially a recipe for getting sued.
NATALIE: I want to talk to Jeremy.
CASEY: No problem — talk to me later, Jeremy.
JEREMY: Thanks.
CASEY: By the way, this is the second time today I’ve been kicked out of a room, and I go pleasantly and without incident.
Aight, Casey — that was some unnecessarily conspicuous grace you brought to the occasion, but you do you, buddy.
JEREMY: There’s a lot of great stuff on Orion, the god and also the constellation. Most people only see the belt, which is formed by Delta, Epsilon, and Zeta, three second-magnitude stars that are spaced equally in a straight line. Beneath the belt is a line of fainter stars and of these stars, Theta isn’t really a star at all. It’s actually the brightest part of the Orion nebula — so this great pink star in the sword of Orion turns out to be something… far more complicated and interesting.
Hell yeah, a crash course in astronomy — inject that directly into my veins! It’s all largely accurate as well, props to Carol!
NEW Plot Bunny: The 27-year affair™
JEREMY: My father’s been having an affair with a woman for 27 years.
NATALIE: Do you know her?
JEREMY: No.
NATALIE: How did your mom find out?
JEREMY: He told her.
Now we hear why Jeremy’s so wrecked: a man he’s “worshipped” for as long as he’s lived revealed himself to be an unfaithful cheat, shattering the pedestal his son set up for him. It’s been such a shock for him that he’s been projecting rather obliquely:
JEREMY: It’s worth it, I think, to figure out… exactly how this boat that was supposed to win… met with this kind of disaster. (beat) I’d like to look at a chart.
NATALIE: It’s okay.
JEREMY: I’m sorry I didn’t call.
NATALIE: Don’t think about that now.
Dropped from this button in the “final draft”: Natalie continues that “it’s time to do the show”, to which Jeremy responds, “I’m grateful for that.” Natalie certainly has experience with using the show as a means of escapism from her personal troubles, though in her case when we saw as much the attempt at escapism got subverted by her colleagues, so it’s probably just as well that this couplet got dropped.
NEW Sorkin Name: Connie
NEW Sorkin Name: Morton
CASEY: That was Connie Morton in Fort Lauderdale with the Orioles, an auspicious outing for Scott Erickson and the lefty Orlando Rojas. (slams fist on desk)
DAN: (unplugs ears) That’s all for us.
This sequence of showing Dan’s plan of information isolation in action is strangely absent from the “final draft” script. Frankly, I find it a little disturbing it wasn’t there from the beginning…
DANA: Would you tell graphics that the wise thing for them to do would be to leave the building right now very quickly?
NATALIE: (into headset) Hey, Dana says you guys come on up for a well-deserved pat on the back.
Woah, hey, yikes! That is a massive mistranslation, Natalie! You sure you want to be charged with accessory to murder?
DAN: I am now walking through the newsroom carrying the tape! Please stop all conversations regarding Orlando Rojas and the Orioles game! I repeat, please stop all conversations regarding Orlando Rojas and the Or— (sees REBECCA)
REBECCA: He slipped on a tangerine peel in the locker room before the game. He twisted his ankle pretty good.
No… fucking goddammmit, she actually came — the rewarding of Dan’s rapey behavior continues.
NEW Dialogue Motif: That was nice, a little…
DAN: Are you serious?
REBECCA: Boy, did you bite down hard on that one!
DAN: That was nice, you played a little joke.
I don’t know, Dan, I would have found it more believable if she had said “clementine peel” instead of “tangerine peel”.
REBECCA: Steve made it clear that he didn’t want me in that world. It was very important to him and I… he had a hard time mixing those things.
… Okay, you know what, I’ll buy that explanation. I’m still rather peeved that she was basically forced into providing that explanation, but still, I believe it.
REBECCA: I want to tell you that I appreciate the extraordinary effort you went through today. I want you to know I appreciate it.
Are you fucking kidding me? You gave him a hard “no”, Rebecca — that is not an invitation for a man to exert such an “extraordinary effort”, it’s an invitation to stop. You are now verbally rewarding him for disrespecting the rules of consent, what the hell is wrong with you?
RETURNING Plot Bunny: Sudden Relationship Accelerant™
Previous instance: The American President
DAN: I’m gonna tear down that wall, Rebecca — bit by little bit. It may take weeks, could take months, but I’m gonna do it. I’m hunkered down for a long period of wall demolition, just bit by little bit. I expect the process to be excrutiating, but ultimately worth it.
REBECCA: I’ve booked a suite at the St. Regis for tonight. Room Service has a bottle of champagne chilling in the room right now. Could I take you there, please?
DAN: (beat) Well, that’ll speed things up considerably.
“Perhaps I didn’t properly explain the fundamentals of the Slow Down Plan.”
REBECCA: Dan?
DAN: Yeah.
REBECCA: Take the tape.
DAN: (beat) The tape?
REBECCA: Take the tape.
DAN: (pause) Excellent.
Uh… we’re clear the tape has baseball on it, right? Not something else?
Alright, well… I’m still not sure how to feel about this episode. Ignoring the tacked-on subplot with Dana’s chewing out the graphics team whose presence is going to grate my psyche either way, we’re presented with two presumably A-level plots regarding Jeremy and Dan. The Jeremy plot as presented shows great promise for character development in his realm, while the Dan plot is a rinse-and-repeat of the concerns I had three episodes ago with disrespecting a woman’s boundaries. In spite of that, my foreknowledge of episodes to come reminds me that the balance of power between those two plots is going to go in the wrong direction. That combined with the fact that the previous episode’s events appear to have been ignored entirely almost makes me want to consider this episode skippable — but it is unfortunately not. Viewers like me will just have to close their eyes and listen to this episode, I’d say.
If you’ve managed to get this far without harboring the urge to kill me for my critiques of your favorite television show, your path forward in life should definitely include subscribing to this blog to see how far you can go before that happens. Coming up next: there’s nothing we can’t handle, right?
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