We’ve fast-forwarded to the summer Democratic National Convention in Selinaland, and it turns out incumbency has propelled President Meyer to the nomination for President! And wouldn’t you know it, there are even more staffing shakeups in Selina’s team, including a brand new role for Hugh Laurie!
A Thorn Called Karen
Amy Brookheimer has had it, officially. While Selina brought her pre-Senate days colleague Karen Collins to try and inject some common sense and stability into her entourage, Collins became the unthinkable: a yes-woman whose ability to doublespeak and pander surpassed that of even Gary himself! It’s true. Karen’s constant enabling of Selina’s indecision became more than Amy could bear. When Amy made a sensible suggestion and Meyer sounded receptive, in chimed Karen with tacit approval. If the team made a suggestion and it was met by Selina with concern, suddenly Karen had concerns as well, with imploring them all to just pull back and really assess their current situation. It all eventually came to a raging apex when Amy, positively beleaguered by Selina and Karen talking the team into circles, blows her top. Amy walks out with one of the best “I quit” speeches of all time.
The Veep Search For Veep
After being informed of the epic data breach which saw the Meyer campaign target bereaved parents with a promotional mailer a few months back, Vice President Andrew Doyle decides hours before the DNC to officially withdraw himself from the ticket. His intention was to leave Selina caught between a rock and a hard place, scrambling for a new VP on the day that her ticket officially accepts the nomination. Unfortunately for Doyle, Selina had already been floating the idea of ditching him, leaving his plan without ammunition. Ben manages to turn Doyle’s Chief of Staff Teddy (Patton Oswalt) into quite the bargaining chip thanks to the incessant groin-grabs he’d made toward Jonah. Now a little scrotal tap here and there between Oswalt and Simons is hilarious for the viewers, but it’s also sexual harassment between Teddy and Jonah, so Ben parlays that into Doyle agreeing to step down for health (read: prostate) reasons. After learning her GOP counterpart had selected a Latina senator from New Mexico, the team then scrambles to replace Doyle with a “minority retort.” The obvious choice was Danny Chung, Meyer’s fiercest competitor in the Primary Election, but he passed on the opportunity. Selina met with former Defense Secretary Maddox in hopes of adding his conservative appeal to her ticket, but after 15 seconds with him she was reminded just how little she could stand him. It was this final choice that prompted Amy to quit the campaign, and much like Catherine’s confrontation with her mother last season wherein Catherine yelled at her mother to snap her out of a malaise, Meyer takes Amy’s suggestion and realizes that Karen is useless. Enter Tom James (Hugh Laurie) the war-wounded Senator and father of a handicapped son. (And apparently a former romantic liaison of Meyer’s.)
Egan’s World
Dan Egan, trying desperately to impress new boss Sidney Purcell, tries to validate his worth as a D.C. insider by bringing some big fish to the table for lobbying talks. But given his ouster from Selina’s White House, the one person left who’ll actually respond is the attention-seeking Jonah Ryan. Jonah brings along eternally sunny and oh-so-terribly inept assistant Richard, so you can just imagine how swimmingly the meeting goes. During their meeting is when the entire group discovers that Doyle is off the ticket, and Jonah’s presence is even less valuable than is typical. While Dan, Jonah, and Richard all scramble to contact Amy–the most accessible high-level contact between the three of them–she quits Selina’s campaign. Two for two, Dan. It remains to be seen what the future holds for Amy, but I have a sneaking suspicion that she’ll end up crossing paths with Dan very soon.
tl;dr
VP Doyle is out, Amy is out, Karen Collins is out, Chung said no to Veep-status, Dan is starting to seem as effective as Jonah at his new job, and the only new addition to President Meyer’s team is her new VP selection Tom James. Just another day in Selinaland.
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Join us here next week and every week during the Veep season for another recap.
