joel wosk busts out of the cubicle…
Step into my office, because we’re about to have a serious conversation. Ok, calm down, we’re not going to have a serious conversation. In fact, we’re going to talk about some downright silly things. And the topic: you guessed it, the latest episode of Workaholics. In this latest installment of the epic saga detailing the exploits of three men on a tireless quest to do as little as possible, cantankerous boss Alice gets caught up in a scandal, which ends with her leaving her position at TelAmeriCorp. But I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves, let us examine the events leading up to the departure of Alice Murphy.
In the opening scene of the episode, we see Anders, Adam, and Blake rolling into the company parking lot in Anders’ beloved Volvo station wagon (“The Vo”) in slow motion with bandit-style bandanas around their faces. Their mission: to shoot slow/pudgy/silent co-worker Weymond with as many plastic BBs as their pellet guns can fire. However, in their efforts to shoot poor Weymond, the boys end up hitting Montez in the eye. Twice. The tomfoolery doesn’t end there however, as the pellet fest continues inside the office. The perpetually agitated Alice is none too pleased to catch the guys discharging their weapons on company time and confiscates the weapons.
Here is where the scandal begins to take shape. Alice agrees to return the confiscated arsenal to the boys in exchange for stellar reviews on her evaluation. They agree to Alice’s offer, but with the stipulation that they be allowed one full day to do whatever they want. They choose to use this free day to continue their gunplay, except this time expanding it into an all office war. In the middle of the melee, Alice’s superior, Travis (played with deranged intensity by Daniel Stern) pays a visit and is appalled by what he sees. After learning about the arrangement Alice had made with her employees, Travis not only strips Alice of her bonus and vacation time, but also suspends her for a week. Alice does not take this lightly and quits her job in suitably dramatic fashion. This leaves Travis in charge, and that spells bad news for the entire office.
Travis enacts several new office policies, which includes splitting up Anders, Adam, and Blake. Unable to interact with one another, our three main characters actually make some phone sales, and that simply will not do. They attempt to snare Travis in a scandal of their own creation, but to no avail. It seems that Travis knows what the guys are up to before they even have the chance. The situation seems pretty bleak until Alice’s former assistant Jillian, decides to defect and betray Travis. Jillian reveals that Travis has installed surveillance cameras in the multitude of potted plants he had placed all over the office. They use some of this footage to blackmail Travis, forcing him to reinstate Alice in order to retain a lucrative client.
In the end, everything goes back to normal, relatively speaking that is. Alice is happy to be back in the office, and by “happy” I mean, “brimming with hatred” because that really seems to be the only setting that Alice operates on. The important thing is that Anders, Adam, and Blake are now able to get back to doing what they do best: absolutely nothing. Order is restored to their universe, and all is well. This was a really funny episode and Daniel Stern was terribly effective at portraying the evil Travis. Who would have thought the voice of Kevin Arnold from The Wonder Years was capable of such things?
Check out Workaholics Wednesdays at 10pm on Comedy Central. All Photos Credit: Comedy Central
