And finally the campaign is in full swing. We start off with each of our favorite Veeple speaking to Selina’s newly acquired campaign volunteers. Of course, each person has something different to say. Gary of course describes how the Veep likes her coffee (she likes Peppermint, but thinks its Chamomile, don’t ever tell her though). Amy reassures them that even though Selina will ignore them, she knows they’re there. Dan goes the inspiration bullish!t route and Sue basically sums it up: “don’t f**k up.”
Amy and Dan continue their competition for campaign manager. Campaigning for campaign manager if you will. Little do they know Selina was meeting, or “not meeting,” with a potential new campaign manager who tells Selina to fire everyone, which throws Selina in the best way possible.
This could put Mike on the chopping block considering he hasn’t been exactly present. During a run in in the bathroom, we learn the Mike and his wife are doing in vitro fertilization, which Mike was “supplying for” in the bathroom at work. When Selina asks where he was, she asks if his mind was thinking about her, to which he swiftly responds no, much to her dismay. About her campaign… get your minds out of the gutter people.
After thinking Selina might let Gary go because he would be unable to hold a bag anymore due to his injury, he lets slip, or frankly says with much intent, that mike is masturbating at work. Let me insert here that Julia Louis Dreyfus is the master of facial expression.
This episode finds Selina out in the country… fishing. Yeah, you can just picture it. She is meeting with Former Secretary of Defense Maddox to (a) dissuade him to run, and (b) offer him something lucrative like state. I should also mention that Maddox hired Jonah as his bag boy.
This is where we get the best scene, hands down, of the season. Maddox and Selina talk about the “prestige” of the position of Vice President. Then, Maddox and Selina offer each other the position to which Selina responds: “I’d rather be shot in the f**king face, than serve as Vice President again.” Genius.
Back home, Amy hosts a dinner for the staff to campaign for campaign manager. She of course sets a seating chart for everyone. One of Veep’s best running gags is and will forever be Amy dealing with people.
This episode sets Selina’s competition. We have Maddox, Danny Chung, and Joe Thornhill, a former baseball team owner. During the last few scenes, a few thoughts passed my mind about the future of the series:
1. Is there going to be a Dan and Selina affair? He talked about being with older women and how his relationship with the Veep had to be intimate.
2. Is Selina going to lose the election and become Veep under Maddox?
3. Joe Thornhill has to play some bigger role in the scheme of the series. Just like Chung did starting off in season one.
This episode reminds me so much why I love Veep. It handles forward momentum so well with hilarious one-liners and characters that constantly remind us how incompetent those in Washington are. Now that this campaign is in full swing, I can’t wait to see who, in the words of Sue, f**ks up.
Hey, I'm Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven't yet seen represented. I'm also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.