‘Veep’ Season 5, Episode 5: The New Face

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/22/arts/television/veep-season-5-episode-5-thanksgiving.html

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This week’s episode of “Veep” feels like a slight comedown in the wake of last week’s sensational “Mother.” Perhaps that was inevitable. After a half-hour of television that featured the death of a loved one, the disappointment of a recount lost and a performance for the HBO comedy ages from Julia Louis-Dreyfus, an episode that deals with salmonella poisoning and turkey pardons doesn’t pack quite the same punch. “Veep” is so terrific that we’ve come to expect gold medal-worthy triumph every week. But there’s no shame in earning a bronze. Hey, as we learned in episode two of this season, a bronze still means a trip to the White House, right?

The most striking thing about this episode is the degree to which Selina is isolated and outshined by her male colleagues, thanks to a situation completely of her own making. Opting to use the Thanksgiving holiday to get an eye job instead of spending time with her family, Selina winds up with swollen, crimson-red recovery bags beneath her lower lids. Together, they almost look like the wattles of the two turkeys she pardons in grand, ridiculous, Thanksgiving presidential tradition. Given her appearance, there’s no way Selina can publicly address the salmonella outbreak that worsens as Thanksgiving unfolds or offer condolences when Representative Harry Sherman, the oldest member of the House, dies. Those jobs go to Tom James and Andrew Doyle.

One could argue that society’s expectations of women force Selina to get plastic surgery, because her beauty and youthfulness are crucial to how she’s perceived. But by making that choice, it’s almost as though she’s subconsciously pardoning herself from being presidential. Or maybe she’s just subconsciously sabotaging herself. Either way, there’s something sad about the fact that the two veeps — the current and possibly future one — must become the face of the presidency because of the actual president’s vanity about her face.

It’s especially distressing since we know that the smooth-talking Tom and the venom-spewing Andrew are not necessarily as “on-point” behind the scenes as they seem on television. The scheming Andrew uses Selina’s moment of post-surgery weakness to bribe her into considering him for secretary of state, should she remain in office. Tom — who, by the way, made that same secretary of state request last season — is a more complicated piece of work. At first, when he invites Dan Egan to join his staff, he seems like he’s going to be the sort of down-to-earth, blunt-talker that matches his public persona as a politician. But pretty quickly, he reveals himself to be as self-serving and self-centered as Selina, turning Dan — who once was a pretty strong strategy guy — into his coffee-fetching lackey. The most wonderful bit of visual comedy in this episode is the moment when Dan, after preparing a tray for Tom, turns around and faces his mirror image: Gary, holding a tray he’s just prepared for Selina.

Either out of paranoia and frustration or because of a legitimate hunch, Dan starts to believe that Tom is working with Sidney Purcell, the lobbyist and Dan’s former boss, and is intentionally planting mentions of Purcell’s clients into his various interviews on the cable talk show circuit. Having a vice president who is basically the human equivalent of Scott Disick’s social media strategy would be very bad for Selina. But attempting to expose him could be very bad for Dan, who has a tendency to let his ego get the better of him when he’s making judgment calls about how to handle matters like this.

Speaking of egos getting the better of people: Oh man, this business about Jonah running for the House seat vacated by Harry Sherman? That’s the real Turkey-pocalypse. Jonah has been told rather forcefully by his politically influential uncle Jeffrey (Peter MacNicol) that his role is simply to serve as a placeholder until Jonah’s cousin, Ezra the war hero, can run in the next term and take over. But no matter how loudly Uncle Jeffrey shouts that information, you know Jonah is not going to hear him. “I’m a MRSA infection,” Jonah shouts, in what might be the weirdest declaration of pride ever. “You don’t get rid of Jonah Ryan!” The crazy thing is: he’s right. Jonah Ryan is a lot of things, and unbreakable is definitely one of them. Something also tells me that having Jonah in the House will somehow backfire on Selina’s efforts to win the presidency via the support of Congress.

We’ve reached the halfway point of this fifth season and we still don’t know whether Selina will remain commander in chief. Given this show’s history of constantly placing new obstacles in Selina’s way, I’m inclined to think that she won’t be in the Oval for much longer and that — per the scenario presented in last season’s finale — Tom James will be chosen by Congress to take the nation’s highest office instead. If Tom is indeed helping Sidney Purcell’s clients, it’s very possible Purcell and his team are doing some clandestine lobbying of Congress on Tom’s behalf, which would be a much dirtier, but much more sophisticated approach than Selina’s halfhearted attempts to whip votes.

But that’s all speculation on my part. I haven’t watched beyond this week’s episode. And all we know after this week’s episode is that Selina’s political career is in a holding pattern, hundreds of people have gotten sick to their stomachs on a national holiday, and, as usual, the people who work in the White House are spending that holiday mired in the nonstop absurdity of the political game. Even the ones who actually get away from the office to have dinner with their families — Jonah, Amy — still find it impossible to power down their professional lives for more than a few minutes.

The only person who gets Thanksgiving right? No surprise, that’s Sue, who gets the weekend off and reveals, to the shock of her colleagues, that she has a husband and has for a while now. “Last year,” she says of the wedding. “250 people. No one from work.” As usual, Sue — the person on “Veep” who’s perhaps best equipped to run a nation — is the only person with her priorities perfectly straight.