Superstore - Amnesty - Review: "No Consequences"

Who doesn’t love consequences? (Everyone. The answer is everyone. Consequences can suck, sometimes.) Last week on Superstore, we dealt with the effects of consequences, as Amy (America Ferrera) and Jonah (Ben Feldman) faced the consequences of their kiss getting shown to all their coworkers, while Glenn (Mark McKinney) and Dina (Lauren Ash) realized just what people would confess were there not consequences, and Mateo (Nico Santos) wonders what the consequences of telling Jeff that he is undocumented will be.

The cold open picked up in the aftermath of last week’s Amy/Jonah reveal, as their coworkers watch videos of the kiss and blow everything out of proportion. It was an oddly short cold open, but I think that worked in favor of the episode; more screen time can be devoted to the main stories.

After finding out about Amy and Jonah’s kiss, Glenn has a crisis of conscience because two good people have done bad, and he doesn’t like to believe people are bad. However, Dina, ever the perfect foil to Glenn, tells him that people are monsters. To prove this to him, they come up with a plan: create a one-day policy of amnesty in the store, and see what happens. Glenn expects there to be no confessions, but there end up being a lot.

The “amnesty” story was completely unexpected, but I loved the way it played out. Dina’s face of glee with every horrible story and every horrible person coming forward was absolutely great. I especially loved the montage of all the employees confessing their sins. Every employee was worse than the next, and it was hilarious.

Additionally, the story caused the antagonistic relationship Sandra (Kaliko Kauahi) and Carol (Irene White) to resurface. It is always really fun to watch, and this episode was no different; who knew Sandra could be so evil and murderous?

I also loved the inclusion of Pastor Craig (Bashir Salahuddin) and Glenn’s justification for bringing Craig in.

The end, when Glenn, dejected about the apparent immorality of his employees, deluded himself into believing that Garrett (Colton Dunn) was the epitome of a perfect employee, served as a perfect conclusion to the story. The absolute irony of Garrett being one of the worst employees, but still becoming Glenn’s savior, was extremely funny.

With the reveal of the store’s one day amnesty policy, Mateo is at a crossroads; he doesn’t know whether to confess to being undocumented and risk the consequences or stay silent. And he’s still waiting for Jeff (Michael Bunin) to talk to him.

I thought that Mateo’s story this episode was handled in a good way. His not-so-confession to Glenn and Dina was perfectly played, and his conversation with Cheyenne (Nichole Bloom) about the whole ordeal at the beginning of the episode was entertaining.

I really liked how the writers wrapped up the plot, with Jeff coming back, looking like a perfect subversion of the romance novel cover hero. I liked the decision to make Jeff quit his job for Michael. I didn’t particularly care about Jeff and Michael before, but now I guess I’m shipping them.

Jonah and Amy, of course, had bigger problems to deal with than amnesty. After the previous episode, their coworkers can’t stop making fun of them. I like the way the writers played the employees’ reactions and jokes about Jonah and Amy. The various fanvids were a nice touch.

Sick of being the butt of the joke, Jonah and Amy eventually lean into the joke. However, that eventually causes even more problems, as they accidental kiss. Can I just say how organic yet hilarious the image of Justine (Kelly Schumann) running to tell everyone about the new kiss was?

After the accidental kiss, Jonah and Amy are confronted once again in a break room meeting, where Pastor Craig notices their “lust” (well, they say it’s not lust. But it’s definitely something). This leads to the world’s most awkward (yet hilarious) declaration of crushes. It’s probably not how any shipper imagined the declaration of crushes to go, but it was organic for the story and for the characters.

In the end, though, nothing really changes. Jonah/Kelly (Kelly Stables) is still going strong; they’re moving in together! I understand the writers’ choice to keep up the will-they-or-won’t-they dynamic between Jonah and Amy and the choice to keep Jonah and Kelly together now, but at this point I just feel sorry for girl. She got some good moments and lines this episode (see: her slowly backing up the cart when Carol approached her and her telling Sandra that everyone gets it), and I think I’m beginning to like her (or at least sympathize with her). Come on Superstore writers, can’t you throw this girl a bone?

Overall, this episode was solid. The jokes mostly landed well, and the developments of the romances seemed organic.

What did you think of last week’s episode of Superstore? Are you Team Amy or Team Kelly? What would you confess to, had there not been consequences?




Source: Myfilmscity