S05.E13: Favoritism

[Aulty]

Quote

Amy tries to make Mateo her new assistant, leading to accusations of favoritism and a group competition in the store. Meanwhile, Sandra gets caught in a power struggle between Glenn and Dina, and Jonah attempts to show Garrett that he's still "one of the guys."

Original Air Date: 01/23/2020

[reallyjustjen]

The best part of this episode for me, by far, was how shockingly competent Marcus was at being Amy’s assistant.   Hated the other subplots-the awkward Jonah and Garrett failed bromance, Sandra being trapped in Dina and Glen’s pissing match (though I did cheer when she decided to stand up for herself), and the whole assistant contest, save the aforementioned Marcus part.  

 I think I may be crossing over into hate watching this show, which is a bummer, as it was one of my favorites.  

[Harvey]

I'm pleased with the direction they took with Marcus here and showed him as someone with valuable skills. He’s always hilarious but it’s nice to see him as a more fleshed out character. Also glad they took Mateo down a few pegs and started to integrate him back into the main cast in a different way.

It’s about time they addressed Amy’s unconscious bias aka her favorites aka the main cast members haha.

Sandra is always just amazing, best decision making her a main character. I loved her and the return of the Dina vs. Glenn banter.

[Vanderboom]

I enjoyed this episode (loved Marcus being an awesome assistant),  but I still hate that the writers decided to make Amy so incompetent. It feels like this season, the A story is usually about Amy failing at her job.

Sandra was another pleasant surprise. She's funnier when she stands up for herself, especially against Dina.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

10 hours ago, Harvey said:

Sandra is always just amazing, best decision making her a main character. I loved her and the return of the Dina vs. Glenn banter.

Yes, but it bothered me tremendously that neither Sandra nor Dina said to Glenn that the problem with the display was that the merchandise would all be stolen (and we later are told that Mateo swiped the digital picture frame for Amy's office.)  Glenn probably never thought of that, although I don't believe that Best Buy's merchandise is similarly unprotected.

IF Mateo's pay is higher than Eugene's, is Eugene going to be responsible for paying taxes on Mateo's income, although they will be trading the proceeds of their paychecks?  Will there be an adjustment?  It seems way too complicated to ever work.

[fishcakes]

32 minutes ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

IF Mateo's pay is higher than Eugene's, is Eugene going to be responsible for paying taxes on Mateo's income, although they will be trading the proceeds of their paychecks?  Will there be an adjustment?  It seems way too complicated to ever work.

The whole thing required a lot of handwaving. If Mateo can't work on the books for Cloud 9, then I don't see how he can work on the books for the optical shop either. I assumed he was getting paid under the table (which already seemed unlikely since his weird boss is just an employee of a larger company himself) and being underpaid, as that's normally what happens when an employer knowingly hires someone undocumented and has to hide it from the IRS. The Mateo storyline had potential to highlight the problems undocumented people face, and since Mateo didn't even know he wasn't a citizen until recently, to do it in a way to make it sympathetic to even those who are not likely to be otherwise, but they've biffed it, IMO. It's just kind of stupid now.

As much as I dislike how they've dumbed down the Amy character is how much I love how they've developed Dina and made her still an oddball, but very competent and a good person. She started out as a semi-stalker clueless weirdo and now she's one of the most normal people in the store. As much shit as she gives Glenn, when he blatted out that noise on the harmonica, she kindly says, "you're very talented." Who knew Dina would become the show's heart?

I love it whenever Sandra has one of her periodic "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" moments. Banging on the locked gate before she walked away cracked me up. She does impotent rage better than anyone.

[proserpina65]

1 hour ago, fishcakes said:

I assumed he was getting paid under the table (which already seemed unlikely since his weird boss is just an employee of a larger company himself) and being underpaid, as that's normally what happens when an employer knowingly hires someone undocumented and has to hide it from the IRS.

Seems to me it was stated that the pay would be under the table back when he got "hired" by the optical department, but I could be wrong about that.

1 hour ago, fishcakes said:

As much shit as she gives Glenn, when he blatted out that noise on the harmonica, she kindly says, "you're very talented." Who knew Dina would become the show's heart?

I love it whenever Sandra has one of her periodic "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" moments. Banging on the locked gate before she walked away cracked me up. She does impotent rage better than anyone.

I loved the whole thing with Sandra locking them in the cage.  Pure gold.

[joanne3482]

9 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

I loved the whole thing with Sandra locking them in the cage.  Pure gold.

Especially when she got so mad and banged on the outside of it in frustration because she had already lost a clump of hair and she was not going to be bald for her wedding. I laughed so hard at that.

10 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

Seems to me it was stated that the pay would be under the table back when he got "hired" by the optical department, but I could be wrong about that.

They did.  A lot of the opticians in the big chains are completely independent. I'm not sure who works the actual optical counter in them. The one at my local Target wear the red shirts of a Target employee. 

1 hour ago, fishcakes said:

The Mateo storyline had potential to highlight the problems undocumented people face, and since Mateo didn't even know he wasn't a citizen until recently, to do it in a way to make it sympathetic to even those who are not likely to be otherwise, but they've biffed it, IMO. It's just kind of stupid now.

Totally agree. It would be more realistic, to me, if he were working for Cloud 9's janitorial company (if they have a separate one) or something along those lines. 

[iMonrey]

I wanna know what Bo was up to last Thursday.

[PurpleGirl43]

Well, according to Cheyenne, Bo definitely wasn’t at the ravine 😄

[Harvey]

Here is the translation of Mateo & Marcus yelling at each other in tagalog in case someone was wondering what they said:

Quote

Mateo: You're being such a jackass

Marcus: I heard that, jerk!

Mateo: you're shameless (literal: long-faced, it's an idiom). I know you're the one taking my stuff, stop it! (referring to them living together)

 

[Fostersmom]

On 1/24/2020 at 2:03 PM, joanne3482 said:

They did.  A lot of the opticians in the big chains are completely independent. I'm not sure who works the actual optical counter in them. The one at my local Target wear the red shirts of a Target employee. 

Back when I worked in a big box store, the shoe department was actually owned by a different company. They wore our name tags, but that was about it. They did their own hiring, scheduling, all of it. 

[proserpina65]

I loved that Marcus was so super-competent at all the assistant jobs, but when he decided to blackmail Amy about her giving the job to Mateo, all he really wanted was her desk.  Not the raise, the extra time off and the desk.  Just the desk.

[tennisgurl]

I liked how the whole assistant plot went, with Marcus being surprisingly competent and Amy being increasingly horrified at how much more qualified for this job he is than Mateo. Marcus does run a whole Warehouse, presumably he has some skills to keep it going, I am glad they added a bit of depth to his character. And, of course, all he really wants is an office. Its the little things in life. 

I always love Sandra just goes full on Not Gonna Take It Anymore on people that are picking on her.