‘Powerless’ is proving to be a somewhat vexing show in that you have no idea what you are going to get every week when you tune in. Fortunately for me, this was one of the good weeks when watching the show was a real pleasure, as it managed to hit all the marks that it should, bringing the comedy as well as capitalizing on being in the DC Universe. And though they are still struggling to give all of the characters something to do in every episode, at least they are showcasing different characters every week, so we are not getting the same people at the forefront week and after week (aside from Emily and Van of course).
So, as the title might suggest, the main story tonight had to do with Emily and Van squaring off as Emily has decided that she needs an office, understandable because she is a VP and everyone just assumes she is a secretary because she sits outside of Van’s office (some subtle political commentary here as well as people coming into the office just assume a female outside a man’s office is some kind of secretary). Of course, Van being a man-child is threatened by this and refuses to give her an office, so she goes over his head and gets HR to give her an office, one that Van had previously quarantined because he had spotted a spider within.
Van is furious and takes away her office, so to get it back, Emily challenges Van to a contest, with the game of choice being a child’s ‘Green Arrow’ dart game, which both she and Van apparently are quite skilled at having grown up with it. The rest of the team reveals to Emily that Van does not handle losing well, and they show her how they have always let him win Employee of the Month since he fired the last person who won that was not him. She realizes for the survival of all she has to let Van win.
Emily starts off the match by throwing her first few shots, but Van’s ego pisses her off so she throws caution aside and goes for it. They are neck and neck but in the end, she blows her final shot and loses to Van fair and square, which he is ecstatic about, showing up the next day exuberant and getting the office new chairs, croissants, and even letting Emily have her office after all. However, her own ego had been bruised, so she wounds Van by telling him how his parents and co-workers have let him win all of his life, even showing him his childhood spelling trophy was for the word “failure” with a missing “i” meaning he did not even spell the word right. Crushed, Van retreats, and the rest of the team points out that Emily also does not like to lose, and had an ego almost as bad as Van’s. In the end, Emily makes amends with Van, and they decide that they both like to win, but they are technically on the same team, so they share their wins.
In the Teddy B-story of the night, while talking to Ron about his date with new girl Hannah on the office balcony, they are attacked by Jack-o-Lantern (how has he not been apprehended yet?) and Teddy is blown off the building. He is saved by DC Heroine Green Fury, who Teddy is instantly infatuated with, forgetting all about Hannah. He spends the episode concocting new plans to get her attention, even building a dummy that looks just like him to knock off the building so she can save him again, a plan that goes awry when he and the dummy fall off the building by accident and he is saved by another, male hero, who is surprised by the lack of gratitude from Teddy. In the end, Teddy realizes he should just stay in his own league and goes out with Hannah again after all, but while out with Hannah her purse is stolen and Green Fury comes to the rescue once more, even recognizing Teddy as the guy she saved before. When asked if he was out on a date, Teddy plays dumb, which pisses off Hannah. While I hope this storyline gets continued in further episodes, I somehow doubt we’ll be seeing too much more of a Teddy and Green Fury romance/ awkwardness in more episodes down the line.
Nick is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, who belongs to the privileged few who enjoyed the ending to ‘Lost.’ For more of Nick’s thoughts and articles, follow him on Twitter.
