Powerless – Sinking Day

By: Jay Smith

The team is watching the news when a story breaks on Atlantis, the home of Aquaman and William H. Macy. Atlantis was attacked a week before their national holiday “Sinking Day,” which commemorates the day the city sank to the bottom of the ocean. Teddy (Danny Pudi) says he didn’t know William H. Macy was from Atlantis and like Ron (Ron Funches) and Emily (Vanessa Hudgens) is baffled. She thought he was from Atlanta and Ron tells her that’s Donald Glover who is from there and it might be racist that she heard “Atlanta” instead of “Atlantis.” Teddy says that’s a classic white person making white person assumptions move. Emily states she’s half Phillipino and Wendy (Jennie Pierson) says she’s thought she was half Philadelphian. Confused, Emily asks Wendy what does she mean and she can’t answer. Teddy suggests they should all admit they’re racist, but Emily thinks they’re not and should listen to each other better. Wendy says Phillipinos are bad listeners and Emily wants her to repeat herself, but she gloats that she’s made her point and the guys agree.

In his office, Van (Alan Tudyk) hands Emily a chart and it shows sales have increased since January. He thinks the hard work deserves a reward and wants to demand his father promote him to the Gotham office. Emily thinks she deserves the promotion since she’s the one that has something to do with the increase of revenue. Jackie (Christina Kirk), Ron and Teddy run into a colleague, Alex (Matthew Atkinson), that insists on calling Teddy “boss.” He thinks the term is condescending and you say it to someone you don’t respect. Alex is saying it like he’s better than him. After he explains his stance, Van walks out and they greet him as “boss.”

Teddy thinks there’s something off about Alex while Jackie says something inappropriate about him. A breaking news story comes on about a school bus of kids teetering on the bridge and Alex bolts out. Ron watches him and Teddy suggests that Alex has diarrhea and it makes him less attractive. As they’re watching the news, a hero comes out of nowhere, rescues the kids and leaves. Ron asks if anyone thinks the hero is Alex, but Jackie cuts him off and says she thinks about him naked. In the lab, the team does a run down for their presentation for Ace Chemicals. Of course, they joke and Ron delivers a stinger about losing the popular vote and still winning the election as an answer to how a villain is created. Emily isn’t in the mood for games as Ace Chemicals is their top client. Van and Royce Kane (Laird Macintosh), the head of Ace, walk in laughing and calling each other inappropriate names. Emily joins in and the guys get silent making the moment awkward, but they start laughing again teasing Emily. During the presentation Emily explains the change they’ve made to the chemical vats, but it’s not the change Royce was looking for. Van quickly tries to figure out who’s to blame but it’s him. Royce is upset and pulls his contract with Wayne and states he’s taking his business to LexCorp. Van tries to make light of the situation, but Emily has Jackie tell the group the account made them 75 million a year. Van still wants to make the situation small and Emily has to tell him everyone doesn’t have the luxury of their dad bailing them out. Jackie hangs up the phone and informs Van that his dad has arrived. Papa Wayne (Corbin Bernsen) gets off the elevator and Van is acting like he’s on the phone with The Gates. Papa Wayne gives Van a small history lesson and by the end of their conversation he tells Van he’s lost the last bit of respect he has for him.

Van calls Emily into his office and envies her because her father is a “poor” and having his respect doesn’t really matter. She tells him he could learn a lot from him. She gives him words of wisdom that her dad bestowed upon her, but Van just recites his dad who said give your wife and mistress the same perfume. Emily asks again why did Van call her in and he states they’re going to get his father to respect him again, but he wants to know if she has any ideas on how. Emily takes this opportunity to haggle her way to getting promoted to SVP of R&D and getting Van’s mug from this morning that says “Da Boss.” She gives the idea that he needs to replace the client they lost by finding a new one. Ron has a picture of the new hero in town, Olympian, and compares his body to Alex’s. Jackie thinks the only way to know for certain is if someone sleeps with him and volunteers herself. Teddy doesn’t think if you have powers that you would have a normal life. Ron brings up having an alter ego and gives his theories that Bruce Wayne is The Flash and Steven Baldwin is a character played by Alec Baldwin. Teddy tries to test the theory that if Alex is really a hero he’d catch Jackie’s mug by sliding her mug across the table. It falls, Alex jumps over the mess and Jackie is mad because her kid made her that mug. That night Van is still in his office, but he has a guitar and is trying to create a song. Emily comes in and tells him that she’s made a call to Atlantis and they want to hear their pitch on how to supply security to keep them safe after the recent attack. Van makes a happy comment on thanking the “weird fish people” and Emily tells him that’s offensive and it would offend Ron. Like Emily, Van thought Ron was from Atlanta.

Next morning, three Atlantians are waiting in the conference room when Teddy and Wendy pass by it. They’re confused and really want to make sure Ron is from Atlantis like them. Ron thinks it’s because they’re so brooding and he’s so cheerful as the reason people don’t think they’re from the same place, but by Teddy and Wendy’s reaction that’s not the reason. Emily tries to give a pep talk, but uses the wrong words and Ron has to tell her. After the pitch, the Atlantians say they will give a decision in a few weeks and must head back home to celebrate Sinking Day and give Ron the city’s salute. Emily is giving them information to contact her directly when Van lies and tells them he celebrates Sinking Day with a huge party that Aquaman stops by for. Impressed and intrigued, the Atlantians want to celebrate Sinking Day with him and want the chance to meet Aquaman. In his office Van gloats about being “the closer” and has Jackie send him a gift basket for his good work. Emily tries to get Van to understand that by him lying about Aquaman coming to a now last minute party he will again be the reason they lose another account. Emily is upset that she did all of the work and tells another story about all the work she did at her father’s flower shop, which Van calls “Tales from the Flower Shop.” She talks about wanting to work for a man who believes in hard work like her father did. Frustrated that Van isn’t a mentor or inspiring, she tells him she gets where his dad is coming from and storms out. Jackie orders the gift basket and Ron tries to get her and Teddy’s attention with the worst attempt of signaling known to man. He tells them he’s been tracking Alex’s bathroom activity. Jackie thinks that’s an HR issue, but continues to say he thinks that’s where Alex is changing into his Olympian costume. Ron shows his information and Teddy thinks he’s crazy. One step ahead of Teddy, Ron tells him he knew he’d be skeptical and had set up a fake mugging to prove his theory. Ron yells to get everyone’s attention and it piques Alex’s attention. Teddy is still arguing that Alex isn’t the Olympian when Jackie notices he’s gone and then they all see the Olympian fly across the building. Since Jackie is in lust with Alex she suggests they watch the bathroom footage to see Alex change into his costume to make sure it’s really him.

At the Sinking Day party, the Atlantians arrive and are ecstatic about it. They ask about meeting Aquaman and Van comes in to tell them he can’t make it, but sent gifts for each of them. Lars (Eric Nenninger) receives a very exclusive and expensive bottle of cognac, Albert (Paul Hertel) gets a gift of all of Brendan Fraser’s work and Anthony (Mike McKee) gets two bottles of the same perfume and they all laugh at the cheeky gesture. Wanting to finally close the deal, Van suggests they open the expensive bottle and head into the conference room for the final details. Before he and Emily can get into the room Papa Wayne shows up and tells Van he isn’t signing the contract and he will close the deal because it’s too important and doesn’t want Van to screw it up. Van is in his office jamming to his heartful “my daddy just crushed my spirit” type of song when Emily comes in. He discourages her from coming closer to his desk because he’s not wearing pants. She boosts his spirits by telling him her dad would be proud of him, but he asks what happened to her mother since she only mentions her father. She gives him one last set of encouraging words for him to stand up to his dad and close the deal he worked hard for. In the middle of his story, Van interrupts his father by saying his mother is standing outside of his mistress’ house and guides him into the hallway. Van demands he give him back his account to close and Papa Wayne informs him he was about to get him to close because the Atlantians only wanted to deal with him and Emily. In their own way Papa Wayne tells Van he’s proud of him.

At the party Wendy, Teddy and Ron are watching the surveillance while Jackie and Alex are talking about an aspect of his job. Teddy says the only thing the video proves is that Eric from marketing doesn’t wash his hands. After he says this, Eric comes out of the bathroom and puts a finger in the dip on the food table. Teddy and Ron continue to argue about who’s right and who’s wrong on Olympian’s true identity. Jackie leaves her conversation with Alex to get drinks when Wendy hits Alex with a chair finally proving that he isn’t a superhero. Van comes out of the conference room to tell the employees that they’ve just acquired the Atlantis account and to continue celebrating Sinking Day. At the end of the night, Emily and Van try to continue his song from earlier and Van takes one more final dig at Emily and her need to always bring up her dad’s flower shop.