By: Mariah Thomas
Valerie (Lisa Kudrow) is in a Waymo as Patience (Ella Stiller) films her for her socials. She then learns how to send voice memos. She sends one to Billy (Dan Bucatinsky) to find out if he’s heard anything from the NuNet team after he sent her concerns in the last episode. At the taping the night prior Mary (Abbi Jacobson) and Josh (John Early) did not give any indication of being aware of her concerns. She also lets him know his ‘do not disturb’ is on during business hours in her hilarious Valerie way.
Valerie and Patience arrive to a mostly empty set. Valerie is informed that someone from NuNet is there to see her. Brandon (Andew Scott) approaches her and immediately asks for privacy from Jane (Laura Silverman) and her documentary crew. Brandon thanks her for her message and tells her Josh and Mary are now gone. Marco (Tony Macht) approaches the two as Valerie shoos him away so they can finish their conversation. Brandon is surprised to find out that it is Marco and tells Valerie he is the writer’s replacement. Valerie is quick to express she is nervous to trust an assistant in the role of a writer. Brandon then brings up the fact the network doesn’t think the show needs a show runner. Brandon is smart to compliment Valerie on the show testing well to ease her concerns.
Valerie brings coffee to the rest of the cast to inform them of Josh and Mary’s departure. Her on screen love interest Frank (Tim Bagley) points out how unfair that is since they created the show. PDP (Matt Cook) is quick to say “F**k them” once Valerie mentions they left for animation and hate working with actors. Walter (Barry Shabaka Henley) is only concerned about his missing muffin. While Gabrielle (Brittany O’Grady) is just happy to be there. Frank tries to rally for their return. To settle his antics, Valerie tells the cast that most of the writing has been done by a secret writer named Al who works remotely. Walter is very confused and concerned by this revelation while Gabrielle points out how funny the newest episode was. After being silent for a majority of the conversation, Dean (Zane Phillips), asks if they would be rehearsing soon because he wanted to get a workout in today.
In her dressing room, Valerie lights her tranquility candle to reset her intentions. Though she hides it, she is growing overwhelmed with the changes made. Billy finally makes an appearance showing up to Valerie’s dressing room. Billy instantly has questions about the smell in the room and Valerie tells him she got candles for the entire cast. She also has one for Billy. He is slightly offended when everyone else has candles for relaxation and his is intended for ‘Focus’. He claims he is so focused he just finished booking her an appearance on ‘Finance bros’ to which Valerie instantly asks him to move since she has 53 pages of a script to memorize. Billy obliges and tells her wants ‘success’. Valerie goes into pep talk mode before he interrupts to tell her he meant the ‘success’ candle. Once she realizes there is only one of those, she says she has to save it for Marco, the new show runner. Billy questions, “Marco? Who’s that?” To which Valerie says, “Exactly.”
At the dress rehearsal, director Bryan (Darien Sills-Evans) grows frustrated with the guest actors. He had given them a note to speak louder twice already and he refused to listen. Valerie points out how the jokes only work if they are yelling. Bryan doesn’t want to step on any toes going to Marco to complain about his casting choices. He then tries to pitch himself to Valerie to take on the role and delivers the line the way he’s been trying to get the other actor to. He nails it instantly. Valerie points out he can’t just replace an actor on the spot. We learn from Valerie the couple in the script is an old married couple and Marco cast two young actors for the part. When Valerie tries to subtly raise concern that the jokes aren’t landing, Marco doesn’t seem to care or understand. When Valerie gets more stern and tells him he needs to let them go, Marco reveals they are his roommates. He believes in their talents and chooses to keep them on. Marco has “Al” come up with alternative lines for every single joke in the script making for an extra 30 pages of dialogue for the cast to memorize. She whispers to him that it’s suspicious since no human could write that fast. Walter has already been growing suspicious of whoever “Al” is.
Valerie goes up the chain to Sharon (Marla Garlin). She wants her to fire the guest actors and find replacements. She is happy to do so under the promise Marco won’t fire her since she needs this job. To show how long of a day it’s been, attention is drawn to Valerie’s candle from earlier being completely burnt down to the last bit of wick. PDP is upset that most of his jokes on the show have been cut. Valerie explains it was a logistical choice of there being too many pages for one episode. Sharon fires the guest actors and gives the reason for Valerie not finding them funny. The scene cuts to a new dress rehearsal of two older actors now in the role. The same dialogue now lands much smoother. This now gets many laughs from the crew. Valerie gets a visit from Paulie (Lance Barber). Jane is instantly repulsed to see him and he makes a joke about them being back together like Batman and Robin. She lets him know she reached out to him to be a writer for the show. He is shocked to learn an assistant was promoted to a show runner. He is open to have a further conversation on this.
Jane tries to tell Valerie bringing Paulie back is a terrible decision. The next day Jane checks in to see if Valerie let Paulie know about the AI writing assistant and she has not. Valerie still pushes to show this is a good idea. At the live taping, the scene with the older couple hits well with the audience. However, some lines don’t work. Though they did in rehearsal, the audience didn’t react well. Valerie checks in with Marco who tells her he has 45 new alt jokes written. She is overwhelmed with this as Paulie walks over to check in. Paulie loudly says “I’ll tell you what’s going on. This show is being written by AI?” He is annoyed and irritated by being left in the dark. Seeing she’s in distress, Paulie cools it and tells her what the problem is. The problem isn’t the line but the scene. Since the audience likes her character, they don’t enjoy seeing her be yelled at. Paulie pushes Marco from his chair and takes over show running. Valerie goes to check in on Mark (Damian Young) about the return of Paulie. He is quick to clarify for once he isn’t concerned and has something else to show her. On his phone he shows her Fernando’s (Federico Dordei) air stream he rents for Burning Man. He tells her there’s nothing to talk about as he’s decided he’s going.
At the end of the show, the cast is delighted how the episode ended up going. Paulie checks in with Valerie. He lets her know his pitch. He enjoyed being back in this line of work and confirms he’s on board if the studio is. He apologies for his past. Marco vaguely hints to Valerie he would be willing to blackmail the show to keep his job. He feels threatened about possibly being replaced by Paulie. The episode wraps with Valerie passing out her candles to the cast and explaining why she chose each for each person.