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Television

Superstore S3E20, “Gender Reveal”

Haven’t checked in on this show in a while but I saw it live tonight so it seems like as a good a time as any…

I don’t know if these episodes are being shown out of order or what, but it seems strange that, unless I missed something, Kelly didn’t acknowledge Jonah standing her up last week at all, other than that they don’t spend much time together this episode and Amy and Jonah spend a lot more together.

The main plot is kicked off with an ultrasound of Glenn and Jerusha’s baby Dina is carrying; this freaks Dina out, and lots of good comedy comes from this. Glenn brings the gender-reveal envelope to work and is going to read it out loud, until everyone insists he have a gender-reveal party. He entrusts the envelope to Garrett to make sure he doesn’t open it. When Sandra and Kelly ask Garrett for the envelope so they can plan the reveal party… he doesn’t have it. He spends the episode looking for it and enlisting the help of others, but is ultimately unsuccessful. (Best moment here: Marcus finding a retainer in the trash that he thinks is his, trying it on, and assuming it doesn’t fit because his mouth changed shape. Garrett telling Kelly she talks like a cartoon mouse is pretty funny, too, though we’ve had plenty of humor in that arena already.)

Dina tries to calm down from her freaking out by first talking to other pregnant women she see around the story, and then Cheyenne and Amy. It doesn’t help. Amy brings up a pregnancy scare she had recently until she tested negative on a Cloud 9 pregnancy test… which Dina reveals were recently recalled. Cue Amy freaking out.

Meanwhile, Jeff is apparently still pretending to work at Target (I guess he only told Mateo he wasn’t?), and this leads to a wacky sideplot where Mateo tells Jonah, Jonah lets its slip to Jeff (or doesn’t– apparently “he’s just really good at reading people. Like, not psychic, but he’s definitely on another level”), and Mateo tries to enlist Jonah in a good-cop-bad-cop scheme to convince Jeff to get a job, once which fails badly due to their continued miscommunication.

Glenn and Jerusha prepare to cut into the cake at the gender-reveal party, and the cake is… white. Marcus: “Maybe it means you’re gonna have a white baby!” Eventually all eyes fall on Garrett, who had the responsibility of the gender-reveal envelope, and he gives a speech about how gender is a construct and we should let the child tell us what its gender is, and they should all be ashamed of themselves. It actually works– I’m kind of surprised no one called him out for bullshitting everyone.

Oh, and Amy is pretty sure she’s pregnant. So she goes and kisses Jonah and tells him. (Seriously, where is Kelly this episode? She’s there, but we don’t see her with Jonah once. Did I miss them breaking up between episodes or something?)

Next week might be the finale– I’m not sure; it’s only episode 21, but I can’t find another listing for an episode beyond that. Between one pregnancy to resolve (two, depending on how Amy deals with hers), one will-they-won’t-they, and maybe even one “Does Jeff get another job or follow his dreams?” I guess we have a lot of potential ground to cover.

Anyway, I blew through this one because there were so many great quotes this episode I wanted to write down. Dina was close, but I think Cheyenne was our MVP for one-liners.

ATTENTION CLOUD 9 SHOPPERS

  • Some good choices for the featured photo in NBC’s sneak peek gallery, but I’m pretty sure this one is the funniest.
  • Pretty sure Dina is watching dashcam bloopers on her phone during the ultrasound. “No one does a fail video like the Russians.”
  • Dina puts her freakout over carrying an actual child in human form: “It’s like I could have a stranger’s tiny penis just whipping around inside me.”
  • Cheyenne: “I’ve heard successful people have unusually large heads. Like the Burger King.”
  • Cheyenne, Amy, and Dina all talking about being pregnant is classic. Another great Dina line: “I have a horrible parasite just eating and pissing inside me!”
  • Cheyenne’s attempt to smooth over giving birth goes off the rails quickly: “It’s like pooping, with blood, and screaming, and then a face comes out of you.”
  • I’m not sure what’s up with Jeff’s mustache (or how I feel about it), but Mateo is clear about what’s up with that hat Jeff tries on. “He looks like if Freddie Mercury was going fly fishing.”
  • Amy says one of the reasons she thought she was pregnant recently is that she was gaining weight. Cheyenne, again bad at lying: “Oh, no way, you were gaining weight? I didn’t even notice!”
  • Amy: “I realized, I kinda wanted to be pregnant.” Cheyenne: “Oh, right, because Emma was a dud?” Amy: “What? No!” Cheyenne: “Oh, yeah, j/k, she’s my fave!”
  • Dina probing Amy for how she feels after they take off from the store for a while: “I just wanted to know if I should head to the clinic. The abortion clinic. For abortion.”
  • Dina and Cheyenne keep a “Sex with Amy” list on the whiteboard to figure out who the father is. (She tells them: It’s Adam.) The best cutscene is Elias adding his name to the board (which, seemingly, quite a few employees have done).
  • I’m with Garrett: His impression of Glenn was spot-on.

What did everyone else think?