Loveday Writing

Thankfully, the disappointment of the previous episode didn’t continue with this one, which sees Roz and Helen at a co-working Hub, and Ray and George mostly absent.

The episode kicks off with the reveal that Tony’s driver licence has been suspended, as an “anonymous arsehole” complained about his driving to VicRoads, which forces Helen to be their chauffeur, with Victor failing to navigate Helen via Google Maps on his phone.

When Helen eventually gets to work, the police show up at the office and reveal to her, Ray, Roz, and George that a credible bomb threat in the Gruber & Fisk building was reported to the police. After the police conduct a search and find no bomb, they inform Roz that the threat was specifically made against her, and they recommend that everyone leave the building until the person who made the threats has been caught. Ray and George work from home, whilst Helen and Roz go to a nearby co-working Hub.

Whilst at the co-working Hub, Roz manages to alienate everyone with her controlling but usual ways, and Helen initially struggles to work with the Hub’s manager, Leo, and everyone else around her, although she eventually gets along with them. Whilst Helen is working at the Hub, she gets assistance from a male lookalike, Casper, who refers to himself as the “Hubmaster,” and works a case involving a choomer – a charity groomer, who is dating an elderly woman to gain access to her house. Shortly before Roz and Helen leave after it’s revealed multiple complaints have been made about Roz’s behaviour, she finds out that an old client of hers, Jason, a dry cleaner, made the threats against her.

When the team return to the office, Roz and Ray implement a new safety procedure and make George the safety warden, as he managed to get everyone out of the office quickly and calmly. When the police and Jason show up, Jason reveals to George that he only got the backpacker who made the phone calls to make prank calls, he didn’t ask the backpacker to make a bomb threat. Jason then provides Roz with a written apology, with Roz holding one of the police sergeant’s hand as Jason reads the apology aloud.

Meanwhile, Tony manages to promote his newly published memoir on social media, both through a social media specialist’s light-hearted video and Victor posting a sensible PR video on a local community Facebook page. The light-hearted video manages to get more likes than Victor’s video, whilst Victor’s video attracts negative comments.

The episode ends with Tony getting his licence back after passing a test, and the reveal that Victor is the “anonymous arsehole” who reported him and his reckless driving to VicRoads.

Overall, I enjoyed this episode as it essentially provided a dynamic switch between the characters. Roz is normally cool, calm and in-control, however in this episode, specifically in a different working environment, her traits alienate everyone else around her, whilst Helen is usually made to feel bad about her own traits in the firm, she is well-liked at the Hub. Similarly, George is calm and authoritative during the evacuation and when he is made Safety Warden, whereas Ray always wants to jump out of a window. I personally didn’t enjoy Roz being presented as a pervert due to a weird fight or flight response, especially as it wouldn’t be acceptable if it was a male character essentially hitting on a female character. I also found Victor reporting Tony’s apparent maniacal driving to VicRoads a funny little subplot, that managed to provide a slightly likeable and more human side to him.

Stray Observations:

Episode title – Roz’s code phrase as part of the firm’s new safety procedure to prompt everyone to evacuate the building.

-Helen has an irrational fear of authority figures.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “That’s your fight or flight response? To turn into a pervert.” (Helen to Roz on claiming she is perving on the male police officers due to the stress of the bomb threat)
• “Helen, what have you done?” “I made a lot of U-turns driving Victor and Dad around this morning.” (Roz-Helen when the police walk into the Gruber & Fisk office)