Plot Synopsis:
When Gary reads in the paper that an old friend at Strauss and Associates, Fred Meanwell, will end up in critical condition after a cosmetic surgery procedure goes awry, he sets out at once to stop Fred from going under the knife. After conversations with the doctor and with Fred himself go bust, Gary goes back to the old workplace, where he has a chat with the new manager, Sandy Comess. Sandy prefers to work with younger brokers trading volatile high tech stocks, and since her promotion, she has been steadily weeding out the older members of the Strauss and Associates team. She tells Gary point blank that the only reason Fred has not lost his job is that he still has one major money-making client, Harry Knighton.
In a meeting with his big client, Fred encourages Knighton to invest big in the Hartfield Corporation. Later, however, Gary reads in the paper that Mr. Hartfield will collapse, leading to a steep drop in the corporation's stock price. Gary thus enlists the help of Chuck and Marissa to save Fred's big account and his job. While Marissa distracts Fred with a box of items she says she inherited from her great aunt and Chuck distracts Sandy with talk of the future prospects of McGinty's, Gary sneaks onto Fred's computer and dumps Knighton's Hartfield stock. Then the news comes in that Hartfield has had a heart attack. Knighton calls the office and is about to ream Fred out for making a bad investment, but Gary signals to Fred that the stock has been dropped, and Fred is able to impress both Knighton and Sandy with his acumen.
Now that Fred is no longer in any danger of losing his job, Gary assumes that his friend will cancel his scheduled plastic surgery. No dice. When Gary glances at the paper again, he sees that the headline has gotten worse: now Fred will die. Gary tracks down Fred again and discovers that Fred is seeing Knighton's assistant, a pretty blond woman named Joanne. Fred, it seems, is concerned that Joanne will eventually lose interest in him because he's in his fifties. Gary tries to convince Fred to tell Joanne about the upcoming surgery, but Fred politely tells Gary to butt out. Gary then goes to speak to Joanne himself, but Joanne is reluctant to tell Fred what to do.
Then, outside, Gary sees Joanne hug a younger man and assumes Joanne is cheating on Fred. He confronts Joanne in the park, and Joanne confesses that the young man is her son. It turns out she had plastic surgery herself a few years ago and has been posing as a 33 year old ever since. Gary manages to convince Joanne to tell Fred the truth, and they head to the hospital. In the meantime, Gary calls Chuck and tells him to stall the surgery. Chuck does an admirable job on this assignment up until he is collared by hospital security. Fortunately, by the time Chuck is apprehended, Gary and Joanne arrive. Joanne admits to Fred her real age (42), and Fred decides not to go through with the surgery after all. In the end, Fred quits his job at Strauss and Associates to pursue his dream job: math teacher.
There is also a side plot in which Chuck goes through a couple of photographers because he's displeased with the pictures they've taken of him for a local restaurant magazine.
Overall: 7.5
There's a nice message or two here, but this episode is otherwise pretty run-of-the-mill for the series.
Writing: 6.5
Nick Harding's script is decent enough, but as you can see, there's nothing in it that's truly highlight worthy. The story hangs together fine - and it does, at times, elicit a chuckle or two (Chuck's attempts to delay Fred's surgery are pretty amusing, for example) - but for the most part, I walk away with no strong impression in either direction. I like how this episode subtly questions our youth obsessed culture (more on that below), but otherwise, I find I have very little to say.
(By the way, this episode begins with an apparent continuity error: Gary refers to Fred as his former boss. I believe that can be explained away pretty easily, though; perhaps Pritchard unseated Fred at one point pre-series.)
Acting: 8.0
Which is not to say that we don't, once again, have some solid performers taking on this week's guest roles. In particular, there's a guy-next-door, aw-shucks quality in Richard Gilliland's performance that I find rather endearing. Although the writer doesn't really work to convince me that Fred, Gary, and Chuck used to be close, Gilliland sort of makes me believe it.
Message: 8.0
As I remarked above, the way this episode slyly critiques our culture is worthy of some note. That sequence in which Fred walks down the street and sees multiple ads proclaiming that young and fit is the only way to be is a pretty effective - and accurate - bit of social satire. We have indeed lost sight of the benefits of old age - and the election of 2008 was a perfect demonstration of the problem. Over and over again, McCain's critics (which included pretty much everyone in the media) harped on his age. They mocked him because he was not up to date on all the cool new communication technologies (a fact which did indeed kill McCain's chances of winning but certainly had nothing to do with his fitness for the Oval Office). They scared the electorate with repeated assertions that McCain - the old fogey - would die in office and leave the "inexperienced" Palin at the helm (I could write books on how that would not have resulted in disaster, but that would be getting off the subject). In the meantime, it was emphasized over and over again that Obama was young and hip and the candidate for the up and coming generation of net-savvy voters - and people my age and younger fell for that press in overwhelming numbers. How's that working out for you guys now? Are at least some of you starting to think that maybe age and experience are better than empty glitz? Bottom line, we're now trillions of dollars in the hole because we as a society have valued youth too much and wisdom too little. Fan-freakin'-tastic.
What I also find interesting about this episode is the way in which it casts doubt on this idea of absolute personal autonomy. Neither Joanne nor Fred's doctor are willing to tell Fred that cosmetic surgery is an unwise and unnecessary step to take - and if it weren't for Gary's butting in, this "enlightened noninterference" would've resulted in Fred's death. I think this too is an important insight into the society in which we live. We can't, for example, tell gays not to have homosexual sex with multiple partners - at least, not without adding "without a condom" on the end. We can't tell women that they should get married first before having kids if they want to avoid poverty and a whole host of other negative consequences - at least, not without attracting the wrath of every two-bit feminist with a public forum. We can't tell kids not to have pre-marital sex - at least, not without being mocked as out-of-touch moral busybodies. We are so frightened of appearing "judgmental" or "intolerant" that we won't come out and offer much needed and absolutely correct advice - and that fear results in rampant social pathology and general unhappiness. Absolute autonomy, as it turns out, doesn't really work.
The Benevolent Hand:
The Power behind the paper is once again doing double duty in this episode. Not only does He save Fred's life through Gary, but He also forces Fred (and Joanne too) to accept his age and his true vocation. Excellent!
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