NOTE: Full spoilers for this episode of, “Superstore” are present in this review
Cloud 9’s Wellness Fair definitely didn’t turn out the way that many employees imagined on this week’s episode of Superstore. Fortunately, the laughs kept coming, making for a really enjoyable episode that also served as a creative way to get a lot of Cloud 9 employees’ dirty secrets out into the open!
Things begin with Amy faking sick to go see The LEGO Batman Movie with her daughter at the local theatre, where she chances upon Jeff. Amy doesn’t engage Jeff, but nonetheless sees Jeff kissing Mateo, meeting up on one of their secret dates. Naturally, this really shocks Amy, who then goes to tell Garrett and Cheyenne what she saw, not knowing that the two were already keeping Mateo’s secret from the rest of the workforce.
Meanwhile, Dina is determined to prove that Amy faked sick the previous day, despite Glenn fully believing that Amy was genuinely ill. This has Dina hilariously trying to do everything in her power to prove that Amy was lying, ironically not doing any work for the Wellness Fair in the process. She did however occasionally stop to interact with Garrett, with one of the episode’s funnier scenes involving Dina giving Garrett fifty condoms, then explaining what he can use them for. It’s nice that Dina is so cool about the prospect of Garrett sleeping with other women, but I have to agree with Garrett in inquiring as to what exactly, “Solo condom work” is.
The remaining subplot had Glenn being bothered that Jonah expressed surprise at his wanting to be a doctor. Thus, Glenn tries to prove that he can hold a conversation about medicine with the Wellness Fair’s nurse, which only has him learning that juice is bad for him. I have to admit that the way this storyline was handled didn’t initially start out that promising, but its payoff was absolutely ingenious! Jonah and Glenn getting into a huge fight about abortion after Amy’s subplot causes more issues at the store wasn’t that funny on its own, but Glenn later fainting, and learning that he had low blood sugar from not drinking any juice all day, was a funny way to explain why Glenn was so surprisingly irritable. The ending scene with Jonah and Glenn merely holding a cigarette and not smoking it (good old syndicated television censorship laws and all), was also a nice note to end on, with the two agreeing that no one really knows anything about how to be reliably healthy.
As for why issues started happening from Amy’s plot? This also had an ingenious payoff, as Garrett begs Amy not to confront anyone or do anything about what Amy saw at the theatre. This nonetheless has Amy trying to tell Mateo about what happened, only to then have it get around to the other employees that Jeff is allegedly two-timing. As Amy tries to lie and cover for her not knowing what’s really going on even more, the workplace gossip gets more outrageous, which eventually, and ironically, summons Jeff to the store to deal with both this, and the abortion fight that Jonah and Glenn had. On this note, one of the episode’s highlight jokes had Jeff admitting to the employees that Cloud 9 has no training videos about having heated arguments about abortion in the workplace, since it should be obvious not to do that.
Still, even if Amy’s shenanigans blew up unrealistically quickly, for the sake of moving the plot along, the meeting being used as a way to have everyone confess their secrets to the entire store’s workforce was fairly clever. After Sandra is forced to come clean and admit that she was lying about dating Jeff, Mateo then naturally admits that he and Jeff are dating, and had been dating all along. This also somehow motivates Dina to confess that she’s been having sex with Garrett, which shocks the store even more! Best of all though is when the employees’ most shocked reactions come from Amy admitting that she’s never seen Jurassic Park. Likewise, Amy getting the ultimate just desserts by teasing Garrett about his affair with Dina, only to have Garrett immediately rat out Amy playing hooky to Dina, was absolutely hysterical, especially when Dina begins her vindicated conversation with Amy with, “What in God’s name is a LEGO Batman?!”
“Wellness Fair” is another particularly strong episode of Superstore, one that finally had the employees’ secret flings, and lack thereof, coming to light in a fun and memorable way. Sandra having to ride off in a horse-drawn carriage that she ordered for herself to perpetuate her lie was a darkly amusing way to kick her while she’s down, one last time with the Jeff fib, even if it’s a relief at this point that the Jeff charade is finally over. Jeff and Mateo being able to admit that they’re dating is also pretty cool, even though I can see it having some bad consequences during Season Two’s climax later this Spring. Superstore is taking a couple of weeks off, and won’t be back until mid-March, but it will be very intriguing to see what the state of the store’s employee relationships now is, with all of these dirty secrets being unearthed!