Zing! Bang! In the second episode for tonight, we have a pretty heavily Ted centric narrative about taking the high road in life. Ted and his team are in a bitter competition with Pete Gilroy’s team to make a floating anti-gravity jacket for children. Over the years, Ted and Pete have bitterly attacked each other’s products to get ahead, and it’s even spilled out into the hallways when they pass each other. Meanwhile, Phil and Lem have damaged the thermostat in the lab and are too scared to report it, trying to pin it on anyone else. Ted on the other hand is attempting to raise the moral levels of his team.
Sadly though, his efforts are in vain and their rivalry gets the best of him. He joins Phil and Lem by taking the low road and bribing the testing coordinator to get his product tested first. Veronica and Linda meanwhile come up with their own plan to undermine Pete’s project by using Rose to talk poorly about the first product she sees, which is now Ted’s dream glider vest.
This episode isn’t as laugh out loud funny as the previous episode, but it has its moments. One of the things that are probably lost on many viewers is the hilarious details provided by many of the background characters. For example, while Phil and Lem are in the lab trying to trick their coworker to break the thermostat, you might have missed out on all the other lab workers in the back ground trying to stay cool. One of them even resorts to drinking random liquids from around the lab to stay hydrated.
In the end, “The Long and Winding High Road” is mostly about the moral choices people have to make in order to get ahead in the corporate world.
Funny Observations
- I so want to have a magnetic vest that allowed me to float about. That’s awesome.
- Lem: “I don’t want ot ake the high road, it’s high.” Phil: “I agree. We could fall off.”
- There are a couple funny references to the fact we are bound for an inevitable war with China
- “The high road leads to pansy town.” – Veronica
- We get another Veridian commercial in this episode! “We know what wrong is..actualy no we don’t.”
- “How much are mens lives are spent tricking women to touch something.” – Phil
- Ted bribes the tester with book called “Ethics in Testing”
- The final takeaway from the episode. “When we’re on the low road, we need to coordinate our efforts better” – Veronica
- Did anyone notice that Anti-Ted’s daughter was named Daisy? Brilliant.
