Like so many premium comedies, The Comeback is willing to trade laughs for character development. It’s a risky endeavor. Dramas are allowed to be occasionally funny, but the inverse is harder to justify. Like fellow HBO comedies Barry or Righteous Gemstones, The Comeback trusts its audience to wait a little longer for the punchline. The Comeback has found itself in this zone frequently this season by favoring newfound sentiment over its classic cynicism. (Though, given Kudrow’s recent comments about the Friends writers, season one doesn’t seem that satirical.) Moments like Valerie crying in the storage unit or Mark’s big return from Burning Man pay off our investment in the characters with big emotion that doesn’t necessarily require a blow line. In other words, these are aww-ick moments, as one fired showrunner once put it. The Comeback doesn’t worry about making the audience say “aww,” and the writers clearly are not saying “ick.”
Tonight, Valerie not only faced the issues plaguing Mark but also the strength within her to support him. She’s willing to be the AI pariah if it means she can keep the show on track, but her self-actualization dovetailed into other people acknowledging what she’s done for them. You can see it in the way Jane and Mark look at Valerie. They see her flaws but know her heart. She is trying so hard, and her efforts are often invisible. Her patience is always tested, but she’ll always turn around and try on a caftan. “Valerie Chases The Truth” while put through the wringer of self-doubt, cancellation, and, finally, some damn perspective.
The episode opens with a big revelation: Mark got fresh ink at Burning Man, and according to his shoulders, he’d rather be “Anywhere Else.” He hates being unemployed and “F-Dudes.” He is existentially stuck, but Valerie doesn’t need to see that. She’d rather be anywhere else, too. She’s being canceled, Mark. Read the room. As the episode title implies, Valerie is hot on the trail of our mystery leaker and finds suspect numero uno outside her building. Jane arrives, old-timey camera in hand, to tell Valerie that she wasn’t the culprit and only went on CNN to defend her friend. She even wore lipstick! But if she were the leaker, Valerie would’ve forgiven her, if only to have the rest of The Comeback filmed on Jane’s Oscar-winning camera.
The dynamic duo takes off with Billy’s Gaga-approved security detail for the Coffee Bean in search of Paulie G. What they find is a gaggle of unemployed writers applying for jobs at Costco, pulling their kids from private school, and throwing $8 lattes at Valerie and Billy. Thoroughly baptized in a Mocha Iced Blended, Val finds some salvation outside. Paulie G(iapino) arrives late to defend her, but he does clear up the leak situation. He didn’t do it and even texted his sympathy, a message Val missed. With his name off the list, the former enemies find reconciliation. Paulie thanks Val for the day on How’s That?!, which rekindled his love for writing, so he ate some shit and found a job on somebody else’s zombie rom-com. He credits Valerie for the turnaround. She invited him back to work, and so he got back to work. Valerie’s efforts may often go unnoticed, but those willing to take a hard sniff of her tranquility candle will find what they’re looking for.
On the Warner lot, picketers are protesting Valerie Cherish, who’s trying to put down a mutiny on set, where the crew is rightfully pissed that they’ve been unwilling participants in their own unemployment. While so much of this season focused on AI’s threat to writers and actors, it’s already cutting into the bottom line of the tradespeople who make television and movies. AI encroachment on The Comeback has reduced 16-week shoots to two, and the grips, gaffers, and camerapeople feel deceived, tricked into training their replacements. As a result, the cameraman quits, Big John bullies Lisa Kudrow’s son, and Val must face the truth that she lied… by commission. But a rousing speech from Bev (Stephanie Hodge) rallies the troops with the reminder that they all have mouths to feed, mortgages to pay, and, in her case, a bird that refuses to die.
As Val takes her 20 outside, she’s chased down by baby girl herself, Joona (Malin Ackerman). Of all the reunions this season, Joona’s has been the most anticipated. In season two, her cameo signaled a moment when Valerie faced reality, expressing concern over how Paulie was portraying her on Seeing Red. Once again, Joona tells Valerie exactly what she needs to hear. After 20 years, Joona really was Valerie’s protege on Room And Bored, and the kindness a vet showed a rookie was received earnestly and warmly by Joona. “Val, to me, you’re it.” All aww, no ick.
Valerie brings that honesty to Finance Dudes, where she’s coaching Mark on how to eat breakfast naturally. Playing yourself is harder than you might think, and Mark learns firsthand how hard Valerie’s job is. What do you do with your hands? Should you talk directly into the mug? It doesn’t matter because shortly into the first take, one of the Dudes calls Mark and asks if he was MeToo’d out of his job.
We should’ve expected the show had something to say about MeToo, but it seemed more likely it would involve Paulie or the curiously absent Tom. But, no, it was our beloved Marky Mark. He confesses that when he was a young asshole, he slept with temps and assistants who worked for him without considering the power imbalance. Before MeToo, he didn’t question it. But while it would be easy to judge Mark for how he acted in the past, Valerie and the show treat him with compassion. He does things differently now, and isn’t that the point? While Valerie can forgive him, Mark can’t bury it for the cameras. He quits Finance Dudes to the relief of all involved parties.
Val’s pep talk wasn’t just for Mark. She was saying all that stuff to herself, too. With Mark quitting the show, Valerie, a true pro, has just enough time to get changed and face her public at the How’s That?! press event. Thankfully, like the AI leak, this Potemkin premiere is a sham. Marketing lead Ridley (Merle Dandridge) admits that NuNet leaked the news to create buzz for the show, and the press event was just “friends of the court” who were never going to ask difficult questions. People will want to see what an AI-written show looks like. All that self-realization for nothing.
With one episode remaining, the show leaves its characters with their heads held high, even if things aren’t exactly perfect. How’s That?! is now, publicly, the canary in a coal mine, but Billy has finally reached his final form (with a heart over the I). Maybe it is worth it to stay positive, because why not? Every day is a chance at a new comeback.
Stray observations:
- Big shouts to Devin from the I Don’t Want To HEAR That podcast, who informed me that Two 2 Tango debuted in a deleted scene found on the very expensive season two DVD. If anyone knows where to get a copy for less than $150, please reach out.
- “I didn’t invent zero, one, two, three, four.”
- “AI is like a lot of directors we have to work with: you hate that he’s here and you resent that you have to work with him.” [Cut to director Bryan]
- The wickedly talented, one and only Stephanie Hodge, who plays Bev and starred on Unhappily Ever After, is enjoying a bit of a comeback this year, too, having appeared on Jury Duty: Company Retreat. Here’s a fun interview Hodge did with KTLA earlier this month.
- “It’s a writer! One got loose!”
- “I can’t say no to press on my own show. You’re not my camera.”
- Release the full Valerie Cherish Hot Ones!
- “Ew, the milk and the chicken.”
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