In today’s
episode, Nicola and Peter go head-to-head in a BBC radio interview. Both arrive with their advisors in tow, but
once they go on the air, there’s not much anyone can do to help or advise. Just as a general rule, Nicola should never
be put in a situation where no one can shut her up. She has a talent for gabbling on an ordinary
day. Placed in a soundproof room with
her political rival and absolutely no ability to interpret her team’s panicked
nonverbal communiques on the other side of the glass? I’d call it a bloodbath, except Peter isn’t
Mr. Radio either.
Of
course, Nicola and Peter’s respective entourages have more to do than just
watch the radio train wreck unfolding before them. Both camps were stuck in close quarters for
the duration of the interview, so they also snipe at each other and get into
all sorts of kerfuffles on their own.
One of
Peter’s advisors is Emma Messinger; though she was first mentioned as the “enemy”
Ollie was sleeping with in series 2, she didn’t actually appear until the 2007
specials. She seems to take her job
pretty seriously and spends most of her time navigating the conflicts between
Peter and Stewart. She is, however,
almost as terrible a girlfriend as Ollie is a boyfriend. She has a chronic tendency to leak intel to
Peter and co., and by this point in the series, she’s definitely more
interested in her career than in Ollie.
Nicola and Peter’s interview happens to coincide with a large dollop of
relationship drama between Emma and Ollie, which plays out at the radio studio
as well.
And
where’s Malcolm in all this? He and
Stewart are both at their offices, listening to the interviews on the radio and
yelling at advisors over the phone to get their people back on track. By now, you probably know that Glenn and
Ollie aren’t exactly capable in a crisis, and Peter’s team isn’t much better,
so it’s only a matter of time before the two spin doctors show up at the
station to fix things.
It’s a
lot of fun to watch Malcolm take on Stewart.
Malcolm’s knack for scary intimidation makes Stewart seem feckless, while
Stewart’s penchant for soft language makes Malcolm seem unstable. In the end, they completely abandon Nicola
and Peter and zero in on each other.
It’s intense – a knock-down, drag-out battle between two men who’ve
worked in politics long enough to have dirt on everyone. It’s probably a
good thing they’re on opposite sides; if they ever joined forces, they’d be
unstoppable in a very megalomaniacal way.
No comments:
Post a Comment