The Book of Rannells: Black Monday: Season 1, Episode 8 – “7042” (2019)

When I saw from the episode title that we were jumping back years before Black Monday, I thought the main plot was getting put on hold until next week and figured we might not see Andrew Rannells at all.  Luckily, though, that isn’t the case, as the main storyline continues alongside the flashbacks we get here.

Blair finds himself in the middle of a major storm, nervous and with law enforcement breathing down its neck.  Dawn assures him that everything will be all right, then tries to get to the bottom of things herself.  Meanwhile, we see flashbacks of a very different Mo back in the ‘60s, more idealistic, more trusting, and more vulnerable.

I’ll start with the flashbacks, since they’re the episode’s most out-of-the-ordinary feature.  They’re only tangentially related to anything going on in the main series, other than answering one lingering background question and offering some hints as to what “made” Mo, but they’re still interesting.  It’s neat to see a younger Mo so different than the one we know now.  I also really like seeing his past involvement with the Black Panthers, both because it’s an interesting backstory for Mo and because the show looks at sides of the Black Panthers that rarely get talked about (in fact, the pendulum swings kind of satirically far from their more typically-portrayed image.)

More of the comedy comes from the “present-day” (i.e. 1987) stuff with Blair and Dawn.  It’s hard to get into too much without spoilers, but I can say it involves behavior even more ill-suited for the office than a circle jerk, a weirdly-placed game of charades, and an attempt at a soulful rendition of “Hava Nagila.”  Shit gets crazy!

It’s another good episode for Blair.  Recent revelations have put him under intense pressure, and he struggles to play it cool in a situation that even Mo and Dawn would be hard-pressed to wriggle out of cleanly.  It’s fun to watch him try and keep it together.

Rannells does a fine job as usual.  The episode gives him a variety of emotions to play, comedy as filtered through a lens of despair, panic, and bafflement.  I especially like his chastened reaction when Dawn refrains from engaging in his freakout, the way he’s briefly distracted by a news story about Princess Diana, and his deadpan response to something truly incredulous.  He’s such a pleasure to watch!