*Episode premise spoilers. Also, I won’t be spoiling any particulars of the ending, but I will be discussing my personal thoughts about the ending*
This is it: the last episode of White Van Man! What an excellent show this turned out to be. The makeshift series finale is one last great episode!
When Ollie and Emma stumble upon a robbery at the coffee house where she works, Ollie chases after the robbers and is both shocked and disgusted to discover that one of them is Darren. For the second time this season, Ollie makes a break with Darren, who’s heartbroken to have let Ollie down but more immediately concerned with the debt hanging over his head with Joanne’s dodgy Uncle Reggie.
I’m guessing that the show didn’t know it was going to be canceled when this episode was made, so they didn’t know it was going to serve as the series finale. Early on, I had a, “Wait, they didn’t plan on this being the ending!” realization and wondered what kind of resolution we were going to get—after all, the series 1 finale ends with some big cliffhangers. But it looks like this show works out a bit like Our Flag Means Death, which also would’ve been awful to get canceled after season 1. But with both shows, even though I certainly wouldn’t have wanted them to get canceled after season 2, their last episode winds up serving pretty well as a finale.
There are some great jokes here that I’m not going to mention, since they’d spoil a major plot development in the second half of the episode. But there’s some delightful stuff involving a Peak Extra costume, fantastic funny details, and a perfectly timed character entrance leading up to the climax. And for things I can talk about, there’s a silly back-and-forth over the expression “how d’ya like them apples?”, and a romantic exchange between Olie and Emma ends with Emma remarking, “Oh good, you think of me in the same context as a van.” Plus, Tony admits to being “bit addicted to [the children’s show] Rastamouse.” Hee!
Okay, let’s talk about Joel Fry’s final appearance as Darren. Obviously, this isn’t his finest hour, both for participating in the robbery (he maintains that it wasn’t his idea) and then trying to shirk his way out of culpability. Darren is sharper and more observant than he often gets credit for, but he can absolutely be a complete dumbass sometimes, especially if he’s feeling panicked. His actions here come back to bite him in multiple ways.
Although, side note: this all traces back to some credit card debt that was revealed in the series 2 premiere—Darren maxed out the company card buying baby stuff and has been trying to pay Ollie back. This is the same reason he was moonlighting with Andrzej in episode 2. After the robbery, Ollie berates Darren for getting a loan from Reggie instead of going to a bank, but when he found out about the moonlighting, he flipped out and forced Darren to “choose” between him and Andrzej. Borrowing from Reggie to pay off the credit cards is clearly a bad idea, and robbing a cafe to pay back Reggie is even worse. But Darren did try to earn extra money legitimately first.
Ollie cutting Darren out is a bit of a retread from episode 2, which I suppose is why we don’t focus on it as much this time. Instead, Ollie’s plot is more about helping Emma with the fallout from the robbery (without revealing that he caught Darren and let him get away,) while Darren’s plot is more about dealing with Reggie. But the brief scenes we get between Ollie and Darren are still really good. Even if it’s something of a retread, it’s not an exact repeat, which makes a big difference. Ollie’s grievances are much more valid this time around, and Darren definitely knows that he’s in the wrong. His face crumbles as Ollie tells him, “You ripped off Emma. You robbed her. I don’t ever wanna see you again.” He follows after Ollie, stammering and trying to fix things and making excuses, and then he simply admits, “I didn’t mean to hurt you, man! I’m sorry.” We know that Darren is a pretty good liar, but I don’t doubt his sincerity here.
Like I said, though, we spend most of Darren’s screentime dealing with Reggie, who’s threatening to break Darren’s legs if he doesn’t pay up. While there’s plenty of great stuff here that I also don’t want to spoil, Fry does a great job with Darren’s terrified reactions.
- When Reggie shows up at the pub, Darren gives this nervous high-pitched “hiya!”
- When Tony’s efforts to help fall flat, Darren pleads, “Noooooo!!!” as he realizes Tony’s about to make it even worse
- When Reggie offers Darren an ultimatum, he’s silent for a beat, then responds with a stunned, “...Sorry, I missed that. What’d you say?”
I also just really enjoy that, because Ollie’s washed his hands of him, Darren is mostly interacting with Tony and Liz here. For most of the series, I’ve been curious about what Darren and Tony’s working dynamic was like. Obviously, Darren’s not working with Tony in this episode, but it’s still neat to see them together. Tony and Liz come across Darren at the pub, depressed and hopeless as he waits for Reggie. Tony is surprisingly gentle at coaxing what’s wrong out of Darren, though he’s still appropriately exasperated when he learns the particulars of the situation. This is a great exchange between them:
TONY: “You sure you’re not gonna tell me why you’ve got this face on?”
DARREN: “...I’ve really messed up, Tony.”
TONY: “Ollie says something like that, I don’t worry, ‘cause I know he’s just being a girl. You say it, you get my attention, ‘cause we’re talking a different scale of problems with you, aren’t we?”
DARREN (with a small nod, tearing up slightly): “Yeah.”
I love their interactions in this episode, which just make me even more curious about what Darren was like as Tony’s assistant. It’s so good!
All right—that’s all for White Van Man! Final thoughts.
Accent Watch
London.
Recommend?
In General – Absolutely. It’s honestly a little wild that I was so lukewarm on the series after the pilot (although I do maintain that the pilot isn’t nearly up to the show’s usual quality.) After that shaky start, it’s consistently hilarious, offbeat, and fun! The writing is great, and the whole cast is terrific!
Joel Fry – Yes!!! Again, It’s wild to think that my first impression of this role was “undemanding but funny.” Not only is Fry fantastically funny in this show, he plays Darren with a wonderful amount of nuance that I never would’ve expected. This is such a spectacular performance from him—100% watch it!
Warnings
Language, occasional violence (mostly comedic,) sexual references/content, drinking/smoking, and thematic elements.
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