Emily figures out that she’s the only Vice President in the office who doesn’t have her own private office. After fighting with Van about it, who boasts about winning every competition, argument, and just about anything you can somehow win at (even if they have to invent it), Emily challenges him to a bow and arrow competition, something that they both are skilled at.
Van’s ego is put on full blast here, as we learn that Van wasn’t exaggerating, and he has actually won everything he ever could have. Emily eventually loses to Van, but blows everything up in his face about the endless amount of times people have let Van win to fuel his Wayne sized ego. Later, the two find a common ground, where Emily teaches Van to be proud of the accomplishments he has made, and Van agrees to help Emily on her road to success in the office environment.
Van and Emily have amazing chemistry and banter between them, I believe it’s one of the driving forces of the creative team to keep centering episodes on the two and their interactions. Van is essentially the opposite of Emily, serves as a living ego who only acts to better himself, while Emily lacks the ability to turn down her ambition, and only works for the betterment of human decency.
If the team up between the two, something that has been teased in every episode to date, comes true, then POWERLESS will see a dream team begin to form. They would be unstoppable, doing anything they could ever want. However, when it comes to the atmosphere of the office, it would only be detrimental.
So much of the chemistry between these characters comes from the fact that they are all so different. When Emily wants a new private office at Wayne Security, she goes through the flow of things to make sure whatever is done is done fairly, but Van, on the other hand, takes anything he wants. Literally, he has physically taken things from other people or places that he wouldn’t be able, and has just picked them up and declared them his.
Outside of the clashes between the heads of the office, we get to see some more of the endless quirks and adventures of Ron and Teddy, our favorite office geeks. In this episode, Teddy has fallen in love with a new superhero in town, and must find a way to get her to save him just so he can speak a few words to her. As a man who has fallen pretty deeply in love with several of the comic book characters I’ve read over the years, I can definitely see Teddy’s quick transition to head over heels for her.
What makes the entire situation even more hilarious, however, are the montage like sequence of decisions Teddy makes to put himself in danger. Eventually, when out on a date with another girl that he feels genuine emotion for, rather than a fantasy, his super heroine love flights in. Teddy quickly abandons his real life chance to go after his fantasy, right as she flights away uninterested. I guess it’s good to see that some people, even if you have to, will never grow up.
This episode was fun. It had the expected jokes banter, and plot twists, but it still feels like a slight missed opportunity. With a name like 'Van v Emily: Dawn of Justice,' I was expecting waaaaaaaay more references, callbacks, or even just straight rip offs from the film it’s basing its title off of. Unfortunately though, this episode only pits the two characters of Emily and Van off against each other in a very Superman versus Batman type of way. But really, would one “Martha!!!” have killed them?
But we all know that’d be an even bigger disappointment. Zing!
Written by William Staton, POWERLESS Beat Writer -- Click to read William's posts
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