If not Jane, who? Valerie suspects Paulie G., given their history. (CNN even shows the old viral clip of her punching him in the stomach on “Room and Bored.”) Myself, I have my eyes on Marco, who might be jealous of how Valerie is letting Evan, the A.I. tech guy, pitch jokes.
But let’s not lose the plot here. The real culprit is Valerie, who has been terrible at keeping this secret. In this episode, she accidentally tells the “How’s That?!” cast what’s going on. Walter has called an actors-only meeting to accuse Valerie of trying to take over the whole production, warning that he has seen this kind of thing before. But before he can explain what he means, Valerie asks, “There’s another A.I. show?” Whoops.
Something else to consider is that Valerie’s hopes for herself and her career often get derailed by … I want to call it loyalty? Or maybe a pathological need for familiarity? Valerie tapped Jane for her documentary mainly because she already knew Jane. The same was true of Paulie G., called in last week to be the emergency showrunner. Sometimes, Valerie’s preference for people she is accustomed to creates unwelcome distractions.
For example, Tommy becomes a problem. He was meant to be Valerie’s new Mickey, ever-reliable. But it seems Tommy has been getting handsy with Valerie’s castmate Frank, who asks her to tell him to stop. Tommy is affronted, saying he has been rubbing nervous actors’ shoulders since “WKRP in Cincinnati.” (“Different times,” Valerie sighs.) So he quits, effective immediately, echoing Jimmy Burrows’s comment that this job has stopped being “fun.” Valerie is down another team member, right when she needs more people by her side.
Billy, predictably, is no help. Because of Valerie’s repeated suggestions that he isn’t doing a good job as a producer, Billy calls her in for a surprise session of couples therapy, to be filmed for yet another reality series. (He is supposed to on his way to a color-timing session for the “How’s That?!” pilot, which pretty much proves Valerie’s point.) Later, after the A.I. news gets out, Billy keeps thrusting his phone in Valerie’s face, barraging her with TikToks and Instagram Reels in which struggling writers scream at her.
