Veep 6x03 Recap: "Georgia" (International Relations) [Contributor: Erin Allen]

"Georgia"

Original Airdate: April 30, 2017

Selina and company go abroad to promote free elections, and Selina tries to use it as yet another attempt to rebrand herself. “This is my second act. Selina Meyer travels the globe spreading democracy like patient zero.” She even adds it to The Meyer Fund. (“So, now it’s the Selina Meyer Foundation for Adult Literacy, AIDS, and the Advancement of Global Democracy?” questions Catherine.)

Kent and Ben are with Jonah in Georgia as well. This gets the old gang back together again, which is always fun. Miserable people being miserable together is pretty entertaining. Adding to this mix is Minna Häkkinen who brings a hilarious awkwardness. Minna is one of my favorite recurring characters on Veep. She is usually filled with disguised friendliness and backhanded compliments which fluster and annoys Selina. On this trip, she is genuinely trying to be chummy, and this flusters and annoys Selina even more (which is fantastic). The last thing Selina needs is another Gary with TMI-itis.

The reunions don’t end there. We get an Amy and Dan interaction, as well as a frigid Jonah and Richard encounter. Frigid only on Jonah’s side because Richard is incapable of being frigid. Selina also sees Jonah for the first time since he blundered his House vote. She tells him with that unparallelled Veep eloquence, “I want you to know that I will destroy you in ways that are so creative they will honor me at the Kennedy Center.” It’s so effective that Jonah poorly plagiarizes it when trying to insult Richard. It’s great seeing all these characters interact with each other again.

The Georgian primitive election process doesn’t go well due to... actually, I have no idea. It’s probably a combination of corrupt politicians, selfish American meddling, and disorganization. Somehow Gary and Mike end up voting. “This is the kind of voting irregularity we are hoping to prevent,” Kent informs Mike. The green paint provides a lot of laughs. Tony Hale, continuing to showcase his brilliant physical comedy abilities, does this bit with a water bottle that just slays me. (Seriously, read my praise of Hale in my review of “Library” AND as my TV MVP.)

The election is between Shalikashvili — who Selina says, “the poisoning, the torture, and the death squads aside is good people” — and Genidze, who is disgusting and disfigured, and touted as the country’s only hope. Spoiler: he’s not. He turns out to be a “ruthless, corporate oligarch.” And then their tour guide ends up winning.

Selina: That’s like Gary becoming President. 

Gary: From the tea party. *chuckles and holds up an imaginary teacup* 

Selina: No. Oh yeah. That is funny. Yeah.     

The politics kind of hurt my head. At times it was confusing and other times it was just depressingly too close to home and our own insane political environment. But Selina being grossed out by Minna’s suffocating friendship and Genidze’s lumpy face more than made up for it. It also doesn’t hurt that Genidze is played by the incomparable Stephen Fry.

I can’t believe I’m going to admit this, but I felt a little bit bad for Jonah. Only for, like, five seconds though. The other congresspeople on the trip openly leave him out and ditch him. (And he can’t find any food that’s like Spaghetti Os.) Dependable Richard is there for him. The two quickly fall back into their bizarre friendship after Jonah stops sulking about Richard going to work with Selina. They go to a nightclub that turns out to be a Nazi hang-out with entertainment from a band called Panzer Division. Other than that, they seemed to enjoy hanging out together again.

Back in Nevada, Amy fakes being Buddy’s loving fiance. She even fools Buddy who withdraws from the election to focus on their relationship. It’s not shown, but obviously Amy bails. I’m hoping she ends up back in D.C. and we see more of the original crew making each other miserable again.

Stray Observations:

• “I need a drink. It’s gotta be 8 a.m. somewhere.” 
• “Maybe we can win an election for a change,” Mike says to Selina.
• Selina is on this trip since being picked for Elder Statesman duty by Doyle. Gary takes offense to that title and calls her “Jailbait Statesman.”
• Amy’s favorite character on Downton Abbey: “I don’t know, Abbey, I guess.”  
• “Did you think of that while you were walking the beach with your metal detector, or however you fill your empty days?” I wonder if this is a reference to Hillary taking all those walks in the woods or if it’s another instance where Veep comes up with stuff that ends up becoming our weird reality. 
• “Your stay in the insane asylum really agreed with you.”
• “Have you imprisoned any good novelists recently?”
• “Doyle is trying to make Georgia like America. I saw your last election. No thank you.” 
• “Who needs champagne when you can have all these different kinds of wallpaper?” 
• How can you not love Richard? “Luckily the President gave me the night off so I could put my tourist hat on,” he says as he puts on a ballcap that says “tourist.”