Chris Sheridan
The following recap contains spoilers for The Audacity S1E2 “Shine Brightly” (written by Charlotte Ahlin & Semi Chellas and directed by Lucy Forbes).
As we open, Orson (Everett Blunck) is attempting to escape the basement after accidentally being locked in there at the end of last week’s episode. After pounding on the door, he utilizes multiple items to try to pry the window open before throwing the tungsten cube—that Tess (Thailey Roberge) stole before handing it off to him—through the window.
Duncan (Billy Magnussen) is making what is apparently another call to JoAnne (Sarah Goldberg) about their “alliance” as he calls it, asking for information on her clients, but she’s not returning his calls. He notices the missing tungsten cube and immediately assumes Thelma (Arlina Rodriguez) is responsible. He confronts her, and his wife Lili (Lucy Punch) steps in to confront Thelma about the food for an upcoming event. Thema, overwhelmed when the two argue across from her, steps away in tears. Duncan goes for a run and rebuffs his press contact, who was lurking outside the house.
At the Felder household, JoAnne confronts Gary (Paul Adelstein) about her desire for a gun. The shattered basement window through which Orson escaped is assumed to be a break-in, the police have been called, and JoAnne is deathly afraid that she and her family are at risk. Gary strongly pushes back, citing his reticence to have “an instrument of death” in the household. JoAnne refuses to drop it, confronting her husband about how important it is for the family’s safety to have a gun with which to defend themselves, especially given with how many of her clients have high-risk connections and the possibility that they might plant a listening device in the office. Gary (rationally, in my opinion, at least for now), once again refuses to entertain her.
Carl (Zach Galafianakis) is back in another session with JoAnne, and as Carl complains while lying on the floor in his standard therapeutic position, JoAnne barely listens, browsing firearms on her phone. She takes a moment to suggest a calming acronym called STOP: S (Stop), T (Take a step back), O (Observe), and P (Proceed mindfully). Carl abruptly erupts in anger that the meaning of STOP’s first word is “Stop” itself: if he could stop, he wouldn’t need the mnemonic STOP. It’s a funny scene that ends with Carl aggressively coming up with his own interpretation of the term and flinging tissues out of a tissue box.
A focus group has gathered, attempting to get Jamison (Ava Marie Telek) into Stanford. Their suggestions are stupid, ranging from glasses types to suggestions of hair color. Lili continues to be a colossal monster of a mother, including taking another swipe at Jamison’s diet and looks, while Gary, briefly distracted by messages from JoAnne of gun suggestions, entertains the group’s suggestion of “accommodations” involving Jamison possibly having ADHD. Wow, they really want to get Jamison into the university by any means necessary, ignoring her actual proficiency. Duncan shows up, and when confronted with the possibility of bribing the university for admission, awkwardly says that both he and Jamison are possibly on the spectrum along with most of Silicon Valley’s best and brightest. He also latches onto Gary accidentally feeding into this, and coerces the psychiatrist into giving him a free evaluation. Meanwhile, JoAnne frantically dismantles her home office, looking for surveillance devices.
For the evaluation, Duncan takes Gary to his second home, which is completely divorced from tech. In fact, he has both of them deposit their phones into a lock box outside before entering. Almost immediately, a man sneaks up to the house, unlocks the box and retrieves one of the phones. The evaluation itself is awkward, and we only get a little of it but Duncan is clearly paranoid. Afterwards, he seems very at peace with the silence and lack of technology surrounding the serene home. And while Gary waits impatiently to leave, Duncan fondly remembers his first business partner, Hamish, who he playfully abused before Hamish took his own life via hanging—a tidbit that brings Duncan to the verge of tears. This whole sequence adds an interesting wrinkle to Duncan, who we have so far seen to be mostly devoid of emotion or even a semblance of care for others. Both phones are present when the men exit the house. The man from earlier shows up and Duncan immediately asks for information on what was found on Gary’s phone. Most importantly, JoAnne wants a gun. Duncan immediately takes this as being about him.
JoAnne is desperate for security, and recruits Orson to help her change her passwords. True to motherhood in The Audacity, the login key for her laptop is Orson’s birthday, which doesn’t work—she has gotten his birthday wrong for years. Only by a day, but still. While she draws a contrast to Lili—who’s just kind of a bitch—she wants the best for Orson, but sucks at it. Dropping Orson off at school, she extremely awkwardly tells Orson to neither exceed nor fall below expectations by way of sharing the story of Icarus.
In the school to enter 9th grade, Orson cannot be onboarded because his transcript never arrived—something his dad was supposed to do. Orson’s call is not answered, which makes me worry about Dad. They send Orson to the lunch room, which has a disused, curtained-off stage that he decides to spend his time in. He sets up a computer and starts watching a video on how to legally distance himself from his parents. He also observes Tess visit the trophy case in view from the curtains, and steal a trophy. He later plants the tungsten cube, and as she smiles upon noticing it, we’ve got a developing romance between the two.
JoAnne is still sitting outside in her car, unable to move because Tess got her AI ride stuck and it impedes all traffic. This gives Duncan the opportunity to pull up beside her, after she had earlier canceled their appointment and ignored his calls. She refuses to entertain his requests to just talk, so Duncan points out that she’s used client information for insider trading. JoAnne’s response is to tear through a lane, down a hill, and speed away. Her next move is to go to her investment firm. She first claims that she’s been hacked, then asks to reverse the trades. Both involve the fraud department, which she refuses to do. She then, in a roundabout way, admits to what she’s done, and the man assisting her “suggests” that she donate the profits instead. She leaves, claiming to know what she needs to do. She goes to the library, and completes a trade, but we’re not entirely sure whether it’s a buy or a sell.
Harper (Jess McLeod), at the behest of Duncan, is attempting to use JoAnne’s phone to track her, but they’re very leery of the ethics of doing so, calling it stalking. It’s only after a negotiation of a raise that they resume the project. Duncan continues to be rude to Harper until Tom (Rob Corddry) and Jeffery (Andrew Bushell) show up to renegotiate a partnership at the behest of Anushka (Meaghan Rath). She tells Duncan of the positive optics of the partnership, so Duncan goes out to greet them. He excitedly starts to talk to them about their files before learning that they are all hard copies. He quickly recovers and sets off once again to find JoAnne.
Duncan barely misses JoAnne as she departs from the library, but his surveillance still has her there. Across the street is a gun store, and Duncan assumes she has been there. He acquires a wand scanner and breaks into JoAnne’s home, scaring the sh*t out of her. After threatening her once again to spill the beans on her trading, she lets him scan her and talk. He appeals to how she’s possibly saved her clients money, and asks her for information on just one of them. She gives him Carl. We cut before she gives him more info, but later, at a diner with Jamison, Duncan notices Carl in the corner “covertly” trying to spy on them.
Gary comes home to find JoAnne at her desk with a glass of wine in front of her. She tells her husband that she needs to tell him something about Duncan. Gary believes this is about the evaluation, and immediately starts to defend himself. JoAnne immediately blows up, and cites her rival as a vile and arrogant individual. Gary attempts to calm her down, but she continues to yell, until Gary finally appeals to her, and she allows Gary to speak. Gary delivers a monologue that ends with him stating that Duncan still deserves therapy, and JoAnne’s response is somewhere between disinterest and realization. More importantly, Gary finally gifts his wife with a gun, which she is elated over, and all of her current frustrations are washed away.
After a premiere that took a minute to really get going, “Shine Brightly” still feels like it’s trying to juggle a lot over the course of an hour. But, like that premiere, it still mostly does it pretty well. The overall vibe of bad people doing bad things (or at least failing to do good things) makes the The Audacity compelling, and while the characters are “hateable,” they’re still a lot of fun to watch.
Here’s to seeing where they go next week.
