Chris Sheridan
The following recap contains spoilers for The Audacity S1E3 “Valley of Heart’s Delight” (written by Jonathan Glatzer & Marie Hanhnhon Nguyen and directed by Daniel Sackheim).
The Audacity’s third episode, “Valley of Heart’s Delight,” is easily the funniest and most interesting episode of the season so far, skillfully balancing tone while escalating the threads of each of its characters and how they intersect. From the jump, we’re off and running.
Duncan (Billy Magnussen) receives a call from Gary (Paul Adelstein) as to the results of last week’s evaluation. Gary tells Duncan the results of the test indicate that Duncan is not on the spectrum. Duncan is furious. He has no sense of humor and zero empathy, he says. The ensuing conversation, with Gary reiterating that Duncan is completely normal and even empathetic and Duncan arguing back (“Empathetic is just pathetic with a prefix!”) is both funny and hints at more character development for Duncan, a side that we haven’t really gotten to see yet besides some genuine emotion that we got a taste of during him reminiscing about Hamish last week. Duncan hangs up on Gary and, noticing a spider in his sink, washes it down the drain. It immediately crawls back out.
Duncan tries multiple times to kill the spider, but the tenacious arachnid keeps coming back, until Duncan gives up and develops a sort of kinship with it, even to the point where he greets it when he enters the bathroom. He starts to relate to it, and furiously throws Thema (Arlina Rodriguez) out when she finally kills it. He actually grieves for it.
Duncan, after being “referred” to Carl (Zach Galifianakis) last week, has taken to spying on the retired billionaire, pulling up outside the restaurant he’s at and staring at him through a pair of binoculars. My favorite line of the episode, “I feel like Jane Goodall about to shoot a silverback gorilla,” is classic Duncan. It’s f*cking stupid and it illustrates his borderline psychopathy. It’s also hilarious that he appears to have at least a passing knowledge of who Goodall was without actually understanding her work. He’s surveilling Carl in preparation to solicit him to join Hypergnosis for his advice and a sliver of company shares. Duncan enters the diner and “strikes up a conversation,” by which I mean Duncan awkwardly talks to a silent Carl, and his reward is Carl plunging a fork into Duncan’s hand. While it’s probably relatively obvious based on the wound’s appearance, it’s still funny that almost everyone over the rest of the episode seems to immediately know that Duncan was stabbed with a fork. Also, side note: what the actual f*ck is Carl doing eating a banana (with a fork, no less) with fries and a side salad?
The interaction prompts Carl to show up at JoAnne (Sarah Goldberg)’s house in a panic, because the fork-stabbing incident is apparently a setback from something he’s done before. JoAnne hastily schedules a session for him, and takes a sudden call from Ethan, Orson (Everett Blunck)’s biological dad. Orson was never enrolled in the school, but according to JoAnne’s tracker (really?) is there. This leads to Orson finally having his hiding spot being discovered. Before they can leave, Orson desperately needs to poop, given that he has a severe gastrointestinal problem that’s been hinted at so far.
Tom (Rob Corddry) and Jeffery (Andrew Bushell) visit Duncan at Hypergnosis to inform him that the Secretary of the VA is coming to visit given that Harper’s technology can be used to identify veterans at risk of self-harm. Duncan immediately proposes a rooftop Texas Barbecue, complete with a DJ and a spit-roasted pig (“we’ll keep it kosher,” another dumbass line from the hilariously ignorant CEO). At said “party,” a cool long take illustrates the stress of Duncan trying to manhandle the success of the event until it fizzles out when the Secretary never shows up, shirking the barbecue in favor of another meeting. The party is a bust.
The failed event also triggers Tom’s PTSD, and he starts to shut down and panic. It doesn’t help that Duncan is having a full-blown meltdown, raging at everyone around him. Duncan finally calms down, and has an interesting heart-to-heart with Anushka (Meaghan Rath), where we hearken back to their romantic past. Sharing a drink with her, Duncan laments that he’s been constantly rejected, and more-that-subtly implies that he misses being with her. Anushka doesn’t really acknowledge it, but manages to calm him down before leaving, but not without reassuringly rubbing him on the shoulder. Duncan almost reciprocates, but catches himself.
I know in the season premiere I called Martin (Simon Helberg)’s passion about his AI Alexander “stupid,” and I’ll fully admit that I was completely wrong. One of the best, if not the best scene of the episode is Martin approaching a miserable Tom, offering help at Alexander’s suggestion. Alexander appeals to Tom, even switching to a different aesthetic when Tom criticizes his appearance. Alexander recites a mantra from the military that Tom instantly recognizes, and Martin puts them together in an office behind a glass door and simply watches in amazement at the breakthrough as Tom and and Alexander interact, ending with Tom openly weeping after opening up to Alexander about his trauma. It’s a powerful scene, and Corddry shines as Tom as he realizes that Alexander is trying to help.
Upon arriving home, Anushka proposes to Martin that she get more involved in his work with Alexander. Martin lightly pushes back and says that they shouldn’t “cross streams.” She tries again to really appeal to him, but Martin more firmly recalls the times that Anushka has directly insulted Martin’s work. “Do you remember?” Martin asks. “I do,” before exiting the room and leaving a speechless Anushka alone. With him and Anushka clearly developing a rift (and Martin seeing Duncan and Anuska interacting post-party and basically ignoring it), and a blow-up between Lili (Lucy Punch) and Duncan, it’s all but guaranteed that Duncan and Anushka will be pushed together.
Back to Orson and JoAnne, mother and son still have an extremely strained relationship, with JoAnne all but forcing Orson to provide a stool sample and Orson pushing back and diminishing his gastrointestinal problem. Orson is finally admitted to a hospital for his problems, and as he goes under the medication, JoAnne desperately runs around the hospital complex, finally finding someone to accept Orson’s stool sample. After Orson wakes up from the powerful meds they gave him, he manages to reach his mother’s phone she left him to accept a call from Duncan, and groggily tells the CEO that JoAnne hates him. This is a devastating blow to Duncan. Based on a conversation back home, I think that Orson might be developing an addiction to the drugs he was given at the hospital. A brief, hopeful moment of him and JoAnne coming closer together is fractured once again when JoAnne learns that the stool sample was from the dog.
Still reeling from the news that JoAnne hates him (duh), Duncan finally gets ahold of her, and she reminds him that he’s been blackmailing her. Duncan argues that he’s actually offered her a “partnership,” and accuses her of leveraging Carl against him, as well as reminding her of her insider trading. JoAnne really gets her claws into Duncan by mentioning Hamish: that Duncan only ever met his deceased roommate through sheer luck. She’s mean, Duncan says, but he can be mean too. JoAnne counters that if he does, and she loses her license, that eliminates the doctor-patient confidentiality and she will absolutely blow up all of his darkest secrets. Duncan doesn’t care. He can work with that, he says. After they hang up, Duncan pulls up a photo he took of the spider. “God damn, you’re ugly,” he chuckles to his late friend.
Duncan makes another final appeal to Carl, and this time, Duncan doesn’t get stabbed with a fork (which he notes), or beat up by Car’s guards like earlier in the episode (causing Duncan to burst into tears back in his car). Still, Carl isn’t happy to see Duncan at his regular diner. But he does listen to Duncan as he describes his persistence at getting the late Linus Po, a performer who is referenced throughout the episode, to perform at an event. After an astronomical financial offer, Po performed at Duncan’s event, very briefly, before flipping a double bird and leaving. It was something that devastated Duncan, until he realized that he “broke” Po by doing it. People, losers, can be bought off, but not Carl. Linus Po is a loser, but not Carl. He needs Carl. He needs him to help profile everyone, to help them. I seriously doubt that this will end well and I hope that Duncan wasn’t lying about his intention, but Carl, offscreen, accepts, as Duncan triumphantly exits the diner and explodes with elation, driving away as we end the episode.
I was glued to my favorite episode of the season so far by far. It was very funny, moved the stakes forward, and even had a surprising volume of emotion, whether it be from Duncan’s frustration and personal crises, to his connection with Anushka, and especially to Tom meeting Alexander. That balance of tone really worked, and it feels like The Audacity is definitely starting to find its footing now that all of the setup is out of the way. It’s confident, it’s compelling, it’s got strong performances especially with Magnussen and Corddry, and it makes me excited for where things are going next. And with things really starting to heat up between Duncan and JoAnne, it’s only a matter of time before that pressure blows. And we’re not even halfway through the season.
Where and how the pieces more forward, we’ll see next week.
