Medhi Is Partied Out – The episode begins with Medhi (Raoul Bhaneja) stumbling out of a bar and getting behind the wheel of his company-issued vehicle. As soon as he gets his seatbelt latched, he passes out at the wheel but manages to somehow wake later on what appears to the be main strip of Imperial Valley. Still slightly stumbling, he makes his way into the local diner, not bothering to notice the group of protestors. One of the female protestors, Lena (Alexandra MacLaen) takes advantage of his oversight by hiding under a blue tarp in the bed of his truck.

Meanwhile, a very short scene shows Randy Bennett (Tom Green) waking in the hospital and assaulting a nurse (Jonah Campbell) in the confusion.

By the time Medhi arrives at Conch, the protestors are already gathered. His short interaction with Marcus (Jonni Shreve) at the guard shack reveals that the protestors are all riled up about the rapid depletion of fossil fuel. Medhi wastes little time pointing out how all the projections during his earlier years showed that the year 2000 would be the end of the Earth’s fossil fuel supply.

Inside the Conch plant, Chelsea Nakamura (Jennifer Spence) shares the front page of the local paper with Todd Stool (Robb Wells) but doesn’t find his humor in the headline picture of the floats. While sharing her strategy to visit accounting to uncover more about the plant’s financials, they learn about Bennett’s waking. Todd is all for immediately racing over to the hospital while Chelsea wants to speak with accounting first. As they go back and forth, it becomes clear that Todd is intentionally doing everything possible to avoid a trip to accounting.

Todd finds Medhi in the middle of hanging a hammock in his office when he approaches to ask him to look after his crew while he tends to other affairs. In the end, Todd practically pushes the task on him and leaves.

Marcus is in the middle of exercising his core when he notices Lena on one of the plant’s surveillance cameras. She’s not only managed to breach the front gate but she appears to be spreading a white powder throughout the parking lot. When she is later dragged from the plant in cuffs, she tells Marcus that she hopes he brought his umbrella.

Audrey Stool (Anastasia Phillips) joins Todd’s crew in his trailer where she professes to Backwoods that she enjoyed training with him and aspires to be just as good a tradesman as him. Much to her surprise, he claims he doesn’t deserve all the credit and suggests that it would be equally beneficial for her to pair up with the other members of the team. This leads him to pair her with Dewey for the day, who has gone from tossing Cheetos in Nate’s mouth to debating government conspiracies with Homer (Jess Camacho). Medhi soon joins them and tells them he’ll be acting as Todd for the day. Although he assigns the others to continue working on whatever they were working on yesterday, he tasks Dewey and Audrey with finding his truck.

When Todd joins Chelsea in accounting it becomes clear why he was trying to avoid the meeting. He apparently had an office fling with one of the accountants, Barb (Lindsay Watters) that did not end well. Barb’s best friend, Bev (Koumbie), doesn’t make matters any better for him. As their meeting continues it’s also revealed that Todd backed out of his and Barb’s pact to get matching tattoos. Even after being threatened with dismissal from Chelsea, the only way she agrees to help them is if he gets the tattoo in the same place where she got hers.

Todd and Chelsea soon find themselves in the break room looking for an artist while Dewey and Audrey comb the parking lot for Medhi’s truck. Although they don’t find the truck, Audrey learns that Dewey rides an electric bike to work because of a recent DUI. Elsewhere, Marcus learns Lena’s ulterior meaning behind the umbrella comment when he finds himself covered in pigeon poop. The entire plant is soon assaulted with pigeons raining down crap everywhere.

Despite Backwoods and Marcus seeking Medhi for solutions to the pigeon problem, as a man fond of nature, he asks Backwoods for his opinion. Medhi appears to have a solution after Backwoods mentions pigeons being sensitive to ultrasonic frequencies.

After sharing his newly mined tramp stamp with Bev and Barb, Todd learns that they can’t even give him the reports they need. According to the accountants, they only handle payroll while Bennett handles everything else. Barb and Bev do happen to have Bennett’s laptop, which should hold all the reports but it is password-protected.

Medhi has managed to turn an electronic device into an ultrasonic frequency emitter that he broadcasts over the PA system. Despite the success, an open electric panel has apparently sustained too much damage and soon trips the breaker, shrouding the entire plant in darkness. As the plant’s safety supervisor, Steph (Susan Kent) wastes little time gathering everyone in the break room and enacting lockdown protocols.

Much to the worker’s dissatisfaction it doesn’t take Medhi long to find and reset the tripped breaker. While doing this, he realizes that a few modifications to the flare stack could make it much more effective. As he returns to his office with a newfound purpose, Marcus combs through the plant’s surveillance footage to learn that Lena gained access to the plant by hiding in the back of Medhi’s truck.

With no other options, Todd and Chelsea seek Bennett’s help at the hospital. When Todd fails to physically intimidate him, Chelsea steps in by yanking on his catheter.

As the plant shift comes to an end, Backwoods joins Audrey in the parking lot. She doesn’t waste any time letting him know what a waste of time working with Dewey was. Despite her insults, she becomes tightlipped when Dewey joins them and offers her a ride home. Backwoods laughs as he pulls away, leaving her stranded.

Elsewhere at the plant, Medhi has apparently found his truck without the help of Audrey or Dewey. Before he can leave, he is accosted by a very upset Marcus who lets him know how Lena gained access to the plant.

Chelsea and Todd make a pact to keep what they learned from Bennett a secret. She refuses his offer to come in for a beer until Dewey and Audrey pull up. As they drink the night away, an extremely upset Bennett is shown spying on them while promising himself that he will get revenge.

 

The Trades Review

Not the best of episodes, not the worst of episodes. To start, Medhi isn’t one of my preferred characters, so his being the focus of the episode definitely inspired my dislike for the episode. That said, I did enjoy the episode more than I would have thought. Despite that, I’d give the episode a 5.3 out of 10. I did enjoy Bennett’s return not because I am a somewhat fan of Tom but because it offers several intriguing story possibilities.

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