The Rumor Mill – The episode begins with Shane (Shane Gills) watching Chiropractor (Jace Wade) videos that border on soft pornography thanks to the moaning and tight yoga pants. Will (Steve Gerben) doesn’t waste time pointing that out and demeaning Shane when he arrives but accepts Shane’s offer of linking him to the videos. Their debate is soon interrupted by the arrival of Anthony (Anthony Moore) who Will introduces as the graphic designer he’s hired for the cheap tire campaign.
Kilah (Kilah Fox) is working the front desk when Kyle (Chip Chantry) makes a taillight delivery and proudly claims he saw a bobcat on the 202 earlier than morning. And it’s apparently not the first time. Will fails to reach Dave (Stavros Halkias) as he and Anthony work on the PowerPoint campaign. They are soon interrupted by Cal (Chris O’Connor) who awkwardly requests to speak with Will privately.
While Cal shares rumors that the lowest-grossing shop is closing, Shane attempts to secretly recruit Anthony’s help with a side project. Cal refuses to tell Will where he heard the rumor but ensures him that it can from a good source. Anthony appears hesitant to help Shane until he learns that he could spend the rest of his days drawing women.
After failing to reach Dave (Stavros Halkias) and leaving a viciously threatening voice message, Will calls Wayne/Cooch (Luke Kenney). After an awkward greeting, Will not only learns about Dave and his father attending a meeting at the Springfield location, but he gets heckled for drinking a lot of chocolate milk which he doesn’t appear to understand at all. That is until he later learns that Shane has spread a rumor about him enjoying copious amounts of chocolate milk. Will doesn’t get much of a chance to respond because he’s immediately paged to the front desk by Kilah.
By this time, Anthony has designed a complete digital mockup for Shane’s bikini car wash idea. Although Shane doesn’t approve of the faces, he’s so impressed with Anthony’s eye for detail in other areas that he feels the need to share the mockup with the Wops, Schulz (Andrew Schulz), and Tommy (Tommy Pope).
Will’s fears are all but confirmed after learning from Lisa (Alex Albanese) at the Springfield location that his father and Dave are in what appears to be a business meeting. His frustration only grows when Lisa also confirms hearing the chocolate milk rumors. It’s downhill from there as Will learns from Crystal (Blair Adair Griffith) and Dale (Owen Pelesh) at other Valley Forge locations that Shane has been spreading rumors like wildfire.
Incensed with rage, Will manages to make matters even worse when he confronts Shane about spreading the rumors. Much to Will’s surprise, Shane is perceptive enough to ask why Will is calling around to the other locations. Without giving it much thought, Will not only blurts out the rumor of the possible closing but he later also admits hearing the rumor from Cal. Unlike Will, it doesn’t take Shane long to convince Cal to unveil his rumor mill source which happens to be Kyle.
Even though Kyle is a known habitual embellisher, Will, Shane, and Anthony end up back in Will’s office, reviewing their sales figures for the previous 2 months. At least this is what Shane and Anthony are doing, Will appears much more focused on addressing Shane’s rumors in a storewide e-mail. It’s soon revealed that although Will’s shop is ahead of Belmont in sales, Belmont’s overhead for day-to-day operations is much lower. Will doesn’t get much time to reflect on this because he is once again paged by Kilah with news of a call on line 2.
Will’s brief conversation with Dave not only reveals that Dave and his father met with Marilyn’s Muffler Shop, but the e-mail he just sent went to their customer mailing list. Dave claims the meeting was just an informational meeting but if his father was going to sell out, it would be the entire Valley Forge chain, not just Will’s branch.
The episode ends with Shane convincing Will to go through with his Bikini Car Wash initiative as a way to upsell the cheap tire campaign.
Tires Review
I wouldn’t say the episode was horrible and I feel that the series is growing on me. The more I watch, the more I actually feel for the characters, which is surprisingly shocking. Although the humor is infantile at best, it does have moments. In addition, the shorter run times with smaller cast and storylines help. I’d give this episode an easy 5.4 out of 10 and look forward to the next.
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