house of lies recapping: microphallus

Previously on House of Lies: Amsterdam

Synopsis: Marty arrives at the offices to find Greg Norbert there to announce the possible acquisition of Galweather by MetroCapital; the Pod flies to Indiana to consult for a beverage company, where Marty applies his management skills to turn a loss into a win; Clyde questions whether Doug really hooked up with a transvestite; Roscoe struggles with the confusing feelings of liking both a boy and a girl (via Showtime)

Similar to Spaulding Winter (John Ross Bowie, The Big Bang Theory), Marty has “deep primal wounds”. If you don’t realize his Ari Gold-style posturing is compensating for something, you probably didn’t notice that. Fortunately, the writers kicked off this episode with a brief, nightmare induced visit from Marty’s dead mom on the anniversary of her death. See? Marty has issues.

You may have also noticed that this show has no limits and doesn’t really seem to have a line, or even a moral compass. I was convinced that was Jeannie’s role, but this episode nullified that theory. I’m not sure if they’re shoving their ‘limitlessness’ in our faces and if they are, I’m not sure if this will continue or if they’re trying to grab attention because the show is still new. Regardless, Marty and his kids’ level of depravity is growing on me.

MetroCapital and subsequently, Greg, is back and it looks like this will mean very bad things for Marty, but not too bad since Marty clearly has nine (untouchable) lives. Skip Galweather (Richard Schiff, The West Wing) has sold (?) his company to MetroCapital and he’s more than willing to let Marty fall on his ass…for business purposes, since it’s clear during their brief interaction that those two aren’t friends. Skip takes that lack of friendship personal, which he uses as justification to make any future screwing over of Marty ‘just business’. There’s a story there and hopefully it’s a fun one.

While we wait for that to develop, as well as Roscoe, who I must note was an absolute vision of pastel, getting more screen time next week, here are the best (and weirdest) moments of Microphallus:

• “Daddy, it is a very bad day.” – Clyde…who should have more scenes with Marty, but please, no more pseudo-suicidal cliffhangers to close out episodes.
• Marty telling Greg that April says Rachel (his wife) ‘tastes like Pink Berry’.
• The Pod going to Indiana, which is home of the Raggedy Ann Doll, no really. Was there a brief stop to Pawnee perhaps?
• Alan Dale (The O.C.) as John, the CEO of IBC. He was also on Once Upon a Time last night.
• Spaulding and Janelle Winter (Amy Landecker) as…swingers? Or at least she was fine with him unleashing his foot fetish on Jeannie. And he was relatively OK with her pursuing Marty’s ‘black dick’, ‘big black cock’ or ‘big black dick’ (yes, all three were used at some point in the episode). Also seen and/or mentioned: a kinky sex den, ‘micro dick’, ‘man clit’ and ‘teenus’.
• Marty selling IBC out to Pepsi, which was his long-term game plan all along. In case you were in doubt of how completely on top of his game Marty is, even when it seems like he’s not.
• Roscoe playing what looked like Gears, with his girl…and boyfriend.

Next week’s episode: Mini-mogul

Nicole is a TV junkie and TVDM helps her feed a lifelong addiction. She can be found here, providing biased commentary (sprinkled with a few Pop Up Video-esque insights) on her favorite shows, every week.