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The Crazy Ones Episode 12, “The Face of a Winner” Recap/Review: The Bunny Goes Boom!

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I am still giggling over the latest episode of The Crazy Ones.  Usually Sarah Michelle Gellar (Sydney Roberts) is the more subdued character in this ensemble cast.  Not this time!  In a brilliantly conceived story, all I can say she’s quite the Easter egg!

The Crazy Ones ep 12 Morning Elevator - lead

Obviously this article will contain SPOILERS for The Crazy Ones episode 12, “The Face of a Winner.”  So, Let’s dispense with the chit-chat and jump right into the premise.  It’s another normal day at the Chicago advertising firm of Lewis, Roberts & Roberts. Sydney just manages to jump into the elevator with art director Andrew Keanelly (Hamish Linklater), copywriter Zach Cropper (James Wolk) and company partner and her Dad, Simon Roberts (Robin Williams). She brags about a tennis tournament she’d won the night before – only it’s quickly revealed it was an over-fifty competition. She lied about her age because she just wanted the chance to win!

Winning and competition are the episodes over-arching theme tonight. Walking out of the elevator Zach and Andrew explain their pitch for the launch of a new Call-of-Duty-like video game called “Metal of Glory.”

Zach: We’ve been playing last year’s Medal of Glory, and since I consistently beat Andrew –
Andrew: – If by consistently you mean almost never.

The Crazy Ones ep 12 Who's beating who

As the guys get hyper-excited over the campaign and the game, Simon’s pretty laid back – for him. My favorite Simon quip of the night is this one about the new “Medal of Glory.”

All the excitement of combat from the comfort of your mother’s couch.”

I get the feeling he’s almost as thrilled about the game as he is about Australia.  (Read the  “Sydney, Australia” – Recap/Review if you’ve no idea what that means.)

Once inside Simon’s office it’s Sydney’s turn to bring Simon up to speed on the campaign she’s working on for “Zen-Phoria” – a spa beauty line. She’s got Lauren (Amanda Setton) assisting her because Lauren’s gone to “The Florida panhandle school of cosmetology, class of February” which means “she’s got experience.”

The Crazy Ones ep 12 BYOZ

Both pitches are solid, and as Simon puts it, “What the client expects.” So he throws them out, putting the guys on spa duty and the women on the combat video game. Neither group is happy about this.

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Talk about begin out of her element – N00B! Way to scream, “I know nothing about video games” Sydney! Frustrated, she complains to her father that she’s “never going to be able to break into this video game boys club!” Simon is convinced that in order to land the accounts they need to move beyond good ideas to great ones and great ideas occur when a new perspective is brought to a problem. (Simon’s right about this. A fresh look at an issue will usually generate some new and creative approaches.) He tells her Sydney she just needs to “fall in love with the product.” ….He’s going to regret that phrasing.

The Crazy Ones is always so well-written, layering meanings on top of meanings, and that scene is a great example.  Sydney is a beginner, otherwise known as “noob” or “noobie.” However, another well-known term for being new at something is “bunny.” The term “easter egg” is used in movies to denote inside jokes and hidden messages within the film. In video games it also includes hidden images or game levels that are found when a certain sequence of choices are made by the player. The images may be simple and funny, or really complex and scary mini-games. So “The Bunny goes boom” makes perfect sense as an Easter egg, as well as just being funny to those who don’t know anything about video game culture.

Here’s a fun side note: there really is a game that has an easter egg featuring a bunny that you can blow up. It’s called, Saints Row 2

Capture_2014_01_03_03_58_48_526

(SPOILER WARNING: this reference link contains how-to spoilers for various video game Easter eggs. www.mashable.com)

“The bunny goes boom” however, also can refer to Sydney blowing people away or her own self-destruction. Watch as the noobie starts blowing up the competition!

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Oh boy, it’s the beginning of a rapid downward spiral! Sydney has always been a perfectionist so her desire to want to win and be the best at things isn’t surprising.  However, I don’t think Gellar’s been allowed to go all-out crazy with the character since the pilot – where she sang on the tabletops to land Kelly Clarkson.  She is so much fun to watch!

Before we get to see Sydney’s hilarious descent there’s the matter of what’s up with the guys on the spa team.  Competitive spa?  Only on The Crazy Ones!  The next morning has Zach, Andrew and Simon riding up in the elevator.

Simon:  Wow! Your skin looks amazing!

The Crazy Ones ep 12 Elevator Ready

Andrew: I-I’m using the Zen-phoria Practice makes Pore-fect regimen. Here, smell that peppermint.

The Crazy Ones ep 12 Showoff

Zach: Show-off!

Oh, yeah, it’s on!  Especially when Andrew – the art designer – comes up with the slogan, “Are you elevator-ready” based on Simon’s reaction to his peppermint spa treatment.

Simon can’t give that much thought right then.  Because when he stepped out of the elevator he discovers that Sydney spent the night at the office playing the video game – and is in fact, still playing!  Sagely, he goes to have a talk with her.  His opening question is, “Have you been here all night?”  She barely looks up as she says yes, with some “friends” she met playing beta 11 – and she’s “winning!”

The Crazy Ones ep 12 stage 1 of the fall

You told me to get out of my comfort zone. Well my back’s killing me & I’ve had to pee since midnight. So, mission accomplished!

He then tries to bring her back to reality by reminding her the Zen-phoria people are arriving and she needs to be presentable.  No worries! Sydney will just…run a comb through her face and pop in for a minute….  Simon hands Sydney her bra and suggests she put that on as well.  A few minutes later Lauren and Simon find Sydney in her office like this:

The Crazy Ones ep 12 Zonked Syndey

Wisely, they decide to put on soft music and a moisturizer mask so that she’ll look like she’s meditating, moisturizing, and a part of the Zen-phoric experience.

It almost works.   The agency has made it a mandatory spa day – to show how they all appreciate the products.   Zach and Andrew are still trying to one up each other, which turns out to be detrimental to Andrew.  When Zach uses one of the facial mask products Andrew layers on two of them.  Zach isn’t thrilled – until the Zen-phoria people look concerned and tell Andrew the two masks he’s used are chemically not supposed to be used together!

The Crazy Ones ep 12 collage Zach and Andrew

Andrew tries to play it off, but the burning is awful!

Undaunted, Simon continues with his wooing of the Zen-phoria account.  His pitches are:  “You can’t sell it if you don’t live it”  and “We believe creativity springs from serenity.”   As soon as those words out of his mouth Sydney sticks her head out of her office door and yells:

I just unlocked Kosovo, bitches!  Oh Serbia, you’re about to go, boo-yah-ka-shah!

Simon looks the Zen-phoria people dead in the eyes and says:

We do a lot of work with eastern European war-veterans.  Will you excuse me?

Somehow, I don’t think they bought it.

The Crazy Ones ep 12 Not buying it

Simon goes in to talk to Sydney again.   This time he starts out with the fact that she almost cost them a multimillion dollar account, but Sydney basically does a “poor little rich daddy’s girl” routine about just trying to do what he said and she’s  tired and doesn’t know what he wants.   (she must have learned it from the intern a few weeks ago.  That review is here) Simon ends up apologizing to her and gently suggesting she move on to the next phase of developing the pitch with Lauren.  Turns out that wasn’t a good idea either.

The next day the guys are trying to get Simon to decide which of them has softer hands when a very upset Lauren barges in.

(FYI non-gamers: camping is a real strategy in games like Call of Duty.) So, the poor little rich girl thing is “a classic addict deflection”? See, this show isn’t just funny, it’s educational! Since Sydney doesn’t usually act this way, the addict response makes sense. It does make me wonder if there’s a 12-step program for spoiled brats though.

After Andrew explains how his mother was a chocoholic and would tell her kids the Easter bunny skipped their house when really she just ate all the candy herself, Simon decides Sydney can’t really be addicted because, “it’s too fast.” He changes his mind when they all witness Sydney trying to sneak out at lunch with the game.  She tells them she needs more bandwidth. Her friends decide an intervention is in order, but since they can’t get her off the game…

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True, Zach, we all saw that coming – but it was still funny!

After that epic fail, Simon uses his “find a friend” app to track Sydney down. She’s in full denial mode. Her first defense? She turns to the guy behind her;

Sydney: Hey Desmond, you enjoy playing video games, you’re not addicted?”
Desmond: I’ve been here since Wednesday. My wife’s having a baby right now.
Sydney: See, Desmond’s fine.

At first Simon says he shouldn’t be surprised that Sydney has addictive behavior since she’s his daughter. Sydney glances at her dad and rolls her eyes before turning back to her game which looking up – grumbles that she’s not addicted to a video game. After a pause, Simon has an epiphany! Sydney isn’t addicted to the video game. She’s addicted to winning! Now, this, he really blames himself for, because he let her win at everything when she was a little girl. Sydney disagrees, but then starts to think about it:

The Crazy Ones ep 12 little Sydney

Father and daughter end up having a real heart-to-heart.  Because of the divorce Simon wanted to make all of their time “positive” so she’d like him better.  That scenario probably rings true for many divorced parents.  However, even when parents aren’t divorced there’s a tendency to want to let the child always win.  I guess it’s important to teach a child how to both win and lose – well.  Since parents teach by example, that would mean having to win every once in a while.

Simon consoles Sydney with the idea that their compulsiveness can always be channeled into their work and tells a story about being so high one weekend he came up with putting a certain kind of potato chip in a can – which now world-famous and one of their biggest clients. (Hey, I’m not getting pay for product placement, so no need to mention the real name of “Stacky-chips.”)  All the story does is upset Sydney because she knows she’s not going to win the Medal of Glory game account.  Even though Simon says not to worry because the guys have good ideas for it and they’ll get the account anyway, Sydney admits she wants to win it so her dad will still see her as being the best.

That’s when Sydney starts to wonder if her need to win is because she saw so little of her dad that she thought he’d love her more if she was a winner….  This could be an opportunity for a real guilt-fest for divorced parents everywhere, but Simon and Sydney have such an honest relationship that it serves as showing how kids can make it through okay even though things aren’t perfect – or even if they’re really kind of crazy.

After they talk things out, Sydney turns off the video game – and sees her reflection!

The Crazy Ones ep 12 syndey in console

Obviously, she’s shocked.  She doesn’t recognize herself!  However, this also sparks an idea for the video game pitch!

At the pitch, Zach has a fat lip that makes it hard for him to talk – an allergic reaction to the Zen-phoria lip plumper. (Silly Zach! Your lips were just fine…sorry, getting off track.) Simon introduces it as a pitch that captures the game’s “blunt reality.”  Then Sydney comes in and tells her experience playing the game, including, “17 hours straight without a pee break.”  She even has before and after pictures!

But I would do it again in a heartbeat.  Because, sitting there, in that chair, I have never felt more alive.  Did it cost me? You bet it did.  But I wouldn’t trade it for anything because that:

"Is the face of a winner."

“Is the face of a winner.”

And I’m not alone:
The Crazy Ones ep 12 triple winner

Medal of Glory, a game so realistic you can’t help but come out of it scarred for life.

Hmmm…  I know they’re talking about the video game, but there’s could be another one of those sneaky double messages in this. Realistically speaking, does anyone go through life without obtaining some scars?

The Crazy Ones ep 12 Scarred for life

Anyway the gamer makers are in awe!  So, bam!  Sydney nails the account!

As for Zach and Andrew, after Zach says he’s got an epi pen if necessary to deal with the allergic reaction, Andrew tells him he’s won the spa battle.  Yep…winning isn’t everything!

This is definitely one of my favorite episodes of the season.  It looks like the cast had a great time with it as well!  Check out the outtakes!
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See you next week for another great episodes of The Crazy Ones!

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The post The Crazy Ones Episode 12, “The Face of a Winner” Recap/Review: The Bunny Goes Boom! appeared first on Gossip and Gab.


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