"Cloud 9.0" is the first episode of Season Five of Superstore, and the seventy-seventh episode of the show overall.
Summary[]
Amy tries to help her employees cope with Mateo's ICE detention and, with the introduction of a new robot co-worker that makes them fear they could be replaced.
Plot[]
Someone hasn't read the mood.
The Ozark Highland employees are holding a candlelight vigil for Mateo outside the detention center in which he is being held. Amy criticizes Jonah for praising himself over how quickly he organized it. Marcus questions what exactly they're supposed to be doing. Cheyenne reports that another candlelight vigil taking place by family of another person detained has been going on for five months. Glenn suggests singing, and come to the decision to sing "Pizza on a Bagel", and gasp in awe at Dina's vocal proficiency.
Only one N. Like a serial killer.
The store unveils Cloud 9.0, the company's attempts to adopt technology into day-to-day running of the stores. Glenn is gushing about the scheme, but is less than impressed when he realize the high-tech floor cleaner has his namesake: a "Glen" name-tag - despite Amy insisting it won't be replacing anybody.
Amy informs Jonah that they should cool down any further union activity until Cloud 9 takes its focus off the store and stops its daily check-ins. She suggests duping corporate into thinking the store has acquiesced by successfully rolling out Cloud 9.0 first. She places Jonah in charge of Glen.
"Get him, Cheyenne, he's after my wife!" -- Glenn
Garrett finds Marcus and Dina stooped over a model of the local detention center - built out of LEGO - trying to figure out how to bust out Mateo. To get Dina off his back, he joins them.
Amy relays her concerns to Cheyenne about why she hasn't been to visit Mateo. Cheyenne rebuffs this, but then sparks worry when she accosts a customer for taking a product from an endcap that Mateo set up. Amy's attempts to convince her to pay Mateo a visit are inconclusive.
Glenn's anger at Glen intensifies when it runs into his ladder and cleans up a spill he had his eye on, before it runs into Mateo's endcap -- in response to which Cheyenne jumps at it, knocking it over.
Plan B time.
Amy launches her latest plans to get Cheyenne to see Mateo, by her and Sandra colluding to get her out of the store under the pretense of rescuing some shrimp dumped outside the now-shuttered Belridge store. When this fails, Sandra reverts to Plan B: physically lifting her up and outside.
Jonah tries to direct the debate about Glen in the break-room. Yet, trying to offset their concerns and mollify them by reiterating he agrees with them about the downsides of automation, his referencing of how robots would be preferred over human workers due to their lack of complaining about raises or healthcare instead spurs them on against Glen even more.
The color of that jumper is offensive enough...
Marcus, Dina and Garrett's schemes become more bizarre: dressing up in similar attire to Mateo (shirt, block color jumper and thick glasses), and then using a combination of recalled dog food and café clam chowder to emulate the sewage they'd be crawling through to get Mateo out. This transpires to be Garrett's - and also Dina's - final straw.
Cheyenne...
At the detention center, Cheyenne admits the truth behind her hesitance to visit Mateo, in how her visits to her mother in prison were always negative and made her mother feel worse. Inside, Cheyenne's anxiety proves to be less severe than Mateo's, who becomes emotional over his poor treatment, referring to the center's poor hygiene and racist guards.
Garrett catches Dina going back through security footage of the day Mateo got lifted to figure out how she could have helped him hide. Dina admits she hasn't felt herself for a long time, and works it out that it was not her fault Mateo didn't escape - but Garrett for the long-time effects of losing her birds, and that all this time she has wrongly displaced the blame.
The robot, not the man!
Sandra's continued failed attempts to announce her engagement to co-workers leads her to dump it all on a coffee-machine-seeking customer. After realizing Carol overheard, she tries to play it down, but then is disturbed by Carol's admittance that she is happy for her.
Jonah tries to stop the workers putting Glen in the compactor, before Amy offers an alternative solution: pushing it off the roof, as part of her new care-free attitude towards corporate. As they cheer ("Kill Glen!"), however, Glen manages to reposition itself upright from the parking lot surface and continue.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
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Running gags[]
- Amy's name tag: Amy wears a different name tag in every episode. For this one it's Amanda.
- MC Cool Cloud returns. Garrett criticizes his latest usage in the Cloud 9.0 display, commenting on how his illustration with a jetpack makes no sense.
- Sandra's attempts to announce her engagement: at the candlelight vigil, morning meeting, during the break room by dropping hints about bridal magazines.
- Jonah and The Americans: When Jonah makes a reference to the FX show, he once again tries to convince Amy to watch the show.
References[]
- Cheyenne rebuffs a suggestion of singing a Taylor Swift song at Mateo's candlelight vigil, explaining he's back to hating her again.
- The song the groups ends up singing is the jingle from the 1996 Bagel Bites commericial.
- When saying how cool it is that Amy is like a double agent who's managed to infiltrate Corporate, he fondly calls her "[his] own Elizabeth Jennings" from the tv show The Americans.
Trivia[]
- The episode opens with a montage of significant events of Season Four that lend themselves to this episode and this season's plotlines; these include:
- Dina discovering how Garrett inadvertently released her birds and her revenge.
- Jerry proposing to Sandra.
- Cloud 9's authorisation of an ICE raid on the store.
- ...and Mateo's failed attempts to evade capture.
- This episode takes place a few hours after the events of "Employee Appreciation Day", and then moves to a week later after the opening sequence.
- MC Cool Cloud, the Warehouse and the Surveillance Office make an appearance.
Quotes[]
- “Alright, I got burgers. Does anyone have buns, matches, or charcoal?”— Marcus
- “No, because this isn't a tailgate party, it's a candlelight vigil.”— Garrett
- “OK, well, we start with Oh, Living Bread From Heaven, and then straight into Alas, Did My Saviour Bleed.”— Glenn
- “Ah, so mostly just top 40 stuff.”— Garrett
- “Oh! Are we going to get paid in bitcoin?”— Cheyenne
- “Um... no.”— Amy
- “Oh, man, I really want to find out what bitcoin is.”— Cheyenne
- “Look at that, Glenn. Same name!”— Dina
- “It's not the same at all. I mean, look, it's spelt with one N. Like a serial killer.”— Glenn