Episode Title: "Catherine"
Writer: Sean Gray & Tony Roche
Director: Tristram Shapeero
Once again, Vice President, Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) finds herself in the eye of what her Chief of Staff, Amy Brookheimer (Anna Chlumsky) likes to call a "good ole' fashioned Washington s*** storm." Luckily, Dan (Reid Scott), who is as smart as he is smarmy, is able to save the day.
After promising Senator Doyle she'd keep Oil out of the Clean Jobs Task Force, Selina decides to appoint recently-retired oil man, Chuck Furnham to appease lobbyists. But it's a no-win for Selina, as Furnham's seen as either representing Oil's interests or "not Oily enough." It's a real "Catch-44" according to Gary.
While Selina does "the widow walk" and takes fake calls from the President to avoid Doyle and other complainants, her daughter, Catherine visiting from college, waits for the Veep, while Sue (Sufe Bradshaw) shows her all the hospitality of a dentists office's waiting room.
Thus far, we've seen Selina's team race around town, doing damage control and attempting to wrangle frozen yoghurt photo ops, at the Veep's whim, in an attempt normalize her image. But with the arrival of Catherine, Selina's getting called out on her "me, me, me" or rather "2.Me" attitude when she can't do something as normal as make time for her own daughter. It's not only an opportunity for a hysterical sight gag, as Selina defends her selfish behavior in a closet full of posters of herself, but also for the Veep show a more genuine side of herself. That is after Catherine got her mom to stop talking to her like she's a member of the press. It seems that twenty years in Washington has made Selina a savvy politician and a lousy mother.
Though she may have her failings, Selina tries to make things right with Catherine by changing the name of a hurricane. We have to give Selina credit, she does what she can do – or rather what one of her staffers can do.
While Selina works things out with her daughter and her political partners, Mike continues to open his mouth before his eyes, leading to more foot-in-mouth fun with Selina's Director of Communications. Gary is a constant presence, dishing out factoids and hand sanitizer, Dan once again comes through in the clutch and Jonah continues to creep out Selina's female staff and then some. And it all makes for one of the funniest shows on TV.
