House of Lies – Family Values

  • Title: House of Lies – Family Values
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“The people you work with are assholes.”

House of Lies - Family Values

After his boss tries to kill his deal with U.S. National Bank behind Marty’s (Don Cheadle) back, things between Marty and Galweather Stearn’s new CEO (Bess Armstrong) come to a head at a company team-building retreat when he decides to cut out early to keep his promise to see Roscoe’s (Donis Leonard Jr.) inappropriate school dance performance. Back at the retreat, Doug (Josh Lawson) begins see the Pod in an entirely new light after they meet Sarah (Jenny Slate), especially after Clyde (Ben Schwartz) comes onto her at the pool and Clyde and Jeannie (Kristen Bell) bully Doug into looking like a fool in a competition with another team during one of the team-building exercises.

While hanging out, and drinking, with Tamara (Nia Long) the Pod learns all kinds of interesting facts about their boss’ romantic past. Once Marty returns he has to face Julianne’s (Armstrong) wrath who wants to make sure Marty understands his place. Seething, Marty spends the rest of the night drinking with Tamara. Although he chooses not to sleep with her once she let’s the bombshell drop that her marriage is pretty much over, he does drop a bombshell of his own by admitting his decision to leave Galweather Stearn.

The episode has some nice moments, particularly with Doug (who is usually the show’s punching bag). His new found confidence thanks to his relationship with Sarah forces him into a conversation with Clyde about his friend’s behavior with Sarah and acknowledge that the man really isn’t Doug’s, or anyone else’s, friend. There’s also a fun moment courtesy of Sarah who, in no uncertain terms, tells a confused Jeannie to stay the hell away from her man. As to Marty’s confession and his growing tension with the new CEO, we’ll have wait and see how this story plays out in the coming weeks.