Hello Tomorrow! (Season 1) Episode 7: Despite being marketed as a science fiction narrative, there is very little to ‘Hello Tomorrow!’ that constitutes this claim. It is coming across more and more as a dark comedy revolving around the bureaucracy & corruption of a profit-driven world. Probably inspired by the likes of Mad Men, it shows its male characters dressed in sharp suits selling dreams to naïve customers under the guise that the belief in itself is enough. Whether their service fulfills, that promise is secondary or even out of the question regarding Jack.
Earlier, we saw Joey learning about Buck and confronting Jack about this dirty secret. The customers’ betrayal enrages him, and he wishes to get out of this business. Meanwhile, with Shirley’s help, Jack tries to get enough funding to refund their customers. Let’s dive right into this new episode, which means that there are spoilers ahead.
Hello Tomorrow! (Season 1), Episode 7 Recap:
Episode 7: Another Day, Another Apocalypse
Buck Manzell (Frankie Faison) gets his usual manic episodes at the old age home. He suddenly starts shouting and runs out of his room to the backyard. Before leaving, he hears a television broadcast and repeats what he heard. That seems to be the source by which Jack (Billy Crudup) found his crazy narratives for selling lunar residences.
Jack meets with a wealthy widow, Elle (Dagmara Dominsczyk), with the intention of selling her plots of land on the moon, as he discussed with Shirley (Haneefah Wood). He starts his dialogue with Elle with the same proposal. But eventually, he proposes for her to come into the business of belief instead of the business of land. He says it to be more lucrative. But for that to work out, she needs to pay him a hefty amount by the end of that day.
Elle agrees to do so to give their business plan a reliable early investor. With that image, the two then plan to approach other wealthy parties with the same promise. They both will keep getting money by promising other people that their dreams will come true one day. Earlier, we see Jack heading on the path of repentance. However, his decision with Elle shows him doubling down on his greedy venture and continuing to have blind faith in his salesmanship sailing the boat.
Back at the Brightside office, Herb (Dewshane Williams) is still angry at Jack about the unfair treatment. So, he decides to talk it out with Shirley. But she is in no mood to hear his quibble. Meanwhile, she gets a visit from Joey (Nicholas Podany), who asks for his past few payments. He wants to get out of the business and tells Shirley to do the same before it’s too late. She tries to make him stay by saying that Jack has only good plans for him. But Joey isn’t interested in that discussion.
He leaves her office to meet Herb, sitting right outside. While Herb continues seeing him as a competitor, Joey tells him he is leaving the company. Herb is happy about this news. But he tries to hide his joy and instead thanks Joey for giving him a worthy competition. While Joey decides to leave because of this ethical dilemma, he still needs to pay the hospital bills for his mother’s treatment. He goes back to meet her and apologizes for not coming there often in the recent past.
Then he goes back to his supermarket employer – Sal (Michael Harney), to ask for a few shifts at the store. Sal does not want to give anyone handouts. And now that he is in debt because of payments for his lunar residence (that Joey sold him), he cannot even afford to hire another person. Their heated argument leaves Joey with no option to fund his mother’s treatment.
Besides, the word gets out that launches to the moon are not going to happen in the foreseeable future. Myrtle (Alison Pill), who is the mastermind behind this news getting out, is ecstatic by it, and so is Lester (Matthew Maher), who has become infatuated with her. Earlier, at night, she broke into Brightside and stole some documents that revealed their secrets. While this action violates Lester’s principles, he refrains from confronting her. She later learns that these documents reveal that every flight has been postponed.
When this news becomes public (thanks to Myrtle), a journalist approaches Shirley to come clear on it. So, she decides to leave the office while giving inexperienced Herb charge of the entire office and of the angry customers. He tries reasoning with them. But he does not do his job as convincingly as Jack does. He gives a generic salesman pitch saying that their flights will certainly occur in a couple of months. But none of the customers agrees to it. They just demand a refund.
Hearing all this chaos, Herb’s over-enthusiastic wife, Betty (Susan Heyward), comes down from her room to support him. She meets Myrtle and starts a fight with her by calling her a ‘home wrecker.’ Myrtle says she is not interested in stealing Herb since he is looting innocent people. While Myrtle gets a sense of justice and freedom by doing this, Betty’s caricaturish character is so thinly sketched that it feels unnecessary addition by now. She has no interest besides supporting her man’s hopes and dreams and no personality other than being a provider. I feel bad for the person who wrote her character!
To help Herb, she runs to Eddie’s (Hank Azaria) room to seek his help. Since he was drunk, she took his bag of money to help Herb give refunds to angry customers. While Herb was battling rejection by Jack, Eddie was battling rejection of their lunar residence dream by Shirley. So he decides to spend away all the cash that he had saved. Shirley knows the reality and advises him against it. He takes it personally and goes on a bender. He watches the news with Shirley about Buck’s escape before getting drunk. She still does not reveal to Eddie what she knows and heads out to learn the situation on the ground.
By that time, Buck had ended up in a residential area and started shouting at a young kid. A delivery robot noticed and electrocuted him. By then, the kid realized that he had just heard ‘The Buck Manzell’ speak, who was supposed to be on Mars. While Buck runs away, the news outlets get a hold of this news and decide to milk it against Brightside corporation for false claims. Shirley hears the same news and reaches there to meet Jack. He had just reached there after an argument with Barbara (Jacki Weaver) about inviting Joey into their lives. She wants Joey to have a father figure. Jack is still not ready to come clean with the kid.
Hello Tomorrow! (Season 1), Episode 7 Ending Explained:
Do Jack and Shirley manage to find Buck Manzell?
Shirley drives around to find Buck, who is somewhere in the city. Jack joins her, and they have a heart-to-heart about their business. She wants him to be transparent with Joey about all the details. However, Jack still wants to keep up with the façade. She now senses his interest in doubling down on this lie through their conversation. She feels the sign of danger in his psychotic inclination towards continuing this con.
Right after, Jacks notices Buck running in front of them. He tells Shirley to start the car. But instead of doing that, Shirley remains in the same place, stunned by Jack’s nonchalance. Jack’s refusal to be accountable harkens back to a time when men were admired for their secretive lives. Now it feels oddly dated. And while the show’s commentary still makes it an intriguing weekly visit, its caricaturish characters-writing becomes a simultaneous let-down.
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Hello Tomorrow (Season 1) Episode 7 Links: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes
Hello Tomorrow (Season 1) Episode 7 Cast: Billy Crudup, Hank Azaria, Haneefah Wood, Dewshane Williams, Nicholas Podany, Alison Pill, Jacki Weaver
Where to watch Hello Tomorrow
