Hello Tomorrow! (Season 1), Episode 9: In the previous episode of ‘Hello Tomorrow!’, Joey finally learns about his relationship with Jack. Now, Jack’s biased treatment of him becomes crystal-clear to him. Joey understands that it was only Jack’s guilt for leaving him and his mother years ago to fulfill his dreams of talking. Still, Jack has unshakable faith in the power. It makes him not mind using the desperation of his customers for continued capital gain.
But there’s more to it than just his greed. The latest episode addresses those concerns and how it is related to Jack’s past with his own father. The business is still booming, thanks to Elle’s firm support. However, despite his professional success, Jack continues to struggle on the personal front.
*Spoilers ahead*
Hello Tomorrow! (Season 1), Episode 9 Recap:
Episode 9: Certain Forces Once Unleashed
Jack Billings (Billy Crudup) cannot control his excitement now that the rockets to the moon are finally available. Thanks to Walt (Michael Paul Chan), it has now become a reality for the residents of their retro-futuristic world of Vistaville. Jack puts on his bright smile and sells the idea of travel to the moon to the customers that are desperate to make lunar residence their reality. The only catch is there are no residences on the moon. They won’t find out about it until they arrive unless Jack chooses to reveal it sooner due to his guilt.
But until then, he is all geared up, and so is his Brightside corporation, which now has only Herb Porter (Dewshane Williams) and his dutiful wife, Betty (Susan Heyward), as their salespeople. On the other hand, Joey (Nicholas Podany) has still not gotten over his anger and has left both Jack and his corporation for good. Shirley Stedman (Haneefah Wood) and Eddie (Hank Azaria) have also decided to part ways from the soul-sucking world of greed.
However, Jack is still peddling lies through his every other pitch, trying to make the prospect of a stay on the Moon an enticing one. He finds a pebble and plans to use it to show it as one from the moon. Elle (Dagmara Dominczyk) is smitten by Jack’s resourcefulness and his ability to pitch to people so cleverly. She is so excited about his new venture that she prepones the launch of the rocket to just the next week.
Jack finds it too rushed and rather feels that the fun is to keep them milking on making the customers wait longer. Elle, on the other hand, believes that they should keep spending the money of their investors and not worry about the consequences. Even if the customers go there, find out that the promise for residence was a lie, and get angry, she and Jack can lawyer up to never get caught in any issue. Since they have the money, they are open to shaping the truth however they want.
However, by then, Jack starts feeling guilty about his actions. He goes to meet Joey, hoping he would be looking forward to joining his team again. Jack looks forward to it as a reunion of a family. Joey, however, is not into that idea. He feels terrible that Jack is still leading people toward a dream that will never come true. Since he is planning to sell his family home, Jack gets upset at him.
Back in their office, Herb approaches Jack with regard to their new clients and their demands. Jack is so distracted by the thought of getting caught in a lie that he lets Herb take care of all the matters. Betty gets angry at Herb for letting Jack behave in any way he wants to. She believes that Herb deserves a promotion.
While the Porters are committed to serving the corporation, Eddie and Shirley try to earn cash through gambling. With each other’s help, they score big at a game and enjoy their bundles of cash sitting in their car. Their joy remains to be short-lived since Big Fred (W. Earl Brown) soon catches Eddie and punishes him for cheating in the game with Eddie. Fred burns Eddie’s hand inside a toaster and considers that a befitting punishment.
Barbara (Jackie Weaver) goes to meet her daughter-in-law, Marie (Annie McNamara), in the hospital. She hopes that faith will be restored in their relationship despite the past. Joey does not like that Jack gets to have their sympathy despite abandoning them for years. He does not want to live with Jack’s mistakes and calls him a con man. Barbara, on the other hand, defends Jack by calling his mistakes – a usual behavior for a father.
Myrtle (Alison Pill) goes to Lester’s (Matthew Maher) office to tell him about the good news of making the list of the upcoming rocket launch to the moon. Lester finds the rushed launch unlawful since they did not follow the appropriate procedures. He finally shares the reason for his stringency to rules and regulations. His dog had died because a rule was broken. The guilt still haunts him, which makes him remain to be a stickler for rules.
Walt starts to make his workers rush the preparations for the rocket launch now that it has been pushed to merely three days. It ends up with a worker losing his foot in an accident. Jack still looks at money as the solution and is not ready to speak against Elle’s wishes. On the other hand, Herb and Betty work on prioritizing their customers for the rocket seat based on their behavior.
Meanwhile, Joey approaches Lester hoping to get Jack convicted for his wrongdoings. He shows a willingness to even testify against Jack. Lester believes that it will help strengthen their case. On the other side, Jack starts doubting his intentions now that his customers are finally getting a ride to the moon. He speaks with his father (his ashes stored in a barrel), saying how he was a coward who could not fulfill his desires when he was alive. Through Jack, we see a man trying to fulfill a father’s wishes who did not value him much.
Shirley decides to go confront her husband but returns without getting any money. However, she made sure to tell him that she was leaving him for good so that she could live with Eddie. While they share a kiss, Eddie thinks that they would not have had to face such an issue if they were on the Moon. That’s when Shirley reveals that there are no houses on the moon and that Jack’s lunar residence venture is a lie. Instead of getting angry about it, he actually admires Jack’s talent for making so many people buy into that lie.
Hello Tomorrow! (Season 1), Episode 9 Ending Explained:
Do Jack and Joey overcome their differences?
Barbara calls Jack to tell him that Joey might be trying to get him in trouble. He does not take it seriously and considers it as her paranoia talking. Joey, meanwhile, works with Lester to get a tape recorder tied to his body. He wishes to get Jack’s confession on that tape. He meets Jack at the stadium, hoping to get him on record. Jack throws a ball at him, hoping to create a playful interaction. But it bumps into Joey’s body and reveals the record player.
So, while Jack was hesitant to share the truth, he finally confesses that he has not constructed anything on Mars. Nonetheless, he shares a hope to do so in the future. You see his desire to go beyond his father’s capabilities and fulfilling the dream instead of just harboring it. Joey, however, does not want just the talks of the future. He is tired of Jack pretending that the matter can get any better.
The father-son finally get vulnerable with each other, and Jack reveals how much he cares about Joey and his mother. Jack admits that he left them because he was terrified of being a disappointment of a father to Joey. He claims that Joey will understand him once he has a kid of his own.
Regardless, Jack enters the stadium and waves at the crowd like a celebrity. However, he gives Joey an option to expose him or not. He has already confessed to his con. So, the ball is now in Joey’s court, how he chooses to deal with it. Will he try to save his father? Or do the right thing and get him convicted? The finale may have those answers for us.
