- Title: House of Lies – Power
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As Marty’s (Don Cheadle) personal life takes a couple odd turns as he sleeps with a motivational speaker (Salli Richardson-Whitfield) and is confused by Roscoe’s (Donis Leonard Jr.) new crush (Bex Taylor-Klaus) each of his old Pod mates face personal and profession problems of their own. Using skills taught by her former leader, Jeannie (Kristen Bell) steals a lucrative account from a misogynistic co-worker (John Carroll Lynch), Doug (Josh Lawson) becomes even more flustered then usual when Sarah (Jenny Slate) informs him she stopped taking birth control, and the hell hole of Clyde (Ben Schwartz) working for Monica (Dawn Olivieri) takes a dangerous turn.
Splitting focus between three separate companies and Marty’s various personal issues continues to pull the show in several different directions at once without having time to delve deeply into any one story. Given that Monica had spread rumors of Clyde being a rapist around the entire office I expected any violence towards his new boss to come from him but it actually comes by the way of the mousy Christy (Milana Vayntrub) who finally can take no more of Monica’s insults and stabs her boss in the leg with a letter opener.
The episode ends by continuing to teas us with a Marty/Jeannie relationship as the two spend time together plotting to steal a lucrative account from Monica. With Marty not in the office (and having odd, but certainly vivid, dreams) the show is missing the touches of his dickish magic inside the boardroom. Monica’s insanity and her stabbing, along with Jeannie’s underhanded tactics, give the episode some of its old swagger but what is it going to take before we see the old Marty Kaan back in action?