So Help Me Todd Season 2 Episode 9 Review: The Broker

On So Help Me Todd Season 2 Episode 9, “The Broker,” we pick up from the moment of Alex/Ariel’s reveal and learn there’s a mole within Crest Folding. Todd’s suspect list grows comically large, but the true reveal shows they’re all red herrings.

At the point of collapse, the firm is offered a lifeline when Gus brings a case with a massive list of potential clients that need to be screened. Unfortunately, screening them means everyone must work all weekend to save their own jobs.

Lyle is of course left hurt and confused by learning his girlfriend is an FBI agent using an alias, but Todd runs with her news of someone bribing a judge. He eventually questions the motives of everyone he trusts, including his mother and himself (don’t ask.)

While he spins his wheels, the firm chugs its way through clients, eventually learning of a large group of fake claims under one clinic. That investigation ropes in Allison, who is already reeling learning that her ex-husband Chuck is already re-engaged.

After tracking down those responsible at Chuck’s engagement party (really don’t ask), the day is saved. Lyle and Ariel even manage to repair their relationship. The name Alex may have been fake, but her feelings for him weren’t.

But what of the mole? After going through literally every possibility, Todd stumbles on the realization that it’s Mr. Folding himself—a man only mentioned once and never yet seen. Still, he’s determined to share this truth with the world on his own.

Most of the actual plot of this episode is a disorganized flurry of people and events, though it’s the kind of disorganization that makes for peak comedy. The hand-drawn backgrounds to Todd’s inner thoughts are weird but fun. They may be detached from reality, but so is everything else.

On the other hand, the carnival ride feel of this penultimate episode gives the sense that we’re spinning towards something much less light lighthearted in the (likely) final episode of the series. There’s a reason that third partner is so ominous.

But first, let’s take a moment with the romantic entanglements that briefly distract us from whatever is coming. From relatively smooth sailing to angst with a happy ending to whatever the heck it is we’re putting Allison through now, we run the gamut.

Particularly after seeing so little of Alex for so much of this season, the rush to include her in a major plot twist and then immediately redeem her feels hasty. Of course, we do have a ticking clock to consider—and these two are worth rooting for.

Seeing Chuck again under these circumstances isn’t so much hasty as it is bewildering. Is there any point to it besides piling on to the middle Wright sibling? And what if there is? I already feel like we’re going to be left with too many plot points to count.

It feels inevitable that the most important of these developments will center on Todd’s plans against Folding. It’s very likely these will go badly wrong. If so, our cliffhanger might not just be “major”, but more of a life-or-death scenario.

As such, I encourage everyone once again to sign the two(!) petitions now available here and here if you haven’t already. Cliffhangers are only really fun if you know you’ll get resolution to them. At the moment, I fear we won’t.

 

What did you think of this episode of So Help Me Todd? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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So Help Me Todd airs Thursdays at 9/8c on CBS.

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