Summary
“Grace” has a killer guest star and manages to highlight a lot of Molly’s character growth. Plus there’s a giant panda.
After spending an entire episode misguidedly pursuing her feelings for Arthur, Molly has nothing on her mind in Episode 8 of Loot Season 2 other than Space for Everyone. However, she has to deal with the slight hiccup that she doesn’t have enough money for her ambitious expansion plans.
This was teased at the end of Episode 7, but it was hard to tell what it meant. Is Molly broke? No, not at all. She just doesn’t have the insane amount of money required to nationalize a project that costs a fortune but doesn’t offer a return. And that means that a Molly money problem isn’t a traditional one. She can’t do a fundraiser or borrow the sum or anything like that. She has to convince other billionaires to invest in Space For Everyone.
A Likely Candidate
“Grace” makes its fundamental gag very clear very early – you don’t become a billionaire without being an eccentric caricature. So, the slideshow of possible investors is a treat. But there’s one candidate who you just know is going to be the one, partly because she’s named Grace, the episode’s title, and also because she’s played by SNL royalty Ana Gasteyer.
Check this out for a Gasteyer role: Grace is recently divorced and has gotten $110 billion in the settlement, but she hasn’t dealt with the separation well and has spent the last month trying to blow the fortune by hosting a ridiculous never-ending party in her mansion. She has been drunk and high for a month straight.
Molly, who knows Grace a little bit, decides to just turn up unannounced, but she’s shocked by the debauchery she finds, which includes Grace dating a DJ dressed in a giant panda outfit.
Molly Can Relate
Of course, Molly recognizes Grace’s headspace, as she has only recently divorced and become suddenly rich herself. She might not have dealt with it in exactly the same way, but she recognizes the symptoms of the same disease. So, when Grace pledges billions to the Wells Foundation, Molly refuses to accept it until she can make the decision in sound mind.
This involves Molly staying behind for what she hopes will be a conversation but ends up being a trip on a private jet to Iceland that just gets more and more ridiculous in classic Loot fashion. It isn’t quite as funny as Molly’s meltdown at the work retreat, but it’s close and has the advantage of involving a giant panda (though not, it turns out, always the same guy wearing it, as Grace finds out to her chagrin.)
Still, the point of all this isn’t the partying but the frank, open come-down conversation that occurs afterward. Molly explains how losing herself in work gave her a renewed purpose; she was no longer her husband’s ex-wife, but her own woman, and it’s a conversation that highlights as much of Molly’s growth as it does Grace’s predicament.
Space For Everyone Is Expanding
Naturally, Grace agrees to throw some of her vast fortune into Space for Everyone. And, following her lead, another three billionaires do the same. The project will be expanding after all.
But that isn’t to say that everything is hunky-dory in the Wells Foundation. There’s still an unresolved romance to consider. Arthur only features briefly in this episode, but we’re reminded of his ongoing relationship with Willa. With her current financial problems handled, Molly will be free to focus on her love life in the next two episodes.
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