#1031: Now Hiring

[Bob]

This is the first major plot episode in a 'Club album', and as such, and also given its content, it is historically important.

Some points of interest:
• Connie is now officially the manager of Whit's End. She has been serving as something of an assistant manager for some years, playing a role in hiring and firing as far back as Novacom with Aubrey, but this is a big bump up in authority. This is the same position that Ed Washington has at Whit's End Connellsville! I doubt Connie intends to personalize the shop the way that Mr. Washington did, but technically she has the right to.
• I thought this was a great episode for 'new Jules'. Her character art for this episode nails it, and she is sweet, smart, and supportive all the way through.
• The hiring dilemma is genuinely interesting. It's almost a pity this episode wasn't a two-parter so that fans could have had time to debate it without knowing the resolution.

From their original applications, the characters each have compelling strengths:
1) Della McKinley is about college-aged, comes from a large, conservative, probably homeschooled family, and in spite of (probably) helping raise her own siblings, still wants lots of her own children. She hopes to become a Christian educator.
2) Paxton Kleinhouser III is a recently-graduated business major whose courses included books from Harvard. He is already working on his memoirs, and identified over 60 things that he thought was wrong with the way Whit's End was being run by the time the interview was over.
3) Penny Bassett is a long-time character on the show and one of Connie's best friends.

Something seemed off about Della to me from the get-go. I don't know if it's because I didn't know her well (it being her first appearance), or her voice, or what. I suspect if it was a character we already knew, like Kristen (Judge Me Tender), I would have felt a stronger affinity with her. As it turns out, I was wrong about there being something lurking under the surface. What you hear about is in fact what you get. That's objectively not a bad thing but admittedly could be a little boring for a long-term character in a radio drama.

This episode makes it clear that while Penny is a nice person, her personality isn't really suited to Whit's End front counter work. I'm sure she's a good helper and that she would have been fine if Connie or Wooton were there to take charge and tell her what to do, but they weren't, and there was a lot of pressure, and things went awry.

From hearing the album preview, I thought that Paxton was a bit obnoxious and I figured that there was no way that he was going to get within a mile of the job. Jules says, and Connie implicitly agrees, that he is "a lot". At first impression, I thought his way of addressing the problems was remarkably lazy (though very much in line with the 'business manager' mindset).

But obviously, my first impressions are not in line with the choice that Connie ends up making in the episode, and on further review, I think I've changed my mind and come around to agreeing with her. This is not, after all, the first time that a young, well-educated, somewhat egotistical person came to the shop, thought many things were being done wrong, and had plenty of ideas on how to fix them.

And as I thought about it more, it occurred to me that his solution to the 'crisis', although out of the box, is a valid approach to the problem. Moreover, it's actually the most successful one we see in the episode! Penny got overwhelmed and just gave up (at least, on an emotional level she did - surely she didn't ultimately leave the mess on the floor, or the customers hanging?) Della worked to resolve each issue, but fell behind, because even though she was doing each task superbly she couldn't be everywhere at once. By delegating certain things out, Paxton was able to stay on top of everything without delays. He gave kids specific assignments with clear goals that they could handle, and offered instruction when needed. Besides getting the work done in a timely manner, this was likely beneficial in other ways; Connie notes that the 'kids like him'; perhaps it's because he makes them feel important and responsible. It's fair to give credit where it's due; he had a tricky job and handled it 'like a boss', both figuratively and literally.

• The latter part of the episode, where Connie expresses her insecurities, is a good way of bringing closure to issues that have bothered her character for years (both in AIO time and our time).
• Is Whit going to be gone from Odyssey for the whole album? I expect not... but it's presented as though it is going to be a significant block of time.
• I wouldn't be shocked if Paxton pushes some of Connie's buttons going forward in some of the ways that Eugene once did. However, while he knows a lot about some things, he has significant gaps in his knowledge in other areas (like not being able to correctly identify what a triathlon is), so he should be easier to handle.

Overall I think this episode did a fine job, both in making its points and in plot twists. I can say I approve it.