Season 4 Episode 1
"Back to School" is the first episode of Superstore's fourth season.
Jonah and Amy are back from their suspension, which was brought on by the events of last season's finale, where they had sex on a live stream in the photo room. Their first day back is during the store's back-to-school sale, and while Jonah is getting plenty of attention over the sex tape, Amy gets upset that they're pretending nothing happened with her. After inadvertently causing a 14-year old kid to sexually harass her, Dina calls a sexual harassment meeting in the break room, which gradually devolves into a Q/A about Jonah and Amy's sex tape. At the end of the episode, it's revealed Jonah and Amy are secretly dating.
Meanwhile, Jeff tries to make it up to the store for his betrayal in the previous episode with a virtual store greeter featuring Myrtle, which fails to impress the staff.
And during the sexual harassment meeting, Kelly is put in charge of the store.
This episode provides examples of:
- Big "NO!": Garrett, when Marcus tries to hi-five him over Jonah's orgasm.Garrett: NO, I am not hi-fiving one man over another man's orgasm!
- Brutal Honesty: Amy decides to answer every question her coworkers have. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. She makes Jonah answer too, and by the time they're finished, the store is closed already and Noam is asleep.
- A Day in the Limelight: Kelly gets the spotlight when she is put in charge of the store while everyone else is attending the harassment meeting.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Dina wants to throw a bug bomb into the tent Noam is hiding in, in order to get him out.
- Double Standard: Discussed in the episode, as Amy thinks people aren't talking to her about her incident with Jonah because they assume she's ashamed of it as a woman, while they talk to Jonah about it because they find it an accomplishment for men.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Discussed during the sexual harassment meeting, when Glenn wonders if Amy abused her power as a supervisor by having sex with Jonah. Isaac claims a woman can't take advantage of a man, but Dina insists that Amy could force an underling to have sex with her just as much as a man could. Amy agrees, but quickly affirms that she didn't and wouldn't do that.
- Embarrassing Nickname:
- Amy is mad that the guys gave Jonah a nickname (J-bone) but not her, and wants one. What does she come up with? A-hole. She immediately regrets it.
- Apparently, when others found out Gene was having sex on his lunch breaks, they called him "Sex Ma-Gene."
- Foreshadowing: Jonah kisses Amy after insisting nobody could see them in the parking lot. In a future episode, we find out that wasn't entirely true.
- Greasy Spoon: Amy works at a diner during her suspension.
- Innocently Insensitive: Glenn, as usual. He assumes Amy is more ashamed of her sexual encounter because she's a woman, which Amy calls out as sexist. He then apologizes and mentions how he's been really confused about women's issues given the whole "Me Too" movement.
- Hypocritical Humor: The staff tease Jonah about his sex tape with Amy, but act completely normal around Amy, believing she'd be embarrassed. She's so offended by the double standard, that she ends up insisting they talk about it.
- Insistent Terminology: The staff debate whether Jonah and Amy's sex video was a "sex tape" or a "sex stream".
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Glenn's disguise that he wears to visit Amy at the diner she's temporarily working at during her suspension. He apparently does this because he believed it was against the rules for him to be in contact with a suspended employee. She doesn't outright admit she knows, but she hints at it closely, mentioning to the "mysterious stranger" her amazing manager, Glenn.
- Mood Whiplash: Amy turns a sexual harassment meeting into a forum to field everyone's questions about her "sex tape" with Jonah.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: After screwing over the employees at the store in exchange for a corporate job in the previous episode, Jeff has apparently visited multiple times to make it up to them (particularly Mateo). His big idea to make it up to them? A virtual Myrtle store greeter. Unfortunately for him, they aren't willing to accept anything less than Myrtle herself.
- Secret Relationship: Everyone in the store questioned why they weren't together, and Jonah and Amy insisted they weren't. Turns out, they are secretly dating. Amy insists they not show affection until they leave the parking lot, but Jonah kisses her after insisting the parking lot is empty.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Marcus, who seems to be encouraging the 14-year old Noam to seek out sex advice from Jonah.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Amy's insistence that she "enjoys sex" results in Noam making a sexual advance towards her.
- Would Hurt a Child: Dina is willing to throw a bug bomb into the tent Noam was hiding in to get him out. (In the deleted scenes, she does end up throwing a bug bomb in after the store closes.)Dina: Noam, sweetie? You're gonna come out of that tent, okay hon? Now whether you're conscious or unconscious is up to you.
Cheyenne: Are you really gonna throw a bug bomb in there?!
Dina: [aloud] No! [mouthing] Yup!
