Wicky has to forego an evening in the pub to deal with the aftermath of an armed robbery in an electronics store. While there, he has to deal with the rather eccentric store employee who covers the night shift.
Tropes:
- All Men Are Perverts: Wicky’s friend Weasel has apparently predicted that in a few years, kitchen appliances will have functions that enable men to have sex with them.
- Alone with the Psycho: Subverted. Kai does creep Wicky out at first, then things get seriously weird when he pulls out a gun. Turns out, though, the gun is a fake — Kai thought they were doing a survival drill (justified, since they’d already discussed survival drills, what with the store having just had an armed robbery in which an employee was killed, in addition to which, as far as Kai’s concerned, Wicky is probably the only person who’s shown the slightest interest in his survival plan). Ultimately, Kai is a bit weird, but he’s perfectly harmless.
- Armour-Piercing Question: Kai (the night shift guy) has evidently put a lot of preparation into what he’s going to do in the event of a nuclear fallout. However, when Wicky asks why he would want to survive such an event and be the only person left alive, he has no answer.
- Crazy-Prepared: Kai has thought long and hard about what to do in the event of an armed robbery, to the point of having drawn his own map of the store and the back warehouse on which he’s marked the best places to hide. And a fake gun. He’s also built a nuclear shelter underneath the shed on his allotment.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Played with. Kai initially comes across as one of these. However, when questioned by Wicky, it becomes clear that he thinks that the Moon landings really happened, and JFK was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald (he may or may not be joking when he adds that Oswald was a lizard). Plus, he’s had all of his Covid vaccines. It’s just that he’s convinced there’s going to be a nuclear attack in the near future and has planned accordingly.
- Do Not Do This Cool Thing: An in-universe example. Before she leaves, the store manager tells Wicky not to go into her office. He does, of course. And finds beer. And several items that she stole from the shop floor.
- Good-Times Montage: “Together in Electric Dreams” plays when Wicky and Kai go round the store on the electric scooters.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Wicky reports the manager’s theft of store items to head office. The last we see of her is when she has an Oh, Crap! moment when someone from head office comes to pay her a visit.
- Must Have Caffeine: Wicky says he can’t function in the morning without a coffee.
- The Reveal: Kai wanted Dolly’s name badge because he was never given one.
- Skewed Priorities: The store manager is more concerned about some of the goods being damaged in the robbery (what with the likelihood of the insurance not covering bullet damage) than she is about having had one member of staff killed and another badly wounded.
- Stealing from the Till: When Wicky and Kai go into the manager’s office, they find several items that Kai knows have been stolen from the shop floor.
