Broad City 5.2 Recap: Ilana’s Entrepreneurial Spirit & Abbi’s Poop Bucket
by Gary Catig
Ilana is verbally reciting her resume as she is given a tour of a fun and trendy work area (they have draft beer on tap in the common area) by the people who seem to be in charge. There’s a misunderstanding because Ilana thinks she’s interviewing for a job while her guides think she wants to rent an office in their shared work space. When she realizes she’s in the wrong building, she departs but not without helping herself to some snacks.
[*Spoilers for 5.2 Ahead!]
When Ilana tries to locate where her real interview is, she finds her phone is about to die. Lucky for her, there’s a free charging station close by. While waiting for her phone, she bumps into Linda (Rachel Dratch) from her old temp agency. Linda expresses her frustration with working as a second-rate citizen because of her smoking habit. She has to go outside every time she lights up.
After hearing from her old acquaintance, Ilana is suddenly hit by inspiration. She’s going to create an inclusive work environment that caters to smokers. The charging station provides free electricity and WIFI so she sets up shop right on the sidewalk. In order to make the area look more professional, she gathers discarded furniture and décor. Her business is booming with several clients and Ilana caters to their every need even providing a snack tray of granola bars and cigarettes. Later, the guys from the intro come out to shut down her operation because they can’t have loiterers outside their building. Instead, Ilana negotiates a buyout for a lucrative $500.
Meanwhile, Abbi is with her super, Fernando, because her toilet is clogged again. She learns that she lives in a pre-WWI building and the pipes are unable to deal with toilet paper. Fernando suggests she use an extra garbage can for used toilet paper. This gives her a reason to visit one of her favorite spots, BB&B, or Bed Bath & Beyond for the uninitiated. It’s her lucky day since poop buckets are 20% off. On her way home, Abbi is convinced that she needs to fight for improvements in the living conditions. She mobilizes the other residents in her building to demand they fix the pipes. They should all be able to poop, wipe and flush in their own apartment.
This episode showed how both leads are strong independent women with huge potential. Ilana started and sold her own company in a single day. Abbi was a mini revolutionary trying to enact change in her apartment. However, in true Broad City fashion, things don’t always end up well for our heroes. Abbi stirred up more trouble resulting in Fernando’s firing and a rent hike while Ilana’s idea was stolen and made significantly more profitable. In addition, I thought Ilana’s business, SheWorks, was a good satire on the absurdity of start-up culture. Her hustle and resourcefulness were so good, I could actually see it being a plausible business venture that would receive so much buzz.
Other interesting episode notes:
- Abbi has quite the elaborate secret handshake with her favorite BB&B sales associate, Dart.
- Ilana misunderstood the premise of the poop bucket to hilarious results.
Broad City airs Thursdays at 10:00 pm on Comedy Central.
