Via HBO.

After a brief detour in the country, Veep is back on the campaign trail. Selina is in Detroit, to announce 7,000 new jobs and boost her ratings, hypothetically putting her way ahead of Maddox, Chung, and Thornhill in the polls. But, like every little event on Veep, nothing is easy: Selina’s ex, Andrew, is in the house; Catherine is in tow, complaining at every opportunity; Jonah is being Jonah and generally screwing everything up; there’s a new beau for Selina; and finally, the surprise return of Minna Häkkinen, the wife of the ex-Finnish Prime Minister who groped Selina last season.

But what makes last night’s Veep work so well—particularly after last week’s fine, but underwhelming episode, “Fishing”—is its controlled franticness, which finds everyone struggling to stay calm with a lot of shit going on. Dan, in his new roll as Selina’s Campaign Manager, is enjoying belittling Mike at every opportunity, with two phones and two iPads in hand at all times. Amy is coping with the fact that she’s not Campaign Manager, and Gary is, well, being Gary. Lets take a look at this week’s power rankings:

1. Maddox

Considering the absence of Danny Chung and, since his name started popping up, Joe Thornhill, it’s too soon to tell if Maddox is Selina’s biggest opponent, or will be out of the picture fairly soon, considering how much screen time he’s getting. But as of now, he’s constantly one-upping Selina. Last night, Maddox executed his most sneaky move thus far, when he hijacks a friendly handshake photo op between the two candidates by putting a hand on her while she walks down the stairs, turning back to grin at the cameras gleefully. The headline in the next day’s papers? “Meyer Campaign Seeks Helping Hand.” Believe it or not, that was all Jonah’s work.

2. Minna Häkkinen

A nice surprise was the return of Minna this week, whose appearance caused many a awkward conversation with Selina. Not only did Minna monumentally (but unintentionally) fuck Selina over on two occasions (first by telling Jonah about her Second Amendment comments, and then later by pressing her about the job announcement), but her blissful unawareness of what she had done made it all the more entertaining. Cultural barriers!

3. Catherine

Catherine emerges as an unexpected hero for the Meyer campaign this week as she instinctually punches out a protester dressed as the Statue of Liberty who lunges at Selina. Whether or not she likes it, she’s just earned Selina a gold star in the red neck community.

4. Jonah

Jonah make good? Indeed he does. Much to the chagrin of the Veep’s staff, Jonah not only leaks the Second Amendment comment Selina makes to Minna, but he orchestrates Maddox’s hand-shake hijack. Hell hath no fury like an incompetent man-child scorned by The White House.

5. Selina

Yeah, things didn’t go so well for Selina this week, but hey, it could have been a lot worse. And she’s got a six month buffer before the job announcement Minna forced out of her comes back to bite her in the ass. Also, she did get laid by her new wellness trainer, Ray (the always entertaining Christopher Meloni), so that’s gotta count for something, right?

6. Amy

Amy is coping with being denied the Campaign Manager title pretty well, I’d say. Is she bummed? Sure, but she’s not going easy on Dan, snarkily pointing out every time he fucks up. Plus, she’s Selina’s “best friend,” so that says something, right?

7. Gary

Gary’s shoulder seems to be doing better, thanks to Ray. Still, this was a particularly useless episode for one of Veep’s most useless (yet, hilarious) characters. Still, Gary’s freakout when the Statue of Liberty man accosts Selina was pretty great.

8. Dan

In his new role as Campaign Manager, Dan is all business and berating Unfortunately, all his extra work (and two iPads), can’t help him prevent the two disastrous incidents for the campaign this week. And, to make matters worse, his hare-brained scheme to hook up Selina and Ray ultimately backfires when she hooks up with Andrew again.

9. Mike

Mike, the perennial punching bag of Dan’s, gets one-upped by Jonah. That’s as low as you can go, man.

Via HBO.

Quotes, Quips, and Other Observations

• Selena: “Emily La Fuente? The journalist? She’s was a vicious bitch and a fuckin’ drunk. But that’s sad news.
• Seems like the insults this episode have gone from witty to straight up vicious. I’m into it.
• Mike: “How about I just have the Veep put her arms like in Platoon and say ‘WHY?’ Too wordy?”
• Gary: “OK, remember, her husband fondled your left breast.”

  Selena: “Think I’m going to forget that? I’ve got a thumb print there.”

• Mike: “Jonah, come here. You know, sometimes I feel like there’s a nine-year-old boy in you, just operating levers.”
• Seriously, when will we get the episode that confirms Sue and Kent are hooking up??
• Amy: “No, no, no, don’t tell Dan, because he’ll be like ‘oh my God, crisis! I need a third iPad.'”
• Gary: “I’m not saying Ray is right for Selina, I’m just saying I really, really like Ray.”

  Amy: “We know, Gary, you’re Ray-curious.”

• Gary: “GIVE ME A FUCKING GUN, I’LL SHOOT HIS BALLS OFF.”
• Selina: “WHAT? That Finnish…fart!”
• Mike: “Jonah had a good idea, we didn’t plan for that!”