Partner Track – Season 1 Episode 5 “Out of Office” Recap & Review

Out of Office

Episode 5 of Partner Track begins with Nick making breakfast for Ingrid and being perfectly loving. The trouble is, it’s not enough for Ingrid. She’s still feeling guilty about the whole lying malarkey with Z, and of course her feelings for Jeff. The pair are interrupted by Lina who shows up and immediately starts helping herself to food. Inevitably things take an awkward turn… and even more so when Nick calls Ingrid a snuggle muffin. Cringe!

The firm’s annual retreat arrives for Spring Break and everyone jumps aboard the coach to the resort. It’s a beautiful hotel they’re all staying at and it seems Tyler’s racism chat seems to have gotten through to Dan. At least for now.

As for Ingrid, she immediately finds herself thrown back into work again. It turns out Carter Min has sent back the redlined purchase agreement for the Sun Corp acquisition. There are hundreds of pages of disclosure schedules that she needs to get through before 9am on Monday… and inevitably Jeff is not in the mood to work, until she grabs him off the golf course. Predictably, the pair are shacked up in the honeymoon suite together.

It turns out Min Enterprises have holdings in Syria and Iran. Their locations suspiciously overlap with refugee camps there. This has all the makings of Z’s handiwork over it. It’s a tough moral dilemma because on the one hand they can kill the deal and save the refugees or keep the deal going and essentially throw the refugees to the wolves.

They both come up with a new plan together; The Delaware Division Law. In essence, they want to spin the holdings in Syria and Iran into a new corporation, meaning they’d be nonprofit and exempt from sanctions. They can call it the Min Foundation and close the deal. And just like that, Ingrid cheats on Nick and begins kissing Jeff.

Of course, awkwardness ensues at dinner when Jeff and Ingrid are seated together, while Rachel and Justin end up stranded out on a lake on a boat together. There have been whiffs of chemistry between them over the season thus far and as they spend time together, getting to know each other, sparks fly. I mean, I’m sure they’re having a better time than those at dinner, who have to sit and watch the talent show unfold. And speaking of shows, Rachel and Justin eventually end up kissing… and so much more!

Back at the hotel, Dan steps up to do his stand-up routine and scathingly calls out Tyler for helping him learn about “white fragility.” It immediately rubs Tyler up the wrong way, and for the rest of the evening he’s absolutely seething, leaving midway through to go home.

Ingrid approaches Marty and demands a resolution to the routine. Ingrid believes Dan should be held accountable for what’s transpired and Marty agrees, promising to speak to him on Monday

The Episode Review

We all knew Dan’s stand-up routine was probably going to go awry and as such, that’s exactly what happens here. I’m surprised Tyler didn’t step up and slap him in the face, sitting back down after and shouting “keep my name out of your damn mouth!”

Beyond that though, episode 5 had literally no substance beyond developing the romances, including Ingrid cheating on Nick and Rachel off with Justin, which has been brewing for several episodes now.

I’d imagine we’ll see more of Dan’s racist behaviour brought up in the episodes ahead but beyond that, the lack of substance in these middle chapters has been pretty disappointing given the strong start. Let’s hope the episodes ahead improve.