This episode is cited a few places as being the worst of the series.  I have to put up a weak defense.  Not because it is good, but because there has been so much other crap.

The first scene is yet another example of how the producers did not understand their own program; especially after the bastards shipped it across the pond.  It has all the ingredients to grab the audience and make a great first impression.  We are in an advertising agency.  What better place for some dazzling creativity (well, around Super Bowl time, anyway)?  Various admen, adwomen, adLGBTQ, adnauseum are making their pitches for the latest new & improved toothpaste.  To be fair, the editor got it, as it was finely chopped between each brief presentation.  Sadly, the performers are so lifeless, and the music so insipid that the setting and editing are squandered.  It just sits there like the Queen.

The episode is redeemed, momentarily, by the appearance of Daniel Craig.  Wait, what?  Yes, young Daniel Craig, playing Barry 007 years ^[1] before his first appearance as James Bond in the great Casino Royale and subsequent erratically-timed disappointments.  He proudly proclaims to Jacqueline that he has no portfolio or pitch to make.  He says that he has the same swagger as she does and should be hired on that basis.  Apparently that plus tight jeans, a leather jacket, and dreamy blue eyes is enough.

WTF? Is that a Cable Ace Award?

In his first meeting with a client, he attacks his agency’s own presentation as boring.  Jacqueline agrees and tells him to be ready with his own ideas in the morning.  We learn he is in cahoots with Jacqueline’s former boss, Alistair Touchstone, ^[2] who she forced out of the company.  The old man gives Barry a device which causes minds to be very receptive.

At the meeting, Barry clicks on the device and shows Jacqueline a boring picture with the Chalmer’s Chocolate logo on it.  She immediately chows down on some chocolates he thoughtfully brought in.  He shows the same picture with Amazon Cola’s logo, and she grabs a can.  The same picture advertising Alanis Lipstick causes her to grab a luscious pink-hued tube, and an ad for Moonlight Condoms does about the same.  Barry foolishly shows them the device that is making them so receptive. ^[3]

Barry is assigned the prestigious Chalmer’s Chocolate account.  The current Ad Exec asks what happens when Barry’s gadget breaks down.  The ex-Exec gets sacked, and not in the good way.  On the other hand, he can probably walk out with a gross of those prop condoms as severance cuz womens love unemployed guys.

Barry goes to see Jacqueline and says he has a message from her old partner, “Drop dead.”  What follows is utterly incomprehensible.  Barry, covered with blood, tells Alistair he killed Jacqueline and framed Alistair for it.  The sacked Adman suddenly reappears and says, no it is Barry whom the police will arrest!  The cops do show up and chase Barry through the building.  Inexplicably, he leaps out a window to his death with no parkour, jet-pack, or parachute-wearing metal-toothed ectomorph to save him.

On the sidewalk where he just plopped, ^[4] Jacqueline, Alistair, sacked Adman, and a client are huddled, clearly in cahoots.  Turns out there were no cops; that was just a suggestion implanted by the group using the device.  Jacqueline says, “You’re right, the silent version is much more powerful” even though v1.0 also made no sound. ^[5]

Wait, Alistair had demonstrated the device by making Barry imagine rats — his biggest fear — climbing all over his body.  Wouldn’t the device now have also made the whole group paranoid about cops?  After all, they were conspiring to commit a murder.

The client cheerfully agrees that the advertising firm can keep her account, which is a little strange.  She just sells chocolate, you wouldn’t expect her to be so callous to the suffering and death of a member of her team.  It’s not like she’s selling iPhones.

There really was no point to this ruse other than it was necessary for the episode.  Kinda like there was no reason for this episode other than it was necessary to squeeze a 7th season out of this lumbering mess of a series.  Finally, Jacqueline suggests they celebrate with a drink.  The client says, “Suddenly, I’m dying for one” and they all howl in laughter.  Yes, a guy is dead, but this is a real non sequitur.

There were good performances from Ute Lemper (Jacqueline) and Daniel Craig.  However the lazy writing and somber tone make this another failed effort on the order of Quantum of Solace.

Other Stuff:

• [1]  Oh, alright, 010 years before.  But it was one of those “facts” too good to check. You know, like you see on MSNBC.  Or NBC.  Or ABC.  Or CBS.  Or PBS.  Or CNN.  Or Fox.
• [2]  An unrecognizable Belloq from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
• [3]  The device brings up the Bewitched paradox.  OK, it casts a spell on the client in the office to think the ad campaign is genius.  Maybe they even put the ultrasound in commercials.  But it won’t be playing in the store, and the effects seem to wear off immediately.  They don’t even have Elizabeth Montgomery as a distraction.
• [4]  Easily the best feature of the episode is the sound and visual of Barry hitting the pavement.  Kudos!
• [5]  Unlike Microsoft, Adobe and WordPress, apparently this device’s upgrades actually make the product better.
• Title Analysis:  What smoke?  What wrings?  What crypt?  They’re not even trying.
• Ute Lemper?