Iannucci departed as showrunner from the series following its fourth season and was replaced by TV comedy journeyman David Mandel (who had previously written for Saturday Night Live, Seinfeld, and The Simpsons). Under Mandel’s tenure (which just so happened to coincide with the presidential candidacy and eventual election of Donald Trump), Veep went from acerbic to acidic. The final three seasons of Veep aren’t just mean…they’re satanic. To this day, one of the series’ most frequently-shared clips comes from the seventh episode of season 5. In it, Selina Meyer doesn’t merely insult a foe, she verbally eviscerates her in such a thorough fashion that the victim can only mutter “dear God” as if she had just gazed into the pitiless eyes of death itself.
By the time the seventh and final season rolled around, Veep was a vividly angry beast. Perhaps challenged by the frequent refrain of “Veep is probably what politics is really like! LOL,” the show’s writers plumbed deeper and deeper to find the most reprehensible shit for Selina to say and the most wretched policies to enact, all but daring the real world to follow its demonic example.
Veep‘s descent into beautiful madness culminated in with its final episode, fittingly titled “Veep,” in which Selina Meyer finally abandons all pretense of being a human being to become the ruthless political shark she’s always been. The episode takes place during her party’s* contested National Convention, where no candidate has secured enough votes to be the presidential nominee. This means that Selina must wheel, deal, and kill to get the nod and another chance at the White House.
*Veep shrewdly never reveals which political party any of its characters belong to, acknowledging that the relentless pursuit of power is truly bipartisan.
Things start off innocuously enough. Within two minutes, Selina has only merely told her daughter Catherine (Sarah Sutherland) to shut up, made fun of her injured war hero running mate John DeVito (Ian Roberts), and informed her chief rival Kemi Talbot (Toks Olagundoye) that “Stealing South Carolina is the bedrock of our political system. If you can’t figure out how to steal South Carolina, you have no business being president.” But as the reality sets in that Selina really might not win this thing, she begins to become unhinged.
Following the double whammy of her chief advisor Ben Cafferty (Kevin Dunn) suffering a heart attack (“Eighth time’s the charm”) and her old running mate/occasional lover Tom James (Hugh Laurie) re-entering her race, all seems lost. Then, in what amounts to the closest approximation to actual human warmth the series ever attempts, Selina has a fateful conversation with Ben from his hospital bed.
