If you really missed Amy Brookheimer during the previous episode of Veep, “Tehran” made up for it. Even though Amy didn’t get to go on President Selina Meyer’s Middle East victory tour, she still had her hands full with disasters in Washington. Plus, she had to deal with a new version of Dan, who got stuck as a “consultant” for everyone’s least favorite lobbyist.

After all her success with the Israeli Prime Minister, Selina decided to go on a tour of the Middle East, which Dan actually organized. She stayed an extra day in Israel for some reason, before making a surprise trip to Iran, making her the first POTUS to visit Tehran since before the Iranian Revolution. (She’s like Nixon, except in a good way... right?)

It turns out that everyone’s least-favorite journalist, Leon West (Brian Huskey) was abducted and taken hostage by Iran. While Selina’s arrival in Tehran was delayed because the talks to free Leon were still ongoing, Leon suspects that she deliberately delayed his release so she could get a photo-op with him. To keep him from going to the press plane to tell his story, Ben, Gary, Mike and Selina end up actually detaining him on Air Force One.

Mike and Gary end up actually leaving Air Force One and, during that time, the plane takes off without them! Gary calls Washington in complete panic mode, but Sue tries to call him down. “Man up Gary, or at least lady down!” Well, that’s not going to work. So, they believe they can bribe members of the press to let them on their plane with alcohol. But, that plan doesn’t work out when they drop all the booze at the airport. Somehow, they will get to Washington... eventually.

Meanwhile, back in DC, there’s another crisis, as Kent reveals that he has actually been polling citizens on possible running-mates for Selina’s full term as POTUS. That really grinds Amy’s gears because VPOTUS Doyle was promised that he would be Selina’s running-mate. If Doyle finds out, he might get angry and the press can’t find that out. (This also gives us a chance to see how weird Doyle is in front of cameras. He’s the last surviving Golden Girl, as Ben calls him.)

Jonah finally reveals that Teddy is fondling him. No, Bill and Kent didn’t actually want to hear that, but they have to anyway. All they wanted was to find out what’s going on in the VPOTUS office. And you thought things were weird when Selina was in there. “OK, we got nothing out of that but a funny story,” Bill says.

Selina is really annoyed with the incompetence of her staff in Washington. (We should just say that she is always annoyed with incompetence.) So, she tells Ben that she has brought on another senior advisor, Karen Collins. Oh, and Catherine is engaged. “I’m 48... put your hand down!” Selina tells her daughter.

The episode just makes you feel awful for Amy and all the terrible stuff that’s getting in the way of her trying to run a campaign. “I’m on life support and they keep pulling the plug to charge their phones,” she tells Dan. That’s pretty much the series in a nutshell for her.

Also, Ben gets tired really easily. “I’m so tired, I could sleep a horse.”

image courtesy of Jennifer Graylock/INFphoto.com