Locked

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Season 1, Episode 4

Season 1, Episode 4

**Locked** is the fourth episode of *MODS'* first season and the fourth episode overall. It premiered on March, 15th, 2021.

A very singular strike abruptly starts at the college while some of the interns are inside, and with the protesters not letting anyone go out nor go in, they will have to learn to stay there for as long as its needed. Dan is late for once and cannot walk into, he will have to make all of the work from the outside. Jan and Yogi face some romantical issues of their own, while the latter faces more than his plate can hold. Perry and Archi receive huge news that could change their lives.

The episode was directed by Lagoona Bloo and Jan, and written by Rosé

## Plot

An alarm clock goes off, a shaky hand turns it off, this action repeats for a couple of times until the clock falls to the floor and the hand, now revealed to belong to Dan tries to reach it but he falls in the attempt, crushing the object in the process; the man stands up and checks his cellphone, seeing he’s an hour late to work. Jackson quickly tries to hurry, searching for whatever formal clothes he can get inside as fast as possible.

Rita and Kabs are seen talking inside the faculty lounge, discussing the protest unleashing outside, they both agree is important for the people to be heard and the college isn’t in the best position to implement systems that won’t benefit neither the students or faculty members, they also talk about the ups and downs they’d had so far, with Rita explaining the story about how she got there.

Throwback to Rita walking out of an audition where she was told they would call her if she were needed but to not get her hopes up; the woman was defeated but hopeful a chance would come her way; as she walked onto the Stripped Knee, she found herself making some final touches to one of her costumes before performing when someone noticed her. It is revealed that Perry was the first person she met prior to working at the college; Perry was there to visit someone backstage before the show started; Perry asks her if she has made her costume while Rita replies she was responsible for the costumes of every girl that night; Perry seems impressed and asks the showgirl if she has ever thought of working in theater production, as he might know a place where she may be needed; Rita smirks, looking at his newfound pal.

Jan arrives to the campus, barely being able to walk past the human wall that slowly starts to form from the protesters, bumping into Bruno in the process, Jan jokes about them finding each other too often, while Bruno asks whether he knows Dan is there or not, as Bruno has to ask him something related to his tuition money; Jan is not aware if his boss has arrived yet but tells Bruno to walk with him to the arts building in case Dan is there already, they both walk ahead, oblivious to what is about to go down to Daniel.

A few minutes later, Dan is driving his car a few blocks away from the college, singing along to *On the Radio by Donna Summers*, and as he gets closer to campus, he realizes there’s a huge barrel of people blocking entrance to the place, Mr. Jackson parks a block before reaching the buildings and he goes down to investigate what’s going on. He finds his answer while reading some of the signs the people are carrying; he realizes it’s the same matter as he had seen previously, but he never noticed it would grow that big. The worker tries to make his way through the wave of people, but they don’t let him, as the only thing he gets is his suit messed up and his case taken by some protesters.

Yogi is seen inside his cubicle, trying to call Anthony, but every time he calls the line cuts before anyone answers; Yogi is nervous about the fact that he hasn’t heard back from the man in three days, he tries one more time and this time his acquaintance answers the phone, and before Yogi can talk he just hears Anthony asking him to not call again or he’ll be blocked, the call ends and the intern is left confused about what has happened. Jan walks past the place where Yogi is sitting and asks what’s going on, Yogi tells the story to Jan and then says he doesn’t know what to do, he’s lost in the situation; Jan suggests he should check Anthony’s socials, to see if there is any clue about the behavior, Yogi replies that he´s tried but he’s been blocked from everywhere except phone calls; Jan then replies that he is not blocked from anything, so he’ll help him check out.

Dan is then worried about the way he’ll try to get into the campus at all, as every entrance he tries to walk through is filled with protesters. The director takes out his personal phone, calling to his office; it rings a couple of times before someone picks it up. Dan hears Jan from the other side of the line and starts to scold him as a way of taking out his frustration for the morning, Jan replies with a no after Dan’s rant and simply hangs up, Dan sighs, going back to his car in the meantime.

Rita is back at her prop workroom in the theater building, sketching ideas for the play she will be working at she’s taking herself as the muse, drawing herself in some long dresses, bodysuits, and headpieces with different wigs. Rita smiles while drawing, as **What’s Your Pleasure** by Jessie Ware starts; Rita then commences to bring to life the outfits, fantasizing about performing in front of hundreds wearing her own designs. As she wraps the song, the bell rings, announcing she’s supposed to run back to help Perry with some announcements.

Jan and Yogi are investigating and scrolling through Anthony’s social media accounts; Jan’s finsta turns out useful when Anthony allows them to follow him, and as they check, Yogi’s former interest had been posted some straightforward messages trashing men, talking about trust, and cheating; Jan is confused but Yogi quickly realizes what’s going on. Yogi explains that he never really cleared his romantic situation with Anthony, and the fact that they were not exclusive with each other, as Yogi had continued to see a couple of other men a few times after things got a bit more serious between the pair, Jan slaps Yogi in the head, calling him an idiot for never putting every card in the table; Yogi feels ashamed but says he wasn’t ready nonetheless for a relationship with anyone yet, Jan sighs, asking Yogi if whatever he had with Anthony wasn’t a relationship then he doesn’t know what it was; the shorter intern walks out of Yogi’s cubicle, cursing in Spanish.

Perry and Archi are working on some project they had put forward before, awaiting for news of whether it got greenlit or not, as they both got to work when they got the announcement that the theater department was falling apart. Perry reveals that they put so much effort in the thing that hopefully all goes right, Archie nods, feeling inspired about the situation.

Dan hops in his car, taking out his laptop from behind, luckily for him the internet connection can reach him, as he sings onto his work account, trying to get something done. He then gets an idea to zoom any of his workers, as any of them should be available. He decides to call John, and after a few seconds of wait he finds his intern is sleeping still, John is barely awake, trying to comprehend what’s going on, Dan yells at him, asking why he isn´t in the office and whether he should fire him; John quickly catches on and gets up quickly, mimicking Dan’s earlier routine. John then suddenly stops and sits calmly in bed, looking dead in the eyes at his boss, John just breathes out, saying it’s his day off, hanging up the call. Dan closes his laptop, stressed out and simply plops his head in the claxon, beeping it for a few seconds before the noise bothers him; in the meantime, the protests grow, as the speakers inside college announce that the school is in lockdown, nobody that is inside can leave and well, it’s not like people can walk in anymore.

In the headquarters of the college, the top dogs are fighting about the status of the college and how they’re going to fix it, one of the youngest workers suggests they could revisit the changes and try to adjust them better, Jules O’Hara laughs at the idea, saying that there cannot be anything done, they have been spending the money on too many useless things and if they don’t want a legal battle they must make changes to get back what they used, unless they find a way to cash-grab with a ruse.

Jan is back in the cafeteria when he sees a couple of colleagues running inside; he laughs, seeing the energy those two exude at first sight. Jan continues to eat his pasta when a phone notification rings, he opens a new dating app he started to try a few days earlier, and he notices a message from a girl thirty-two yards afar with a back profile picture; Jan raises his head, inspecting the ratio he’s at, with no one being there as far as his eyes let him. Jan then receives another message, now with a few selfies, Jan gasps, all the color of his skin leaving his body as he sees his ex-girlfriend there.

Yogi is still in his cubicle, staring at the ceiling, realizing what he’s done in the past years, trying to remember where things went wrong for him to not want a formal relationship, he starts to walk past his list of former flings and doesn’t seem to realize why he’s scared of it, he sighs, as he gets up of the couch, he’s going to be late for a class if he doesn’t hurry up, in the way there he receives a call from Silvia, who tells him she’s looking for a new drum player as the previous one had to leave the country due to some illegal business; Yogi is taken a back but tells his friend that he knows a pretty amazing drum player and will put them in contact.

Perry talks on the phone with someone and as the teacher happily emotes, he doesn’t notice Rita walking into the auditorium, Perry hangs up and screams, scaring Rita, who screams as well, which is when Perry notices her presence. Rita apologizes for sneaking up to him and Perry does the same but for scaring her. Rita kindly asks what is all of his excitement about and the man smiles, telling her that he had been working on something with Archi; a theater consultant in Ontario, Canada, which would mean they would be able to teach and diversify the theater scene there as well as getting a full budget as they asked; Rita at first shows excitement but then asks Perry if he will leave, Perry nods, saying that it’s an opportunity that cannot go to waste, but he will stay the remaining of the year, as Rita is about to talk Archie arrives to the auditorium, yelling at Perry about the news, the guys hug with Rita as the ham to their bread in the hug sandwich; Archie exclaims he’ll invite the food, dragging Rita with him to the cafeteria, Perry says he’ll catch up in a minute, needing to gather his stuff first.

Yogi is now back at the arts building, checking Dan’s office, searching for a few copies of documents he needs, he then gets a call in the office, and as he answers he find Dan in the other side of the line, who is now more calmed and easier to talk with, they discuss what has been going down. They catch up and Dan instructs his intern that he has enabled a special line through his computer so any call he gets Yogi can redirect to Dan himself, Yogi complies and hangs up, the boy shrugs but then continues to look for the papers; a few seconds later the phone rings again, Yogi answers and before he can confirm its Dan again he hears a voice communicating from the college’s headquarters; they announce they have a way of saving the theater department but he will need to sing some papers as well as giving his vocal consent. Yogi is doubtful but then he goes to fully pretend to be Dan, trying to mimic his voice as much as he can; as it seems, Yogi’s impersonation finds itself to be successful, as they will send the papers later that day so they could sign it and Dan can read more about what the newly-solution is about. Yogi hangs up, running away from the office, trying to find someone.

Jan is torn between blocking the match or talking but he decided to talk to his ex at last, curious to know why she’s so close to him; they strike a conversation and Tess, the name of the girl, starts off by telling him that they haven’t seen in a long time, and should they go out, Jan isn’t too interested due to his “one time was enough” ex policy but decides to agree onto seeing her, he then asks why she’s close by and Tess simply replies with a selfie of her at the protests outside the college campus, much to Jan’s dismay. The girl then explains she’s there protesting in favor of her little brother, who is a student in there. Tess then asks if he could meet her by the side of one of the college entrances, the least conglomerated one, Jan complies and shuts his phone, making his way over there.

Back with Perry in the auditorium, we see how the words Rita said to him keep on resonating, does he want to leave? Does he want to waste the opportunity he just got with one of his best friends? While saving his portfolio and documents, **Linger** by The Cranberries starts to play, with Perry singing while picturing some previous moments of him with the people he met in the workplace; at the end Perry sighs, reassuring himself he needs to move forward, leaving the auditorium.

Kabs zooms Dan, asking his boss whether he could leave for the day to attend something very important, Dan sighs, realizing he can’t do much from outside and just complies, advising him to find a good way of escaping the lockdown in the college due to the protesters still going strong; Kabs says he has everything figured it out, passing by Dan’s car, saying goodbye to his boss; Dan is left confused as how his worker was able to leave but brushes it off as he gets an email from the headquarters, with further inspection Dan screams, scaring off some protesters along, getting off his car.

Yogi is seen talking to Rita about the call he had earlier impersonating their boss, Rita scolds Yogi but gives him props for doing it against all odds, although she reminds him that he’s probably getting fired when Dan finds out; Yogi says his future self will deal with that as one messenger from the headquarters delivers the papers Dan is supposed to sign, Rita says goodbye to him immediately, saying Dan is inside his office waiting for the papers and doesn’t want to see anybody; as the boy leaves and Rita handles Yogi the papers, she stays by the door, looking out at anyone close by to the building door.

Dan quickly makes his way to the arts building, seeing Rita from afar, as she doesn’t seem to notice until he’s walking past the door; she yells at Yogi, who’s finding himself committing forgery. Dan enters his office while Yogi doesn’t seem too bothered at first, trying to persuade Dan into taking it easy, Dan sighs and then on the outside of the office Rita is seen hearing the yelling match both men find themselves in.

Kabs arrives to a small venue where Silvia finds herself holding auditions for her new drum player; she sees the man, recognizing him from past times she’s gone out with Yogi and his friends; Kabs quickly explains Yogi told him about and as Kabs had been playing drum for six years maybe he should try it out; Silvia is doubtful but asks him to perform a bit for him; Kabs grabs the instrument, tuning it at first then starting to play a bit, telling the band around him to join him if they know what song he’s playing, he then directs to Silvia, who smiles, Kabs starts with **Meet Me Halfway** by The Black Eyed Peas; as the band joins Silvia does as well, briefly duetting with Kabs; when the song ends Silvia nods and applauds at the man, saying he has nearly no competition for the spot, Kabs grabs a drumstick, tapping his shoulder with it, as a sign of success.

Yogi is sitting as his cubicle when Jan arrives, they both get to talk about their days; Yogi first explains his earlier plan and how he’s now probably fired while Dan figures out how to reverse what his intern did without much people figuring out the ruse; Jan then explains how he met again with his ex, realizing the reason why he doesn’t ever go back with one, explaining that things can happen once but they end for a reason; a flashback to their talk reveals how very little they could stan each other after talking for the first time in a long while, disagreeing for the smallest things; Yogi then lets it out that he feels he was in the right with not wanting a formal relationship but that he was in the wrong with never clarifying the situation with Anthony, who he cared deeply about, in that moment Yogi receives a call and after checking it’s Anthony he quickly picks it up; Jan exhales as his friend answers, the first few notes of **Beautiful Mistakes** by Maroon 5 featuring Megan Thee Stallion; Yogi hangs up after a bit; Anthony has processed things and doesn’t want to see Yogi again but that he doesn’t hold anything against him, he just wants to let go; Jan pats Yogi in the back, as both start to sing the song, one heading out and one flopping in the couch; Tess and Anthony are then seen thinking about the interns, as they share Megan’s part. The song ends with the four of them walking away from their original places, shrugging.

The next morning Dan is seen signing papers in his office, seemingly not turning back on YogiGate, after quickly reading through the idea the headquarters threw at him; Mr. Jackson is surprised to see Perry walking into the office again and tries to cut him off by telling him that the theater department will hopefully be fine and that his job is secure; Perry then frowns, telling his boss that he’s there to present his resignation and tells him Archi will do the same later that day; Dan confusedly stands up, asking motives to his still-worker and as Perry is about to explain, Free walks inside, telling Dan someone is there to see him, Dan just begs for mercy, asking who would it be; a deep voice greets Dan, appearing by the door; Jackson’s face goes to red as Free just replies with “your ex-husband”.