The more time passes, the more I'm convinced Dave Balt is trapped in the body of Lucy Santangelo.
It was unclear what his whereabouts were when the PCs were sucked into the movie. Unless someone else picked up on that. He was probably in the same room. Lucy is one of the few characters we know about, but haven't heard speak yet.
Dave is clearly self-conscious about his ageing and is trying to cover his greying hair. Now imagine his reaction to having a young, beautiful body with big volumous hair.
Dave is trying to manage the sinking ship of his business with employees he has no control over. Lucy is based on Holly Gennero, who in the original Die Hard film was the direct line of communication between the terrorists and the other hostages. She was trying to manage, as best she could, her co-workers through an impossible situation. (Also checking the wiki I realised Lucy is the name of John and Holly's daughter. Nice reference)
Dave and Paula hate each other. Picture the two of them as Jack and Lucy, having to pretend to be a strained couple who had something once, but it's gone, to avoid suspicion. (While being played by Izzy and Brennan. It's a comedic gold mine is what I'm saying)
Unlike the PCs, Lucy/Holly isn't an action hero. She's a civilian. As discussed, she can navigate a dangerous situation using her wits and through talking. But she doesn't have any weapons training/combat experience. What this means is that Dave is going to have to rely on the people he believed to be incompetent to survive the environment. In a season of tropes, wouldn't it be fitting to have a shithead boss learn the error of his ways by having no choice but to trust his suped up employees and realise how good they are while constantly being rescued by them?
