Review: Happy! “What Smiles are For”

Nothing like a good poker episode to make me smile.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

After last week’s explosive premiere of “Happy!” onto an unsuspecting world, we left our grizzled drug-addled detective Nick Sax and his quasi-hallucinatory imaginary friend Happy being slammed into by a 16 wheeler, right after Happy confessed to Nick that he has a daughter, and that she’s being held hostage in a box by a psychopathic Santa Claus. Following that eclectic buffet of plot development, Nick Sax finds himself in a slightly more reasonable, though equally perilous episode.

Nick survives the car accident (After another fun hallucinatory sequence on the Jerry Springer show revealing that yes, he is the father) and comes to terms with Happy as his new mental companion. The two head back to Nick’s apartment, only to find more minions of Mr. Blue from last episode awaiting there to collect his head. One brutally exquisite action scene later, Nick has left the victor. Meanwhile, Hailey does some fact-finding as best she can, and speaks to who she believes is another child trapped in a box. She is, in a surprise twist, speaking to none other than the creepy Santa himself, imitating the high pitch of a child. He reveals his twisted desire to see the kids remain innocent, thus the captivity of the kids in his “workshop.”

We get some more time with Mr. Blue as well, as he has dinner with Meredith, the corrupt cop from the last episode. We learn a little more about her and why she works for Blue, and that her working for him is a little less by choice and a little more because of family debt. Blue tells Meredith that this is a chance for her to escape what she owes him. Get Nick Sax, and she’s off scot-free. Fail, and Blue makes it clear that his hitman Smoothie will have to spend some quality time with Meredith’s mother. Nick, meanwhile, tries to make a little money to skip town in an underground poker game run by his friend “Le Dic.” (Aptly named) Le Dic isn’t too happy to see him, but offers Nick weapons and cash if he can win some poker. Turns out, Nick sucks at poker. But, in a clever twist, Happy has the ability to see what cards everyone else has, and helps him cheat.

All this goes pretty well until, I kid you not, Happy accidentally does cocaine, and starts freaking out just as amusingly as you’d expect a drug-crazed cartoon unicorn to. Nick decides its time to get out of dodge, but is betrayed by Le Dic, who has been in cahoots with Mr. Blue all along. It’s another showdown, and Nick makes it out of the underground poker game intact and behind the wheel of Le Dic’s car.

Amanda, Hailey’s mom, confronts Meredith about finding her lost daughter, but things go sour when Amanda says Meredith owes her, and Amanda ends the discussion with a satisfying hook to the jaw. All the while, Nick is confronted by the recently sobered Happy, who realizes Nick is trying to skip out on his deal to find Hailey. Happy tries to reason with him, appealing to his past heroism and sense of duty. All seems lost until we get another trip to the Jerry Springer hallucination, that sets Nick straight, realizing he’ll really be a miserable bastard if he doesn’t do this right. So, after a brief interim at a diner out of town, the two are back on the trail of Haley, ending the episode.

Our Take:

This show has really found its way into my heart this episode. Where I felt the first one needed to slow down a little bit to develop these characters out a bit more, this episode seems to understand that need and takes its time. The use of Happy’s ability to cheat at poker was smart, and the action sequences were as entertaining as they were the last episode, with a focus on brutality juxtaposing Happy’s cartoony semantics. I’m liking these characters more and more, and I’m excited to see where things head from here.

Score
8/10