Review: Final Space “The Lost Spy”

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

We begin where we left off with Gary still in a space coma. But after three days, AVA’s medical bay cures him. Only problem: while Gary slumbered, Little Cato abandoned ship. Gary wants to go after him even though Cato specifically told everyone not to follow him. Unbeknownst to Gary, the entire crew agrees and they’ve already tracked him down to a planet called Galang-22—which they’ve already traveled to.

The people of the planet have just lost their king, and the widowed queen must find a husband before nightfall or she’ll lose her enormous fortune. Clarence, sensing an opportunity, seduces the large, slimy, tentacle-heavy queen, and the couple is married at once. After what must’ve been an interestingly kinky wedding night, Clarence accidentally murders the queen while attempting to take his own life.

Elsewhere in deep space, Todd, the pissed off owner of the Happy Place from earlier in the season, has upped his revenge plot against Gary by kidnapping his mother. Mrs. Goodspeed, on the other hand, got captured on purpose to find out why Todd had been pursuing her. Her “robbing Peter to pay Paul” scheme doesn’t go as planned when Todd gets the upper hand and hacks into her memories.

Through flashbacks, we learn that Sheryl originally hooked up with Gary’s dad as part of a mission to infiltrate the Infinity Guard. Over many months, Sheryl woos John, and the two seem to legitimately fall in love. But that all comes crashing down once Gary is born and John discovers Sheryl’s true motivations. After being tossed out by the man she loves, Mrs. Goodspeed blames Gary, which doesn’t make a lot of sense. Then again, does anything make sense when it comes to love? Anyway, armed with this information, Todd agrees to help Sheryl find the dimensional keys if she aides him in his payback against her son.

Back on Galang-22, Little Cato is hanging out in the sewers with a group of bounty hunters called the Burner Gang. The band of toughs is willing to let the small cat join their ranks, but first, he has to take out their number one bounty: Gary Goodspeed. Despite his anger over the possession of his father, Little Cato cannot kill his friend. Instead, Gary goes above and beyond and volunteers to adopt Cato—at least until they can save Avocato.

Clarence, in order to rip off the kingdom, hides inside the queen and orders his children to cut him out after the funeral. Unfortunately, the queen is still alive, and she thinks the body inside her is a baby. After “his second birth,” Clarence, Fox, and Ash flee the planet and manage to escape with their lives but none of the treasure.

 

Our Take

It’s rare to see a complete A, B, and C plot in the half-hour, animated format. Not only did they create three full, meaningful plots for this episode, each one was well executed and added to the overall story.

Clarence’s may have been the most superficial of the three plots, but it gave insight into the three main characters it included and even made Clarence slightly more likable by showing him vulnerable for a change. While extremely silly and way too plot convenient at times, the antics of Clarence’s family were wildly entertaining and loads of fun. The best part; however, were the asides from Ash and Fox that implied they’ve been involved in such capers many, many times before. Too many times to count.

The voice acting was less subtle than normal. We were introduced to a lot of new characters, and while it was practical to reuse the main cast, the fill-ins were obvious. The queen, voiced by Fred Armisen, sounded like a fleshy KVN. The bird-like bounty hunter, voiced by Olan Rogers, sounded too much like Tribore. And the head bounty hunter sounded like Ron Pearlman, who happened to be in the booth to reprise his role as John Goodspeed.

That being said, this was a strong episode. The Gary and Little Cato dynamic were at peak emotional level, and the Sheryl flashbacks added to this already rich universe. The only scene in the entire episode that didn’t belong was when Gary had to stab that guy numerous times to get information. Granted, the guy wanted to be stabbed, and Gary was merely complying, but the scene was a bit too slap-sticky for an otherwise serious outing.

Don’t get me wrong, the Clarence subplot was completely out of control, but it was a good kind of silly compared to the out-of-place and unnecessary stabbing scene. It’s hard to explain the difference, but if you’ve watched the episode, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.