Review: Interrogator “This is Going to Hurt”

Man, Interrogator‘s opening is a drug-fuel trip. The setting, while perfect for people who are familiar with The boots on the ground level game, Necromunda, is perfect. However, if you are familiar with the Imperium’s propaganda and rhetoric, you know that the setting is a far cry from the “pristine paradise” it tries to preach through war and religion. It’s almost like the universe mirror’s real life.

Anyway, “This is Going to Hurt” falls right back into the story where the end of “Always More Blood” left off. The Interrogator and his friend Baldur washing off the blood soaked encounter from last episode with a walk through some back alley in the rain. The biggest reveal of the episode? The Interrogator has a name, and it’s Jurgen! This point will be brought up in every review, so buckle up. Each episode just keeps building on the film noir look and feel of the old detective movies, yet do enough to keep everything fresh.

And this is what was needed, especially in this animated universe that Games Workshop is trying to craft. Fleshing out your universe is great, but there needs to be something different with each show that comes out. You can’t have different flavors of Space Marines going into battle against different flavors of the Armies of Chaos. After a while, it’s all the same crap. Take the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If it were all movies on the level of The Avengers, there would be nothing to make The Avengers movies notable. I hope this is the beginning of a trend from Games Workshop.

“This is Going to Hurt” is a slow burn to figuring out what’s going on with Jurgen’s friend Bellona. The key is Jurgen trying to his act together and dealing with another ghost from his past, Sortha. There is nothing but conjecture and heresay…perfect for a man who’s been haunted by a ghost he’s been chasing, and good buddy Baldur is fueling this.

The character that piques my interest here, is Heroth. Heroth is a man who just looks creepy. Broath, who’s a goon, is just a waypoint to the bigger picture here. Here’s the problem, though. The flow of “This is Going to Hurt” starts off feeling like a copy and paste of “Always More Blood,” where it’s a slow ride until the end. Luckily, the flow gets interrupted by a nice flashback to what looks like a Sisters of Battle cathedral, ending with Jurgen puking all over Broath’s shoes, then leaving. They left with the exact same knowledge they walked in with: nothing.

The ending kind of pays off, and leaves a pretty gnarly cliffhanger. We get the same scene with Bellona falling, but Heroth is holding the smoking gun while the credits start to roll.

The only thing I can ask of The Interrogator after “This is Going to Hurt” is that Games Workshop needs to give more of a variation to the flow of the plot. The “slow burn to the end to action to cliffhanger” flow is great, but there needs to be some variation. The cliffhangers so far have been on point. There’s no argument there. There just needs to be variation.

Overall, “This is Going to Hurt” has more of the same as “Always More Blood,” both in the positives, and possible negatives if they continue. Overall, the film noir feel is still a welcome change from not only the Warhammer 40K universe, but TV in general.