Review: Red Ketchup: “Ketchup with a Ketchup Chaser” ; “Ketchup on Fire”

The excellent first season of ‘Red Ketchup’ has come to a close with two fabulous final episodes. Having collected all the cups, Red just needs to hand them over to the modern day Templars, and he can move on to the next thing!

The title ‘Ketchup with a Ketchup Chaser’(written by Willem Wennekers)  is a clue as to the penultimate episode’s plot – Sally steals the sack of Templar cups from Red, intending to throw them in Lake Mead to prevent the apocalypse. What she doesn’t realize is that the apocalypse has already been averted – one of the seven cups (the one with Made in Taiwan stamped on the bottom) is a fake that Red switched in so he could take his mother’s cup from the collection.

In a great example of the power of leaving things to the imagination, when we reconvene with our titular hero at the beginning of this episode, he’s at the cemetery, having already reunited his mother’s cup with her earthly remains. Based on his graveside soliloquy, we can surmise that Red has just exhumed his mother, hugged her skeleton so hard her ribs broke, added the cup to her coffin, and filled in the grave. It’s pretty damn Red of Red to not be satisfied with just dropping off the cup at her grave – he’s a very literal guy. 

We also get to enjoy two rare team-ups in the lead up to the climax of the chalice caper. On the B-plot side of things Peter Plywood breaks Bill out of rehab, where he definitely needs to stay, and the two have a lot of fun together getting whiskey languid and doing BMX bike stunts. Both Ketchup sidekicks have reached pretty low points in their character arcs at this point in the story, and they clearly bring out each other’s best worst selves. 

On the A-plot side of things, Red gets surprise assistance from Kiki, who happens to be Stateside right around the same time he finally gets fired from his job at the FBI. Jean Yoon turns in another stellar performance as Kiki, who turns out to be a perfect fill-in partner for Red. Her skill set involves charm, tact, quick-thinking, subterfuge and computer skills, none of which are his strong suit. Kiki can create a cover story, complete with corroborating evidence, on a moment’s notice – a good skill to have in the world of espionage. Kiki’s got nuance – something Red completely lacks. There are SO MANY situations on this show that could be resolved with a simple conversation, instead of wanton destruction.

The reason Red gets fired, for example, is both a  great example of his brand of diplomacy and such a perfect example of how fun the writing on this show is. Red has been out wrecking shit all over the planet for the majority of the season with little to no consequence, but, when he goes to the Russian Embassy to accuse Olga of stealing the cups, he finds her, and the rest of Russia, deeply preoccupied with the war in Afghanistan. No, not that war in Afghanistan, the Soviet-Afghan War of the 1980s – a 10-year proxy war between world powers that ravaged the countryside of Afghanistan, killed thousands of civilians, and played a significant part in the downfall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. It was some ugly business that cast a long shadow over the world we live in today. The show ‘Red Ketchup,’ at its heart, is a period piece, and like all great period pieces, it shows us a reflection of our current times. 

So, having discussed the issue with Olga and without further reason for engaging with the Embassy, Red turns to leave, only to take a moment to reflect on how strange it feels to not behave destructively. He resolves this stress by lobbing a grenade through the Embassy window for like, no reason. The ensuing international incident is enough to drive The Chief to fire Red – it’s just too egregious, even for him.

The two unlikely team-ups of this episode are thematically linked through betrayal – both Bill and Kiki are lying the whole time! Bill is helping Sally by distracting Peter from helping Red find her before she can destroy the cups, and Kiki is lying to Red so she can steal them for herself. The Kiki betrayal is especially tragic because Red was clearly starting to get into her fake girlfriend routine – not only does he kiss her back when she kisses him, (which is far more of a reaction than Olga has ever received) Kiki heavily implies that she can tell he’s notably aroused by her romantic overtures – that’s a huge breakthrough for him! 

Having a capable, sexy, (let’s talk motorcycle catsuit!) partner that’s super into him makes Red let his guard down, just a little. Was he an animal, that a woman could move him so? Did he feel, in her, as if the way to the unknown nourishment he longed for was coming to light? Perhaps he did. As a reward for opening up, he gets royally fucked over on a personal level, and the world almost ends. I still fully ship these two, but right now, it’s complicated.

Another complicated relationship is Red’s team-up with Skip Cooney, which leads into the final episode of the season, ‘Ketchup on Fire’. Much mayhem ensues when our favourite super-soldier teams up with the voice of his childhood hero, Deputy Penguin. For some reason, I thought that Red would lose his shit when he finally encountered Cooney, but he actually has a really great time. He also learns that his father killed himself, so he’s absolved of that guilt, also. He immediately takes on the guilt of killing the Templar Elder, but maybe it’s his fault for moving too slowly.

Red also finally confronts Sally for leaving him alone with their horrible father – she’s a bit busy turning Bill into a bug to notice, but at least he’s working on his communication skills. Add that to Bill confessing his love while sacrificing himself for Sally and Peter and Wencey walking off into the sunset together, and you’ve got a surprisingly heartfelt conclusion to Canada’s most entertaining animated bloodbath.