Review: Final Space “The Notorious Mrs. Goodspeed”

The Mother of All Heists

Overview (Spoilers Below)

In a callback to the series’ early episodes, and with a parody of Hoth, Gary gets pursued by the alien family whose dead mother’s/wife’s skin he inadvertently draped himself in last season. During the chase, I couldn’t believe Gary didn’t blame the whole thing on Clarence because not only does he despise the man, the entire situation was technically his fault.

Gary escapes, but not before learning that his mother is still alive, and about to be executed on a nearby planet. Wishing to tell her off one last time before watching her swing, he cons his way into the prison. At the last moment, he changes his mind (because he’s a good-hearted guy) and does very little to help his mom escape. Not because he doesn’t want to, but because she’s a notorious thief/killer and is able to free herself by killing a bunch of guards. But she does accept a ride on the Crimson Light.

Almost the entire crew is infatuated with Mrs. Goodspeed, especially Clarence who wants to get super weird with her. Nightfall—the wise one—doesn’t trust her, and Mooncake is jealous over the attention she’s paying to his pal Gary. Regardless, Gary agrees to pull a heist with her, alone.

Mother and son break into what appears to be an abandoned facility until they’re almost killed by its high-tech security system. Lucky for them, Clarence stowed away and used one of his fancy knick-knack gadgets to save their lives. To show their thanks, they almost get him eaten by a worm by using him as bait while Mrs. G steals a beautiful ruby.

Back on the ship, Mooncake has taken to eating HUE’s pancakes by the dozen. As he quickly gets super, super fat, Fox deduces the not-so-little guy is “eating his feelings.” Mooncake does a poor job of proving him wrong when he swallows Fox a few minutes later. The crew holds an intervention and assures the cute super-weapon that Gary isn’t the only one who loves him. Mooncake accepts their heartfelt declaration by evacuating Fox and the pancakes all over the place.

Gary, while happy to be reunited with his mom, isn’t surprised when she tries to sneak off into the night. Since Gary’s father went away, the woman turned herself off emotionally and we catch a glimpse of Gary’s sad history in a somber montage that ends the episode.

 

Our Take

You’ve got to love the continuity of the alien trio who continue to pursue Gary. They’re reminiscent of the multi-reincarnated creature, Agrajag, from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy book series. Agrajag was a vengeful spirit who stalked Arthur Dent through time and space, blaming him for every bad thing that happened throughout his many lives and deaths. With that said, I know we’ll be seeing this family again.

Season one did an excellent job of romanticizing Gary’s hero father. Now we finally get to meet his mother. It’s a clever technique to make her the polar opposite of John Goodspeed, even though before his disappearance they were allegedly very similar and had love to share for each other and their son. But now she’s a broken woman who’s turned to a life of crime in order to feel something—or anything. And while she pushes Gary away, there is something telling in the way she stole a dimensional key, one of the few objects her son desperately needs. With that said, I know we’ll be seeing this woman again.

While I enjoy the new direction this season is taking, I noticed a brief inconsistency in Gary’s character. As HUE was hocking his pancakes to anybody within arm’s length, Gary kicked the little droid into the windshield. For a moment, it was as if he reverted to his original dick status. I wonder if the creators—just for a moment—forgot that Gary is friends with HUE, and that KVN is the one he hates. Either way, they need to be careful; otherwise, it’ll look like Gary is simply prejudiced against robots.

Clarence, for once, showed human emotions. They were strange, unnecessary, and icky, but still a big step forward for his character. Up until now, his only interests seemed to be pulling pointless schemes and acting like a buffoon for no apparent reason. I still don’t like him—although that’s sort of the point—at least he added depth to the plot in this episode instead of detracting from it.

The Mooncake subplot was a little light and ended right where it started. It’s never good when a subplot can be thrown out without changing anything important. I’m all for development in Mooncake’s character, but we certainly didn’t see that here. Granted, he’s not the easiest character to write for—all he says is “chokity-pok”—but his relationship with Gary has always been pure and worthwhile. I feel that’s where Mooncake’s development is going to stem from.

Overall, this episode wasn’t groundbreaking, but it dressed the stage with some interesting elements that are certain to pay off later this year.