Review: Happy “I am the Future”

The end has come. Buckle up buckaroos, its time to put this caper to bed.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The final showdown is here, ladies and gentlemen. It’s been a crazy season filled with drugs, violence and creepy Christmas aesthetic, but we’re finally here, ready for a showdown of holly jolly proportions.

Following the tradition of prior episodes, we have another cold open before the title card. This time, its a “Blues Clues” style audition tape, where we see the humble beginnings of recently revealed mastermind Sunny Shines. Things don’t go well, and security escorts him off the set while he madly proclaims that he is the future, getting that title drop out of the way right off the bat.

Back in the present, we pick up where we left off, with Mr. Blue face down in the snow, and Merry tasering the bejeesus out of him for information. Meanwhile, Happy looks over the different boxes all the kidnapped kids were in; as he sees Hailey’s box, empty, he feels like a failure, having let her down. But just in time, he comes across Creepy Santa’s abandoned sock puppet. He recalls seeing such a creature at his imaginary friend meeting and realizes he knows how to find Creepy Santa. After Nick takes a quick stab at interrogating Blue, we cut back to Happy with the hapless sock puppet friend strapped to a chair. Doing a hilarious parody of the infamous “Reservoir Dogs” torture scene, Happy tickles the sock puppet until he spills the beans. The poor piece of footwear breaks down into tears, ashamed that he abandoned his friend, who has become the twisted Santa Claus we know and fear.

At his hideout, Creepy Santa is obsessing over recently re-kidnapped Hailey. He whisks her away to “Toyland”, his hallucinatory world of Christmas delights, complete with its own collection of similarly creepy Christmas characters, only they’re not imaginary, they’re real. Meanwhile, Merry confronts Sunny in his dressing room before his “Wishtacular” performance. She tries to intimidate him into giving up, but Sunny is confident he knows how to deal with cops, and claims they don’t have any evidence to finger him with. But he lets slip Amanda’s location: Sunny Towers, Merry’s new destination.

Nick and Sax arrive at Creepy Santa’s hideout, hidden away behind an enormous vault in the abandoned mall from two episodes ago. They rush to save Hailey but run across Creepy Santa’s creepy crew, who all have mysterious holes in the middle of their foreheads. Turns out Creepy Santa has been practicing amateur lobotomies on these poor souls in a surreal effort to “Keep them from growing up.” And guess what, that’s exactly what he wants to do to poor Hailey, who runs for her life to escape that fate. Nick might be able to rescue her, but he gets caught in a bear trap! While Nick tries to get back on his feet, Happy goes on a search to find Hailey and save the day. He tracks down Creepy Santa and decides to take the power back and show the naughty kris kringle what he’s made of. He fights tooth and nail but eventually gets overpowered and stuffed into a jar of mouthwash (Ew) and Creepy Santa chases after Hailey, who flees into a conveniently placed elevator.

After much screaming and a whole lot of pain, Nick manages to free himself from the bear trap, and he hobbles away to take down Creepy Santa once and for all. Hailey’s escape has progressed to the rooftop, but she’s got nowhere left to run. Creepy Santa tries to reason with her, sharing his tragic backstory of parental suicide, pills, and abuse. He believes that only he can save Hailey from a similar fate, by keeping her young forever. Needless to say, Hailey’s not convinced.

Things come to a climax when Nick finally makes it to the roof, gun in hand, and has a long-awaited reunion with Hailey. There’s no time for pleasantries, though, because the fight of the century between Nick and Creepy Santa is about to begin. Things start in Nick’s favor, but Santa’s crazy person strength is a lot to handle, which Santa claims is because he can only be “harmed by magic.” Nick wastes no time introducing Santa to the magic of a cinder block to the back of the head, “Hocus pocus, motherf*cker.” But just as Nick is about to rout Creepy Santa, he has another unexpected heart attack, and Santa brings him to death’s door. But Happy returns! And this time, he’s got, friends! Leading a small army of imaginary friends, he goes full beast mode on Creepy Santa, which gives Hailey just enough time to administer Nick’s heart medicine. Once he’s on his feet, it’s over an instant. A draw of his peacemaker and a point-blank shot later, Creepy Santa’s got a hole in his head letting out all his Christmas spirit into the night air. He tumbles from the roof down into the mall, where he’s hung by the neck with his sock puppet friend curled up at his side.

Its finally over, and the police arrive to clean up the mess that’s been made. Its a touching family reunion, with Nick, Amanda and Hailey finally coming together. At long last, Nick Sax has been redeemed. He collapses on the ground and knows that this is his final moment. Staring at the night sky with a content smile on his face, he utters his final words, “Cue the music, fade to black.”

Psyche! One commercial break later, and we see Nick leaning on a cane talking with Merry at her mom’s grave. The two reconcile, and Merry tells Nick that he has a chance to start a new life since most people in town think he died. But Nick’s got a date with the new lady in his life, Hailey, who is excited to spend a day with her old new dad. She and Happy are getting ready to go, but Happy starts to fade from her vision. He explains that Hailey’s growing up, and soon he won’t be around anymore; such is the way of imaginary friends. As Happy slowly fades from her world, Hailey says she’ll never forget him, and just like that, he’s gone. But he quickly reunites with none other than Nick, who needs his counsel to help him be a good dad to Hailey. Happy isn’t Hailey’s imaginary friend anymore, he’s Nick’s, which means he’s stuck with him, like it or not. Buddy cops for life.

But what of Mikey? What of Mr. Blue? Well, in a special post-credits scene, we see the two reunite in prison. Mikey lets out a horrible, world-ending breath and collapses onto the ground, letting out whatever entity invaded his body. Soon, Mr. Blue is wracked with spasms as he becomes possessed, and utters a phrase of ill portent to end the season, “I’m hungry.”

Our Take:

I’m happy to say that Happy has effectively stuck the dismount on the final episode of its first season. This episode is a wonderful blend of action, tragedy and sweet, sweet resolution. Nick’s redemption is long awaited and extremely satisfying, and its a lovely breath of fresh air from all the madness and violence this season had to offer. They’ve teased an even greater villain for the next season, and it’ll be interesting to see what challenges lie ahead for the new kids on the block, Nick Sax and Happy. A great ending episode to a great season.

Score
8.5/10