Review: The Jellies “My Friend Sheldon”

Snitches really do get stitches.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

This week, in a jovial change of pace, the Jellies hosted a game night for Cornell’s new friend, Sheldon. He was a seemingly delightful boy: smart, courteous, and a much better charades partner than sorry-ass KY. But just as Debbie was about to serve her famous, hooch-infused snickerdoodles, Sheldon started acting a little funny. As it got dark, he became petrified about not making it home in time. Along with a bruise on his arm, it appeared he was a victim of child abuse.

At school, Cornell worried when Sheldon didn’t show up. Luckily, a snitch in a trench coat informed Cornell’s gang of Sheldon’s problematic past. Unluckily, he revealed the damning information after Cornell ran off. Turns out, Sheldon was actually a woman named Bertha Franklin who’d been disguising herself as and kidnapping children for over thirty years. After her recent release from a mental hospital, she immediately broke bad and kidnapped two young kids.

When Cornell arrived at Berta’s flophouse, she tied him up and painted the children and a stray dog to look like the Jelly family. They played an uncomfortable game of charades and ate some nasty-looking snickerdoodles. Cornell broke free and tussled with Bertha only to wind up on the losing end, allowing her to escape.

Our Take

It’s been a while, but we finally got another Cornell-centric episode. However, this episode was different because, for the most part, he behaved like a normal human being. Sure, he’s still very dumb, but all his instincts seemed to pan out in this creepy story. He was right to be concerned for a potentially abused friend and rushed to his rescue when the mystery snitch gave misleading information. He even managed to untie his restraints as if he was Harry Houdini instead of a dopey high school student. True, he inevitably failed and allowed a sick woman to escape, but seriously, what was up with Cornell’s prowess in this episode?

The character of Bertha didn’t work because all she did was retread tropes we’ve seen in stronger pieces such as Misery, Funny Games, and even Klaus’ Misery parody on the most recent American Dad. Overall, she was creepy for the sake of being creepy. And while it may be foolish to expect more from a show like The Jellies, after last week’s episode, Walla Walla Civil War, it’s clear they’re capable of it.

Finally, revealing classic sitcom families as Bertha’s previous victims was a setup that never paid off. You can’t just tease Family Matters, Fresh Prince, and The Cosby Show without getting into the details. Urkel even made a cameo earlier in the episode that had no connection to the main plot. What the Hell, Jellies?