Things somehow go from bad to worse in Happy! but honestly, we wouldn’t be here if it didn’t. Nick goes to Chinatown and gets into all kinds of trouble and we get to know the Scaramucci family even more. This week is a wild episode so let’s jump into this but be warned, there are spoilers for this episode throughout.
1. Secrets of My Sussex
The best part of this entire episode this week was everything involve Debi Mazar as Isabella. Isabella is the sister of Mr. Blue and the mother of the four Scaramucci brothers who Nick killed in the first episode. She’s also one of the stars of Secrets of My Sussex, a Real Housewives of New Jersey/Mob Wives spoof. Debi Mazar is an actress who can do big and it helps that she’s as New York as New York gets. Like I honestly cannot see anyone else in this role except maybe Maggie Wheeler (Janice from Friends). In this episode, Isabella goes to the morgue to ID her dearly departed sons and the whole thing is filmed for this ridiculous reality show. Her feelings are real and that’s kind of what’s interesting about the character. She’s the mob matriarch who’s pissed off her sons are dead but almost immediately she’s trying to find out who did it and wants revenge. As all this happens, we get to actually see clips of Secrets of My Sussex and it’s hilariously surreal. Happy! has this fully formed universe right inside of it that really helps it succeed as a show all on its own. As far as the bigger plot goes, Isabella goes to a sort of medium and she tells her (in another hilarious scene that’s helped by Mazar) that her youngest son is not with his brothers anymore. When she goes back to the morgue, she finds that he’s missing. Remember, the reason everyone wants to kill Nick is because he knows a password for something Mr. Blue wants. Maybe there’s something inside the youngest Scaramucci’s body?
2. Actual Big Trouble In Little China
Most of Nick’s story this episode takes place in Chinatown and he makes a mess of the place from the moment he gets there. After getting eaten by Very Bad Santa, Happy gets out and makes him throw up while he does it. This gives them a fortune from a fortune cookie that leads them to Chinatown. They dig around and eventually they catch up with a delivery boy who tells Nick about a big order he does every week or so. He tells Nick that this guy buys food for a ton of people but assumes that it’s for some kind of sweatshop or prostitution ring. Nick knows this is the guy but as he leaves to follow the trail, he’s confronted by the local Triad gang and they get into a huge fight. Like the rest of this show, this is utterly ridiculous but very well executed. It’s hard to do comedy in a fight and still have the fight work as an action scene. Nick is really good at hurting people and we get to see a whole lot of that in this scene. It’s funny and graphic and works.
3. Giving Furries A Bad Name
Listen, I’m not a furry but I know some furries and furries are good folk. This guy, The Bug, is giving them a bad name. In the most bizarre and perfectly Morrison scene, Mr. Blue goes to see someone who’s clearly more important than him. This person is The Bug and they are in a very detailed and well done bug costume. They want the kids Very Bad Santa is and it’s implied that they’re being sold off to other people like The Bug. The Bug’s voice, the lighting and the costume itself definitely triggered my fear of bugs so the whole thing was really uncomfortable to watch. However, it made for good TV and it made this mystery far bigger than the comic had time to. When The Bug left the room, he walked into a party with people in similarly ornate costumes and honestly, I would have been okay if this episode just gave us more of that. The provided even more laughs which is something that I’ve come to really like about this show. I don’t feel bad about these laughs. It’s dark humor but it works.
Continued below4. The Adventures of Amanda and Meredith
Amanda and Meredith have made a bold attempt to steal this show from Nick and Happy. They have this weird relationship that works as far as investigating the disappearances of these kids but you can still feel the hatred between them. There’s still something so uncomfortable here with them but they get the job done and they even share some cute banter along the way. I really like the bigger role Amanda has been given and I kind of hope that she ultimately ends up being the big hero here. Between Nick and Meredith, she’s been through enough and the shows knows this and they let that weariness show.
5. Somehow, Things Get Worse
The end of this week’s episode nicely brings both storylines together. Nick and Meredith end up clashing at the abandoned department store that Very Bad Santa. She accidentally stabs him in the leg but they put this aside to look around more. They realize something awful, there is no one here. Very Bad Santa has taken himself and the kids somewhere else. The episode ends with Hailey telling the other kids that they’ll be saved but even she looks defeated. We don’t know where they’re going and neither do our “heroes” (if you can call them that). Things look very bleak for everyone involved but now, at the halfway point, the two searches are together. There are still ulterior motives at play with Meredith but the time has come for the two searches to come together. There are only 8 episodes total for this season (miniseries? I’m sure they’ll try to stretch this out) so this ending works on a lot of levels. That downer is where the show leaves us for two weeks as it takes a midseason break next week.
