Hello and welcome back for the final entry in Multiversity’s coverage of Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. on Hulu! For the last five weeks, I’ve been T.A.S.K.E.D. (Tirelessly Articulating Some Knowledge and Educated Detections) with talking about one of the greatest villains in the history of comics and his various family squabbles. But how does it all end? Will M.O.D.O.K. be able to find a way to balance his personal life with his goals for global conquest? Will Lou successfully become a man? Will M.E.L.I.S.S.A. find the approval she so desperately need? Will Jodie release another book? Well, the only way to find out is to dive into the thick of things and find out for ourselves. One last time, without further ado, let’s take a look at the M.O.D.O.K. Season One Finale, “Days of Future M.O.D.O.K.s!”
1. M.A.L.L.
In “Days of Future M.O.D.O.K.s!”, M.E.L.I.S.S.A. offers to help her dad get a bunch of kids for her brother Lou’s bar mitzvah by going to the mall and tricking them into signing up for a reality TV show. This gag feels out of touch with current trends and drags on for far too long, taking up most of the first act of this episode. Even making a joke about a chat room would have felt more contemporary than going to the mall for kids. That being said, I don’t think that this show has ever been concerned with being contemporary. Normally I wouldn’t pick out a single joke, but considering that this gag extends over the first quart of the episode, it seemed weird that they belabored such a stale bit.
2. F.A.M.I.L.Y.
Even though this episode eventually becomes a series of high-concept supervillain set pieces (more on that in a moment), I was delighted to see how much time was spent with the M.O.D.O.K. family. One of the most dramatic differences between M.O.D.O.K. and the comics that inspired the series is that M.O.D.O.K. never had a family in the original source material. It’s clear that this element being added for TV wasn’t just a superfluous decision and that the people involved in making the series were passionate about seeing this thread resolved, regardless of what teases were yet to come. After everything these characters have endured, these moments felt earned and valuable, which made the eventual ending (again, we’ll get there) all the more tragic. The Lous, M.E.L.I.S.S.A., and Jodie were all given proper emotional moments with M.O.D.O.K. and I really valued how these characters were explored. Yes, even the Lous. What can I say? They grew on me.
3. R.E.T.U.R.N.
I probably shouldn’t have been surprised to see that the younger version of M.O.D.O.K. (now known as the Anomaly) return for one last hurrah, but I got so wrapped up in seeing the emotional arcs of the M.O.D.O.K. family fulfilled that I really thought we would be getting a happy ending. Learning more about how the Anomaly functions and why he can exist without destroying space time felt like a bit of an info dump at a point where things were supposed to be finishing up. That being said, I also thought that the show had discarded him too easily, so I this was a smart decision that enhanced the series as a whole and helped deepen the world of story at play.
4. B.E.T.R.A.Y.A.L.
The Anomaly returned with one specific purpose in mind – to kill M.O.D.O.K.’s family. After seeing that the only way for M.O.D.O.K. to obtain power in the future would be for his family to be taken out of the picture, the Anomaly offers to kill M.O.D.O.K.’s family so he doesn’t have to live with the guilt of directly doing the deed himself. In the final moments of the episode, we see M.O.D.O.K. in the future where he has become emperor of the world. Unfortunately, even having the world in the palm of his hand isn’t enough for him and he now yearns for his family. He tries to torture the Anomaly as a means to gain access to the time travel technology to save his family, but that proves fruitless and the Anomaly dies. After ten episodes of complex family dynamics, M.O.D.O.K. seemingly betrays his family in order to achieve his individual dreams, only to realize that none of his achievements matter if they aren’t there with him. Bleak.
5. O.V.E.R.
While I’m not necessarily against open-ended season finales, they do make me raise an eyebrow on occasion. I think that they can be a great tool to get people excited for the next season and that they can help establish major new arcs for key storylines. However, the important thing to a great cliffhanger is that it does eventually have to get paid off down the line. As much as I’ve enjoyed M.O.D.O.K., it’s hard to say if the show will indeed be coming back for more. A second season isn’t official… yet. If the new season picks off where this left off and shows what happened to M.O.D.O.K.’s family and how it led to the dark Emperor M.O.D.O.K., I’ll love this finale. But if the show doesn’t continue and the least thing we see is M.O.D.O.K. having seemingly allowed his family to be killed so he could advance his own career, I’ll be upset. This isn’t a criticism, it just means that we need to get a season two so I can get some answers!
