Hello and welcome back to Multiversity’s continued coverage of Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. on Hulu! I’ll be your G.U.I.D.E. (Guy Unleashing Intense and Dramatic Exposition) to the series, talking to you twice a week. After getting through the massive info dump from the first episode, M.O.D.O.K. is beginning to establish its larger narrative and is exploring the unique pathos of the living bobblehead. So, without me wasting more of your time, let’s take a look at the second episode of the series, “The M.O.D.O.K. That Time Forgot!”
1. G.A.R.Y.
Look, I know this show is about M.O.D.O.K., but we can’t talk about M.O.D.O.K. without talking about Gary (actually, we can, but where’s the fun in that?). As I mentioned in my thoughts on the first episode, I love the dynamic that the various A.I.M. scientists add to the series. While this episode primarily deals with M.O.D.O.K.’s family, I appreciate that we got to see another scene-stealing performance from Gary, an A.I.M. scientist that M.O.D.O.K. brutally maimed. Gary’s banter with M.O.D.O.K. makes for some of the episodes funniest moments and the particular way that M.O.D.O.K. disregards Gary really helps reveal M.O.D.O.K.’s worst traits in a natural way. I will gladly take any and all Gary content.
2. T.I.M.E.W.A.R.P.
In “The M.O.D.O.K. That Time Forgot!”, we see M.O.D.O.K. travel through time with his wife Jodie as a way to try and rekindle their flickering love. Unfortunately, time travel is tricky business and by the end of the episode, M.O.D.O.K. has royally screwed up the timeline. I assume that these ripples will be felt throughout the rest of the season and I’m all for it. Watching things go from bad to worse feels like a great way to get across some unique scenarios that’ll push the limits of our (anti-) hero and it should make for some great gags too.
3. H.E.A.R.T.
The first episode of M.O.D.O.K. was tasked with setting up the core pillars of the world of story in order for the details to be filled in later. In “The M.O.D.O.K. That Time Forgot,” those details begin to reveal themselves as M.O.D.O.K. expresses sincere pathos for the first time. When Jodie and MODOK travel back to their college years,M.O.D.O.K. is forced to confront the man that he used to be and how he grew into who he is today, for better or worse.M.O.D.O.K. even joins the audience in a sense, by literally watching his younger self suffer through the trials of parenthood and the mistakes he made along the way. These scenes provide him with a real opportunity to reflect on his life and they also help explore Jodie. Her character could have easily been made into an angry, nagging wife, but M.O.D.O.K. is smart enough to paint her as a complex character that can have valid criticisms about M.O.D.O.K. while still having flaws of her own. This is a great direction to take these characters in so early into the series.
4. U.N.D.O.
In contrast with all of the above, MODOK undermines its own successes by unraveling things through time travel shenanigans. I’ve been light on spoilers so far, but this is fairly explicit, so you’ve been warned. After traveling through time and seeing their younger selves, MODOK and Jodie wind up trapped in the past. With nothing else to do, they watch their lives play out and they end up falling deeper in love again along the way. But as they catch up to the “present day” and stop their younger selves from ever traveling through time, they just vanish into the void. So as a result, these characters that we’ve seen grow for the duration of the episode have all of their development reset by the end of it. It isn’t the worst trope, and it can be used well when done right (check out Futurama: Bender’s Big Score for a fun example), but it kind of sucks that nothing was gained.
5. M.U.S.I.C.
I can’t believe that this show made Third Eye Blind feel poignant. I’d be upset if I wasn’t impressed. When the initial trailer used the song, I just thought it was a dumb throwaway joke. But nope, the music of Third Eye Blind is actually incredibly important to this episode and to these characters. Watching with subtitles reveals that many of the background songs used in this episode are also just slow, acoustic versions of the band’s hits. It’s weird and perfectly appropriate, but it does mean you’ll be singing “Semi-Charmed Life” all day long afterwards.
