Welcome to Multiversity Comics’ “Five Thoughts” on The Tick. Amazon Prime may have dumped the entire series out to us all at once, but this column will be coming out once a week, covering one episode a week, until we reach the end of the season. As is customary here at Multiversity Comics, these “5 Thoughts” will regard generally anything that crosses my mind while watching the episode, along with a dash of criticism here and there as I deem necessary. However, the 5th thought is always a collection of the episode’s most quotable lines: perhaps the strongest aspect of any iteration of “The Tick.” All that said, please enjoy my thoughts on the third episode of season two: “Hot Beige!”
1. Hola, el Hombre de los Flexon: The Flexometric Man
“Hot Beige!” is the episode where the promise of a wider world of superheroes and villains really starts to come across. We’ve already seen “Lobstercules” as a probable sub boss of the season, yet he’s already one of the wackiest visual elements the show has ever boasted (he looks like a freaking Japanese super sentai show villain). At the A.E.G.I.S. recreation room, Arthur and The Tick run into Flexon, an Elongated Man-type character who regales the duo with tips on how to find “that one guy” at “the docks” who will give them “the look” or suspicion and then “another look” (this part is a very funny send-up of detective story tropes). The show is stretching (pun intended) its limbs a little to give us a weirder world to look at, all the while reveling in the joy of finally getting to do that. The Tick shakes Flexon’s hand as his arms jiggles around and around like a rubber hose and overtly remarks on how fun it is. The Tick’s boundless joy becomes ours. Finally, never one to shy away from an unsettling and bizarre moment, The Tick reveals the mechanical heart of A.E.G.I.S.’s Ty Rathbone to contain a mini black hole that is, at least at this point in time, powered by feeding it a caged mouse every once in a while. Truly some weird, wild, but ultimately more than welcome, stuff.
2. Ace in the Hole
This episode felt a little slow to get going at first. One thing I’ve immediately recognized about the series in its second season, is that it’s trying to find full storylines for each of its principle characters (including Dangerboat, of all people) and making sure to spend a little bit of time with each of them. With as colorful a cast as The Tick has, that’s probably a worthwhile effort, but at least in these first few episode, it means the season hasn’t had a ton of forward momentum. A scene with Dot here, and a scene with Dangerboat there, and another scene with Superian over there, and you end up spending a lot of time on things that are tangential to a central plot that truthfully has not defined itself very well. I’m loving the show in its second season, because I love these characters, but I can’t honestly ignore the fact that it has a tendency to take its sweet time.
That’s why I was delighted to find that the second half of this episode is easily the most entertaining and propulsive set-piece this season has had to offer to this point. Arthur infiltrates an underground poker game while The Tick waits outside. Disguised as “The Accountant”, Arthur attempts to play tough in a game of poker against someone he thinks will lead them to Lobstercules. Placing Arthur in this role is a comedic showcase for Griffin Newman, as he stumbles his way through some smooth talk at the door, awkwardly fails to confidently spin a chair around to sit at the poker table (a subtle comedic beat that made me laugh out loud), and attempts to bluff his burly opponent. In what turns out to be an incredibly satisfying character moment, Arthur actually credibly pulls it off! Sure, he’s awkward, in ways that anyone can see, but he also comes off as real. Not everyone who has a thousand dollars to throw into a poker game is going to be as smooth as Rick Blaine. And so, wearing literally what he would wear at his old day job, and playing himself off as “The Accountant”, Arthur proves yet again that he may not be conventionally heroic, but is heroic nonetheless. The Tick is at its absolute best when its marrying this strong character work with the plot itself, and Arthur really shines here.
Continued below3. Overkill’s Daddy Issues
Another strong character moment, though one that definitely feels more tangential to the plot at this point, involves Overkill’s relationship with Ty Rathbone. The story so far is that Overkill was exiled from A.E.G.I.S. as a suspect in the killing of the rest of his squad. Since he lived, and since he ran for his life, Rathbone suspects that all of those deaths rest squarely on Overkill, despite Overkill’s protestations. Or does Rathbone even really believe that? Part of me thinks that Ty Rathbone knows in his (decrepit, mouse-ingesting) heart that Overkill didn’t kill his men, but that the accusation can be a serious bargaining chip to press on him with. A nice scene of long distance acting between the two characters (Overkill has a scope trained on Rathbone’s head) reveals that Overkill is almost looking for Rathbone’s approval as something of a father figure. The show never comes right out and says that, as it’s too smart to be so overt, but there’s a longing in Overkill’s voice that says he wants back in the field. Rathbone calls Overkill “son” – not in the literal or even subliminal way – but in the way that a folksy southern army general would use the term. Still, by using that word, The Tick suggests a power dynamic between these two that seems useful to Rathbone, even as Overkill operates in exile.
4. A mission of her own
And while we’re on the subject of subtle character work, the show continues to devote a few minutes per episode to Dot’s quest for meaning in her life. Valorie Curry’s emotional work, like everyone else’s on the show, is subtle and intriguing even as the comedy around her is as large as can be. As Arthur and The Tick prepare for their undercover mission, Dot is quietly going about her business, getting the hanging bag out and punching it up with a little krav maga. It’s hard to describe exactly what Dot appears to be feeling, which I think is intentional and a really smart acting choice from Curry. She’s not a sad sack, and she’s over-the-top determined to slam down raw eggs and run up and down flights of stairs, but she’s clearly dissatisfied and anxious with life. It’s something we probably all feel at some point in our lives and it comes across beautifully. Nothing on her secretly developing powers in this episode, but in another nice character moment, The Tick notices something in her that everyone else seems to busy to notice. He notices that she’s ready for “a mission of her own” as he puts it. In this moment, the Tick almost comes across as a wise guru, seeing something no one else can see. They shake it off for the time being, but somewhere down the road in this season, Dot is going to come into her own and the time they spent developing that will hopefully prove to be worth it.
5. “Spoon!” watch
The Tick: “Lobstercules has clawed his way into another bank, continuing his spree of evil. It’s a spreevil!”
The Tick: “Ooo, powder blue! Sophisticated, yet infantile!”
The Tick: “Risking your full nut! That’s the heroes way, fella.”
