Television 

Five Thoughts on Vagrant Queen’s “No Clue”

By | May 26th, 2020
Posted in Television | % Comments

How do you celebrate reuniting with your buds after a fight? Drinking and lots of it. It’s drunk murder-mystery time on Vagrant Queen. The most ruthless parking ticket enforcers in the galaxy (not ours), find our crew and impounds their ship. How do our heroes react? Mildly, to say the least. Let’s chalk it up to the booze and the group’s familiarity with terrible situations. Time for Five Thoughts. Spoilers ahead, if you haven’t guessed.

1. It’s aaaaall good.
Every week I harp on this, and every week it comes back to nibble at my brain stem. It’s all good in the proverbial hood with our gang. No lingering resentment or character growth. Everything is hunky-dory, and I don’t use that term lightly. Mostly because I am not sure what it means. Watching these three misfits laugh and play together after such a strange ordeal, due to Issac’s actions, seems unearned. Issac did nothing to redeem himself outside of jump off a train in repentance. That’s not why he did it, but I choose to believe it is. I can accept that Amae and Elida are cool, but I am not sold on their collective acceptance of Issac. I may be assigning too many personal beliefs to this. Regardless, I won’t bring it up again.

2. Clue. It’s Clue.
Is this the audience for the Clue reference? How old is this show’s demographic? To be fair, the only reason I know this episode is a send-up to the classic 1985 films is that my favorite series of all time Psych did it seven years ago. Back then, I had to look up all the obscure references and found the old board game movie. Before superhero and video game adaptations, Hollywood made board game movies. We indeed, have come far. This episode went to great lengths to be as Clue as possible. Right down to adding a doorbell to the spaceship. I found myself wondering how anyone who was “at the dor” knew to push the doorbell on a spacecraft. The murder-mystery aboard a ship was a fun enough premise, I am not sure they needed to lean so heavily on that old film, but they did, and here we are. It was the goofy running that didn’t need to be there. Leave that out.

3. Do you let the pizza guy into your home?
Have you ever let a pizza guy into your home because they “had to use the washroom” upon delivery? The answer to that question should always be no. A good samaritan, my tailbone. That is how murder movies start. You let them in, and all of a sudden you are clonked on the head with a coconut and tied to your ceiling fan. Or, more likely, they obtain squatter’s rights, and you get them to leave. Either way, it’s not a good idea to let strangers into your home. I did it once, and I always look back and kick myself for doing it. Nothing happened besides strange pee entering my toilet, but who knows what else that lady did in there. I was young, dumb, and full of gum. Don’t be like me. Stay safe out there.

4. That spider is something else.
I have commented on how I enjoy the majority of costumes and makeup work on the show. The spider woman in this episode is another level. They really took the time to light the creature to make it a horrible nightmare monster from space hell. Tack on the eyes moving and blinking, and you have yourself one hell of a costume. It was fantastic, and I found myself cringing ever so slightly whenever the spider queen was on screen. It was a very Dark Souls-like monster. For anyone who has played that series, that should explain everything. For those that haven’t, just picture your mother grotesquely transforming into a spider woman, and you probably understand. Kudos to them for creating that excellent piece. Double points for having it erupt from the face of a sick dude like a fantasmagoria version of aliens.

5. Spider zombies. That’s new
Seriously, that is new. I think the closest analog is the mushroom zombies from The Last of Us on Paystation 4. These spider zombies can speak and think, which is equally terrifying. I was watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and Giles had to remind Xander that his newly turned friend was dead and not to be deceived just because he spoke to him That applies to these spider zombies. They look and act all regular, but now super murder-y. Turns out, a baby spider is controlling them like a meat Gundam. That struck me as cool. Also super messed up and scary. Two for two VQ.

The wrap-up
As far as filler episodes go, this one actually tied up some loose ends from the previous episode. It also gave us a nice murder-mystery that had a nice little twist. I could have done without the obligatory Amae and Elida will they, won’t they stuff, but it was short and didn’t distract from the main plot fun. Also, did anyone notice Issac’s complete lack of athletism as e dove for that gun in the final fight? It was maybe 6 feet away, why are you jumping at it? Just take a couple of steps. If you know you can’t jump far, why jump at all? Anyway, beware of spiders and see you next week!


//TAGS | Vagrant Queen

Carl Waldron

Carl Waldron is a father, creator, and life-long nerd. You can find him arguing the rules of different magical franchises with friends or indoctrinating his daughter into the world of comics. Follow his other works on Super. Black.

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