Tonight was party time at Wertham Community Centre, and what a disaster it turned out to be. It was always going to be a risky proposition, packing the place full of strangers with superpowers, but it was Rudy introducing the power-reversing ecstasy which really tipped it into the chaotic. Tim got iced, Finn now knows about Jess and Rudy, Stuart and Greg danced up a storm, Jess is (or soon will be) pregnant, and Mark the tortoise became a real boy—right before being turned inside out. Colonel Saunders would've been proud.
Rudy really is struggling to cope with the impending departure of Rudy 2, which I can kind of understand. Despite treating his more sensitive other half like shit for most of the time, I think Rudy's got used to having him around. He's the good angel on his otherwise grubby shoulder. But with Rudy 2 wanting to do his own thing, and Finn blowing up at him over Jess, Rudy is understandably feeling isolated and vulnerable. Which is bad timing for Jess. Just when she needs his support most, Rudy's crumbling under the weight of being the most useless of his still living incarnations. I guess Ghostbusters really was shit.
I'm starting to worry about Rudy 2. Despite his confidence being at an all time high, being the self-styled mentor of the R-Men, and having a girlfriend willing to stick up for him, next week's teaser seems to suggest that everything's about to go tits-up. If it is him on Maggie's jumper, can we be certain that the R-Men aren't about to actually turn on him? The pattern could be interpreted either way. Are the misfits going to have to pool their crappy resources in order to save the world from Rudy 2's well-meaning creation?
I was a little puzzled by Rudy's warning to Abby not to take the ecstasy tablet because it would reverse her power. What power? Isn't she the product of Laura's power? Assuming a power does somehow reside within, what would taking a power-reversing drug do to an imaginary friend turned real? Make her invisible again? Temporarily wipe her from existence? I not exactly sure how Alex's power works. When he takes someone's power does he store it? We haven't seen him use accident causation, Satanic conversion, or object inversion, so he obviously can't draw upon them, but he could pass them on to Sarah. Perhaps they lie dormant.
I actually felt for both Alex and Abby tonight. After just a few hours together with her hero in a half shell, Mark the tortoise was no more. Abby can't seem to catch a break this season. And just as Alex appeared to be engaging in a real relationship with real feelings, he accidentally fucked his superpower into Sarah (along with a whole host of other nasties), which sent her on the rampage which killed Mark the tortoise, and eventually led to her gruesome death. Even when Alex tries to do the right thing, it turns to crap.
The banana gag was a superbly crafted piece of physical comedy by Jon Brown. The beauty of it was, you could see it coming a mile off. The minute I saw the fruit bowl I started to laugh. Great pay-off for the various plot strands carefully woven through the season—but what a miserable couple of plot twists for Abby and Alex. With next week's episode being the series finale, I'm not sure how much fall-out we'll see, but I'm hoping we'll see at least something of the emotional repercussions. Maybe their grief and anger will spur them on to even greater vulgarity.
So does Alex have a superpower now? Obviously, the power-reversal only worked while the drug was active, but as his power was transferred during that time, and Sarah didn't pass it back, does that mean it died with her, or will it return once the drug wears off? I'm hoping for the latter. If they do end up having to fight the R-Men, I can't see piss-poor telekinesis, and the ability to see through things, being much of a defence against someone who can fly, someone who can turn invisible, and a master of electricity. They're going to need a way of nullifying the R-Men's strengths, and Alex's knob may be the advantage they need. Either that, or they use their brains for once.
Let's face it, it's going to be the Alex's old fella.
Other Thoughts:
—It was perfect that even the cameraman couldn't stop looking at the girl with hypnotic tits' bosom.
—If only Tim had carried a back-up elastic band.
—I was surprised that Helen couldn't understand Karen's accent. I'm not Scottish, but I could understand it perfectly. Besides, Helen's not exactly without accent herself.
—There can't be much room left under that flyover. Half of Wertham is buried there.
Quotes:
Sarah: "I've got hypnotic tits."
Finn: "Question..."
Abby: "Yes, there will be a buffet."
Finn: "I accept your invitation."
Rudy: "You're trying to split up the band. Me and him are the fucking Beatles, mate, and you're just that yodelling Chinese woman."
Helen: "Yoko Ono?"
Rudy: "Yeah."
Helen: "She's Japanese."
Rudy: "Is she?"
Maggie: "Rudy 1 or Rudy 2?"
Rudy: "It's Rudy, it's just Rudy! I'm Ghostbusters, he's Ghostbusters 2, and everyone knows that Ghostbusters 2 was a right piece of shit."
Maggie: "I quite liked it."
Rudy: "Fucking would, wouldn't you."
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