The Tick S01E06 Review: Superion vs. Very Large Man

The Tick, Season 1, Episode 6: Rising

So, the first half-season of the Tick climaxes with a surprisingly heartfelt 'superheroes save a bus of innocents' scene. For a series that tends to make fun of the genre, the Tick straddles a pretty well-done line of telling an actually engaging superhero story while still making fun of the tropes involved.

The episode starts off with a bit of a payoff to the Superion and Very Large Man, with Superion's plan to deal with the VLM being a bunch of paper cards with the words "YOU ARE TO BIG!!" written on them. And he's all snippy to the military dudes around, telling them that, no, they'll not fire on a civilian. Superion himself isn't actually doing anything to help out, though, because he has to appear on an interview. And apparently his powers include transforming a cup of shit coffee into pumpkin spice latte. Mmm...

Of course, Superion himself is mostly irrelevant. He's in the background all the time, hailed as the best hero of all the, the one-all-and-be-all of the superheroes in this universe. Because, as Overkill and Arthur deduces at the end of the episode, why everyone wants so much to get the suit that Arthur is wearing is because it's a weapon to be used against aliens -- Superion, they assume.

But, of course, that's the end of the episode. The main bulk of the episode deals with two plot threads -- Ms. Lint meeting the Terror and learning that he's alive, as well as the Tick and Arthur figuring out what to do with Ramses, who they apprehended last episode. Overkill's attempts at using a truth serum backfires hilariously because, hey truth serums have contra-indications, and they apparently don't work on someone consuming viagra. That's funny. Overkill wants to just storm the Terror's hideout, guns blazing and take out the Terror himself. The Tick, likewise, wants the same thing, minus the murder, because he wants Arthur to reach his full potential of being a superhero.

Arthur? As much as he wants to do the right thing, his game plan is the far saner one of handing Ramses over to AEGIS, the bureaucratic agency that deals with superheroes, referenced a couple of times in the previous episodes. It's pretty damn dumb of them to literally walk Ramses down in the middle of the street, though. "If the call's going to be a long one, can I sit?" Predictably, Ramses gets away, his thugs shoot the Tick with a bazooka (which is actually a pretty cool scene in a series where the special effects tend to be on the low budget side) and then shoot him where it hurts -- in the civilians.

The rescue scene is mostly played straight, even if we get a few laughs thrown in, and the civilians are happy that their unnamed town now has heroes again. 

Oh, and there's a little subplot about how Dot, after seeing the aftermath of Arthur's vacuum-cleaner fight with Lint, decides to call him and wanting to join... but Arthur refuses. Okay, then. More plot points to be picked up in the rest of the season.

Meanwhile, the other half of the episode focuses on Ms. Lint and the Terror, which is a far more interesting pair than Lint's past scenes with Derek. Derek himself gets shot with platypus toxin darts by the Terror, who also reveals to us that Derek's actually just the wi-fi guy in their old evil lair. The Terror gives this whole speech about how he's disappointed because he expected Lint to go and find him, not kowtow to Ramses, and that he's been watching her every move. Or, well, "tried to, but you got so boring so fast."

The Terror plays the disappointed but supportive mentor role here. I'm not sure how much of his bullshit of actually believing in Ms. Lint's potential is heartfelt and how much is just bullshit to get her on his good graces again, but it's not like he doesn't have a point. By the end of the episode, Lint got back enough of her self-confidence to become the most terrifying woman on earth again, going up against Ramses and murdering him in his desk.

Oh, and the Terror kidnaps Arthur outside of the convenience store at the end of the episode, causing the Tick to roar his name to the heavens... and for Arthur to wake up in the Terror's lair with the Terror's face swooping in and speaking in that nasal, wheezy voice of his "CLIFFHANGER!" It's all pretty good stuff, with some neat comedic beats even in moments that are serious -- Overkill going "hey, HEY I'm talking to you, asshole!" when Arthur gets kidnapped is absolutely hilarious.

Overall, I'm looking forward to when the show picks up in 2018 or whenever. It's not a show that really demands a lot from you to watch -- it's just funny, with a plot that's fun enough to follow, but not too simple, a well-crafted universe, and generally fun comedic beats and acting all around. Good stuff.