The Tick S01E08 Review: The Origins of the Very Large Man (oh, also Overkill I guess)

The Tick, Season 1, Episode 8: After Midnight

This episode starts off with what I didn't quite realize was a flashback to the origin story of the Very Large Man, with a sequence showing the otherwise normal Clifford Richter being abducted by what seems to be the Terror's minions and transformed into a big buck-ass nude colossus. And as we cut away to Superion and VLM's wife, Superion's constant mispronunciation of words (skyscraper instead of landscaper, etc) is just so hilarious. We don't really check in with Superion and VLM anywhere in this episode afterwards, so we're just led to assume that it's all happening in the background.


Meanwhile, Tick and Overkill, naturally, survive, but Overkill brusquely brushes everyone off, hilariously arguing about his methods with Dot while he's calling an Uber, which I thought is the best and most surreal comedy in this episode. It's a bit of a disappointment that Arthur essentially tells Dot to stay home and not participate in all this superhero hijinks, although the scene with Dot practicing (and epic-fail-ing) to use a handgun might mean that she'll have a bigger role in the future.

Tick and Arthur decide to try and tell Superion about the terror being alive and how he's figured out Superion's weakness, but after a run-in during a book signing bit with Midnight the talking superhero dog (a character introduced earlier this season but I COMPLETELY forgot about, meaning the big pan-up to reveal Midnight's form earn a huge LOL from me). Arthur's attempts to go "Terror is back! Warn Superion!" is obviously met with a haha-lunatic response, and we get some weird stepfather drama thrown in as Arthur lashes out at (and later apologizes to) his embarrassing stepfather Walter.

After a bit of creative deduction when seeing Overkill's robot arm, and attempting to ignore Tick's newfound obsession with Midnight's book, Arthur confronts the Overkill about his role as a 'hanger-on' for the Flag Five, Straight Shooter, which gives Overkill's whole hard-ass no-nonsense and borderline death-seeker persona some actual depth, which I definitely did not expect. Overkill is contrasted very well with Arthur -- both being survivors from a tragedy, who has had vengeance shape their entire life since that point, but their personalities are polar opposites. Overkill is also somewhat contrasted with Midnight, with Overkill being the 'sidekick' of the Flag Five and Midnight being the 'mascot', but nothing really comes out of this beyond the sheer hilarity of a dude arguing with a talking dog in a book signing and then fighting it out.

Overkill's also handed over his life to the Tick in some sort of weird samurai "you saved my life, so my life is yours as repayment" code, to which the Tick just says "neat! Don't kill, m'kay?" to which Overkill just has the most deadpan I-have-make-a-huge-mistake reaction. That's hilarious. Also hilarious is Alan Tudyk's Dangerboat, which I think might just be the best character in this show.

Oh, and Lint takes over the Pyramid Gang. That's... that's okay, I guess? I completely forgot the Pyramid Gang exists. It is a bit weird that the Terror doesn't show up at all for the entirety of the episode after  the previous one starred him so much. It's a bit of a weird scene that's done pretty seriously as opposed to the comedy of everything else, but it's cool.