Last week, 12 oz. Mouse closed with Fitz, Skillet and Liquor all aiming their weapons at the elevator from which Producer Man was emerging. This week, that minor cliffhanger is totally ignored. Instead, “Corndog Chronicles” delivers two dream sequences, both of them longer and more informative than those the previous episode. Each works great in terms of both humor and story advancement.
The first brings back memories from the show’s earliest episodes, returning us to Shark’s office, with just he and Fitz attempting to hold a conversation for an entire five minutes. The awkward dialogue dynamic between these two characters is outstandingly funny. It had me smiling from the very first line, and reminded of me of why I was so excited after watching the show’s premiere a year ago.
After a brief intermission, we plunge into the second dream, which finally helps us understand Roostre’s seemingly endless rambling about Muff and Q-109. Although it’s still somewhat cryptic, I think that I was at least able to pick up on a couple of things: Q-109 is apparently some sort of club that morphs people into different forms. Muff was seemingly changed into Spider, which would explain how Roostre knows him. I might be wrong about my conclusions, but trying to solve these little mysteries is just one of this show’s many great hooks.
Also of note, the music during this scene is pitch-perfect, and highlights the sound director’s excellent sense of mood. From the menacing ambience of Shark’s control room, to the subtly humorous ticking of the clock, these background textures wrap around the show’s plot in delicately powerful ways.
With the music continuing to grow more prominent with the intensifying plot, it makes sense that the art would as well. Moving into the episode’s final act, Radical Axis finally gets to flex its visual muscle, executed wonderfully during a scene involving a surprising new character.
In it, Pronto takes the animal chain to a graveyard, where he approaches a very elaborate tombstone. In dramatic fashion, the show’s first well-drawn character bursts from the ground, and it is truly a sight to behold. Making it even better is the fact that this beast interacts with Pronto, who maintains his extremely primitive look.
By the end of this sixteenth chapter, it appears clearer than ever that Shark has a traitor on his hands, and that Fitz, Skillet, Liquor and Green-Sweatered Woman are in for a huge battle. As for Producer Man…who knows? Hopefully we’ll find out what happened to him, but the content of this episode was good enough to ignore this weird fluke in continuity.
It’s a bit saddening that Fitz will be leaving us soon. But, as evidenced in episodes like this, at least he’s going down fighting.