After the show’s mock cliffhanger in the prior episode, this week’s season finale reveals Rhoda’s death to (of course) have been a hoax, perpetuated by Rhoda himself. After Fitz discovers this, he interrogates Rhoda at gunpoint.
For five straight episodes, the show has consisted of a bunch of disconnected plots which, while funny, seemed a bit unsatisfying considering the show’s serial format. Now, through the interrogation, the audience finally has someone to identify with for awhile this episode. Fitz finally asks questions we’ve likely been wondering ourselves, like “What’s going on with that shark?”
Naturally, the answers are mostly entertaining nonsense, but at least we know now that the confusion is intentional. Fitz seems to have no idea what’s going on, just like us.
Fortunately, even as the episode finally sympathizes with those saying “I don’t get it”, it also manages satisfy in the humor department, mostly in the final third of its runtime.
Fitz’s investigation leads up to one of the funniest sequences of the series so far. After finding Roostre, Golden Joe, and Peanut Cop inside Roostre’s cabin, Fitz bursts through a window, assaulting Joe with a handgun in slow motion. Layer upon layer of absurdity is stacked up within a matter of seconds: First we have a poorly drawn mouse flying through CGI shards of glass in overdramatic slo-mo while intense action music pulsates him. Second, we have him pistol-whipping Golden Joe’s giant head for no apparent reason. Third, Skillet insists on making his entrance by shooting holes through the wall in the shape of his body.
In the final minutes, Matt Maiellaro and company perform a brave balancing act for a show on this network. As Fitz reveals that he feels that he has been “ripped from somewhere” for reasons he doesn’t understand, he simultaneously attempts to assemble the eight-headed gun from the previous episode, with amusing results. This sort of sequence, where the emphasis is not entirely on drawing laughs, is something extremely rare in Adult Swim’s lineup, and understandably so – it’s mostly a comedy network. But amazingly, the approach works very well here, and as a result 12 oz. Mouse appears to be maturing with charm.