Brendan Jesus
Another week, another Velma. It’s weird to think this is the same platform that created The Last of Us. One show is one of the highest rated shows in television history, and one is one of the lowest rated television show in existence. Hmm. Weird. The two newest episodes of Velma surprisingly bring to light some new revelations that push the story in a better direction, and are actually kind of charming episodes. There’s personal growth, some great references, and really left me pretty excited for the new two episodes. Let’s jump right in!
Episode 5 “Marching Band Sleepover”
This episode starts with Norville (Sam Richardson) ghosting Velma (Mindy Kaling), all thanks to Gigi (Yvonne Orji). Unfortunately for Velma, she desperately needs Norville to help with her hallucinations. The focal point of Episode 5 is the big marching band sleepover that is taking place at the school tonight. It turns out Sheriff Cogburn (Stephen Root) and Mayor Dave’s (Jim Rash) idea to have cops protect the “hot girls” fell through, they decide to implement a 9 PM curfew. (The bit here is all the hot girls were sexually harassing the cops and they all quit.)
Since there is a curfew, the marching band sleepover is cancelled. This somehow leads to the sleepover being held at Velma’s house. Daphne (Constance Wu) also decides she will go back to the Crystal Cove Mines. Oh, and Fred (Glen Howerton) is still trying to win Velma over, this time by wearing a Female Body Mind Inspector shirt. I guess that’s funny. In a turn of events Fred actually finds some information about Diya’s (Sarayu Blue) disappearance. The house Fred lives in used to be owned by someone named Dr. Edna Perdue, someone who used to do “ethically dubious” experiments in the Crystal Cove Mines.
Thinking she will need Norville’s help, Velma goes to find him. But oh no, Velma finds Norville and Gigi making out. In a good move on Norville and Gigi’s part, Gigi tells Norville he needs to spend less time with Velma; Gigi realizes Velma is just using him. At the Crystal Cove Mines Daphne finds two people wearing fur costumes, and they reveal themselves as her parents. They also inform Daphne that she was kidnapped from them! Interesting turn of events here.
Fred and Velma head to the historical society to try and find any information regarding Dr. Edna Perdue. Turns out there is a box of Dr. Perdue’s journals there, but somehow all of the journals are missing. The last person to look for Dr. Perdue’s journals was…Diya Dinkley! This causes Velma to start hallucinating again, it’s just a shame Fred can’t make her laugh.
In a conversation with her parents, Daphne learns they are part of a gang called the Crystal Mine Gang. They spent the years after the mine closed down committing robberies all over town, using the sewer pipes as a getaway vessel. Later that night at the marching band sleepover Gigi shows up, which infuriates Velma. This leads to Velma and Gigi having a flute off, and neither one of them can play to save their lives. Somehow Gigi is declared the winner of the battle. We also go on to learn that Dr. Perdue is Norville’s grandmother.
There’s a pretty dumb bit about the band nerds freaking out because there is no junk food at the house. Determined to save the day Fred steals a hoverboard and glides over to the pizza place. But on his way back he runs into Norville and the pizza goes flying everywhere; throwing the band nerds into a feral frenzy. Velma, Norville, Fred, and Gigi decide they are going to steal Daphne’s mom’s car and go to the malt shop to get some food to feed the band members. All while this is happening the band nerds completely destroy Velma’s house.
Where are Velma’s parents you might ask? Well Aman (Russell Peters) and Sophie (Melissa Fumero) are at the hospital because she finally went into labor. While the food bandits are leaving the malt shop they are nearly stopped by the police and here we have a true moment of character growth. In the hopes of getting the band nerds their food, and making sure her friends don’t get arrested for breaking curfew, Velma decides to get caught by the sheriff so her friends can escape. Realizing that Velma saved them from a night in the slammer, Norville threatens all of the band nerds to clean Velma’s house so she doesn’t get in trouble when Aman and Sophie get home.
The stinger for this episode is learning the names of Daphne’s parents: Carol (uncredited) and Darren (Ken Leung).
So the majority of this episode was fairly hit and miss. Out of all of the episodes though this one seems to be one of the most well written. We have some solid jokes that land, except the whole band nerd thing, and some true character development. Episode 1 Velma would never have put herself on the line for her friends, but realizing that putting herself in this situation to save her friends really does show how she is growing as a character. It is a truly special moment in this series, and I really hope they take this development and really do more with it. Maybe the tides are turning!
Episode 6 “The Sins of the Fathers and Some of the Mothers”
Now that baby Amanda is home, Aman decides he will take paternity leave from work. This juxtaposes how he took double the workload when Velma was born. But Velma doesn’t have time for that because she has a meeting with Norville and Principal Blythe (Nicole Byer). It’s time to get the most information to move the plot forward that we have gotten to this point.
So, here’s the TL;DR. Dr. Perdue discovered how to keep a brain alive outside of the body, in the ’70s. During a symposium one of the members in attendance was General Meeting. This caught his eye. His biggest pet peeve were the people he labeled “meddling kids.” Yay we finally got that phrase! General Meeting tried getting information on these meddling kids by wearing a mask and trying to blend in, but he always got foiled by “mask pulling.” Woo! his idea was to literally put soldier brains in all of the heads of the meddling kids in an operation he called: Special COvert Operations Brain Initiative…aka SCOOBI. “What does SCOOBI do?” Asked Velma.
Eventually, Dr. Perdue was committed to the Crystal Cove Insane Asylum. A good joke here is when Velma says this sounds like some white people shit, and Principal Blythe says Dr. Perdue was always a trailblazer. Honestly this really made me belly laugh for a good 15 seconds. This all leads Velma to realize her hallucinations aren’t caused by wanting to find her mother, but they exist because her father doesn’t believe her mother is missing.
Daphne is back in the Crystal Cove Mines with her parents, who are mining crystals to hopefully sell to make some bank so they can escape to a country without extradition. While this is happening for Daphne, Velma is having a day alone with her dad. They drink some beers, and go fishing. Another great reference here is when they fish up the Ghost of Captain Cutler, one of my favorite OG Scooby-Doo villains.
So it turns out Diya uncovered Dr. Perdue’s journals, and learned that the basement of Fred’s house is where all of her brain discoveries are held. That is why Diya’s last known location was pinged at Fred’s; Fred’s house was Dr. Perdue’s old house. Not all is great in paradise though, when we learn Daphne’s parents only wanted her to find them so that they could use her as insurance to make their escape…they even go so far as to hold her at gunpoint. This really made me feel bad for Daphne, and it does show how almost all of these characters are unbelievably tragic. Just in the nick of time, Daphne’s moms come out of the blue and save her from being kidnapped. Although Carol and Darren manage to escape, while the rest of their gang gets arrested.
Velma goes to Fred’s and they go to checkout where Dr. Perdue’s lab used to be. It’s still closed up by a brick wall, which Fred tries to open. Thinking it’s a trap door, Fred pushes one of the bricks in, and the wall falls on both Fred and Velma. They are saved from the rubble by Aman, who apologizes to Velma for his actions. The three of them head down to the basement, where Velma stumbles across a piece of paper that says “Jinkies.” This leads to Velma hallucinating again, but once Aman tells her he truly does believe Diya was kidnapped, the hallucinations come to a halt, finally. Why does he finally believe Velma? Because the piece of paper that says Jinkies…was written in Diya’s handwritting.
Okay so honest moment here, these two episodes were pretty solid. There are so many moments of growth from the characters that really leads be to believe there was some effort and care put into the script here. The moment where Aman has his breakthrough was particularly powerful. The Mystery Gang is slowly becoming closer and closer, leading us to at least somewhat of what we have come to know them as.
There still wasn’t a huge amount of horror, or horror adjacent, material, but I think this show is taking a very interesting and heartfelt direction. The first two episodes fell flat, the second two episodes picked up the pieces from the first two, and these two episodes have given me sort of a new found love for this series. With just four episodes left, and the idea of a second season being floated around, I truly believe this show will continue to grow on me…and hopefully audiences as a whole.
