Brendan Jesus
Another week, another two episodes of one of the most talked about shows in modern history. Velma has torn the internet apart in many ways, most recently their bungling of the quadratic equation has turned heads. Internet sleuths have even noticed that Peppa Pig was able to get the quadratic equation right! I personally think it was a purposeful “goof” that is supposed to make Velma look like a fake intellectual. But if that is true, then that negates so many other points in the show. Anyways, that point is moot. Let’s look at the next two episodes of Velma to see what hijinks the gang gets into this week.
Episode 7 “Fog Fest”
So hot take here, but I found this episode fairly enjoyable. This is one of the first episodes to really have that old Scooby-Doo feeling to it. It’s far from perfect, and many moments feel incredibly forced, there is a real nostalgic element to it. We start out with Velma (Mindy Kaling) finally unveiling her Charlie Kelly murder board. Since her hallucinations have ceased, she is now ready to really delve deeper into the true mystery of her mother Diya’s (Sarayu Blue) disappearance.
To start the true search Velma finds herself pouring over her mother’s old manuscripts. While deep in research Velma ignores multiple calls and texts from Daphne (Constance Wu) who finds herself needing a friend in this trying time. Aman (Russell Peters) and Velma get back to their house, only to find Sophie’s (Melissa Fumero) throat slit. There is a message in blood on the wall stating: Aman, will you go to the Crystal Cove Fog Festival with me?” It’s all a gag though, as Sophie was playing dead and this is her Fog-posal to Aman.
Blythe Rogers (Nicole Byer) writes an article in the newspaper headlined: “My mother was a mad scientist and she’s back to finish her work.” At this point Sheriff Cogburn (Stephen Root), and the town, believe the murderer is a ghost and NOT a flesh and blood serial killer. Due to this, and Blythe’s article, the town curfew is cancelled and everyone can go to the Fog Festival. The one amendment though is when the Sheriff makes an announcement that in order to gain entry into the Fog Festival all women must have a date.
Norville (Sam Richardson) asks Gigi (Yvonne Orji) to the Fog Festival, and Fred (Glenn Howerton) asks Daphne, too. Fred really wants to go with Velma, but due to his overbearing father’s constant insistence Fred ends up asking Daphne.
Back with Velma’s work to find Diya, she realizes one of the novels Detective Jinkies, has invisible ink on it. This prompts Velma to take the note that said jinkies, the one she found in Fred’s basement, and hold it to a heat source. A number reveals itself. When Velma calls this number and it’s definitely the serial killer. Or at least that’s what Velma thinks. This proves to Velma the killer is no ghost, and indeed a real person. Velma decides she must go down to the Fog Festival to warn the town. Remembering she needs a man to get into the Festival, Velma ends up dressing up like a man. There are tons of jokes here about how much of a man she really looks like. Most of these jokes fall pretty flat.
At the Fog Festival Velma rides some rides, and eats tons of turkey legs, all in an attempt to find the killer. Daphne finds herself very attracted to Manny, that’s the name Velma gives her male alter ego. Thinking the whole town will listen to her as a man, Velma Manny gets up on stage to warn the town. It works! The whole town starts to believe the killer is actually a human, and not a ghost. While up on stage warning the town, Velma gets nominated as the Fog King. One running bit that really got me is the way everyone says Fog King really makes it sound like fucking. And they say it about a thousand times, and it’s pretty funny.
Once it is revealed that Manny is actually Velma the whole town goes back to not believing that the killer is a human, and they’re all back to thinking it’s a ghost. This leads Norville to winning Fog King, even though Fred’s parents company is funding the whole event. From this point Fred and Norville get into an altercation and a chase ensues. We get the classic chase scenes where they enter one door and exit through another door. It’s a wonderful nostalgic moment that really has the true Scooby-Doo feeling I and a lot of other people wished the show had. While Fred and Norville have their chase, Velma and Daphne also get chased by the serial killer.
The huge chase scene ends with Velma, Daphne, Fred, and Norville crashing into each other and getting cornered by the killer. In the blink of an eye the killer disappears, and leaves their cellphone behind in place of the Fog King crown. The mid-credits stinger of this episode finds Fred in the fun house, where he gets kidnapped by the killer.
All in all this was a decently entertaining episode. The jokes landed decently and I really loved the whole vibe of the Fog Festival. We get a few nostalgic chase scenes, and some real detective work from Velma. I really wish more episodes would have this similar feeling because this episode really worked.
Episode 8 “A Velma in the Woods”
Episode 8 starts with a “so you’re probably wondering how I ended up here,” moment. Velma and Daphne find themselves trapped at the bottom of a ravine, wedged into place by a boulder. Kind of like 127 Hours, except they don’t have a pocket knife. The overwhelming majority of this episode is told via flashback.
We start with two days ago with Daphne’s flashback. Daphne’s parents bring up something called “the incident,” which will definitely come back into play later. Fred wakes up in a weird mad scientist’s lab. In the lab are three containers containing a green liquid…and BRAINS! The three brains are the three dead girls: Brenda, Lola, and Krista. Oh yeah, the brains can talk!
Velma needs help hacking the killer’s phone, and Daphne’s parents say she can help because of the incident. Now Velma wants Daphne to also help go to the woods to find something (I don’t remember what Velma’s reasoning to go to the woods is). When Velma goes to ask Daphne for help Daphne declines because she is hanging out with Olive (Fortune Feimster). In a moment of selfishness, Velma fakes a hallucination in order to get Daphne to come out to the woods and help her.
Back to the present time, we see Norville and Gigi are also stuck in the ravine with them. Norville and Gigi are here, we see through a flashback, because Gigi tried to get Norville out to her parent’s cabin for a romantic getaway. Turns out Norville ends up bringing Velma and Daphne along. This is when we learn what “the incident” was. Daphne became obsessed with Gigi, and hacked into her phone for some reason. The whole “incident” thing is a forced Chekov’s Gun just to set up having Daphne break into the killer’s phone. I think there were better ways they could have gotten into the killer’s phone honestly.
Daphne and Gig storm out of the cabin, where they soon find themselves stuck on the edge of a cliff. The cliff is breaking under them, eventually taking Norville and Velma with them. There really isn’t a good reason to have them in this location and predicament, and like the phone hacking thing, seems incredibly forced. There is, however, a moment that they really could have played up well and bungled it, again.
The four friends realize they can shift the boulder ever so slightly. When they realize this, they notice one of them can escape, but they have to crush one of them to do so. As much as I like Gigi as a character, I think this could have been a great moment to kill off her character. Knowing that Norville will never truly get over Velma, it would have been a wild character arc to have Gigi sacrifice herself so that the three of them could go own. A trauma bond would have been shared by Velma, Norville, and Daphne and would have given some heavy emotional weight to this episode.
Soon the ground beneath them breaks, again. The four of them fall through the ground and into the Crystal Caves. They realize that these caves are how the killer can get around easily and undetected. Once in the caves, they hear Fred yelling and we find out the laboratory he is in is actually connected to the caves. Velma and Daphne find Fred, and the brains. For some reason Fred starts screaming, which creates ANOTHER landslide, and trapping them in the caves.
The ground breaks beneath them in the lab, and just as Velma almost falls into ANOTHER ravine…a hand reaches out and saves her. It’s Diya! The cave is starting to completely collapse. Diya decides they will drive out of the cave. But with what car? A pure white Mystery Machine jalopy! We finally get to see the Mystery Machine! Some great fan service here.
Diya maneuvers the Mystery Machine through the caves and ends up saving everyone!
The idea of this episode is decent, and it was executed fine. Although the setup of everything just seemed too well timed. I’m glad we finally get to see that Diya is still alive, and seeing the Mystery Machine is a real treat. The only question is, is Diya the serial killer? Will Diya be framed as the serial killer? Next week we have the two final episodes of the season, and only time will tell if we get clear cut answers, or if we end up with cliffhangers for a possible second season?
