Review: Happy! “Resurrection”

Best. Easter. Ever.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Smoothie’s master plan continues to unfold as Nick awakens in the skybox at Sonny Shine’s Easter Extravaganza show. All the dominoes are in place, with Hailey being presented by Orcas as Sonny’s soloist for the evening. What Sonny doesn’t realize, however, is that Hailey is doing this to get a chance to finally kill Sonny, the one who stole Hailey’s innocence last season.

Nick is helpless to watch this unfold as Smoothie explains this was his plan all along, the only way he could truly get vengeance against Nick. By staining Hailey’s innocent hands in blood. Amanda, meanwhile, has been locked in a storage room by Smoothie, but Happy is on the move to find some way to save Hailey from doing the unthinkable.

The show begins and Sonny goes on stage to “entertain” his audience with his bizarre, insane brand of children’s programming. He calls for Hailey to join him on stage, where she sings a haunting aria as she pulls the gun from her basket. Just as she’s about to shoot Sonny, though, the lights go out, and Sonny begins the next phase of his act, which involves him killing the murderous leather rabbit. Nick, aided by Happy, manages to get onstage and stop Hailey from shooting Sonny by taking the bullet himself. Amanda then kills Sonny herself with a shotgun. Nick apologizes to Hailey before passing out on the floor.

Nick is taken to the hospital, where he is pronounced dead by the doctors operating on him. Happy recognizes this means that he’ll be dead soon too because there’s no one left to believe in him. Yet, strangely enough, Happy doesn’t die. Meanwhile, in Nick’s mind, Nick is about to go to his eternal paradise when Orcas rudely interrupts him. He offers Nick a chance at resurrection. Nick initially refuses, but Orcas tempts him with a chance at revenge on Smoothie, an idea Nick likes very much. He is then resurrected, but at the price of belonging to Orcas for all eternity

We then see what has happened to everyone in Nick’s absence. Meredith takes care of Hailey, while Happy returns to the imaginary friends bar to find Bo Peep getting laid by another imaginary friend. Angry at his situation, Happy flies to the sky where he speaks to God, who is rather cynical about humanity. He tells Happy to try and be a good friend and find Sax, who he reveals is actually alive.

Six months later, Nick confronts Smoothie at his house and gets the vengeance he so richly desires. He tosses Smoothie around his home and then snaps his neck several times before decapitating him and leaving him out front as a Jack o’ Lantern.

Our Take:

This is it folks, the final episode of the strange roller coaster that has been the season two of Happy!. It’s been quite a ride, and one that wasn’t always great, but as it all comes together in this final episode, this show reminds us what it can really do when it decides to pull out all the stops. This is an exciting, emotional, dramatic fever dream that wraps everything up nice and tight while still making for an entertaining, action-packed hour of psycho-pop programming. If you’ve stuck around this far, you’ll no doubt enjoy this finale.

While not everything works in this episode, (Or the show in general, which can be pretty hit or miss at times) what does work is due to some truly impressive acting. Christopher Meloni as Nick Sax is always entertaining, proving that Meloni has some serious comedy chops, but it’s the rogue’s gallery that really steals the show. Orcas, Smoothie, and even Sonny (Who tends to be annoying more than anything else, but it’s an intentional annoying) are the ones who inject the gasoline into this production. Orcas chew the furniture in every scene he’s in and Smoothie wins the MVP for best villain this time around. His unique blend vengeance fetishism and contemplative, sadistic psychopathy, put him somewhere near “Emperor Palpatine” on the villainry scale. Without these stunning performances, I don’t think this episode would be half as good.

Tonally, the episode is solid from start to finish, capturing that perfect creepiness that has followed this whole season. For most of the season, I found this tone to be too heavy for the show, but it adds gravitas to this episode that makes the emotion far more palpable than in the first season. One realizes that this is a battle for Hailey’s very soul, not just a simply romp around through New York, beating down anyone in your way. That original simplicity was part of the fun of the first season, but this concluding episode is great in its own way. Hailey’s performance on stage evoked a genuine emotional response from me. It was at times hard to watch with how choked up I was getting at certain points.

With the core storytelling handled well, all that’s left to critique is the execution and “entertainment value” of the episode. On that end, this episode holds nothing back, coming up with a variety of fun setpieces for Nick and Amanda to do battle in. Happy giving Nick “imaginary” alcohol was a clever way to turn things around, and it’s great to see Nick let loose without reservation in his fighting.

It’s all over, now, but I’m quite satisfied with how it all turned out. While it’s ending was kind of strange and seemed to exist mostly as a way to lead us into season three, it was still better than most shows out there today. Farewell, Happy! season two, it’s been a fun ride.