Overview:
Stolen x-ray technology and the latest elevated horror film become the catalysts for an emotional journey into Bertie’s past. One of this bird’s most important friendships, a high school bond with a bold bat named Muriel Nocturna, gets out of hand and sets the tone for the rest of Bertie’s intimate encounters. An unexpected reckoning from the past causes Bertie to soberly assess her past and come to terms with this piece of her that got away.
Our Take:
Every episode of Tuca & Bertie digs into some emotionally mature territory that’s able to administer some advice on how to make better sense of one’s thirties. These lessons are frequently uncomfortable, yet enlightening exercises in honesty and flawed characterization. Tuca and Bertie have built themselves up to be an incredible duo, but they’ve only been able to reach this place after plenty of missteps along the way. It’s never easy to burn bridges and lose a relationship with someone who used to play an important role in your life. “Screech Leeches” scratches at a vulnerable area where a less confident Bertie from the past messes up an important relationship in her life, yet the episode uses this festering grief to help her move forward in the present and avoid making the same mistakes.
Tuca & Bertie hasn’t shied away from the painful pieces of Bertie’s past and in some respects the “visceral nightmare” that’s presented in “Screech Leeches” is a spiritual sequel to season one’s crushing “Jelly Lakes.” “Screech Leeches” highlights the birth and death of a young Bertie’s bond with Muriel Nocturnal, her first true friend. The tender beginnings of this friendship are so sweet, especially once their bond begins to bloom. “Screech Leeches” is at its best during these moments where the erratic nature of the flashback’s visual aesthetics echo Bertie’s growing insecurities. A lot of Bertie’s storylines in the series revolve around her struggles with confidence, but rarely is the issue as cogent and calcified as it is here. Bertie might have turned into a completely different person if her relationship with Muriel never soured.
”Screech Leeches” is also able to get into more of Bertie’s raw relationship with her mom. She seems totally pleasant in these flashbacks, but Tuca & Bertie has established her to be such an overbearing and triggering figure in Bertie’s life from everything that Bertie’s previously expressed. “Screech Leeches” doesn’t propose that Bertie’s animosity towards her mother is imagined or unfounded, but it’s helpful that the episode does present a broader picture wherein the audience can be a better objective judge of the situation instead of only hearing Bertie’s side of this struggle.
The other fascinating component of “Screech Leeches” is that all of Bertie’s sweaty soul searching is preemptively brought on by herself. Granted, the release of Muriel’s film is what pushes Bertie into this dark territory, but these worries remain hypothetical. It’s not as if Bertie watches the movie and witnesses an exaggerated cinematic caricature of herself and then reassess her past. Her compulsion to jump to the worst conclusion says a lot more about her remaining guilt over her falling out with Muriel than how Muriel has processed this over the years. Bertie’s shocked to learn that her friendship with Muriel had no influence on her latest movie, but it’s not difficult for the audience to see this coming.
“Screech Leeches” isn’t lacking when it comes to emotion and personal breakthroughs, but one of the episode’s strongest qualities is also the distinct art styles that’s used for the fantasy flashbacks (which is also effectively mirrored in Muriel Nocturna’s impressionistic horror film). There’s a raw juvenile energy to the aesthetic that perfectly meshes with this blast back to Bertie’s high school years. It’s a stylistic decision that’s ultimately unnecessary and it’s clear that these sequences are set in the past without some type of visual cue to help the audience figure this out. However, it’s still such a nice touch that’s consistent with Tuca & Bertie’s past approaches to flashbacks and memories. It’s easily one of the most visually appealing episodes of the series.
Tuca & Bertie continues to dominate in its third season with confident, layered storytelling that’s not afraid to get its hands dirty and explore messy territory with its characters. Tuca and Bertie have had to face some difficult truths, but the series never stops being funny or devolves into a brooding black hole. Three seasons in, Tuca & Bertie understands how to offset its melodrama with silly frivolity. “Screech Leeches” is another standout installment in the series, both in terms of an entertaining piece of storytelling and as an enlightening tool to better understand its characters.