‘Creature Commandos’ Episode Seven Recap: “A Very Funny Monster”

*Warning: The following article contains spoilers for episode seven of Creature Commandos.*

We’ve now reached the last episode of Creature Commandos, and things ended relatively lukewarmly. We finally know why writer James Gunn purposefully saved the backstory of Nina Mazursky (Zoë Chao) for last. Not because she was the show’s most potent character or had hidden abilities waiting to be released powerfully, but simply because of her involvement in a reasonably pivotal moment of the climax. As Task Force M is once again united in Pokolistan after being separated in the last episode, they are now completing the objective of assassinating Princess Ilana Rostovic (Maria Bakalova). 

In the hospital, Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) slightly wakes up from his coma to tell Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) that A.R.G.U.S. made a mistake by listening to Circe (Anya Chalotra) and Dr. MacPherson (Stephanie Beatriz), because – shocker! – “MacPherson isn’t MacPherson.” This prompts Waller and John Economos (Steve Agee) to verify this by visiting her house. In the living room lies Clayface’s (Alan Tudyk) body, with MacPherson’s corpse upstairs. Waller immediately calls Pokolistan to inform her that the Creature Commandos are on their way to kill the princess when they shouldn’t, admitting to their mistake of listening to a Themysciran witch who can manipulate the mind. 

However, since our “heroes” are impervious to Amanda’s call, The Bride (Indira Varma) enacts a plan for Nina to sneak in underwater and stab Rostovic to death. It’s also there that Gunn and director Matt Peters shift gears and pull back the curtain on Nina’s childhood, born as a human with lungs outside her body. Her father, Dr. Edward Mazursky (Gregg Henry), develops a machine for her to live and breathe as a baby, but it has grown too complicated now that she has become a toddler. 

Experimenting with an unspecified component, Nina reacts to the drug by transforming into a fishlike creature. When she acclimates herself to her newfound abilities, Edward enrolls her daughter in a private school in an attempt for her to socialize and build friendships. However, and predictably so, the opposite happens: she is constantly bullied by her peers, causing her to leave school and live in the sewers, away from society. One day, Nina is captured by the police, which creates a stir within the community, including her own father, who, in an attempt to appeal to the officers’ humanity and treat her with compassion, is shot and killed. 

Afterward, we cut back to the show’s somewhat subdued climax, where Nina is underwater, ready to lure Rostovic in…until Weasel (Sean Gunn) alerts the princess, causing her to discover that Nina is directly under her feat. This leads to a one-on-one fight, ending with the princess successfully stabbing Nina to death. The Knights capture the remaining members until Waller calls and explains their mistake. They are now free to go, but The Bride has a few things to say about Rostovic murdering Nina, the person who she considers to be her only friend. 

In that scene, The Bride discovers the princess’ true intentions. Yes, she’s been bad all along. However, her plan makes zero sense, or at least isn’t thoroughly explained for it to be effective. So she wanted Circe to tell Waller of the princess’ true intentions and then create an elaborate plot to stop her assassination? Why would you ever want to reveal yourself to your ‘enemies’? And what does Clayface have to do with anything? The motivations felt rushed and half-baked, making this entire curtain pull sequence somewhat perplexing, even if The Bride shooting the princess in the head felt satisfying enough. We could’ve gotten a true unmasking moment, where the plan would be fully laid out, but it seems more like an afterthought than a significant development in the series since Gunn devotes half of each episode to flashbacks on specific characters. 

As for Eric Frankenstein (David Harbour), he gets immediately shot by The Bride once he arrives at Rostovic’s and is left for dead. That was quite funny, though the post-credits scene reveals him to be alive! And he only has one thing in mind: the “love of his life.” What will happen next? It’s anybody’s game. Meanwhile, The Bride returns to Belle Reve and is now part of a new Task Force M, comprised of Doctor Phosphorous (Alan Tudyk), Weasel, an improved G.I. Robot (Sean Gunn), King Shark (Diedrich Bader), Nosferata, and Khalis. 

Where will they go next, or what their future mission will be, remains to be seen. However, it’s clear the DC Universe will evolve in a bigger (and hopefully) better direction than it did in the past. Out with the old. In with the new. If this is what James Gunn wanted to achieve with Creature Commandos, he mostly succeeded. However, the real litmus test for the franchise will be how Superman performs, both critically and commercially. How that fares will only be revealed this upcoming July as the DCU now goes up, up, and away to try and make us believe, once again, that a man can fly…

All episodes of Creature Commandos are now available to stream on Max.