Okay, so
the originally-unaired episodes of Welcome
to the Wayne are hiding Andrew Rannells voiceover gold! This is probably Andrei’s biggest episode
since “Some Kind of Tap-Dancing, Bee-Keeping Whaler,” and it’s a ton of fun to
boot.
The kids’
attempt to protect Andrei from the spy, who’s still determined to get him in
her clutches, collides with the dinner party Olly has arranged between his
family and Ansi’s. No one is happy with
this arrangement – Ansi is worried about what his overly-analytical
psychiatrist dad will make of Olly, and Saraline doesn’t want her and Olly’s
parents getting wind of their paranormal activities, easier said than done when
they bring along a vampire as a dinner guest and the spy and one of her
accomplices show up uninvited.
While
this isn’t the first time Olly and Saraline’s parents have appeared on the
show, we definitely get a lot more of them here than we have before. A pair of inventors of varying levels of
eccentricity, it’s clear that Saraline and Olly come by their gadget skills honestly. And naturally, the whole Timbers clan is
quite the sight for Ansi’s dad. Between
the robot that lovingly removes people’s shoes, the laser that slices cheese,
and the holographic-rat-based board game, the household inventions are a lot to
take. (I’m very pleased, by the way,
that this series gave me cause to compose that sentence.) In addition to being a fun “mismatched dinner
party” story, the plotline also offers a good conflict between Ansi and Olly. Being around his dad ramps up Ansi’s usual
anxiety, and amid Ansi’s pleas for him to act “normal,” Olly starts to worry
that his best friend is embarrassed by him.
As I
said, this is a major episode for Rannells’s Andrei. The dinner party puts him in the position of
having to pretend to be a regular guy, which is tall order when a) he seems to
have interacted with very few people other than the kids, b) he still has
amnesia, and c) after the events of the last episode, he has a tendency to
levitate when he gets nervous. Throw in
the spy, and it’s not a good combination.
(Side note: I like that, while
Andrei is very obviously stronger, more powerful, and more capable in a fight
than the kids, he’s still kind of a scaredy-cat. It’s sweet when the kids are protective of
him.)
As such,
it’s great fun watching him very awkwardly try to fit in with people who don’t
know he’s a vampire. The amnesia gets
more play than anything else – I like his sheepish admission that he can’t
remember how to throw a ball, and meeting Olly and Saraline’s mom gets him in
the feels about the family he presumably has but can’t remember. These thoughts have him alternately latching
onto Mrs. Timbers, feeling sad, and being his usual, slightly-awkward self –
Rannells’s delivery of, “Families, am I right?
I don’t know if I’m right – I don’t have a family,” is my favorite part
of the episode.
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