Really great episode – I loved it. It’s another featuring quite a bit of Matthew, and it’s a big showing for the Shame Wizard, who’s turning into such an effective character. At first, he was just kind of all-right to me: gets the job done, but the Hormone Monsters are a lot more entertaining. However, while the latter is still true, the Shame Wizard makes an excellent adversary for pretty much all the kids, an outward manifestation of the ways they’re hurtful to themselves (a few spoilers.)
Nick has just had his first official makeout session featuring actual boob-touching, a fact he’s not exactly shy about. Unfortunately, he’s freer with that information than Gina would prefer, and the news starts spreading right as the the kids are gathering at school for a sleepover to see a lunar eclipse. That’s just one of the many personal issues swirling around the sleepover, and the Shame Wizard is there to whisper in everyone’s ear, spreading insecurity and hurt feelings everywhere he goes.
Nearly everyone is coming into this sleepover with something they’re sensitive about, and as secrets start getting around, the Shame Wizard is vicious, gliding from kid to kid. He eggs them on to make them lash out at each other, and even when they realize they’ve gone too far, he lays into their guilt in a way that just makes them lash out harder in an attempt to outrun what they’ve done. It’s a great narrative device that builds the episode to a perfect storm of tween angst, conflict, and humiliation. Additionally, Nick’s makeout session allows the show to get into the inevitable double standard between guys and girls when it comes to physical encounters (spoiler alert: of the two parties, only one gets slut-shamed.)
Of course, this being Big Mouth, it’s equal parts painfully real and awesomely funny. Among the fun bits here, we get the Hormone Monstress conducting a “makeout concerto in full C-cup,” Coach Steve announcing that any student who’s “a Transformer” can sleep on either the boys’ or the girls’ side of the gym, and the dismayed wail, “Oh my god! We’re part of the patriarchy!”
Once again, Matthew has his own subplot here, one of the insecure threads the Shame Wizard is pulling at. As a result of his experiences in the previous episode, he’s trying not to be so mean, but being nicer 1) doesn’t come naturally to him (“Sorry, I’m working on it,” he drawls after he calls the green M&M the c-word,) and 2) has its disadvantages. As I’ve speculated, his usual bitchy persona is at least partially a defense mechanism, a way of keeping other kids intimidated so no one gives him any crap, and as he gets a little less standoffish, he’s more vulnerable to the other kids’ comments and reactions.
I like where this story is going. While it’s very much a sad gay storyline – the Shame Wizard even calls Matthew a “lonely little queer,” ugh – it feels more complex to me than where we started on this in the last episode. For one, I think the show is exploring it in a way that feels true to Matthew’s character. He’s almost always the first one in line with a withering insult, and he’s always merciless. As such, it’s interesting to flip the script on that – even when another kid isn’t being outright mean to him, he doesn’t know what to do when he’s not firing the first shot, and it’s really throwing him for a loop. Second, the setting of the episode feels like a fitting place for this stuff to be coming up. Everyone’s a little out of their element at a school sleepover, and for Matthew, that means feeling adrift among the quasi-tribalism between the boys and girls, both of whom have established rigid, gendered expectations for how they’re “supposed” to behave, and Matthew doesn’t seem to fit anywhere. I’m interested to see what comes next!
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