Creature Commandos Episode 5
"The Iron Pot"
Writer: James Gunn
Director: Matt Peters
Cast: Stephanie Beatriz, Kari Whalgren, David Harbour, Frank Grillo, Indira Varma, Maria Bakalova, Irina Maleeva, Alan Tudyk, Zoë Chao
Unlike the last episode, this one is all action. We get big fights from pretty much everyone in this one.
Aisla McPherson (Stephanie Beatriz), who was introduced in Episode 4 as the leading expert on all things Themiscyra, opens this episode teaching a college class and thoroughly harassing a buxom student (that's how she's listed in the credits — I didn't come up with it!) played by Kari Whalgren (DC Superhero Girls, Kung-Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness). It's creepy and inappropriate, which Frankenstein (David Harbour) and Rick Flagg Sr. (Frank Grillo) both note from the window they are spying on her from.
Their plan is to find some dirt on McPherson to convince Amanda Waller that Circe was lying about Pokolistan taking over the world. That was all last episode. I hope you are all caught up. (If not, check out Pop Heist's other recaps of Creature Commandos!)
So much of this series is told in flashback, and we now get Frankenstein's backstory. After he killed Victor back in Episode 2, he and The Bride (Indira Varma) fought and he was burned up by the castle fire. He manages to escape the burning building, although he is badly wounded.
The Creature Commandos make it to the Pokolistan airfield, where they're being cagy about why they've returned. There's a threat, The Bride notes, but it's classified, and she can't tell the Pokolistan guards about it. In America, Flagg tries to warn Princess Ilana Rostovic (Maria Bakalova), but can't get through to his once lover. He and Frankenstein break into McPherson's house and find the actual professor dead in her office — but someone's been feeding her cat. This means that someone is posing as McPherson to convince Amanda Waller to assault Pokolistan again. It's a trap!
Flagg manages to get through to the Princess to warn her, but Frankenstein is upset that Flagg didn't mention him on the call to try and butter the Princess up to tell The Bride nice things about Frankenstein when she arrives. He's got a one-track mind and it's awful.
In flashback, Frankenstein recalls how he was rescued and brought back to health by an old blind woman named Bogdana (Irina Maleeva, Satyricon, Spirits of the Dead) and her dog Ivan. All he can talk to her about is The Bride and how they're meant for each other. When he pities Bogdana for not being able to see beauty, she tells him to close his eyes and picture The Bride. That, she says, is how she experiences beauty, in her head, and it's more beautiful than he can imagine. She tells Frankenstein she's happier living with him than she's ever been.
Back in Pokolistan, The Bride explains to the Pokolistani soldier driving the squad that there is going to be an assassination attempt, but since the soldiers have gotten word from The Princess that the Creature Commandos aren't to be trusted, he delays getting them to the castle until platoons can be mobilized. Dr. Phosphorus (Alan Tudyk) realizes that the guard is stalling and melts his face from the backseat.
The battle is intense, but only two of the Commandos do any damage. Nina Mazursky (Zoë Chao) runs off and hides in an abandoned building, and Weasel just scurries off. Dr. Phosphorus is incredible, though. When threatened by a tank, he strips naked and just lets it come at him, burning through the metal AND the soldiers inside by just standing put, middle fingers burning through their skulls.
The Bride is just as destructive, taking down the Atomic Knight-styled Pokolistani guards and pulling off their arm-mounted laser weapons. She uses said weapons to decimate the rest of them. She runs to find Nina, or Phosphorus, or even Weasel, from all of whom she's now separated.
Meanwhile, back in America, "Dr. McPherson" comes home and Flagg and Frankenstein hide. They try to sneak out as McPherson begins playing a game of Mortal Kombat on a clearly visible XBox. As they try to sneak out, McPherson's real identity is revealed: it's Batman villain Clayface! Also voiced by Alan Tudyk, but not the same characterization as Tudyk's Clayface for the Harley Quinn cartoon. It's gruff and guttural and actually threatening.
Despite Flagg and Frankenstein making little noise, Clayface's tendrils take notice of them and the fight begins. Neither is any match for Clayface, who breaks Flagg's back. Frankenstein is almost suffocated, but manages to bust through the wall and grab some power lines, electrocuting Clayface. He holds Flagg for his last moments, but all he can ask is if The Bride ever talked about him. Flagg apparently dies in the uncaring arms of Frankenstein.
The show flashes back to Frankenstein packing up to leave Bogdana. She pleads with him not to go, but he has a mission: to find his bride and win her back. In an act of irredeemable callousness, he smashes her head in with a box — to prevent her from being alone, he says. It's cruel and shows us all we need to know about Frankenstein: There's no heroic turn for this monster.
As the episode wraps up, Princess Rostovic is told about the massacre of her troops by the Creature Commandos. Since she has heard from Flagg that the whole operation is a sham and that Waller was fooled by Circe, she gives the order to kill Task Force M.
