2x03 Beanie Get Your Gun

[7.4/10] The first outright quality episode of the season so far. I enjoyed both halves: the story of Derek coming of age and Bean & co. investigating who shot Pendergast. Both had their charms, their twists, and even some sweetness.

I particularly liked the Derek story. There’s a nice little arc for him here. He’s such a kind but naive little boy that he gets taken advantage of by everyone: elves, woodland critters, even a decrepit old mouse. Then he meets Sagatha and her other fairies who teach him about projecting confidence and discernment and how to be less of a rube. The show dramatizes that simply with him “watching the sleeves” of the card shark (er...card raccoon) to pick up on the skullduggery, and coming up with clever ways to outwit the biting mouse. The show notes the simplicity of the story, but it works.

Where it gets a little odd is him trying to marry Sagatha. There’s something a little uncomfortable, to say the least, about a barely pubescent forming a relationship with a grizzled old fairy. But the fact that Tress MacNeille voices both characters takes some of the edge off, and there’s something bizarre but sweet about it. Sagatha gives Derek a sincere speech about what to look for in someone who loves you, and it’s low key moving on its own. It’s sweet, if a touch misguided, when Derek looks to Sagatha as one of the few people in this world who’s shown him kindness and thinks that person must be her.

Bean’s half of the episode is more on the pure entertainment side, but I like the setup of Bean and Odval each suspecting one another of some threatening malfeasance, and their awkward interactions throughout the episode. Bean trying to find the gun used to kill Pendergast is a good plot motivator, and leads to amusing hijinks, with her consulting the crystal ball, Luci and Elfo spooking one another, and even Miss Moonpence helping them out when it looks like Odval’s stashed a gun in his globe.

But my favorite part is how the stories come together at Derek’s wedding. Having been taught by his fairy mentors, Derek knows to look at the sleeves and spies the Arch Druidess’s gun, identifying her as the traitor. It’s a great payoff to him becoming a sharper player here, and a clever twist to the mystery. Likewise, I like that in the end, Odval saves Bean, suggesting that his loyalties are, at a minimum, more complicated than she or we thought. And the reveal that the Arch Druidess is from Steamland is intriguing as hell.

It’s not a perfect episode by any stretch. Zog’s madness shtick isn’t terribly funny and the slapstick of Elfo stuck in the globe is pretty lame. But there’s some amusing self-aware humor when a villager points out plot holes and notes how people continually come back from the dead on this show, and it’s surprisingly enervating to see Oona return to the show for Derek’s wedding and express concern about Zog.

Overall, this feels like Disenchantment finding another gear in its third season, and I hope it manages to say there!