‘Creature Commandos’ Episode Four Recap: “Chasing Squirrels”

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

I’ll eat my shoe and say I was wrong about my first impressions of Creature Commandos. While its first two episodes didn’t posit the show as an essential or entertaining first installment in the DCU, writer James Gunn has completely flipped the story to its head, as we now reach the halfway mark with “Chasing Squirrels” this week, before the final three episodes. 

Sam Liu returns to the director’s chair and visualizes a sequence of incredible importance and emotional weight as Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) accepts to look into the future at the request of Circe (Anya Chalotra). The Theymisciran’s plan to kill Princess Ilana Rostovic (Maria Bakalova) has failed, and she is now under the custody of Waller, John Economos (Steve Agee), and Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) at Belle Reve. Interrogated by Waller, Circe tells her point-blank that Rostovic being alive will bring about the end of the world and consequences that she cannot even fathom or understand.

Not believing a single word out of her mouth, Waller reluctantly accepts to see into Circe’s visions (she is confirmed to be a clairvoyant by way of Dr. Aisla MacPherson, voiced by Stephanie Beatriz). Before answering if she is ready, Circe inserts a vision of a post-apocalyptic world, where Rostovic’s survival leads to the death of multiple heroes (we see Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, crucified, alongside Peacemaker, Booster Gold, and many others who fleetingly appear int he background) and nations being overthrown, as she willingly massacres millions side-by-side with Gorilla Grodd (the DCU’s first “Big Bad”? Time will tell!).

Scored through the fast-paced violin of Gogol Bordello’s “I Would Never Wanna Be Young Again,” the scene strikes us with its show-stopping animation and immediate darker tone that could very well be what Chapter One of the DCU is building towards. It doesn’t last long, but the scene has a profound, lasting impact on us and Amanda. Shocked by what she has envisioned, Waller enlists Flag to once again travel with Task Force M to Pokolistan so they assassinate Rostovic. However, he’s fallen in love with her (as much as he doesn’t want to admit it) and attempts to stop Waller from acting based on a ‘potential’ projection.

It doesn’t matter – what she has seen has profoundly destabilized her that she will stop at nothing to ensure Rostovic is killed. Flag is now taken off Task Force M, with The Bride (Indira Varma) now leading the squad, only comprised of Doctor Phosphorous (Alan Tudyk), Nina Mazursky (Zoë Chao), and Weasel (Sean Gunn). Flag, on the other hand, goes back home to prepare a plan to stop them but is attacked by Eric Frankenstein (David Harbour), who believes him to be in love with The Bride. Eric is infatuated with her, but her constant rejection has made him jealous of other men she is spending time with, no matter if their relationship is strictly professional. 

Once Flag clears everything up and tells Eric that his perception of their relationship is based on a misunderstanding, the two talk to each other and ultimately decide to join forces and stop Waller from doing something she might regret. However, Flag doesn’t know what Waller has seen, which can complexify the conflict in the last three remaining episodes, focusing on the character’s personal attachment with an individual who has seemingly used his vulnerabilities to manipulate him.

As The Bride’s squad travels to Pokolistan, Gunn again develops a core member of the task, with flashbacks that show how Weasel ended up where he is now. Through the figure of Weasel’s lawyer, Elizabeth Bates (Linda Cardellini), we learn that he is named “John Doe,” who was branded as a child killer based on the perception of a bystander who saw him interact with kids at an elementary school. Bates maintains his client’s innocence, and as Weasel sleeps, we learn exactly what happened. 

Weasel has only been playing with them and means absolutely no harm. The children are only fascinated by such a creature and begin to develop a bond with them until he goes inside the school, and the unfathomable happens. As he walks with the children in the building, a bystander sees him and calls the police, suspecting that he is luring them in to kill them. 

Upon entering the school, the bystander holds a gun in front of Weasel and accidentally shoots it, triggering an explosion that kills most of the children inside. As the police arrive, they see Weasel pull the remaining living kids away from the fire, but his eyes posit the creature, through the point-of-view of the officers, as a threat. It leads to the police opening fire and accidentally, once again, killing the last remaining child. As a result, they ultimately arrest and frame Weasel for their murders.

It’s a tragic flashback, harrowingly depicted, that deepens a character whom we initially thought was just a mindless, powerless killing machine with an insatiable thirst for rage. But that’s the beauty of James Gunn’s writing – even the smallest characters in isolation usually have the biggest and most incremental backstory of them all (look at how he treated Rocket Raccoon in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 as an example).

As Weasel continues to dream about his dark past, Nina wonders exactly what he’s dreaming about. The Bride, impervious to his past, says, “Probably chasing squirrels.” 

Oh, if they only knew…

The fourth episode of Creature Commandos is now available to stream on Max.