Krapopolis – Season 1 Episode 10 “Ty’s Tail Tale” Recap & Review

Ty’s Tail Tale

Episode 10 of Krapopolis brings a lot of challenges to the fore. Numero uno, Tyrannis has to deal with Asskill and his goons, who keep stealing the city’s cattle. The king finds himself helpless in the situation. Next, at the family breakfast table, he learns about the death of Shlub’s father. Shlub, however, has made his peace with the event. He was estranged from his father who was not an admirable character. Shlub explains that he was a very different person before he met Deliria. His condition was so bad that he almost became like his father.

Tyrannis, though, sees this as an opportunity to bond with him and forces Shlub to fly him to his grandfather’s funeral. At the island, we meet Belinda, Shlub’s father’s witch. It is also revealed that Shlub and she are ex-lovers…a gory detail that throws off Tyrannis. Belinda explains that now that the monster is dead, all his “curses” must be “undone,” or reversed. Shlub isn’t in the mood. However, once Tyrannis learns he was also cursed as an unborn child, he requests Belinda to undo his curse. But he has no idea what he is getting into…

The next morning when he wakes up, Tyrannis discovers he has a scorpion tail! It looks exactly like the one that Shlub has. The proud father explains that Tyrannis isn’t a human and the curse was for him to look “hideous,” which in their parlance meant that he didn’t have a tail. Tyrannis is ashamed but goes on with his day, trying his best not to expose the tail. When Asskill and his men once again come to loot, Tyrannis inadvertently uses his tail to successfully intimidate them.

This gives him the idea to use it to bully people. He wins their confidence by scaring them into accepting him as the king. Despite Shlub’s best attempts to make him realize, Tyrannis sticks with his new avatar. Shlub cannot watch his son descend to the temptations of the tail. To bring him back on the right track, Shlub “becomes like his own father” and gets violent with Tyrannis.

They exchange blows as Shlub beseeches Tyrannis to understand that he is proud of the man he has become…even without the need to forcefully assert his authority or win over people by making them hate him. Belinda agrees to put back the curse on Tyrannis and enjoys a steamy lovemaking session with Shlub.

Meanwhile, Hippocampus and Stupendous are once again paired together for a subplot involving a Pegasus that their parents domesticate. They drink its milk every day. Deliria gives strict instructions to them not to ride it. She doesn’t even tell them where it is kept. However, their curiosity makes them follow her and learn its location.

They unchain him, trying to do the “right thing.” For a while, they enjoy riding it across the city and over the forests…but it soon turns into their worst nightmare as the Pegasus takes them straight to a cave filled with unicorns under its command. Both of them are stunned by unicorns and taken to be prepared as food for newborn babies. They see the little ones devouring live human beings. But since they are paralyzed and cannot move an inch of their bodies, they are helpless.

In an inspired moment, Stupendous uses her “limited body movements” to kill some unicorns and escape the cave with Hippocampus. However, a horde of unicorns chases them through the neighbouring cities. They somehow reach Krapopolis, where Deliria fights the Pegasus and neutralizes him. Since the connection is like a hive mind, when the Pegasus is knocked unconscious, all the other unicorns die.

The Episode Review

Episode 10 of Krapopolis isn’t particularly special. After a good run recently, the show has gone back to its choppy self. It is fair to say that this could be the norm going forward. Coming to the episode, the subplots had contrasting fortunes. While the one with Hippocampus and Stupendous did not hit the mark, the other subplot involving Tyrannis, flourished because of what it does for our perennially insecure and underconfident protagonist.

The plot involving Tyrannis is an important milestone in the development of his arc; the other one is lazily written. Hannah Wadingham (Deliria) hardly features in the episode and her final showdown with the pegasus is wasteful. It is expected that she will wriggle the siblings out of any tricky situation so this aspect of the plot did not excite me in the least bit.

Seeing Shlub console Tyrannis and say that he is proud of his son was heartening. He might not be particularly likeable but he is a decent leader, something we cannot say about today’s democracies.

The animation and other technical aspects in the episode weren’t too impressive. The short music number – a first for the series – did fit in very well, however. But the episode is definitely patchy, overall.