Krapopolis – Season 1 Episode 5 “12 Angry Goat Herders” Recap & Review

12 Angry Goat Herders

Episode 5 of Krapopolis divides its time between different bonding experiences. Tyrannis faces an uphill task as his father, Shlub, is the suspect of an angry mob demanding justice for slain goats. Deliria and Hippocampus are engaged in a battle of love and power as the latter “robs” the former of her worshippers using science.

In the first subplot, we see King Tyrannis give birth to the modern criminal justice system where the people, a.k.a., a jury, make the decision on a man’s innocence or guilt. He grabs ahold of the oldest man in the city and puts him in the seat of a judge. Tyrannis will be advocating for his father in the trial. Whereas unexpectedly, legal sphinx Brenda flies in to fight for the prosecution. Tyranis finds it hard to woo the jury, who are offended by every single thing he says. Brenda, on the other hand, is smooth with her badly patched riddles and characterizes Shlub as a sleazy monster. During the trial, we even see witnesses testifying, one of whom reveals that many years ago, ascendants of Shlub ate babies.

The court is squarely against Shlub and Tyrannis is running out of options. He finds himself defeated in the middle of his argument when he realizes what will turn the tide. His father never lies. It is one of Shlub’s most ingenious qualities. Yes, he is a monster who eats babies; he may be disgusting to look at; and the monstrosity of his actions is certainly not a human quality. But he does not lie. And Tyrannis runs with that.

When Deliria ignores her stepson’s requests to appreciate his new invention of a handpump, Hippocampus goes to the neighboring city and wins over the Killasians. It is an act of protest against Deliria’s indifference to what Hippocampus does. Hermes informs Deliria that the Killasians are now worshipping “science” instead of her, which irks her. She flies to the city but to no avail.

While having a recess outside court, Tyrannis suggests Deliria be worthy of worship by listening to her subjects. Instead, she tries to bribe them and it does not work. They still hail science and Deliria is forced to come to the negotiating table with Hippocampus. He is clear in what he wants – for Deliria to allow him to call her “mom.” Even though it will not make a difference in Deliria’s love for him, or lack thereof, every time he says the word will be a reminder of his victory. Deliria is miffed but agrees to do so and flies away with Hippocampus.

To further strengthen the resolve of the villagers to pray to her, Deliria infests the city with locusts. When it seems like Shlub will win the case, one of the villagers in attendance at the court gets up and unwittingly accepts that he killed the goats. He wanted the blame to be assigned to Shlub because that particular man belonged to the generation of babies whom Shlub ate.

He wanted revenge for his fallen brothers and sisters. The jury finds Shlub innocent and runs after the fleeing criminal.  The family reunites with renewed energy outside the court, looking at a more united front going forward. 

The Episode Review

Krapopolis is getting better with every episode and that is great news for Fox. They have a lot riding on the show as its primetime frontrunner on Sundays. Dan Harmon and the team are finally starting to see what structure works best in each episode. Dividing the time into different subplots by pairing the main family members with a new one is the best way to go ahead.

They have also realized that basing the plotlines around elemental foundations of civilizations like the discovery of a criminal justice system will allow them to preface the one-liners and jokes more efficiently. This episode was replete with clever, lean humor that hadn’t been the case until now. 

Even though the humor was inconsistent in the earlier episodes, another thing that surfaced in episode 5 is character traits. Deliria, Tyrannis, Shlub, and Stupendous have veritable instincts and uniform reactions to a situation. This will make the job easier for the writing team and help them cope with viewer expectations.