Velma – Season 1 Episode 9 “Family (Wo)man” Recap & Review

Family (Wo)man

In Velma Season 1 Episode 9, Diya is diagnosed with amnesia. She’s blocked out the past two years of her life, but her memories should return if she’s kept happy. And if they do return, it will be only in the next 72 hours. 

Velma erases traces of Sophie’s existence in their home so they can bring Diya there, where Velma creates lies to satisfy her mother. The biggest lie has to do with Amanda. Velma can’t let Diya find out that Aman cheated on her, so claims that Amanda is the baby she had with Norville.

While Norville gives up everything to help Velma take care of Amanda, Daphne tries to figure out a way that she and Velma can get into the Brains’ upcoming party now that they are officially girlfriends. The Brains have docked her and Fred’s popularity ever since they both betrayed them in the mines.

Velma’s fake relationship with Norville gives Daphne an idea. People always like her and Fred better as a couple, so they decide to start fake dating. It works to get them invited to the party. But with convincing from Victoria, Daphne decides to keep up the facade by going with Fred instead of Velma. Victoria also invites her to accept an internship with Jones Gentlemens’ Accessories.

Norville continues helping out Velma, but she never returns the favor. When she finds a welder’s mask in Lamont’s office, she calls the cops without consulting Norville. They’re about to arrest his dad until Lamont explains he was only making a sword for Norville’s birthday, which Velma of course forgot.

Norville then finally realizes he put Velma first in his life for nothing. She would never do the same for him, so he tells her they are no longer friends.

At the party, Daphne and Fred put on a show by dancing, but the Brains won’t believe their relationship is real until they kiss. Just as they do, Velma arrives to catch them in the act.

So do Sophie, Aman, and Diya–who finds out that Aman cheated on her and had a baby with Sophie. Velma thinks that means time is up for Diya to stay happy and get her memory back. But just in time, a flash of memory comes back to her. She thinks she remembers who the serial killer is. It’s her.

The Episode Review

Despite the constant flow of jokes and one-liners, I laughed maybe once throughout the course of this episode. Added to that disappointment, I can’t believe the presented such a hugely anticlimactic reveal to whom the serial killer is. Or, at least, who Diya thinks the serial killer is. It’s not the most suspenseful cliffhanger when your response to it (as mine was) is a sarcastic “Yeah, right.” It seems Diya’s memory is still hazy, so of course there will be some twist in the finale!

If there’s one thing I can appreciate about this episode it’s the show’s consistency with Daphne’s attachment to her popularity. She doesn’t magically stop caring about being popular just because she likes Velma. It’s refreshingly realistic; if only the entire arc that expounds on that struggle weren’t so shallow.