Molly Dies at the End
by
Warning: Spoilers for Season 1 Episode 7 of Solar Opposites
Many creators are becoming quite prolific at the art of the Easter Egg. Rewarding their overly observant fans by sprinkling in both callbacks and foreshadowing throughout the film or episode. I have not, however, ever felt chastised for noticing an Easter Egg, until now.
Taking a step back, we are discussing Justin Roiland’s new project Solar Opposites. Solar Opposites is a classic take on the fish-out-of-water story. It follows a family of aliens who come to Earth to rebuild their destroyed home planet. Most of the episodes follow the zany antics of Korvo, Terry, Yumyulack, and Jesse as they try, poorly, to assimilate to the culture of their new home. Much like Roiland’s other hit Rick andMorty there is more going on than just what is happening in the foreground. A major background story that is developed inside of the wall of Yumyulack and Jesse’s room where they have shrunken many humans down and put them into a sort of menagerie. Every couple episodes or so they put another person in the wall and move on. We, as the viewer, get a peak into The Wall as an epilogue for several episodes and see the post-apocalyptic hellscape it has become without any oversite. The story develops in the wall and we learn that the patriarch of this society is a man calling himself The Duke, yes like Escape from NewYork, who rules over The Wall with an iron fist. On the flip side of the conflict is Tim and this makeshift rebellion.
The stage is now set for where our story begins. Episode 7 of the series, titles Korvo and Terry Steal a Bear, takes place entirely inside The Wall. Much like the Rick and Morty episode about the Citadel of Ricks this entire episode focuses on what, until now, was just a “B” plot. The episode begins with a simple man in The Wall with his pet mouse Molly. (An important note to be made here is that I have a deep seeded fear of mice and even I loved Molly.) Molly the mouse is roughly the size of a cow in comparison to her shrunken human and is treated as such. He milks her and sells the milk while treating her as a pet and best friend to the small farmer. Tim and his rebels, meanwhile, are planning their final assault on The Duke and his make-shift palace. The farmer advises his neighbors to keep out of the conflict, but tensions have reached a boiling point and war erupts in the streets. The Duke’s forces are losing ground to the far superior numbers of the rebels and The Duke orders the flooding of The Wall’s lower levels. The farmer has been swept up in the conflict and has pushed to the higher levels when the flooding becomes apparent. He has the same reaction as my wife and I, he must save Molly! He swims down to his tiny barn to save his beloved Molly who is stuck in the barn, with her head just barely above the rising waters. He pushes out through the roof and they rush to the rest of the survivors. They reach a hatch that is being sealed to pervert further water from rising just in time. Alas, Molly much to wide to fit through the tiny hatch. Her friend pulls with all his might but to no avail. Molly pushes the red ribbon around her neck into the head of her friend as the hatch closes. We watch Molly drown. We watch the bubbles escape from her mouth, and finally we watch her pathetically sink out of sight. At this point, I did not care what happened next but for your sake I’ll finish up. Tim and his rebels storm the keep with the intention of killing The Duke and overthrowing the aristocracy his has put in place. They arrive at his throne room only to discover he has a pathway outside. Tim betrays his lieutenant and takes over as the de-facto leader of The Wall. Oh joy.
So, with that out of the way, lets get back to Molly. As I stated I am terribly afraid of mice and rats but even I made a connection to Molly with her little red ribbon. I also cannot stand to see animals die on screen. Show me John Wick kill the entire Russian mob, do not care, but when those monsters killed John’s puppy I nearly wept. I had the same feeling about Molly, mouse or no mouse.
I stopped watched for the night but only had one episode left in the season so I figured I would finish it up the next day and the wound should have been healed. I was wrong. Roiland is a king of the one-liner and he had to make me suffer for Molly just one last time. A throw-away line in the final episode of the season has Jesse asking Yumyulack “When is the last time you cleaned out the traps in the wall?” as she pulls out a tray of debris out of The Wall, and right on top, Molly’s lifeless corpse. A fresh wound ripped open and heavily salted. Like I said, I’ve never felt punished for being vigilant before, but by god I do now. I won’t tell you not to watch this show. I will not tell you if I think it is good or bad. The fact of the matter is, television, I feel, is supposed to make us feel good and this failed that test.
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