‘Avenue 5’ Recap: ‘Eight Arms But No Hands’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM. YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

It is always interesting when a television series takes the time to offer up an episode that is wildly different from its established formula. Because doing so puts the audience in an uncomfortable and slightly confused place, where they wonder if the story, they fell in love with, is going to fundamentally change direction and become something new. Or if this was simply an opportunity to do something special with the story, and it is safe to say that this particular concern was on the mind of every single fan of Avenue 5. Because the decision to offer up commentary in the prior episode was a bold decision for certain, one that would definitely prompt folks to wonder if the show was heading in a new direction. 

But thankfully, the season one finale of this magnificent comedy series, made it clear that such a decision was nothing more than a wonderful opportunity that couldn’t be passed up. For ‘Eight Arms But No Legs’ ended up being a return to form for the series, simply because once again, chaos was everywhere in this tale. Because Matt couldn’t handle the fact that he helped seven people freeze to death in the cold of space, and that motivated him to change the airlock codes and hide within the bowels of the ship as penance, and that posed quite the problem for Captain Clark and his cohorts. For if they didn’t eject the excess weight in one hour, their journey home would stay on the original timeline.

Which prompted Clark to immediately step in and play leader at last and order teams to begin a search for Matt and get those codes before it became too late and well, that’s when the chaos came into play. Because in reality, only Captain Clark and Judd took the time to do their jobs. Because everyone else found ways to goof off and screw around while ‘looking’ for Matt, and to complicate the search further, Rav and the resupply shuttle arrived, and Rav’s desire to gather information on what the hell was actually happening aboard the ship, distracted everyone further. But thankfully, eventually Matt was found lurking near the crew quarters and he was quick to offer up the codes after all. 

But while that problem was solved with minimal fuss, there was still one more issue that this motley crew needed to resolve, specifically, who the heck was going to go home via the resupply shuttle. Because there was only one spare seat available aboard the craft, and that led to the second most hilarious sequence in this tale. For no one could agree upon who should take that final seat, and that brought about a game of musical chair that was full of insults and awkward moments and confusion and in the end, the person selected to head back to Earth was Iris, a decision that was made through pure chaos of course. But while all of this was fun to watch for certain, those left behind still needed to eject the excess weight in order to get back home faster and well, how that wrapped up, turned out to be the highlight of this story. 

Because Karen screwed everything up. For she decided that the two aft airlocks didn’t have enough room to handle the vast number of items being put up for ejection, and that prompted her to use the port side airlocks to toss everything out into space. Which in turn put the ship off course and extended this journey another four and a half years and that’s how season one comes to a close. With the crew and the passengers now facing the prospect of an eight-year voyage, all because Karen thought she knew better and that is… a perfect way to end this season. Because it stays true to what this show stands for and it finally teaches a know-it-all a powerful lesson and it should be interesting to see where this story takes us in season two, especially when the passengers learn that their precious ‘hero of the people’ has marooned them in space for the next eight years. F*cking Karen. Until next season.

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