‘Central Park’ Recap: ‘A Fish Called Snakehead’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the season one finale of ‘Central Park’.
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As season one of Central Park has chugged along, it’s managed to leave its audience guessing as to how exactly its titular first season would come to a close. Because all of the fascinating plot threads that this series has introduced in year one, ran the risk of potentially disappointing the audience. For using those to bring about a big-time showdown between Bitsy and Owen, would have been predictable and comfortable, something that would be counterintuitive to what this show wants to accomplish. Because from day one, this series has established that it wants to provide audiences everywhere with a supremely unique animated series, one that offers the best concepts that television has to offer all while staying original and fresh and thankfully, it turns out that the powers that be decided to forgo anything predictable and give us a finale that stayed true to the show’s unique design.
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Something that was set up in ‘A Fish Called Snakehead’, by way of an unexpected and unwelcome visitor to the park’s ecosystem. For a couple of park visitors spotted the very fish that shares the namesake of this episode, and unfortunately, having one of these little monsters in the park would result in nothing but disaster if it wasn’t caught quickly. Because if left unchecked, it would basically eat every aquatic animal in the park by taking a stroll from pond to pond and that prompted Owen to make its capture his top priority and that’s when things got interesting. Because Paige needed to turn something into her boss since her big Bitsy story was going nowhere at the moment, so she offered up a taste of current events in the park and that got everyone’s attention quickly, including Bitsy’s, unfortunately. 

Because this little crisis served as the perfect moment for her to rebrand herself. Something that she was in desperate need of since the public viewed her as annoying and untrustworthy, and until she gained the public’s trust, there would be no deal to buy out the park and that motivated her to pull out all the stops in making her appear to be a champion of Central Park and its future. Which meant she busted out the checkbook to bring in an acclaimed, big fish game hunter named Dick Flake. Whose sole responsibility was to find that fish in a matter of hours so that he and Bitsy could show up on camera together and speak to how it took outside citizens to properly care for the city’s beloved park. Something that Dick was able to do, making it seem as though Owen had failed in his mission as manager, leaving the fate of his job and the park up in the air. That is… until Paige’s keen eye noticed something odd about the Snakefish that Dick caught. 

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Specifically, that it appeared to have been dead for several hours and well… she was right about that, since Dick snuck off and just bought a Snakehead when he had a quick moment to himself. Which meant that the real one was still lurking in the waters and if Owen was able to snag it, he’d be quite the hero and there’d be hell to pay for Bitsy since she set up nothing but lies. And wouldn’t you know it? Owen was able to make that happen and just like that, Bitsy finally had her comeuppance. For Paige’s follow up article made the entire the entire city of New York aware of her little charade and they turned on her quickly, leaving the park in good hands for now and this was just… a delightful way to end season one when all is said and done. Because it wasn’t predictable in the slightest and the show deserves some serious credit for keeping us guessing as to how it was all going to go down.    
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For it really did seem as though the corruption article and the scandal that would follow its release would cripple Bitsy’s plans to buy the park. Or that the logic of a younger family member would help to expose Bitsy to the world. But instead, a different kind of path involving Paige’s reporting skills brought the Brandenham empire to its knees and more importantly, what truly makes this ending so special and so unique, is its simplicity. Because rather than rely on gimmicks or over the top moments, or the obvious in bringing this season and the battle for the park to a close, it went the simple and earnest route, since all it took in the end to embarrass and expose Bitsy, was kindness and dedication and honesty. Which is just refreshing to see on television in this day and age and it really does offer up some incredible growth for the Tillerman family as well.

For their actions here, make them the true guardians of this beautiful park and clearly, they can handle any challenge that comes their way, and that kind of growth could not have come at a better time. Because clearly Bitsy will be making more attempts to make Central Park her own once she recovers from this embarrassment and that revelation, along with the dynamic storytelling that this particular finale sent out way, means that we can expect a wild and wonderful second season of this incredible show and truly, the wait for year two of Central Park is going to a difficult one for certain. Because this really is an animated series unlike any other and its magnificent musical numbers and on point humor and detailed storytelling, provides its fans with a much-needed break from the chaos of the world. Until next year.

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