Doctor Phosphorus takes center stage in the pentultimate episode of season one of Creature Commandos. Last week revealed a shocking twist, accompanied by the complex backstory of the character of Eric Frankenstein. This week’s episode “Priyatel Skelet” moves pieces into place for a finale.But the finale may ultimately leave us with more questions than answers.
Revenge of Graphic Content #10: Creature Commandos – S1E6 – “Priyatel Skelet”
This episode continues what has been an entertaining and often shocking season of television, though some cracks have shown. Between a backstory that isn’t as compelling as prior characters, and too many loose threads, one can’t help be be concerned about the season finale to a degree.
With that said, however, “Priyatel Skelet” is still a wonderfully episode with a massive cameo regarding a central DCU character.
The Good – Phosphorous Doing His Thing and the Convergence of Plotlines
What a fun, violent episode that gave us a little more time with the remaining Creature Commandos before we’re sure to lose another one. Much like prior episodes, we get a backstory focus this week. This time we get into the history of Doctor Phosphorus, who has become a highlight of the show, partially due to the wonderful performance put in by Alan Tudyk week to week. Boy did this episode give him a lot to do .
Phosphorus’ backstory is suitably tragic and helps contextualize his turn to villainy. A scientist, Alex Sartorius, researching a cancer cure, ends up bankrolled by Gotham gangster Rupert Thorne. Inevitably, the scientist is punished by the gangster, resulting in the murder of his wife and child, and the scientist being framed for their murder. These scenes are disturbing and traumatic, especially due to the primal howls and whimpers of Tudyk.
Inevitably, as these things go, Phosphorus is thrown into his experiment and melted down by the gangsters, only to survive and go on a gruesome, but often funny revenge montage, resulting in the new villain in Gotham wiping Thorne and taking over his criminal empire.
Except throw in a stereotypical pimp suit, synchronized dancing, and the hype-generating cameo of a rooftop Batman busting up Phosphorus’ criminal empire. None of this is particularly new or innovative, but it is fun. That is all we need sometimes.
In the present, while on the run from the Amethyst Knights of Pokolistan, he ends up bonding with a little girl, who calls him “Priyatel Skelet,” or “friendly skeleton,” giving us the title of this week’s episode.
Two Monsters Enter a Brothel
The second biggest storyline of the week again pairs the Bride and Nina Mazursky as the pair escape patrols by hiding in a brothel. Any chance to have the characters interact is welcome. With that said, this was a relatively simple b-plot that doesn’t do much beyond presenting an opportunity for Nina to step up before the big episode, which also happens to be the season finale.
With that said, it is always a good time to see some terrible men (the real monsters, here) get their asses kicked by strong women, as Nina comes to the aid of a sex worker, only for the Bride to come in and finish the job. What was most interesting was the fact that two of the patrons were metahumans, and the Madam (played by the iconic Shohreh Aghdashloo) was well aware of metahuman abilities. Gunn is establishing a DCU where superpowers are not exactly rare, which should have a real effect on the day-to-day lives of civilians. We’ll see if that is a thread that carries through further productions.
Doctor Phosphorus and Task Force M on a Collision Course
As for the rest of the episode, we get the various threads begin to converge, but we’re still left with many, many questions, which is concerning given this is the penultimate episode of the season. Flag, Sr. is in a coma, Frankenstein is coming to stop the assassination of the Princess, and Weasel may turn against his fellow creature given the Princess’ visual similarity to the little girl he once knew. All the while, we still don’t know what the Circe and Clayface angles are here. But at least we get a sweet scene of Weasel bonding with wolves, and a kick-ass walk toward the castle to close out the episode.
The Bad – Doctor Phosphorus, Aside, Are We Gonna Stick the Landing, Here?
This is a good episode, no doubt. If anything we can trust that Creature Commandos will entertain us. With that said, I do think this was a weaker episode to a degree for a couple of reasons. And no, not even the reveal of The Batman is enough to temper some concerns, however minor they are.
While I find Doctor Phosphorous’ origins interesting, entertaining, and tragic, he lacks the complexity of some of the other members of Task Force M. This doesn’t necessarily make him a weak character because of this. If anything, phosphorus has become a highlight of the show. The issue is that his origins are extremely typical of super villainy and offer little in surprise. The zeal in which he leaned into the madness and took to wholesale murder and crime isn’t necessarily any different than any other villainous origin I have read. Any surprise that comes from his flashback storyline emerges entirely from the quick Batman cameo. I wouldn’t say I was shocked that Rupert Thorne is gone, maybe a little surprised, but that doesn’t necessarily add anything to my take on Phosphorus here, either.
His decision not to kill the little girl in Pokolistan is undercut by his flashback; yes, we are concerned about his menace in the present day. Yet the minute we saw he had a kid, there was no doubt he’d spare the little girl. This isn’t a weakness, but also, it isn’t exactly novel either.
Loose Threads Everywhere
My second concern is that the season finale is up next and we don’t have a lot of answers yet. Much like Amanda Waller as she watches over a comatose Flag, Sr., we have far too many questions given the short runtime of the show we have left. While the show has been given the green light for a second season, we still need a lot of answers and that second season was never a guarantee. How will all this shake out?
I am optimistic, but even then, there are many threads to follow up on for what was likely to be a single season of television with less than six hours of runtime.
The Monstrous – Doctor Phosphorus
Doctor Phosphorus is one of those Batman rogues who is cool, but not quite iconic enough to really stand out compared to Gotham’s heaviest hitters. First hitting comics in 1977, Phosphorus was the creation of Steve Englehart and Walt Simonson.
His origins presented in this episode of Creature Commandos are a riff off his comic origins, but far more altruistic, hoping to cure cancer through radiology science in this show.
Ironically, Phosphorus may be most notable as being a character that influenced an animated series character, rather than being known for his own Batman comic appearances. The Batman Beyond villain, Blight, was very much based on the visuals of Doctor Phosphorus.
Continuity Notes
Some notes for this week’s episode.
- Everyone is rightly losing their minds over the first appearance of a (living) DCU Batman, but I am just as pumped for a mention of Biyaliya – home of Queen Bee.
- Phosphorous’ revenge spree was equally satisfying and horrifying. Well done.
- The first season of the first “new” show of the DCU and Rupert Thorn is already dead. Wowza.
- Metahuman pornography must exist. We don’t even have metahumans in our reality and it is still present.
- Shoutout to *that* voice this week, belonging to one Shohreh Aghdashloo, who is unmistakable.
- This week’s tunes include another Gogol Bordello tracks, “Wonderlust King” and Firewater’s “Hey Clown.”
Mission Rating
Creature Commandos continues to be a very fine show with a lot to praise. However, this episode, as fun as it was, ends up being one of the weaker ones because a great deal of it is setting up pieces for the finale, in addition to leaning on one of the less interesting backstories presents so far. If I were reviewing the show after seeing the season come together maybe things would be interpreted differently, but as it stands, this episode is heaping a lot onto the shoulders of the next.
Given the concerning narrative issues and the overall weaker backstory presented in comparison to other monsters in the series, I would say “Priyatel Skelet” is four out of five ghost emojis, but a low four, given I can’t just cut a ghost in half now, can I?
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Creature Commandos is currently streaming on MAX.
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