SON OF ZORN’s Family Goes on “The Quest for Craig”

Season 1, Episode 12: “The Quest for Craig”
Written by Mark Schenneman & Matt Stoller
Directed by Jared Hess

[All photos courtesy Fox Broadcasting Co.]

We open soon after we left off last episode (which aired 3 weeks ago…sigh). Edie (Cheryl Hines) asks for Linda (Artemis Pebdani) and Zorn’s (voiced by Jason Sudeikis) help in tracking down Craig (Tim Meadows). The hunt is on.

Meanwhile, Layla (Clara Mamet) has talked Alan (Johnny Pemberton) into wearing shorts to school. Everyone likes his Zypherian legs.

Craig, meanwhile, is hanging out at his brother’s house.

Alan, at the insistence of his fellow students, demonstrates his legs kicking ability. This gets him noticed by the football coach, who offers to make him the kicker.

Linda, Zorn, and Edie lose Craig’s trail, so they try to find him via a mind swap with a hawk. It fails, so they decide to spend a night in a hotel and get a fresh start in the morning.

Craig, meanwhile, has come to a realization about himself after his sister-in-law points it out to him, he decides to go back to Edie.

At the motel, Linda is fed up with Zorn and Edie’s talk about their wild former sex lives and storms out. Edie soon storms out after him after accusing him of narcissism. After a bit of reflection, Edie comes back and apologizes. Just then, Craig storms in and tells Edie that he’s coming back. Even if it makes Zorn or anyone else unhappy.

The day of the football game:

Lynda shows back up, Edie apologized to her and invited her to the game. Zorn also apologizes and gives her some Zypherian earings.

Alan gets his chance to kick a field goal…and ends up crippling a player on the sideline with the ball. He has now lost everything, his new friends, the game, and Layla. Zorn tries to cheer him up…terribly.

Analysis:

Here we are, back again. Zorn is back. Tell a friend. (Damn, now I have Eminem stuck in my head.) Yes! Zorn is back to finish out the season with the final two episodes! We start with the continuation of the episode from 3 weeks ago. The episode doesn’t even begin with a “last time on Son of Zorn” reminder, so I guess they think the folks at home all have good memories of what when down before…or I hope they read my last recap before last night’s episode. The start and stop of the Sunday night schedule works fine for the normal animated shows, but for shows like Son of Zorn and Last Man on Earth, which have continuity, it really hurts people trying to get into the shows. I really wish there was a better way. (Yes, I know you can watch them online, but this doesn’t help with the ratings.)

We start off where the last episode left off, Edie barging in on Zorn and Linda post coitus. Edie enlists Zorn to track down Craig. Zorn is up to the task, after he gets the centaur sex suit off. I really have to hand it to the animators for that gag, it was really funny.

The rest of this side of the  “A” plot of this episode focuses on the fact that Zorn and Edie have such a long and kinky path behind them that Linda feels like a third wheel for the entire episode. Fortunately, by the end of the episode, Zorn does some soul-searching and discovers that he does have feelings for Linda other than just wanting to have sex.

Craig also gets his soul answered when his sister-in-law helps him realize that he will make other people happy at the expense of his own happiness. He thinks Edie and Zorn will be happier without him, so he gets out of their way. He invests in his brother’s crazy ideas, so his brother will be happy, even if it costs himself money. I can see a lot of myself in Craig. I, too, will make other people happy at the expense of my own comfort.

The “B” plot in this episode is Alan. Last episode, he finally revealed his Zypherian legs to Layla. This episode, he is encouraged to show them off at school. This ends up getting him something that he’s not ready for: attention for being different. It’s good attention, as everyone is impressed by his legs and the fact that they can kick things with such force that a couple of towns over, it rained backpacks out of the sky.

This gets him the attention of the football coach after he kicks the dumpster on top of his car. He gets drafted as the kicker, which gets him new friends and costs him Layla in the process.

He’s given a choice, hang out with his new friends or be with the one who loves him. And like a typical teen, he chooses poorly.

This sets up our final episode of the season. Alan must atone and make a grand gesture to win Layla back.

The best part of the episode was the Zypherian Folk Music, which sounds like mellow 1970’s rock ballads and Zorn swapping minds with a hawk in order to find Craig. This leads to why he has tape on his nipples later in the episode. This was hilarious.

So, next week. Will Alan win Layla back? Will Zorn be able to help Linda get her old job back? It sounds like the final episode of the season will be full of grand gestures in “All Hail Son of Zorn”!

So, what do you think? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts on the episode.

 

Son of Zorn airs Sunday at 8:30/7:30 Central on Fox. It can also be found on Amazon Prime Instant Video, Hulu, and Fox.com. For more information, visit the official website.