Oh yes he does. I'm actually going to spend most of today's Showtime talking about Beck because he's our first real recurring villain and I just love the guy. Plus, there wasn't much world-building or story advancement this episode.
But I'll mention a few interesting things I noticed. Beck's plan involved kidnapping some rich guy's son, so Roger was called in to negotiate. And his plan is one I've never heard before, haggle. Yeah, Roger tells the rich guy to act like he doesn't care about his son to drive the ransom down. That's...actually a clever plan. You know the kidnappers won't kill him, he's the only thing they have to bargain with, so this might actually work.
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| How's my Riker beard? |
Second thing is, it turns out the kidnapee isn't even the rich guy's son. See he's 40 years old, born right after the amnesia event, and his mother was already pregnant when the event happened. What I think happened, it's sort of unclear, is that the rich guy and the mom woke up in his mansion after the event and with no memories, fell in love with each other. That's a cool idea that comes organically from the setting. I wouldn't have thought of that.
And finally, Roger is treating Dorothy like a human. Beck screws her up again, he did something similar in Episode 2, and while she could be fixed so it wouldn't happen again the procedure would affect her memories. Roger tells Norman not to do it, as to spare Dorothy the pain of memory loss. It's a tiny thing but still speaks to Roger's character and gives Dorothy a funny line to close the episode. She's good at that. Now onto Beck.
I love Beck. The guy's a riot. Every time he shows up, the animation gets a little bump and becomes more manic and expressive. It helps that Beck himself is just so over-the-top and cartoony. I mean we see him rolling around in a pile of money and laughing his head off. But this is what I think makes Beck work besides him just being cartoony and entertaining.
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| Worst. Jazz Club. Ever. |
Unlike almost every other antagonist on the show, Beck is completely sane and unaffected by Memories. He's just a crook. A ridiculously flamboyant crook, but still just a crook out for money. This actually says something about Paradigm City. Beck's nature of being just a crook means things can continue as normal after the Event. Yeah, we've lost our memories and finding them drives people crazy but that's not an excuse with Beck. He's a criminal jerk because some people are just criminal jerks. Crime is as old as civilization, so knowing that plain old-fashioned greed can motivate people grounds Paradigm City in reality. It's like how the Penguin is Batman's one sane villain, it shows that insanity is just an excuse for these people to let their worse natures out.
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| Y! M! C! A! |
And Beck is a complete loser. He and his two goofy beatnik henchmen are so inept it's impossible to believe they'll succeed. They get themselves another giant robot (but not a megadeus) this time, and the thing is a joke. It makes Scooby-Doo sound effects and its weapons don't work on Big O, all Beck can do with the thing is run away with it. But then Roger still beats it in almost two seconds. And that's the other thing about Beck. He has not exactly our sympathy, but our pity. We see this guy in his yellow suit, with his goofy henchmen, and watch him move forward with his plan with such confidence and supervillain glee even though we know there's no way he's going to win. Oh, he'll get close at times but it won't pan out in the end. It's like watching a cat chase a laser pointer. You know they'll never get, but it's just too entertaining to watch them try to stop them. It's hard to hate a loser who can't stop losing but doesn't realize it.
I hope this isn't the last time we see Beck and his silly giant robots, but I'm glad he came back once. See you next time.
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