‘Velma’ Episodes 7 And 8 Spoiler Free Review
Image Source: IMDB
The newest episodes of Velma are here, and they couldn’t be more disappointing. This will contain spoilers for episodes one - six!
While the show first opened to plenty of criticism, it has recently become significantly more popular. With the show’s different approach to a childhood favorite, it was no surprise that many weren’t willing to give the show a chance, but its dark humor and the intriguing mystery kept audiences coming back for more. Through the first half of season one, we watched as Velma risked life and limb to discover the truth about her mother’s mysterious disappearance. The show expertly wove in important topics like mental health, sexism, and racism without taking away from the show’s main narrative.
Episodes five and six brought forth answers to many of the season’s mysteries. First, we learned that Daphne’s biological parents were criminals that had abandoned her as a baby. After reconnecting with them, she is once again abandoned when they attempt to use her as a means of escape from Crystal Cove. Next, we learned that Velma’s mom is actually missing and that she did not abandon Velma as her father had told her. It was also revealed that Velma’s hallucinations were a direct cause of her father not believing her about her mother and how poorly he was treating her. By the end of episode six, it seemed things were going to escalate as we sped toward the season one finale. Unfortunately, that could not be further from the truth. Episodes seven and eight were by far the worst episodes of the season which makes no sense seeing as they should be setting up next week’s finale.
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Episode seven was far worse than episode eight, but they both struggled in comparison to the previous six. Velma is diving head-first into the mystery of her mother’s disappearance now that her hallucinations are gone. When things do not pan out the way she wants, she completely cuts Daphne out of her life. Norville’s mother tells the papers about her mother, Dr. Edne Purdue, and explains that her ghost is the one doing the killing. This leads the town to cancel the curfew and begin preparation for their annual Fog Fest. It seems like the episode is going to be fantastic as it has a much more eerie feel to it, thanks to the fog, but things go downhill very quickly. The episode focuses more on the double standard that men and women face daily than any actual mystery. Velma disguises herself as a man in an attempt to track down the serial killer, and rather than searching for them, she instead manipulates the town and Daphne while bragging about how great it is to be a man. Daphne is distraught that Velma has abandoned her like her parents, so she spends most of the episode as a complete mess. Every single character in this episode sucks and treats those around them horribly. The best part of the episode is a classic Scooby-Doo chase scene that features the original show’s music.
Image Source: IMDB
Episode eight was the most difficult episode of the season to follow. The first half of the episode is told through multiple flashbacks that are woven together to give us an overall idea of what happened. These all converge on Norville, Gigi, Velma, and Daphne being stuck in the woods, and rather than discussing how they are going to get out, they are fighting over who is to blame. Thankfully, this episode does focus more on the show’s actual mystery, and we discover what happened to the brains of the three girls that have been murdered, how the killer has been getting around Crystal Cove, and what happened to Velma’s mom. The ending of the episode was perfectly setting up next week’s finale until they brought in racism towards her mother which completely stalled the forward momentum of the episode.
Overall, these episodes do not fit with the rest of the season. They spent so little time on the actual mystery that you could easily skip episode seven, just watch the last ten minutes of episode eight, and still be completely caught up. I am holding out hope that the finale will be amazing and follow the original formatting of the episodes.
New episodes of Velma are available to stream on Thursdays on HBO Max.
Rating: 3/10
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