The Tick Recap: “Where’s My Mind”
The Tick wastes no time addressing its most popular fan theory surrounding Arthur’s mental issues. Is “The Tick,” real or simply a figment of his imagination?
Thankfully, the series doesn’t try to extend that mystery throughout the season but gives a definitive answer regarding their protagonist’s hallucinations. “Where’s My Mind,” picks up right where the pilot left off with the former in his costume and armed thugs breaking into his apartment.
Taking a bullet to the chest, Arthur manages to survive thanks to his new moth suit. However, he, unfortunately, gets to meet the villainess, Ms. Lint, who is furious that he managed to take down her crew and steal her merchandise. Luckily, “The Tick” comes barging in at the right moment to save his new friend and dish out a bunch of great lines. In the process, he does throw Arthur out the window, destroy his apartment, and give Lint the first look at the former’s insane attempts at tracking down her ex-boss/friend.
Despite all of the destruction, “The Tick,” is extremely excited at the prospect of teaming up with Arthur. However, “Where’s My Mind,” establishes that Arthur has zero interest in donning a cape and running into danger but would rather spend his time clipping newspaper headlines to eventually hand over to the authorities. Now that he’s been thrust into some real jeopardy, he’s ready to give up his search for “The Terror,” entirely, along with his new suit. After stealing a poncho, he attempts to hand the suit back over to the bad guys in a desperate attempt to walk away from the whole situation.
Spiraling down a dark hole once he realizes that “The Tick,” keeps disappearing once someone else comes along, Arthur begins to believe that he’s hallucinating the blue hero. “Where’s My Mind,” does a great job of portraying his escalating anxiety as he tries to gain some of his sanity back during his breakdown.
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Luckily Dot, who apparently is a roller derby member and a back-alley doctor to mobsters, appears at the right moment to coax her brother down from a full-on mental collapse. Once Arthur realizes that Dot also sees “The Tick,” his breakdown transitions from worrying about his sanity to his well-being now that he can completely focus on Ms. Lint and her gang.
The nefarious villain also gets her origin story in “Where’s My Mind,” starting with Lint’s promotion from right-hand man to simple grunt. Her new boss, Ramses, has an affection for Egyptian mythology and Vitamin Water but has zero interest in failure when it comes to Lint. Through flashbacks, it’s shown that her relationship with “The Terror,” was actually quite good despite his namesake. While all of the men made fun of her for the weird attraction lint had to her, he saw the potential for her to become a true villain. His death forced her to start working for low-level thugs like Ramses while she tries to grieve the demise of a man she truly believed in.
“Where’s My Mind,” finishes a great episode by introducing another character who could be either friend or foe to Arthur. Once the gang corners him in a dark alley, he once again attempts to hand the suit back over which they’re more than happy to agree to.
Before he can do that, down drops a man dressed in head to toe black with a skull mask, who easily kills all of the criminals in a few seconds. He demands the suit, which Arthur is amenable to hand over, but the cops show up foiling their plan. With the skull man fleeing via zip-line, Arthur is arrested but he manages to claim he’s a superhero which seems to cut him some legal slack.