The Tick Recap: “Secret/Identity”

“Secret/Identity,” picks up right where the previous episode of The Tick left off, with Arthur being carted back to the police station.

Instead of being greeted by a psychologist and a laughing officer, this time he is treated with the respect due to his moth costume. However, the run in with law enforcement sets Arthur back on the path of normal and the episode spends the majority of time seeing him readjust back into his old life.

Somehow managing to fool the detectives with nothing more than his costume and a fake superhero identification number, Arthur narrowly avoids getting arrested again in “Secret/Identity”. His time with the police does get him some information: his cyborg attacker is actually a famed anti-hero named “Overkill”. The name is a ridiculous and self-aware considering how his methods include brutally murdering a bunch of thugs. His skull mask, suit, and personality align pretty closely with Marvel’s Punisher that it’s all but obvious it’s a spoof on the vigilante.

Meanwhile, Arthur is more than happy to hand over the suit in “Secret/Identity” once Lint attacks him in his apartment for it. He wakes up ready to go back to his usual accounting job but is consistently followed around by “The Tick,” as a reminder that his life is anything but normal now.

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Deciding to give into temptation slightly, he encourages the blue hero to track down Overkill himself while he goes to work. At his accounting firm, he gets the unfortunate desk mate who drones on about “fake news,” and the “liberal media,” which eventually bores Arthur to sleep until he’s plagued by his nightmares of “The Terror”.

Luckily, “The Tick” shows up at the best time because he’s forgotten the description after only an hour. His timing couldn’t be better because Overkill decides to strike Arthur at work without knowing that the suit has fallen back into enemy hands.

The fight between the two heroes reveals two important tidbits: “The Tick’s” antennas are his weakness and Overkill is actually hunting down “The Terror”. While neither seems to care about collateral damage, Dot is the one who is cleaning up the messes from their brawls with her illegal medical work. While The Tick has worked as an origin story for all of the superheroes and villains, Dot is moving into a “Night Nurse,” sort of role like in Marvel Comics.

Ms. Lint has also had an interesting transformation in The Tick, and “Secret/Identity,” continues to question where her morality lies. Yes, she’s been a villain since the beginning, but now it seems like Lint might have had a change of heart. She has a weird connection (most likely romantic) with Overkill and, despite knowing who Arthur is, she chooses not give up his location to Ramses. What’s more interesting is her feigning ignorance as to the location of the moth suit.

Next: The Tick Recap: “Where’s My Mind”

Is Lint holding onto the suit in order to stage a villainous takeover or is she joining the hunt for “The Terror”? Either way, her storyline has been extremely compelling despite her general detachment from the rest of the protagonists.