Disenchantment season 1, episode 17 recap: Love’s Slimy Embrace

Episode 17 of Netflix series Disenchantment involves Derek far more than previous episodes. Well, actually, it’s more about his pet…

This episode of Disenchantment begins with King Zøg (John DiMaggio) having company over tonight — the highly self-esteemed Duke of Twinkletown (Maurice LaMarche). Because Zøg wants to impress him, Princess Bean (Abbi Jacobson) and Elfo (Nat Faxon) go to the pub. When Bean’s brother, Derek (Tress MacNeille), wants to accompany them, Bean is mean and he is left behind. They leave him to brood as they enter Luci’s Inferno, the pub recently acquired by Luci (Eric André).

What’s wrong with Derek? According to Bean, he was born from an egg. She also doesn’t like that he’s heir to the thrown should Zøg kick the bucket. In fact, Bean says she wishes he would die. However, Elfo feels bad for Derek, who sits on the rocks near the seashore. Before long, though, Derek finds a playmate — a baby octopus he decides to call “Slimy.”

King Zøg’s quest for gout

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Disenchantment often has strange quests, and King Zøg has one of the strangest ones yet. When the Duke of Twinkletown brags about his opulence giving him gout, Zøg gets a little competitive. With the help of Odval (LaMarche), he consults the book of hideous diseases, which includes an entry on “giraffism,” among other things. However, Zøg decides to be less original and also wishes to develop gout. He hires Luci to assist him.  The demon supplies him with extravagancies like a bacon-wrapped cigar and drinkable cheese. Later on, the Duke returns to be impressed by Zøg. Still, when he shows Zøg that his leg was amputated due to the condition, Dreamland’s king has second thoughts about being trendy.

Slimy grows up

Being the most benevolent character in Disenchantment, Elfo hangs out with Derek and Slimy in the tidepool. They see that Slimy is growing rather rapidly. Also, when Slimy sees Derek and Elfo playfighting, it seems to give Slimy ideas. By all appearances, Slimy kills the Duke of Twinkletown, then goes after King Zøg’s subjects in general. Derek is soon taken into the tidepool by Slimy. It gives Bean an opportunity to redeem herself by rescuing him. She and Elfo find Slimy snoring in a cave. As they discuss their plan, they also debate Derek’s skin color, leading to a racially tinged observation by the green-skinned Elfo: “Do all people of color look the same to you?”

They cleverly build a bone ladder. However, a broken bone rung falls to the bone pile below, which dislodges a skull which wakes Slimy up. They manage to get Derek anyway and escape in the dinghy of a nearby party barge, though Slimy rends the ship and makes it sink. So, what’s the moral of the story? There’s probably one lurking in there somewhere. Sometimes a story doesn’t need a lesson, though. It’s just a bunch of stuff that happens. “Disenchantment” can be an adventure series, people! It doesn’t have to slap you in the face with some goody-two-shoes fables.

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