"Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" Blind Reaction: Episode 3
Welcome back to my blind coverage of the new Netflix anime Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, a series based off of some of the most influential comic books and movies of my life. What I’m doing here is giving my thoughts, analysis, and predictions after each episode before moving onto the next, so what follows is based solely on the first three episodes (and will contain spoilers for all three, but for nothing that comes after).
You can find coverage of all previous episodes below:
Episode 1: Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life
Episode 2: A League of Their Own
With that out of the way, let’s jump into episode three, which has got me thinking more about Julie Powers than I ever have in my life…
Julie Powers is a character with a specific niche: she is mean, and her being mean is very, very funny. It’s to the credit of Scott Pilgrim creator/writer/artist Bryan Lee O’Malley, movie director Edgar Wright, and actress Aubrey Plaza that Julie doesn’t feel more one-dimensional — between the comics and movie her past, desires, and insecurities are fleshed out just enough — but her role in the story and relationships with the other characters are still rather limited in comparison to the rest of the cast.
Episode 3 of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off seems to be aiming to change that. Julie isn’t the star of the episode — Ramona, Kim, and Roxy all take center stage here — but this is probably the most attention the franchise has ever given Julie, and even more interestingly, it gives Julie a brand new role she’s never held before: the friend.
One of the first things we learn about Ramona is that she’s a friend of Julie’s — it’s why she’s at Julie’s party for Scott to ask her about Pac Man/Sonic in the first place — yet we’ve never seen them interact in any meaningful way before in any incarnation of the story. Here, though, Ramona and Julie chat like old pals, and Julie leaps at the chance to help her search for suspects in Scott’s disappearance, despite her overwhelming hatred for Scott. Julie’s baseline operating mode is still “bitch,” but for the first time ever she’s a friendly, upbeat bitch, and this previously unexplored facet of Julie’s character brings out really fun new dimensions in Plaza’s vocal performance.
The episode’s final scene, surprisingly, expands even more upon these new facets of Julie’s personality. To me, the greatest surprise of the big cliffhanger twist isn’t Gideon’s former life as “Gordon,” or even that Julie and Gideon know each other, but that Julie is so tender towards Gideon, and so instantly willing to help him. We’ve never before seen Julie drop her sarcastic front and so earnestly help someone before! It’s a development that continues to explore the new role of “friend” this episode has granted Julie, but unlike her kinship with Ramona, the Julie/Gideon friendship has the potential to get really bad, really quickly.
Stray Observations:
— It turns out that I just have a lot to say about Julie! Both Episode 1 and 3 of Takes Off have referred to Julie as someone who “knows everybody,” a trait previously held by the character of Michael Comeau in the comics and movie. Julie even replaces Comeau as the person Scott shows his drawing of Ramona to and asks if she’s seen “a girl with hair like this.” The mantle has clearly been passed.
— We also learn here that Stephen Stills is Julie’s ex, which is only surprising in the sense that Stephen Stills and Julie have progressively broken up earlier and earlier in each incarnation of this story (In the comics they break up for good between Volumes 4 and 5; in the movie they had just broken up before the story began, and Stephen Stills still seemed to think he could get back together with Julie; here, I get the impression that their relationship is already long over).
— The cold open is the first time we’ve ever really gotten any sign of a unique personality from Young Neil. Neil’s key character trait has always been that he’s a hanger-on devoid of any personality, interests, or drive (in the comics he came to resent this and started lashing out at his friends, but never really grew out of it; in the movie he was too happily dumb to notice), but here, in the aftermath of Scott’s death, Young Neil develops an interest in screenwriting. It’s perhaps the most cliche thing a 19 year old white boy could develop an interest in, but hey, I give him credit for making an effort.
— Roxy Richter is pretty clearly based more on her comics incarnation here: she’s introduced as a “half-ninja,” fights with a katana rather than her movie sword-whip, and most significantly, is portrayed as somewhat sympathetic and as still holding a torch for Ramona, all aspects of comics Roxy that didn't make it into the movie.
— Ramona’s bisexuality is treated in a remarkably matter-of-fact fashion. Nobody makes any comments about one of Ramona’s Evil Exes being a girl, and Ramona also calls Envy hot at one point, again, without anybody batting an eyelid. I imagine much of this is simply O’Malley moving away from some jokes that haven’t aged particularly well (referring to Ramona dating Roxy as “just a phase” or her being “bi-curious”), but in-universe, this can be chalked up to Scott’s absence from the story. Without Scott, there’s really nobody else around to freak out about it.
— Despite the comics fleshing Roxy and her relationship with Ramona out possibly more than any other Evil Ex aside from Gideon, I do believe that this episode is actually the first time we’ve found out how Roxy and Ramona met (they were college roommates!).
— The comics hinted a few times at the possibility of Kim Pine being bisexual (she’s made out with both Ramona and Knives [not at the same time!] while drunk). Kim’s kiss with Roxy seems to be a reference to this, but at the same time, it may also be shutting the possibility down.
— This episode is our introduction to the character of Holley, Kim Pine’s boss at the video store, although she’s far more caustic in Takes Off than she’s ever been portrayed before. In the comics there’s an entire subplot featuring Holley and Kim that plays out mostly off-screen (Kim has a horrible roommate; she moves in with Holley because they get along; the second Kim moves in Holley “locks herself in her room” and eventually steals the guy Kim was seeing, Jason Kim). This subplot eventually leads to Kim leaving Toronto to move back North at the end of Volume 5, but its greater significance for the story comes from the fact that Scott was completely oblivious to all of his playing out around him, emphasizing his continued, persistent self-centeredness.
— I love the sheep teenage Scott drew for Kim (And that’s Finn Wolfhard voicing teenaged Scott!)! If you enjoyed any of this flashback sequence to Scott and Kim’s time in high school, be aware that an extended animated version of this flashback entitled Scott Pilgrim vs. the Animation was created at the same time as the movie, premiered on Adult Swim, and is available on the DVD/Blu-Ray releases as well as on YouTube.
— In this same sequence, Kim casually mentioned that Scott rescued her when she was kidnaped by a guy named Simon Lee in high school. This isn’t new lore — it’s covered in Volume 2 of the comics and in Scott Pilgrim vs. the Animation — but what makes this line significant is what was later revealed in Volume 6 of the comic. Here, readers discover that this never happened — Simon Lee was just some dork Kim was dating, and Scott beat him up and Kim started dating him instead. Scott essentially made up the story of Kim being kidnapped and edited it into his memories so that he could go on thinking of himself as a good guy. However, if Kim is the one telling this story, then that means that this actually happened in the world of Takes Off, rather than Scott editing his memories.
— Probably my favorite scene in the entire episode is the short sequence where Kim and Knives improvise a song together. It’s sweet, it’s a powerful and accurate representation of the feeling you get playing/creating music, and it makes me so incredibly jealous that I never developed the ability to just “jam” as a musician.
— Ramona only went on one date with Scott before he disappeared, and is just determined to rescue him based off of how good that date was (and likely a measure of guilt as well). Perhaps unknowingly, then, Ramona is also using her investigation into Scott’s disappearance as a way to better get to know this man she saw so much potential in by talking to the people closest to him. It’s sad, bittersweet, and such fucking great writing.
— In my Reaction to Episode 2 I discussed how Scott Pilgrim had never been great at world building, but something I always thought the franchise excelled at was emotional world building; O’Malley is excellent at showing the various ways his characters came to know each other, how Scott’s various friend groups combine and separate, and at using this information to create unique relationships between most of the cast. Episode 3 of Takes Off is just as adept at emotional world building, using Ramona’s investigation into Scott’s past to reveal backstory and build and/or reinforce relationships among the cast, be they Ramona and Kim, Ramona and Julie, Ramona and Roxy, Kim and Knives, or even Julie and Gideon. After last episode’s (incredible!) action-fest, it’s a joy to get an entry so rich in character.
— In my Reaction to Episode 2 I also mentioned that, if Matthew Patel is the one who killed Scott Pilgrim, then of course he should be the new big bad, and theorized that perhaps this was why he was strong enough to beat Gideon as well. Turns out I was wrong on both accounts, since Scott wasn’t killed at all but instead whisked away mid-battle by some mysterious force. So not only does this have no bearing on Matthew’s general strength, but it also seems to mean that the conflict between Matthew Patel and Gideon may be far from over.
Thanks for reading, friends! I’ll see you back here for Episode 4!
“Do You Know What I Love the Most?” is a newsletter from Spencer Irwin about his relationship with the stories he loves. Spencer is an enthusiast and writer from Newark, Delaware, who likes punk rock, comic books, working out, breakfast, and most of all, stories. His previous work appeared on Retcon Punch, One Week One Band, and Crisis on Infinite Chords, and he can be found on Twitter at @ThatSpenceGuy. If you like this newsletter, please subscribe and share with your friends!
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