Moral Orel (A Deconstruction of the Nuclear Family)
“It’s not your time… My valentine…”
Moral Orel has a very interesting background. Initially starting off as a (rather heavy-handed) religious satire, this 43-episode-lengthed series premiered on [adult swim] with a purposefully bad station decision: airing the season one finale as the first to appear initially. Not only did this serve to confuse fans of the network, but also to set up the completely wrong themes; while the past nine episodes had a basic structure to them, The Best Christmas Ever! ended on a cliffhanger with a fairly bleak tone. Season two expanded upon this, often leaving Orel, our lead character, confused and dispirited at the end of each episode. Implications introduced rather subtly earlier-on now have very clear meanings, and even if things were getting uneasy for the future, Moral Orel was still a comedy at heart.
Alas, all hopes of said comedy disappeared with the two-part season two finale (Nature: Part 1 and Nature: Part 2). Clay Puppington- Orel’s father- takes his son on a hunting trip, only to continually pressure him into shooting and killing an animal: something Orel is clearly uncomfortable doing. Clay’s alcoholism (which, up until this point, had mostly been played for dark humor) rears its fiercest and darkest head, resulting in a disturbing rant about women and how drinking has consumed his life. The second part also doesn’t get much better, with Clay accidentally shooting his own child in the leg, only to show a complete lack of remorse and responsibility afterwards.
And season three, you ask? Well… let’s just say Moral Orel isn’t exactly a quarter of a comedy anymore. This final block of episodes starts with a cold open, titled Numb, of which shows what exactly happened at the Puppington household whilst Clay and Orel were gone. Originally planned for 20 episodes (and, as far as reputable knowledge goes, two more seasons after this), the length had to be cut down to 13, primarily due to a rapid one-two-three punch of the Numb, Alone, and (uncompleted) Raped episodes. [Adult swim] had specifically asked for the show to become even darker after the desolate turn of Nature: Part 1 and Nature: Part 2, although, due to popular claim, a network staff member became so disturbed with what creator Dino Stamatopoulos turned the show into, he nearly cancelled it on the spot.
Season three is what we’ll be focusing on in this article. The first two were great in their own right, but almost just serve as a catalyst for the stunningly realistic drama that I do not doubt Mr. Stamatopoulos had planned from the start. Without further ado…
The Genius and Heartbreaking Realism of Moral Orel (A Deconstruction of the Nuclear Family)
Numb. Up until this point in the series, Bloberta Puppington (Orel’s mother) had been given little to no backstory, and while hints were dropped before then, we had simply known her as the dutiful housewife. Seem familiar? That’s right: the American nuclear family typically consists of a loving husband and wife, live in the suburbs, and have at least one child (the Puppingtons have two sons). Numb completely picks apart this trope, showing this perky and negligent mother to be an empty, “numb” husk of a person. The episode ends with Bloberta showing only brief worry for Orel after overhearing a phone call by Clay requesting “discreet treatment,” and then the audio begins to quietly play No Children by The Mountain Goats. And, as one would suspect, the lyrics aren’t too uplifting…
"I am drowning There is no sign of land You are coming down with me Hand in unlovable hand
And I hope you die I hope we both die"
As the music gets louder, we see yet another first-person shot, but this time from Clay’s perspective. An iced glass of whiskey in hand, he stumbles around the house, only looking up from the floor to overhear Orel asking Bloberta…
“Why did you marry dad?” “Oh, well… hm! Why not?” “W-well, it’s just that, when he drinks, he… changes.” “Oh, he doesn’t change, Orel! That’s just his true nature coming out.”
After this point, what I like to call the show’s “love letters” begin to pop up. I’d wager that using the phrase “pop up” is a bit inappropriate here, given that these episodes are handled with such thoughtfulness and care they are anything from rushed.
The first of these carefully packaged episodes starts with Dumb, which deals with the school’s Nurse Bendy and her son, Joe. Joe was previously played out to be a general, overall bully, sticking his tongue out at things he deemed (very often) “dumb.” Nurse Bendy, on the other hand, was shown in Alone to be a mentally disturbed, extremely lonely woman, possibly bordering on having schizophrenia. Sat on her kitchen table were two small teddy bears, one being Hubby and the other Sonny; treating these stuffed animals as family, she cooked and talked to them, stating how, “I feel thoughts of emotions, and I need people to know that. Thank you [God] for keeping this family in good shape. The end, for now, while we eat! Signed, my family. Wow, my eye is really sweating up a storm here.” In Dumb, this is taken in stride, with Joe and Nurse Bendy meeting at her house, with the former diminutively mocking Sonny, squeezing the bear so its tongue sticks out. As the two bond and realize their importance to one another, Bendy denounces the toys (and later throws them in the garbage) and claims, “But, he keeps me company, Joe! Oh, Sonny is… Sonny’s my… you.” The episode ends with the two sticking their tongues out at each other, a suitcase by Joe’s side, finally allowing him to leave his aging father behind and choosing to stay with his real mother. What previously used to be an unlikable bully is now a highly-characterized, sympathetic boy, of whom was missing something important in his life.
Help starts with Orel asking his mother, yet again, “Why did you marry Dad?” and goes on into a flashback detailing a church-loving and benign Clay, mostly spending his days alone studying the Bible. Bloberta on the other hand, feels dejected among her group of mostly married friends, and is shown to have a less-than-desirable home life (her mother is highly critical, with her father pressured helplessly on the sidelines, unable to confidently comfort his daughter) along with a drinking problem. She meets Clay at a wedding reception (he awkwardly stayed despite not knowing either the bride or groom), and the relationship goes off of the deep end. Quickly. Clay reveals both of his parents are dead, and, irritated by his innocence, Bloberta forces him to drink alcohol… later punching him out cold after he flirts with a few other women. When he comes to, she holds his head above the glass-covered ground, stating all she’s been doing is, “It seems all I’ve been doing since I’ve met you is help, and help, and help, and help, and help, and help, and help you!”
Even with her situation at home, Bloberta isn’t coming off to be the best of characters: she forces to Clay to drink (effectively leading him to a life of alcoholism to come) and manipulates him, but one final whimpering word, right after she suggests they marry, with tears in her eyes, “Help,” sets into motion the viewer’s ultimate sympathy for her character.
For how Dumb is a love letter to Nurse Bendy and Joe, and for how Passing and Sacrifice are sympathizers for Clay, the season’s most important episodes- Closeface and Honor- are ultimate tributes to the show’s title character: Orel. Closeface brings back Christina (Orel’s love interest that was ultimately torn apart by petty differences in the two families’ religion) into the mix. Also adding Reverend Putty and his daughter, Stephanie, this episode manages to make Orel finally have a happy ending. In the school’s annual Arms’ Length Dance, all other students sway awkwardly back and forth, eyes darting around the room, searching for an example on what to do. As these hastily-matched couples shuffle on the floor, the children part to reveal a tender embrace between Orel and Christina, foreheads pressed up against one another, with the title-song Closeface (a reference to the way a person appears when in close view) soon playing in the background.
Honor. With seven episodes in the gutter, a proper finale episode for this increasingly-narratively-founded season was crucial. The plot focuses around Orel’s search in honoring his father, ultimately ending up in Coach Stopframe’s domain. Initially unsure what to say, the Coach praises Orel’s father for the one good thing he managed to do: give birth to Orel, and that is enough for him to be an honorable and decent man. Sure, he’s an alcoholic and manipulator, but the sheer, single act of creating an innocent child is more than enough justification for, well, honor.
The episode ends with the torn-apart family all returning home with sullen faces, until… a change happens. Orel slowly morphs into a teenager, then an adult, with the Reverend speaking in the background, “What is family? Well, a lot of times, family is just a bunch of people who are forced to be together just because they came out of each other. But, every so often,” cue the transformation, “a miracle happens… a loving family.” Orel is then shown to have two children, along with happy wife Christina. Paraphrasing the Reverend, there is no real cause for this. Whether it be blind luck, religious beliefs, or some other cause we like to link to reason, it doesn’t really matter: a true, connected family can pop up just like that.
And that’s all there is to it.