What happens when a party-girl witch gets knocked up by the king of Hell? Well, she goes on the run with their love child until forced to co-parent. She does everything to avoid the demonic influences trying to take her baby out of the human realm, ripping her shirt off as many times as necessary.
The story focuses on Chrissy, the young half-demon offspring just trying to make sense of the world and of seventh grade. Her world changes when she learns that the devil himself is her father. The plot revolves around her trying to figure out what she is capable of and deciphering what to do about her relationships with her mom and dad… which leads us to our #BiHexual character.
This review mostly focuses on the episode "Wet Bodies" S1 E9, so there will be some SPOILERS ahead. If you are unfamiliar with the Unicorn Scale, check out this article.
Worth noting, Laura Feinberg is played by Aubrey Plaza, who is bi and has no problem playing lots of other bi characters. Satan is voiced by Danny DeVito. If you want to watch these two play the most sexually tense ex-lovers fighting over the future of their child, buckle up and don’t stop. There’s only one season, so there’s plenty of time to see where this series takes us. Also, this is rated MA, so probably best not to watch with the kids, unless your babies are really cool.
What I Liked:
We already know Chrissy’s mom, Laura, is attracted to men. So much so that she maintained a relationship with Satan for quite some time. But hey, we’ve all been there. We learn in "Wet Bodies" that she is trying to escape her problems with Chrissy by running to Darlene’s beach house to lie on the beach. Laura knows she needs to give Chrissy some space so she casts a spell to prevent her from texting or calling Chrissy for 24 hours and if she tries her heart explodes and her soul gets trapped in this spider forever. So, with Darlene’s assuring words that if she does get turned into a spider Darlene will treat her the same, Laura decides to let loose and try to make friends with the beach babes, including Dorlene, Durlawn, Dirlane, and Dave.
In her first meetup with the Dorlene gang, she hears about the illustrious Sea Hag. After storming off and getting her high ruined by some satanic boasting, she decides to reverse the curse, stab her ribs with a screwdriver, and command some lightning!... only to get washed into the ocean and nearly drown. The completely evil and horrendous Sea Hag drags her to shore and applies some shell salve to heal her. She hears the Dorlene gang from afar and chooses to spend the rest of her time away with this treacherous wench.
Sea Hag licks Laura’s neck to give her temporary gills and off they go on their wild water adventures.
Sea Hag gives Laura a gorgeous necklace, they drop some trippy octopus ink and hold hands, slice up a group of nipple-jewelry pirate bandits, and share their experiences of feeling guilt as mothers. It’s when Sea Hag tells Laura that she needs to give herself a break that they both yell “TAKE ME!” and begin banging on the dining table.
So here leads us to two bi characters who have both expressed their history with men and no regret or change of attraction, but a clear and physical interest and wild night of passion for one another. Sounds pretty bi to me. Let’s start with the short one, Sea Hag.
Now, Sea Hag isn’t shellfish, she’s actually more mammal than crustacean — wait, you mean selfish? That outdated bi trope? Nah, she lives her life how she wants and never feels inclined to explain herself. She is 100% herself and does as she pleases. I hope we see her in future seasons so I can expand more on the chill vibes of this merbabe.
Laura is someone we have come to know and love. We know she is conflicted with her emotions for Satan still, and I know I go back and forth between my personal ship of them. I also loved seeing this untethered version of her that the Sea Hag unleashed. She was unbridled and not in a constant state of panic. I do love all the episodes where she’s had to rip off her shirt and beat bad guys to a bloody pulp, but it was so lovely seeing her relax and be happy. Sea Hag was a stable and comfortable partner that Laura was certainly not used to having. While they were surrounded in octopus ink they held hands and just enjoyed being in the moment with one another. It was sweet to see Laura get her version of a fairytale romance, if only for 24 hours.
After they’re done boning… (or maybe scaling? Somebody get me an expert in fantasy fish autonomy slang!) Laura gets clammy. She is so used to being a hardass and lone wolf whose sole personality is to protect her daughter that she is unnerved for having let loose. The mood changes from sharing embarrassing tattoos of a mermaid and a drunk lady to suddenly needing to leave and go back to the shore. There is tenderness within both of them, but a somber goodbye.
There are some other plot points that end with Sea Hag joining the Dorlene gaggle based on their shared love of Shit Wives of Myrtle Beach, which brings her back to Laura briefly. She carves a sweet symbol onto her arm and tells her if she ever wants to come back to her how to use it to cast a spell and return. It is very sweet and we see both of them yearn like no other.
The yearning is next level.
As Laura returns to her previous life and the rest of her worldly troubles, you see her finding comfort in the tattoo from her precious Sea Hag.
What I Didn’t Like:
Okay, it isn’t great that the first girl interaction we see for Laura is fueled by drugs, violence, and sex. Personally, it is my favorite, especially since this character is such a badass, but I know there are some complaints about bi characters jumping into bed with the first Sea Hag they meet and bumping cloaca.
It would have been great if they could have dropped the B word, but it would have probably been strange if Laura went on an educational rant about her sexual orientation. So, all I’m saying for season 2 is that we better get an episode of Laura awkwardly and aggressively explaining sexuality to Chrissy in the most uncomfortable parental sex talk ever for 30 straight minutes. Or technically bi minutes.
The Rating:
I give this a full score of four unicorns. They didn’t have to give us a full episode to dive into Laura’s attraction to females, but they did. They could have made it a male sea creature, but they didn’t. They gave us a whole storyline and plot for Laura to dip her toes into. It wasn’t even a one-and-done. We have hope for them reuniting! We have no idea what will happen with this love arc. She’s gotta come back in season two because of the tattoo, right?!
They gave us a fully-fleshed-out character with details galore and so much queer bullshit to warm the icy waters of my heart.
Brava, Little Demon. I cannot wait to see what the future seasons have in shore... I mean, in store.
Okay, I will end my naughty nautical puns here.
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