The Midnight Gospel Season 1, Episode 3 Recap
Amidst all of the crazy encompassed within The Midnight Gospel, there is Clancy. Clancy is the show’s protagonist and the host of the identically named “space-cast” (podcast that goes out to space) within the show. In this episode, as in each, we begin positioned inside Clancy’s home, really getting to see his regular life and mannerisms. The pink-skinned animated character seems to be innocent, aloof, spacey, well-meaning, and empathetic. The latter two really shine in Clancy’s choice to travel to a certain world in this episode based off of a new subscriber’s desperation for ice cream. Our host becomes so focused on finding ice cream for this person that he accidentally lets his “universe simulator” send him to an “a** cream” planet instead- which becomes much less relevant once he actually arrives there.
Remember all the crazy I mentioned taking place in this series?
It truly intensifies once Clancy is blasted through space into the a** cream planet. Immediately upon descending into an aquatic world, Clancy is swallowed by a giant serpent. The show’s beautifully edited animation cuts to a creature made of a human body and a fish bowl for a head. Let’s call him Fish Man. Fish Man is cinematically playing an organ from the body of a massive ship being manned by cats. The organ playing soon begins to appear ceremonial, as it seems to summon the man eating serpent from the sea to be sliced open. From the serpent’s guts spill out Clancy, taking from in this planet as an egg shaped monkey. Clancy follows Fish Man around, intrigued by his silence. After reaching a properly meditative state, Fish Man strongly starts the dialogue by stating that “magic is what [he] is.” Hearing this intriguing creature start a high-level conversation immediately on 100 excited me and locked my attention in, both on the animation and dialogue.
What I love about this show is how conversational it is. We learn that Fish Man’s name is Darryl. Darryl is a representation of Damien Echols, the real life man who voices him. Damien Echols was a part of the “West Memphis 3,” a group of teenagers from Memphis charged with murder of 3 young boys in 1994. Daryl’s voice reminds me of Matthew McConaughey. It’s refreshing to hear a character with a thick accent appear in television as something more than a caricature. Much more, in fact; we get to hear Darryl the fish man, in his southern-accented glory, really break down some complex philosophical concepts.
This episode explains to viewers what western magic is from the perspective of Darryl/Damien. He tells us that magic tries to “cram several lifetimes of spiritual and energetic experiences into one” and that it exists both for manifestation and for what he calls “spiritual sustenance.” As Darryl explains to Clancy the metaphysical/magic components involved in oral storytelling. Traditions passed down using that method, he says, require the storyteller to have received “the light” in order to properly pass it down to the listener; words passed down through oral tradition are not independently magical.
At many points during the dialogue, I find myself entranced by the animation. I think it’s hilarious how the characters vocally respond to the insane stimuli around them at certain seemingly random points within their conversation. One example of this is Darryl responding “woah” in shock when his ship crashed into an iceberg, despite moments prior having a completely calm demeanor focused more on the conversation that the mayhem around him. It’s like, just when you think the dialogue and animation are existing independently yet simultaneously, the two interact and make the viewing experience that much more satisfying.
The conversation between Clancy and Darryl essentially culminates with Darryl contrasting the concepts of eastern “enlightenment” and western “solar consciousness.” This part especially resonated with me because it spoke to the spiritual journey I personally want to complete in this lifetime. According to Darryl, that process involves a first and second death, one being physical and the other igniting the unraveling of the astral body. Once the astral body is developed, one is able to eternally preserve their consciousness and maneuver freely between the physical and metaphysical realms. I honestly do believe I have started this journey and have, in life, taken steps both toward and away from developing a completely autonomous astral self. This episode reaffirmed the urgency of that journey for me and inspired a lot of post-viewing research.
Episode 3 ends with Clancy being blasted back into his home world. Before this happens, though, the animation shows Clancy and Darryl walk through a maze that resembles a human brain and emerge with Darryl taking form as a fully human giant. I believe this represents development of solar consciousness and the consequent change that comes from such. Nonetheless, Clancy ends up arriving home with a flying, ice-cream-vomiting unicorn. The unicorn spits up a healthy service of frozen fare, solving Clancy’s initial problem of getting ice cream to his new subscriber. He beams the ice cream to the subscriber through his futuristic computer and after saying “I love you” to the unicorn, watches it fly away. That simple interaction felt so pure and endearing to me and was a great way to lightly transition away from the breadth of valuable information just delivered.
The Midnight Gospel is based on The Duncan Trussell Family Hour, a podcast named after the person who voices Clancy in the show. You can listen to episodes of it at the link below!
