The Woman Who Was Fed By A Duck
Episode 5 of Roar starts down at the duck pond. Elisa feeds a duck bread, which is incredibly bad for them. However, the green-billed male starts talking back to her. As they converse, Elisa admits that she’s studying for medical school. She wants to be a cardiographer, going on to reveal that her father passed away from a heart attack on the past. Further revelations unveil that this duck – called Larry – happens to be a feminist. However, a dog starts chasing him and after cursing, splashes into the water. That dog happens to belong to a guy called Dave, who happens to be the park ranger. After dismissing his weak attempts at flirting, Elisa finds Larry and the pair talk, with Elisa even bringing him a range of snacks, including corn and grapes With a storm approaching, Elisa decides to take Larry back home. He’s not like the other ducks in the pond who really love the rain. The pair sit and watch TV together. It’s here we learn Elisa is stuck in a rut. She used to work on a political campaign regarding voter turnout but since her constituency lost, she’s been reeling ever since. Elisa has been on a number of terrible dates over the years , with Elisa likening them to the rotten fruit in a supermarket. Not like Larry the Duck. She eventually puts Larry in the bath, and even gets in with him. This is the turning point for Elisa, who decides to get the apartment in shape, making everything look good for her new feathery friend. When she makes Larry some sourdough bread, Larry lashes out and reminds her that bread is bad for ducks. He even tells Sarah that she could do with laying off the carbs a bit too. Ouch. Larry eventually admits that he loves Elisa and apologizes for his impulsive behaviour earlier on. As the pair start getting close together, a week passes and Elisa eventually facetimes her sister again to let her know she’s “seeing someone.” However, issues soon begin to seep into their “relationship” when Elisa is horrified to find Larry has defecated all over the apartment. But to make it to up to her he… gives her an orgasm? What. The. Duck. Elisa’s distracted and because of that, she misses out on her chance to enrol for medical school. She’s encouraged to head back again in 3 months but Larry writes that off, claiming Elisa never really sticks to anything anyway. Things with Larry the Duck stray into dark territory, as he begins to manipulate Elisa, making her believe her own sister is a bad influence. Larry even scratches her across the forehead too. This is classic domestic violence 101 and even worse, Elisa starts to take Larry’s words to heart, believing she’s not qualified to be a doctor. Eventually Elisa makes a big decision and calls in animal control to take Larry away. It turns out she has a lot in common with Dave, but right now she doesn’t want to settle down. She’s going to take care of herself for now, focusing on what’s important. Elisa remains determined to become a big doctor.
The Episode Review
Roar quacks back onto our screens with a surreal chapter involving Larry and Elisa in this tale that feels ripped right from The Bee Movie. As Elisa and Larry get closer together, this is, of course, supposed to be indicative of toxic relationships. We’ve seen this before a lot, with couples heading off and ignoring calls and texts from their own families and friends because they’re so caught up in one another. The episode does do well to showcase this but I’m struggling to see why we needed to have that bizarre and ridiculous sex scene with the duck? Was that really needed? I honestly thought the bath scene was indicative enough of that. Some or the writing here is a little on-the-nose too, with some cheesy one-liners and brushing off domestic violence despite some nice ideas that seemed to lean into this toward the end. This certainly isn’t the worst chapter in this turbulent anthology though, which spills out a mediocre chapter.
