DISCLAIMER: This Happy! recap contains more spoilers than the number of times Happy has had to pull out the swear jar on Sax. Hey, our favorite hitman does have the mouth of a sailor. You’ve been warned. If you see a blue horse…run. Enter at your own risk.
Welcome back, friends of a certain imaginary blue horse! SyFy‘s latest endeavor, Happy!, aired its second episode this week. So far, so good. Nick Sax, our grizzly antihero, is coming to grips with the fact that he has a daughter. Happy tries to persuade Sax to rescue Hailey. Meanwhile, Merry is ordered by mobster boss extraordinaire Blue to wrangle Sax for the purposes of securing an important password. Oh, and we discovered that Merry broke up Sax’s marriage to Amanda, Hailey’s mother. Like the Marvel universe, everything is connected.
Alright, ready to delve into “What Smiles Are For?” Just be sure to keep Happy away from all narcotics that can be nasally ingested. Like cocaine, for instance. Apparently drugs and horses do not mix.
We open where we left off: Happy (Patton Oswalt) just informed Sax (Christopher Meloni) that Hailey is his daughter. Suddenly, a truck swerves into view and smashes into the side of Sax’s (well, Merry’s) car. Sax, experiencing an overabundance of bodily trauma, goes into shock. You would too if you were hit by a truck.
Dream sequence time! We’re transported to the reality world of Jerry Springer. Jerry Springer himself is mediating an argument between a couple over the results of a paternity test. Suddenly, Sax lands smack dab in the middle of the show. Springer grills Sax over his newfound revelation of being a father. Of course, Sax denies this fact. Especially since this whole scenario is a figment of Sax’s imagination.
Next, we see Sax back in actual reality, running through the streets of NYC in a blood soaked hospital gown with Happy in tow. Sax is willing to concede that perhaps Happy is the real deal as far as imaginary blue horses goes. However, he still refuses to hunt for Hailey. Sax’s main goal is to gather enough funds so he can successfully leave New York in the dust. Blue horses and newfound daughters be damned!
Meanwhile, Amanda (Medina Senghore) is putting up posters of Hailey in the hopes that someone might’ve seen her. We see Hailey herself (Bryce Lorenzo) stowed away in a crate in Very Bad Santa’s (Joseph D. Reitman) abandoned warehouse. She hears another child rustling in the crate next to her. Hailey attempts to strike up a conversation with said child. She learns that Very Bad Santa prefers silence and doesn’t like his prisoners to talk to one another. Well, Very Bad Santa is…bad. This I know.
Later, Sax enters his apartment and discovers it inhabited by Blue’s crew. Our hitman, while initially taken aback, takes it all in stride. He plays the pitch perfect host by offering them 10 day old Chinese food and usage of all his amenities. Sax changes out of his fashionable hospital gown and rummages through his emergency duffle bag for the necessities. He grabs his wedding band. Then, Blue’s crew admits, while they’ve switched gangs, the collective belief on the street is that Sax should be put out for his knowledge of that sacred password. No one should know anything! However, Sax launches into his usual bout of fisticuffs and swiftly takes the gang out one by one. Take that!
Next, Merry (Lili Mirojnick) identifies her nearly decimated car at the scene of the crash. She later meets with Blue (Ritchie Coster) for dinner. The mob boss orders her to bring in Sax alive. If she’s successful in doing so, then her debts to him will be paid. Oh, and Sax must also be articulate at that. Well, beggars can’t be choosers, Blue! Merry is reticent to do this, especially since her and Sax used to be lovers. Not only that, but their affair broke up Sax’s marriage to Amanda. This might literally be a plot line from Jerry Springer. Anyway, should Merry refuse to comply, Blue will do his worst on her mentally ill mother. In fact, something may be happening to her at this very moment…
Then, Sax and Happy wind up in a laundromat. Sax, in an attempt to rid himself of the imaginary pooping blue horse, shoves Happy in a dryer and turns it on. That’s not nice! He heads upstairs and finds Le Dic (Michael Maize), a friend-but-not-friend, playing a rousing game of poker. Sax wants in. This could be his chance to score an exorbitant amount of cash in a very short period of time. May the odds be ever in your favor, Sir Sax. Let the games begin!
RELATED: Read all HAPPY! Recaps Here
Meanwhile, Amanda is sleeping in Hailey’s bed. She hears a knocking at her door. Amanda opens said door to find a creepy card containing a lock of Hailey’s hair. Looks like Very Bad Santa enjoys arts and crafts. Amanda, utterly mortified, bursts into tears at the sight.
Next, Sax decides to raise the stakes by throwing his gold wedding band into the mix. Happy, fresh from his ride in the dryer, returns. Sax is overjoyed when he discovers that Happy can see the other players’ poker hands. He pulls our favorite blue horse aside and decides to join Team Save Hailey. Happy is giddy at the news. They’re Starsky and Hutch. Peanut Butter and Jelly. Stabler and Benson (too soon?). But first, Happy must assist Sax in winning this poker game. Once they score a bunch of money and firearms, then they can save Hailey. Hooray!
Now, our duo is on fire. With Happy revealing everyone’s hands to Sax, they’re unstoppable. Money is raining from the sky. Yes, Sax is making it rain.
Meanwhile, Merry arrives home to find none other than Smoothie (Patrick Fischler) indulging in facial sheet masks with her mother. She pulls him into the kitchen and shoves her gun underneath his chin. Smoothie is merely here to make sure Merry does as she’s bid. He’ll help facilitate the “Bring Sax to Blue” process. Merry overtly threatens to kill Smoothie right then and there. My girl is a bad***, and she’ll do as she says. However, she lets him slip away for fear of what would happen to her mother. Also, Smoothie is a creep. We can all agree on that, yes?
Then, Happy gets inadvertently happy really quickly when he sniffs a line of cocaine during the poker game. He begins bouncing off the walls – even more than usual. Sax attempts to reel the horse in but to no avail. He also tries to get his wedding band back. However, Le Dic refuses to give it up, even though Sax is clearly winning the game. We discover that the true purpose of this game was to keep Sax in place long enough for Blue to find him. Uh oh. That simply won’t do.
Thus, Sax withdraws his guns and takes everyone out at the poker table. He saves Le Dic for last. Sax takes all the cash and Le Dic’s car keys. Then, Sax severs the man’s finger so he can get his wedding band back. Case closed. You just got Sax’d!
Later, Sax reveals to Happy while driving away that he has no intentions of saving Hailey, in spite of what he promised previously. Happy is distraught. Sax’s new plan is to drive westward, as far as humanly possible. Well away from Blue’s radar.
Next, Amanda barges into the NYPD homicide department and demands they help her find Hailey. Merry appears and offers to introduce Amanda to a wonderful detective in missing persons. However, Amanda wants Merry’s assistance in locating Sax. Merry fibs and claims she hasn’t seen Sax in a decade. I can get behind this ex-wife/ex-lover team up.
Later, we see Sax and Happy eating in a diner. Happy reveals that Hailey has one photo of Sax in his police uniform, and from that she’s conjured a spectacular hero of a father. However, Sax just can’t live up to that hero image. Happy leaves the diner. Then, Sax is back on Jerry Springer, where he’s being forced to reconcile with the fact that Hailey is his daughter. After some cajoling from the crowd, Sax gets up to leave. Suddenly, said crowd turns on each other. Sax exits in the midst of all the chaos.
Back in the real world, Sax drives up beside a forlorn Happy. He urges the blue horse to join him as he heads back to the city…to save Hailey. Yay! Team Peanut Butter and Jelly for the win! Time to teach Santa a lesson!
Happy! is delightfully gory and whimsically violent, if such pairings can exist. Think of it as the lovechild of Quentin Tarantino and Terry Gilliam. So much violence peppered with witty one liners and a fantastical talking blue horse. What more could you want? Not to mention, Meloni pushing the sanity envelope is everything I’ve ever wanted in life. Seriously, my favorite role of his yet.
Do you think Sax will reunite with Amanda in his quest to save Hailey? Will Merry deliver Sax to Blue as promised? What is Very Bad Santa’s true objective? Will someone tell Smoothie that you have to leave on sheet masks for at least 15-20 minutes? Join me next week as I continue to recap Happy!, here on Geek Girl Authority.
Happy! airs Wednesdays at 10pm on your SyFy affiliate.
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What I do: I'm GGA's Managing Editor, a Senior Contributor, and Press Coordinator. I manage, contribute, and coordinate. Sometimes all at once. Joking aside, I oversee day-to-day operations for GGA, write, edit, and assess interview opportunities/press events.
Who I am: Before moving to Los Angeles after studying theater in college, I was born and raised in Amish country, Ohio. No, I am not Amish, even if I sometimes sport a modest bonnet.
Bylines in: Tell-Tale TV, Culturess, Sideshow Collectibles, and inkMend on Medium.
Critic: Rotten Tomatoes, CherryPicks, and the Hollywood Creative Alliance.
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