Son of Zorn: The War on Grafelnik – Child of Divorce (Review)

Just when it seems that Son of Zorn could not p0ssibly get any funnier along comes an episode like “The War on Grafelnik.” We learn that Grafelnik, which is basically a retelling of Taken (or vice versa), falls on Christmas Day this year.

Zorn is excited at the prospect of spending Alan’s first Grafelnik taking revenge on all who have wronged them. He takes Alan out on a revenge run. They throw packets of raw hamburger meat on the walls of a restaurant and Alan is called to meet his father in a bad section of town.

Edie pushes for a shared Christmas/Grafelnik and as the divorced couple argue for priority with their son, Alangulon comes up with a brilliant idea. He pits Zorn and Edie against one another in order to get more gifts.

Alan’s friend Todd prompts the plan when he arrives with a new motorbike, leathers and a new helmet.  Alan talks with Todd about the disagreement between Edie and Zorn about Christmas vs Grafelnik.

This prompts the war of the title and it results in some unexpected results for Alan as well as Craig and Edie. Son of Zorn pulls out all the stops with a hysterically funny backstory that explains Craig’s phobia about Santa  Claus.

A child of divorce himself, Craig reveals to Edie that he is terrified of Santa. One Christmas his father, dressed as the jolly old elf, shows up and finds Craig’s mother with her boyfriend. The end result is a bloody Christmas morning where Craig’s dad, dressed as Santa, beats the boyfriend to a pulp.

Craig has been frightened of the toymaker ever since. Edie tries to cure her fiance of his phobia with immersion therapy which is unsuccessful. Even having sex whilst she wears a “Santa hat” does not help Craig with his irrational fear.

(Later in the episode, when Edie and Zorn destroy the Santa Village at the mall, Craig is enveloped by an inflatable Santa and the divorced couple traumatize a slew of innocent kids.)

The entire episode is funny.  From Zorn’s appearance as Grafelnik to the Zephyrian-trained killer bees, the storyline containts a multitude of amusing moments.  Alan’s revelation that the story of Grafelnik is, in essence, the plot of Taken starts things off.

Zorn actually agrees that the film is a lot like the Zephyrian folktale. (Although he points out that the father and daughter are killed by a “shot to the head” and buried in the same grave in the Zephyrian verson.)  The revenge based holiday has snowballs made of rocks and includes a seasonal greeting of punching someone in the face.

When Todd attempts the traditional greeting, however, Zorn grabs him by the throat. Edie learns of Alan’s plan to bilk his parents into buying him more gifts and tells her ex about it. Zorn is disappointed enough in the boy that he joins Edie in destroying the gifts they purchaced for Alan.

There is a climatic battle between Zorn and Edie. She weilds a giant candy cane and Zorn uses his sword. This rather one sided fight ends iwth Zorn setting the Mall’s Christmas tree on fire.

By the end of the episode Craig still has his phobia, Zorn decides he likes Taken before releasing a bag of deadly Zephyria trained killer bees on his family and Craig.

This was a brilliant Christmas episode that had a lot of things factored  in to the storyline. (On a sidenote: Has anyone else noticed that Zorn’s bald spot is getting bigger?)

Son of Zorn airs Sundays on FOX. Tune in and get caught up in this live action/animation comedy.

CAST:

• Jason Sudeikis  –  Zorn
• Cheryl Hines  –  Edie
• Johnny Pemberton  –  Alan
• Tim Meadows  –  Craig 
• Artemis Pebdani  –  Linda
• Cameron Monaghan  –  Jeff
• Mark Proksch  –  Todd

Guest starring Tony Revolori as Scott