"Gangland," written by Andrew Robinson, directed by Jennifer Coyle:
The teaser was oddly abrupt. I wonder if I missed part of it. We see the aftermath of Spidey tying up some mobsters in a flower shop after he tried to get flowers for his Valentine's Day date with Liz. He muses a bit about the building gang war between Ock, Tombstone, and Silvermane, and that's it.
Decent premise, though too cluttered, like the whole season. While pretty much all the student characters end up on mass date at a restaurant owned by Liz Allan's father, the three gang lords gather at a summit, each thinking one of the others called it. It turns out to be a setup by Hammerhead, working with some unknown benefactor, to turn them against each other so they'll wipe each other out. Pete gets called away from his date with Liz to cover the story, meaning to fight the bad guys and protect the public. Someone is jamming phone signals so the bosses can't call in reinforcements, but Hammerhead knows nothing about it.
The main focal points of the date are Flash trying to impress Sha Shan (which leads to humor as he asks Pete to kick him if he says anything stupid, a task Pete is happy to perform), with Sha Shan ultimately telling him he doesn't have to pretend with her, that she likes him for his honesty. It's a very sweet moment. Things aren't going so well with Pete and Liz -- since MJ has transformed Gwen into a total babe and Pete can't keep his eyes off her.
Interestingly, most of the music in the episode is diegetic -- the opera accompanying the gang lord battle, the source music at the restaurant, the radio at Aunt May's. (The male opera singer is recognizably Rob Paulsen.) Some of the action is counterpointed with the music, sometimes humorously, as when Spidey is afraid "the fat lady is singing" for him and we cut to the fat lady singing. After Spidey takes out a robo-suited Silvermane and Doc Ock, it culminates in a battle with Tombstone where the music of the opera is the only sound in the entire sequence. I love stuff like that.
The fight ends with Tombstone being publicly exposed as a gang lord, thanks to Foswell's undercover work as Patch. But as Captain Stacy points out to Spidey afterward, bringing down Tombstone creates a power vacuum. And when Tombstone makes bail, he discovers the mastermind who arranged with Hammerhead to create that vacuum -- and it's exactly who I expected, the Green Goblin.
Minor bits: We meet J. Jonah's wife Joan, which is the name of his ex-wife in the comics, mother of John Jameson. And Mark Allan, Liz's brother and MJ's "un-date," is seen talking to known gangster Blackie Gaxton and then throwing money around -- with Liz throwing him a look suggesting she knows he's up to no good. So when Mark gets upset at Peter for treating Liz as a second choice, that may be cause for concern.
I didn't find the animation in this episode particularly impressive, but it was a cleverly constructed story and I appreciate their willingness to experiment with the music and its role in the storytelling.
Silvermane is Miguel Ferrer, who wouldn't have been my choice; my perception of Silvermane is as a very old, decrepit man, though maybe that's just from the '90s TV series; I don't really remember too much about him from the comics. But they're going for a younger Silvermane here, or at least a healthier one. Aside from not fitting my expectations, I have no problem with Ferrer.
