ASTRID & LILLY SAVE THE WORLD – Season 1 Episode 5 – SPOILERS

A Memoragatu (Jana Gillis) comes through the portal and makes several people relive the worst moments of their childhood. The beast has very long fingernails, and also has very large eyes, one of which Astrid and Lilly need to take for portal closing purposes. The Memoragatu sends a personalized diable en boîte to each of five people: Val, Astrid, Lilly, Brutus, and Tate.

Brutus (Olivier Renaud) says that to vanquish this particular demon each must resolve their monstrous memory, or be forced to relive that experience in an endlessly recurring loop. Brutus also says that, unlike the others, he is being forced to relive his most pleasant memory, but that might not be true. A flashback shows him trying unsuccessfully to save someone from falling into a hole of some sort. If that hole was an inter-dimensional portal, his true reason for helping Astrid and Lilly might be to find and rescue someone who tumbled into this dimension and was trapped here.

We find out that Christine (Geri Hall) is a widow, as is Astrid’s mother (Ma-Anne Dionisio). Tate’s father (Doug, played by Carlos Pinder) is divorced. (Christine seems interested in him but she might just be hoping to feed him to the monster she’s working with.) Lilly (Samantha Aucoin) has two moms, Heidi (Nicole Underhay) and Pam (Alexis Koetting). Candace and Lilly were best friends until Christine’s homophobia prevented the two from being around each other.

Candace (Julia Doyle) was cast as Juliet in the school play, and this gives her an opportunity to ask Lilly to help her run lines (starting with some of the flirty bits from Act I Scene V), but the effort fails (initially) because Lilly still blames Candace for ending their friendship years previously. The Memoragatu turns out to be a useful monster, because fighting it eventually makes Lilly realize that Christine, not Candace, is the problem. Lilly apologizes, and suggests they get together again the following day. Candace is very pleased.

Val (Christina Orjalo), whose most horrible memory is of farting onstage while playing one of the witches in Macbeth, was cast as the crocodile, and she is not happy about it. (She emphatically delivers the best line of the episode: “Romeo and Juliet doesn’t have a crocodile.”)

Brutus is not familiar with the tattoos that identify The Guardian‘s minions, and that strange beast keeps demanding that Christine provide more followers to feed it. The Guardian wants to build a “master orb” that will open “all the dimensions”, and the implications of that seem dire (even if undefined). Christine phones Michelle and volunteers to be a chaperone at the school dance in hopes of recruiting more disciples.

Astrid (Jana Morrison) has difficulties related to her father’s death some years previously. She resolves these issues, but doing battle with the Memoragatu causes her to miss her second date with Sparrow (Spencer Macpherson), and she can’t decide on how to explain that to him. This does not make him happy.

The last time we saw Principal Varshidi (Marvin Ishmael) he had been doused with a dark liquid from another dimension. That was in Episode 2. Varshidi failed to appear in this episode as well, but he did make a PA announcement telling Tate to report to soccer practice, so he is apparently all right.

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Miscellaneous Info

@AstridLillyShow tweeted on 25 February: “Memoragatu! We’re proud of all our monsters, but this week’s is played by Jana, one of our second ADs. Pandemic filming was a lot of work, but also meant some talented crew members got to show off multiple talents!”

Samantha Aucoin and Jana Morrison hosted the 2022 SXSW Gaming Awards.

Ma-Anne Dionisio (Astrid’s mom) is Jane Dimaapi in FIVE DAYS AT MEMORIAL, an eight-episode miniseries based on Sheri Fink’s landmark investigation of patient deaths at a New Orleans hospital during Hurricane Katrina.

Astrid & Lilly Episode Six

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ASTRID & LILLY SAVE THE WORD can be streamed on TUBI.