Created by Joshua and Ashley Palmer, sci-fi action adventure series, “Monkey Wrench” is a callback to old school Cartoon Network animation with all its visual mastery and quirky, bold storytelling aspects. Beginning its journey as an indie YouTube series which grew a niche fan following for the past four years, “Monkey Wrench” has finally found a platform in Netflix, releasing the first five episodes of the series. While the series’ central storyline is taking its time to build character intrigue, it certainly has an interesting lore which draws the attention of the new viewers.
The World of Monkey Wrench
Before getting to the central narrative, a brief look around at the world of “Monkey Wrench” is needed. As the creation myth goes, in the beginning, in the dark depth of space, a flash of light emerged which produced three primary coloured entities, Red, Blue and Yellow. Together they filled the galaxy with life, and several different species of entities, alien species came to be. However, their eldest creation, Terrans – humans, who exhibited qualities of all three Primaries, became too arrogant and mixed three colours to form a new idol as Green entity. From the clues provided in the narrative, it appears this Green entity was artificial sentient intelligence, which ended up causing an apocalyptic event, wiping out Terrans from the galaxy and affecting a number of races. The vast impact zone of the catastrophe was termed the Quarantine Zone, proximity to which affected different life forms and turned them into mindless, zombie-like creatures – often regarded as Them. Some of the adventure seekers and relic hunters still venture to the QZ, and if they survive after being affected by the Green energy, they get to be known as Plague Walkers. To prevent any such cataclysmic events from ever happening again, League of Aligned Worlds aka LAW was formed, which united factions of Science, Commerce and Enforcement throughout the galaxy, an organization which is the fundamental force for galactic peacekeeping. Like any all powerful authoritative organization, LAW’s iron grip over galactic factions, borderline autocratic regulations have created conflict. Centuries have passed since Terrans ceased to be, remnants of their culture still live as relics and old customs.
Misadventures of Shrike and Beebs
Viewers are introduced to Shrike Sanchez, a former LAW officer who, for reasons still unknown, left the organization, and has formed a mercenary group, Monkey Wrench, with his buddy Bulldog ‘Beebs’ Browns. A Spanish speaking Shrike belongs to an unspecified humanoid species, is neurotic, occasionally apathetic and gambling addict and has a strange gem at the back of his head which allows him to access infinite storage of some sort. Shrike also has a deep interest for Terran culture, expressing his love for pizzas, often binge watching Latino cartoons and using Spanish phrases – meaning of which no one else understands. It remains unknown what happened to Shrike’s homeplanet, as no one from his species is mentioned in the narrative. In comparison to Shrike, Beebs is a much more emotionally conscious, intelligent, dependable individual who belongs to Walrinian species. An amputee, Beebs has cybernetic legs and arm, has an unresolved, unknown traumatic past which is connected with his parents, which made him act insecure about his true identity. Together, these two-man crew venture into the farthest corners of the galaxy to get a new gig in hopes of earning a serious amount of pixels (galactic currency).
The first episode begins with Miss Kara, a dreaded feline assassin, killing a LAW lobbyist and casino owner, bird billionaire Chester McNevins – making it for the third consecutive time that she took down a LAW supporting rich guy as part of her contracts. Kara’s next target is Nobert Potoo, an eccentric bird sapiens who has millions of pixels’ worth of bounty on his head. Shrike and Beebs get the assignment of escorting Nobert to the distant planet, Oberon, and in the process, end up in the crosshairs of rival merc groups which include Queen Tyneen the dinosaur-humanoid crew, and cat merc brothers Scritch and Scratch. In the course of their journey, Nobert’s fear of Ghost Egg and his erratic shenanigans continue to grill Shrike’s mind, while Beebs feels pity for the seemingly deranged soul. While delivering him to his destination in Oberon, a prolonged chase ensues between Monkey Wrench, Kara, Tyneen’s group and cat brothers. Shrike manages to trip and corner Kara, who has Nobert in her possession – when the truth about Ghost Egg is revealed. As it turns out, Nobert is the son of Queen Potoo, and he left her giant egg shaped spaceship on his own to avoid responsibilities of his empire. The hefty bounty put on him was to have him used as leverage, but Kara’s assignment was to deliver Nobert to his mother. Nobert leaves with his mother and Monkey Wrench gets no payment, much to Shrike’s dismay. Kara’s employer, who gave her killing contract of LAW supporting privileged folks, is revealed to be a mysterious, sarcastic Agent K – the only being coloured in black and white and possessing powers like teleportation, object manifestation. Agent K arranges for a couple of gullible Blue Primary operatives to have a mysterious box delivered to one of his shady contacts.
Lythops Exploitation and Agari Crisis
The second and third episode feature back to back tragic, yet profoundly moving chapters which really highlights the storytelling quality of “Monkey Wrench”. Working for a certain Dr. Agnes who introduced herself as LAW scientist, Beebs and Shrike go to a planet to apparently rescue one of the most elusive species of primitive aliens, last of which live deep inside a cave, as their planet is going to be destroyed. As the duo approach the miniature, extremely durable metallic humanoid species, following a hostile first interaction the metal-humanoids leader, Punti, considers Shrike as their mother figure thanks to the jewel at the back of his head. Fascinated by the technology of the modern world, Punti and his fellow metal-humanoids trust Monkey Wrench and choose to go with them to be rescued. It turns out, their planet faced no threat of destruction, and Agnes merely needed them to create an indestructible armour. Beebs is horrified as Agnes kills the entire species, except that of Punti, to get what she wants, and Shrike gets mad after seeing their spaceship being knocked around by Agnes’ machines. A fight ensues, which ends up with Shrike using Punti as a weapon to destroy Agnes’ armour. Punti is handed over to the LAW authorities, the same ones who have been entrusted with the transportation of the mysterious box. The officers decide to let Monkey Wrench deliver the box instead of having themselves involved. Colonial exploitation is perfectly alluded to through the tragic story of Punti, last survivor of his species.
In the third episode, Monkey Wrench attends to a distress call by Scritch and Scratch, whose spaceship is about to get crushed by an Agari space mushroom. In the past, Agari and one of their fellow space mushroom species, suffered due to the Green apocalypse caused by Terrans, and in the process Agari lost their individuality, their culture, existing as a hive mind zombie construct whose only purpose is to consume life. While playing his tambourine, Beebs is able to communicate with the ethereal presence of the so -called corrupted version of Agari, who appears to be a curious, humble being. As it turns out, it deeply misses ‘Them’, one of the fellow corrupted Agari, whom Scratch accidentally killed while relic hunting. As the ethereal Agari comes into contact with the remains of the dead Agari, it initiates the Green cataclysm spread which takes over Monkey Wrench’s spaceship. It tries to destroy the ship by taking it to the sun, when the former Agari tries to save the ethereal Agari by stopping the ship’s progression. As the corrupted form leaves, Beebs’ cybernetic arm temporarily becomes immobile, and Shrike plays the tambourine which allows Beebs to communicate with the ethereal Agari. The corrupted Agari tries to end itself along with the ethereal Agari, but Beebs and Shrike manage to save the latter one in the end. The chapter reflects the tragic fate of the survivors of manmade disasters, who need to move on with their lives, overlooking the plight of those who can’t be saved.
Who Was Agent K’s Client? Where Did Shrike and Beebs End Up?
In the fourth episode, to kill a couple of hours during a space- traffic jam, Shrike and Beebs decide to spend time at the casino. Beebs ends up getting spotted by a Walrinian noble, Campion Ajax, who knows about his turbulent past and wants to trap him in an enslavement contract to give him a chance to make amends with the past. As Beebs refuses his offer, a prolonged fight ensues between the two. Shrike ends up losing their group’s fund in gambling, and gets into a conflict with a Plague Walker named Jaw Bone, whom casino’s current owner, Discohead, and Agent K entrust to steal the box in Shrike’s possession. Shrike is arrested and is handed over to Kara, who wants to take revenge against him for past humiliation, while Jaw Bone takes his box shipment away. The fight between Ajax and Beebs helps Shrike to get free, Ajax gets captured by Kara and thanks to Tyneen’s distractions, Monkey Wrench is able to evade Kara as well before fleeing the casino.
Upon learning the box delivery contract was worth five million pixels, Shrike gets all worked up and manages to obtain it back from Jaw Bone. Agent K attends to his mysterious client, to whom the box is supposed to be delivered before Shrike hands it over to LAW operatives. As it turns out, the client in question is Dolion Kroe, a dreadful, immensely strong entity which was either born from the Green Cataclysm, or is the reason behind it as it can give life to machines. As Shrike and Beebs visit LAW headquarters, Commander Tezzoree, Shrike’s former superior, horribly chastises him for abandoning his duties and orders his suspension. Beebs shares his disappointment with Shrike for not revealing the fact that he never formally left LAW, and their ship is detained as well. The friends duo go through a rough patch as Beebs doesn’t want to associate himself with Shrike any longer, who has been a corruptive presence in his life. However, as Dolion, who has been transported by Agent K to the LAW HQ, launches an attack to steal the box, Shrike goes after him, and reunites with Beebs, who is trying to rescue Punti from a mysterious LAW operative.
As it turns out, the box contains inert cone shaped Green entities, whom Dolion wants to bring to his home – Quarantine Zone, for reasons still unknown. Dolion is surprised to see the gem in the back of Shrike’s head, as if he has found something elusive and impossible. Shrike goes after him after regaining their ship, and when Beebs tries to advise him to prioritize saving Punti first, Shrike shows his apathetic side. He would rather leave Punti to his fate as the last survivor of his species, and it is hinted that so is Shrike. Monkey Wrench manages to tear a hole into Dolion’s spaceship, and as Shrike takes the Green entity cache away, he ends up causing a massive explosion which leaves a Green rift in space. Beebs and Shrike are transported to the Quarantine Zone, and Shrike sees a mysterious vision which shows him taken by a Green entity before listening to the voice of a Spanish speaking woman, supposedly Terran. This indicates Shrike might be of Terran origin, or at least has some sort of past connection with them. Shrike wakes up in the Quarantine Zone to find Beebs, whose body sustained a strong charge of Green energy, to be unconscious. As the fifth episode ends on a cliffhanger, Agent K welcomes him for a heart to heart.
