Awesome / Moral Orel

Who knew a show about claymation puppets making fun of fundamentalism could make you shout "FUCK YEAH!"

Beware of unmarked spoilers!

---

• Stressed and under pressure about a "Praying Bee", Orel takes up Buddhist meditation under Stephanie's advice. Clay is furious and commands Orel to never do it again. But at the Praying Bee, Orel finds himself under stress and resorts to the meditation. There, he has a surreal conversation with Buddha and learns that it's all right to adopt another cultural practice to enlighten his soul (and perhaps become closer to God). Orel ends up in the meditation position at the Praying Bee (since there Ain't No Rule), and effectively wins. While Moralton celebrate the prize money, the episodes ends on Orel, floating off then walking off with a renewed sense of peace.
• In "Be Fruitful and Multiply", after a conversation with Orel about how he's able to never feel lonely, Rev. Putty lets him go up to the church's lectern to explain himself, expecting something childishly innocent. Orel then proceeds to give a short, but incredible sermon about appreciating the people you have in your life instead of making yourself miserable by obsessively chasing after what you don't have, complete with a shot of Putty's smirk falling as he realizes how on-point it is. Doubles as Heartwarming as this sermon also helps Putty with regaining his faith and reconciling with his daughter Stephanie.
• Orel beating the crap out of his father in "Turn The Other Cheek". Of course, Orel was just acting on his skewed perception of a moral lesson (as usual) but damn was it fun to see Clay get his ass kicked by his son, considering all the crap that Clay had put him through (and would put him through). However, keep in mind that Clay is man who associates physical abuse with worth and affection ever since he was a child. Could he have seen Orel beating him as his way of saying "You are worthy"?
• After a night of abuse and general dickery in "Nature", Clay passes out, drunk. A bear enters the camp, and almost eats Clay, but Orel kills it with a pistol. When Clay wakes up, the night a total blank, he finds the dead bear and begs Orel to tell him that his son finally killed something. Orel, disgusted, replies, "No, Dad, you killed it," refusing to give Clay satisfaction after what he did to Orel.
  • Also in "Nature", Orel to Clay: "You become a bad person when you drink!" And, of course, a couple minutes later, Orel finally telling his father what he really thinks:
  Orel: I hate you...
  Clay: Hate away, sister. Hate away.
• The scene in the bar where Clay lets loose on the patrons. It is not a point towards Clay (if anything, the speech is culmination of how insane and cowardly he is) but rather a point towards Scott Adsit, who played him so incredibly, and with such raw emotion.
  Clay: Tell me Doc, did some of those pain killers protect her from the pain? The pain of you, day in and day out, being there, with that face? Not knowing what to say, not caring anymore? Not even knowing that you'll probably only care about her when it's finally too late? Forgetting about all those desperate, desperate years you spent alone, your barren years when no woman would even consider even resting her tired head on your shaky little shoulder, stinking of belly semen. Why even wipe? And then when you finally get one of these... [points to the female bartender and imitates a fanfare] ...coveted pieces of tail that have been built up as the trophy in your nothing life you try desperately to keep it. Not protect it, but horde it to keep it away from the other wolves and jackals circling your territory. And you realize all too soon, that you're not good enough, and maybe there was a jerk-off called Darwin after all, and that you've never acknowledged his existence because you knew deep inside that you were really what you feared you are. Weak and passive and ultimately broken by the ones who were made the fittest. And then through your weaknesses you built up a poison that poisoned others around you. The ones you love. And the only true justice was to let those jackals feed off you. Survive off you.
  • Sick of him, Reverend Putty, Officer Papermouth and Doctor Potterswheel get ready to beat the shit out of Clay... then they decide that he isn't worth it and walk away. Even more awesome when you remember that Clay's dad did essentially the same thing— even as an adult, Clay seeks attention through abuse— and fails.
• Coach Stopframe's final rejection of Clay in the series finale, despite Clay's pleas of "love." Daniel doesn't deserve someone as depraved and evil as Clay.
  Orel: Come on, Dad. It's late.
  Clay: NO!
  (Clay steps on a picture of him and Stopframe, breaking it in half)
  Stopframe: He's right. It's too late.
  • Earlier in the episode, Clay calls Stopframe when the latter is at work, wanting to meet later and not listening to what Stopframe is saying at all, even as Stopframe attempts to confront him about making out with Miss Censordoll. When Clay hangs up, Stopframe becomes so fed up that he grabs his picture of Clay and chucks it in the trash. And then he chucks the phone in the trash for good measure.
  • When Orel is just about to give up on trying to find something honorable about Clay, Stopframe is able to give him an answer that makes him feel better.
  Stopframe: Orel, somehow, in his own blundering way...your father made you. And that's honorable.
  • The last scene in the episode: despite his often abusive and downright terrible childhood, Orel had the willpower not to be broken by it, growing up to be a loving father and husband and proving to be a better person than his own father.
    • And in a lot of ways, that is the ultimate way to stick it to Clay; by being a better father and husband than he could ever hope to be.
    • In a similar vein, Shapey and Block were also able to mature into normal, productive people, if the photos of them as a policeman and firefighter on Adult!Orel's wall are any indication.
• Awesome Music: The Mountain Goat's "No Children" playing in Season 3's "Numb". It's surreal just how well the song fits the situation Clay and Bloberta are in, and works to fantastic effect.
  • The same band's song "Love, Love, Love" in "Passing" which similarly sums the abuse Clay passes off on Orel.
  • High Priestess Regan's chilling Airetania, which plays during Orel's near-death experience in "Grounded".
  • Ready to bolt at the first sign of failsafe, signing my checks with a name that's not mine...
• The doctor in "Holy Visage" managing to heal himself while both of his arms are bound to the hospital bed, including using his Star of David to blow bubbles of medicine into his wound.
  • The fact that Orel, in a brief bout of unknowing resistance to his blind faith, actually pushes the cart next to him so he can do it is also pretty cool as well.
  • Then at the end, when Clay is devastated to find that doctor's holy wound has healed and "useless" to cure his foot fungus, Clay then discovers the medications arranged in the shape of Jesus. Because it's an "accidental" holy symbol, Clay helps himself to the foot fungus medicine. Orel, suspecting that the doctor arranged them, shows his approval to the doctor with a smile.
• From "Nesting": in the past, Clay demanding to see Orel in his study resulted in a Loud Gulp from the latter. However, now that Orel has pretty much lost all respect for his dad, he remains completely neutral despite Clay's threats.
  Clay: How, uh...how are...things?
  Orel: I think we should get right to the lecture and punishment, because I have a lot to do.
  Clay: Whoa-ho-ho! Mr. Busy!
  Orel: You had six months to talk.
  Clay: The last six months were not filled with you helping a madwoman campaign against me and my job!
  Orel: You don't even like your job.
  Clay: "Like?" "Like?!" No one likes their job! Have you ever listened to anything I've ever said in here? Does this chair absorb my voice? Do all these dead animal heads eat my words before they get to your delicate, little ears?!
  Orel: Can I go now?
  Clay: You know that thing you do with your hands, and mouth, and throat, and stomach? That thing called "eating?" Well, say goodbye to that thing forever if I lose my position in this town because of you!
  Orel: (completely unfazed) I will.
  Clay: OKAY! (Beat) ...You can go.
  (Orel leaves without another word.)
  • Orel made up some pamphlets to give out during Censordoll's rally. Those pamphlets? A picture of Orel in his cast, next to the words "Is this the Mayor's^note Clay's idea of 'big game'?".
• Orel's revelation in "Grounded", where he realizes he doesn't need to go to church to be close to God. Particularly, the second backmasked message, where Orel says "I don't think I need a building to tell me how to do that!" Unfortunately, Clay literally beats the revelation out of him so he wouldn't break the town's status quo on God and Heaven.
• Grandpa Puppington (who, by the way, was probably somewhere in his sixties) pulling off a wicked vault with a church cross, and kicking the knife out of 4 year old Orel's hand, before he kills Shapey.
• While its a sad moment, Clay cutting his father out of his life is one of the few times his hatred for someone is deserved.

---