‘Cleverman’ Recap: Who Are The Real Monsters?

This is a recap of the latest episode of Cleverman. Spoilers!

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It’s an old genre cliche, but it’s true nonetheless: don’t show the monster until you absolutely have to. Not only does it keep a lid on your special effects budget, but as we all know, there are few monsters on screen that are as scary on the reveal as you imagine them to be before it.

Cleverman’s monster is the heart-devouring Namorrodor, and the show is taking its time unveiling its vision of the creature. We get a glimpse of a silhouette, and one huge, three-taloned foreclaw, just before the opening credits this week — but for now, the lean, ravenous-looking beast Waruu draws on a coaster is actually creepier.

The underlying point of monster stories is often about what makes us human, and how far we need to be pushed before we become monstrous ourselves. It’s a particularly strong central line for this fourth episode. Not only is there an effective blend of some classic genre markers — unethical scientists playing God, a mysterious beast stalking a community — but there are elements of the monster/human duality in most of the plot threads.

Is Belinda a monster, in the way she mines the suffering of the Hairies for broadcast? (It’s certainly true that many media outlets have fewer compunctions about showing violence against people of colour over and over again, and that this compounds trauma in a way that white victims of violence and their families are more often spared). Is Waruu still a good guy when he’s done so many shitty things? Is it a little evil of poor Nerida to serve Belinda up on a platter to Maliyan — a guy who’s apparently always armed?

There’s also some much-needed shading filled in when it comes to Koen’s relationship with his new role and his culture. While he’s happy to keep the Nulla Nulla under the bar like Moe Szyslak’s shotgun, and to use it knock the wind out of a patron who’s getting handsy with Kora (as Mysterious Spiritual Babe is now known), he also holds onto enough “cultural stuff” that he knows he can’t let Ash pick it up. And, as she points out, Koen is definitely really a Cleverman, so it’s fair to assume that the Namorrodor could be real too, and he’s the only one who can kill it. But as Waruu keeps saying, it’s more than just a title — and as Ash half-jokes, if saving the city from the monster requires Koen West to get his Cultural Stuff on, they’re in trouble.

Meanwhile, as Koen struggles to tap into his power, the Hairies’ superior strength and speed is properly put on display. We saw a bit in the first episode, not only in Djukara’s resistance in the carpark, but also in Maliyan’s fight; and last week we saw Latani stretch her legs with some parkour. But the footy game in the Zone, which appeared to be between the totally outclassed “skins” and Hairies, was the best showcase for the latter group’s abilities so far. (It also made me think that if you could just get a couple of Hairies playing for South Sydney, a fair few people might suddenly find their hostility fading away).

The sound editing and the physicality of the Hairies’ strength are cleverly done in these scenes; in the first-episode fight scene, Maliyan slapped his adversaries down like flies, similar to Luke Cage casually swatting drunks in Jessica Jones, clearly only exerting 50 percent of his effort. The same deep whoosh noises are employed in the footy scene to make you feel the power of the blows and throws; the skins team can only shrug good-naturedly in the face of it.

Not to mention Latani, who’s now clean-faced but sporting a dope braid-mohawk similar to Maliyan’s, punching practice bags off their chains and getting all up in the face of the boxing coach who won’t teach her. Of course, this has a purpose beyond looking cool: it serves to remind us that there’s more to the Hairies’ unique physiology than just luxurious pelts.

Slade goes for a run, and there’s that whoosh again, as he starts leaping huge rocks in a single bound, apparently without breaking a sweat. When Charlotte started talking about the “supercharged mitochondria” used at the fancy fertility clinic, my Orphan Black-trained ears pricked up, as it seemed Alithea might be using Hairy organelles to knock up rich ladies — but no, it was just the lightbulb moment Slade needed for his breakthrough. Going off nothing but a chimp and one seriously pissed off mouse that both managed not to die, he’s used the treatment on himself, and it seems to work exactly as planned. (I wonder if it cures greyscale too?)

With those plot threads coming together, we now have some new questions: what’s the next phase of Slade’s project? Is Waruu off the hook now McIntyre’s out of the picture? And what the hell happened when Kora and Koen tried (and failed) to heal Ash? As a character, she was still thinly sketched and hard to get invested in, but in a way that makes it all the more of a shock that the bloody scene Koen foresaw came true so early and so suddenly. (Although the foreshadowing with the smoke alarm was deftly done).

Her death isn’t an emotional beat so much as a narrative one, and while it would verge on fridging to have her death motivate Koen to actually learn how to use his powers, the failure is still a more interesting choice than having Kora help Koen magically heal a bullet wound.

So now we know: Slade and the villainous McIntyre, probably with some help from Uncle Jimmy, have been using the secret lab to try and extract Hairy powers to juice up humans, and now they’ve managed to do that, they need Kora for the next phase (whatever it is). But with McIntyre dead and Kora on the run with Koen and Blair, we might be about to find out exactly how monstrous Slade really is.

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