I’m A Virgo (Season 1) Review, Recap & Ending Explained: The entrapment of capitalism is so powerful that it has now inspired a generation of art and writings critiquing it. Of course, some of these serve and protect it, while others detest it so much that they feel it to be a collective responsibility to take it down. Of course, the artists have been divided the same way, and Boots Riley exists on the other extreme of the spectrum, constantly warning us against the jet-black future that awaits us if we submit to the indulgences of capitalism’s dehumanizing processes; except, he’s got a way of telling this to us, which is different from nearly all the existing ones.
The following article looks at Boot Riley’s new Prime Video series I’m a Virgo (Season 1) in detail; please proceed further only if you have seen the show because it will be full of spoilers.
I’m A Virgo (Season 1) Recap:
Episode 1: You a Big MuthaF*cka
Heart, head.
The show reveals itself as one about the cranked-up world of a 13-foot-tall black man. A baby boy born in the hoods of Oakland, he has been raised by his uncle Martisse and aunt Lafrancine. They shield him from the outside world, and he stays in his room, reading the comic books of his idol “The Hero”. With his growing age the house becomes too small to accommodate him, so his father builds a new, bigger dorm for him to hang out in. He exercises there, watches movies, plays games but never leaves the place. Oh, one more thing: he has this fondness for Bing-Bang Burgers, except they are too small for him.
One day, while working out, he chances upon a middle-aged guy named Lalo who talks to him from outside the fences and invites him to eat Tamales, which are the finest in Oakland. One night, Cootie sneaks outside the home disguised as a bush, and catches the suspicion of Felix, a boy his age, who initially thinks he was high but is then convinced that this is a ‘giant nigger’ in hiding and very soon, the word of a ‘twamp monster’ spreads out like wildfire, with T-shirts by that name circulating around the town. Felix and his friends Scat and Jones befriend Cootie from outside the fence and soon walk in, befriending him and inviting him to show him the outside world. The friends are amazed by the talents of the giant, and want to show him their world outside.
Initially hesitant, Cootie agrees, with the belief of being a Virgo readying him for a lofty adventure of his own. He embarks on a night-out with Felix and his homies, embarking on the boy’s adventurous car stunts, getting drunk with them in the bar and trying to dance in that limited space, acting in self-defense as five men attack him (because of a silly misunderstanding) and heading to the legendary Bing-Bang Burger store where he meets Flora, a store worker who feels an alignment with him, unbuttoning her uniform to show him her Twamp Monster T-Shirt. Cootie smiles and takes seven burgers. He does not like the burgers still, though.
Episode 2: The Universe and My Spirit
Hands, feet.
Of course, Cootie does not exactly love Bing-Bang Burgers, but he keeps frequenting that store in the town just to keep seeing the fast-paced and pretty Flora, who is also clearly interested in him. The big guy, though, is still living off his parents’ money and has run out of pennies to get him a burger – this time there’s money for just one. He asks for more money from Martisse and Lafrancine, but they refuse.
Cootie walks into a chain store with Felix and Scat, and meets Sam Spiegel, a sports and talent PR Agent, who is interested in managing Cootie and offers him an opportunity in professional sports. Cootie accepts the offer and the money, which Cootie again uses to buy five Bing-Bang burgers and… see Flora. However, Cootie faces a setback when he gets banned from professional sports because of his unfair advantage being a giant. But Sam has a plan B ready and leads Cootie to the path of modeling. And so, the boy starts modeling for Asphalt Royalty in a mall, which is a clothing brand that pretends to have proximity to street culture. He begins posing for photographs in malls just to earn this money to impress Flora. In the bar, Cootie’s parents enjoy drinks and discuss the future of their son.
Episode 3: Paco Rabanne
As long as I push.
Jones, a liberation rebel at heart, tries to stop the eviction of poor people in the dark of night with the aid of Scat and some other comrades of hers, but is interrupted and stopped by the morality-obsessed overarching superhero vigilante, The Hero. On the other hand, Cootie loves the comics of The Hero, and he is happy because he is about to go on his first date with Flora, who takes him to the NYC buffet. Flora talks passionately and with great interest about her food.
Further romantic conversations reveal that Flora has this condition of continuous chronic seizures since childhood, a strange ability that creeps up on her whenever she senses something bad. What makes her different from the rest is just how superfast she is, much more than others her age. They agree for a second date the following night. Cootie talks to Felix while posing at the mall and tells him about the second date. Felix is thrilled, and tells Cootie that this is high time for the two to have sex. Due to the sensitive fabric that he’s wearing, Cootie suddenly develops a rash in his abdomen that starts itching. But he watches videos online and takes care of that.
He dresses up well for his second date and is driven to Flora’s chosen location by Felix. The date plays out like this magical romantic comedy, at the end of which Flora asks for sex. Cootie agrees but also tells her that it cannot happen at home. Meanwhile, alternatively, the show takes the route of that day in the life of Scat, whose vigorous comic-book imagination gets the better of him as he falls from his bike and a piece of metal gets stuck in his abdomen.
He heads to the hospital, where the nurse refuses to take him in since he does not have insurance and there is no bleeding. He suffers from pain at the bus stop in the evening as he does not remember anyone’s number and his phone was damaged in that accident. When he starts bleeding, Felix suddenly sees him and takes him to the hospital, where nobody arrives to help him, killing him there and his own trance-like imagination.
Episode 4: Balance Beam
There is no defeat.
Meanwhile, on the same night, Jones is attending a house party in which she starts making out with a girl who she seems to be really close to. However, Felix interrupts them, starts weeping uncontrollably and reveals to her the death of Scat. She also received a TikTok video which shows Scat shown the way out of the hospital by the security guard when he insisted on getting treated. Jones is determined to punish the real culprit – the money-minded hospital that killed Scat as a punishment for his poverty.
We then move to the locked Bing-Bang Burger store in which Cootie and Flora are having intense sex, which is also made difficult and funny (but not awkward) due to the differences of height and Flora’s quickness. Post-sex, Cootie receives a call from Jones which makes him and Flora rush to the hospital where Jones and her many followers and friends have gathered in protest. It is there that Flora reveals her own enchanting power of persuasion – psychic theatre – through which she can visually show people the things that she thinks and visually take the people through the lanes of her opinions.
At the end of her psychic theatre, everyone is wiser and more aware of their own powers in response to the problem, including Cootie, who takes the advantage of his height and tries to paint the name of Scat in bold red letters at the top of the hospital. He, however, is knocked down by The Hero, who chains him up.
Episode 5: Brillo, if Possible
A clear mind shall nourish and the truth is never weak.
It is true that the people’s powers are shrinking under oppressive laws all over the world; Boots Riley is only putting it up for us to see! The folks from Lower Bottoms literally shrink in their size and height, and so do their families, who are also left without clothes and are forced to wear stuff like paper bits and packets. Meanwhile, Cootie is again forced into isolation and Martisse puts him under house arrest.
Outside his home, he talks to Felix about the new learnings and realizations that dawn on him after Scat’s death. He is innocent about all of that, but the words feel really insulting or rather reductive to Felix, who drives away. At home, Cootie discovers that the media finally knows what to make out of his form now that he is someone who has been knocked down by The Hero himself. A general feeling of fear and hatred against him pervades in the outside environment. At home, Flora is there to give him company, but as in any relationship, they are at odds with each other due to their conflicting habits. He is annoyed by her habit of constantly smacking her lips, while she is disgusted by his farting and lack of bathing.
Cootie then receives the new issue of ‘The Hero’ comicbook, and this one has him as the supervillain. He finally realizes the glory of being ‘the motherfucking villain’ and tells Lafrancine all about it. At night, she and Martisse go to the old basement room of Cootie where they reveal the weaponry they have readied for his defense – a regular check but it is not revealed to Cootie yet.
Episode 6: It Requires Trust on My Part
I suffer for the day when all shall gain.
There’s a shift of focus to the day of The Hero. The man wakes up, has his weird Bill Cosby-like AI play his music, facing an assassin in hiding at his flat and taking him down while half-naked – a normal start to the day indeed. He then gets to the comic department of his luxurious flat and asks his artists to expand on the lore of the giant super-villain. When questioned, he replies that all art is propaganda, and in this case, the propaganda is to well and truly uphold the rule of law.
Subsequently, we are introduced to Jay Whittle’s (his real name) personal assistant, Edwin, who pre-dates (yeah, you heard that right) The Hero’s romantic prospects and tests them for a final date with the man himself. Edwin also happens to be a great fan and greater believer. However, the date does not go successfully and the poor guy gets treated very badly by the boss for that. We get an insight into what makes this superhero keep going, and that is solely rooted to a belief that what he is doing is basically the right thing. His mother, a wealthy lady already, does not understand this preoccupation with upholding the law all over. She considers it unnecessary and low-key hates it.
Meanwhile, Cootie reveals the intention of becoming a villain to Jones, who finds it a silly thing to believe in but also respects it for emerging out of his naïve nature. He also has a mature conversation with Flora, and the latter emphasizes on the need to connect being the basis of their relationship. After this, Cootie, Flora, Felix, the Lower Bottoms and Lafrancine meet up and plan an attack on the power station for hosting a blackout and bringing it back on as a rebellious and nasty response. The mother hands over the weapons to her son and her gang.
Episode 7: A Metaphor for What
I’ll be ready for the world- and ready for the pain.
Cootie plants the existential meltdown episode of the fictional animated show ‘Parking Tickets’ in front of the TV screens of the power station, and the officers there go into a trance watching it. They ravage the station and bring everybody’s power back on, and then celebrate.
This, obviously, brings The Hero to action, who then launches a singular attack over Cootie and brings him down. Cootie fights back, but then The Hero rises again and injures the giant boy, riding over him with a triumphant laugh. It is here that Jones approaches him and shows him her psychic theatre, expressing to him why he enables the crime he prides on combating against, giving a powerful commentary on the claws of capitalism and the price of his own heroism in a montage that has to be one of the show’s finest moments.
This is a strange revelation to Jay, who kind of realizes where he has gone wrong, and flies from the scene, letting Cootie win this one.
I’m A Virgo (Season 1) Ending, Explained:
The Cliffhanger
Cootie rises up to a cheering crowd of protestors (which is just a collective and not really a crowd, but anyway), and his friends, parents and girlfriend cheer for him. He himself is happy but in no time, realises that there is something going on inside him. His rash, which had not gone anywhere ever since it occurred, is ripping him apart, getting slimy, tearing up, and revealing something green-ish and incredibly disgusting underneath.
Now, it is either an open ending or a cliffhanger to what is to come in the subsequent seasons. Every powerful being has an introspection to deal with, and for a show that literally deals in metaphors, it might be another one.
I’m A Virgo (Season 1) Review:
A grounded, funny and radical little coming-of-age fantasy that mocks superhero filmmaking
Boots Riley’s debut feature, Sorry to Bother You (2018), is a clear deconstruction of a consumerist world. Through the story of a regular African-American guy in Oakland who, struggling for a decent earning for sometime, finds his American Dream getting realised at an unhealthy pace. This sets a stage for a sinister comedy, as it happens in a razor-sharp satire that is not willing to spout nonsense, but there was also something more – a cloud of an ominously weird fantasy. So wildly inventive and batshit crazy was this progression when it rolled out that the only word that could come out from any mouth the brain above which did not receive any information on what the film is about, was ‘bizarre’.
But then again, this alt-world element was outstretched in such a richly observant and grounded narrative that it ultimately worked. Thankfully, this is also something one can say about his second work as a director, the new and severely under-promoted ‘I’m a Virgo’, which finds him experimenting with long-form narrative fiction. This time, he does not bear the weight of an ultimate revelation – the whole series is wrapped around this potent fantasy scenario interwoven into the hoods of Oakland. There is science-fiction jargon, there are metaphors thrown as props of production design, and there is exposition which is all in your face. And it all comes with no discretion credits – this is exactly what is needed.
The story follows Cootie, a 13-foot-tall giant of a kid who has been kept in hiding by his otherwise extremely normal and supportive parents, who were rebel stars of their own time but are no longer popular today. Although he is asked to avoid stepping out of the enclosed peripheries created for his protection until he’s 21, the inevitable happens – he turns 19, unexpectedly makes a bunch of cool friends and starts sneaking out to explore the troubled, glossy yet beautiful space of the outside (American) world. The streets find a new attraction in the form of this new ‘twamp monster’, and Cootie himself just wants to hang out with new pals, try bad alcohol out and make a new girlfriend to talk to and fuck around with.
However, as they say, all is only going good until it is not. Soon, Cootie becomes the attention of the city’s superhero, ‘The Hero’ Jay Whittle, whose comic books the kid basically worships and looks up to as an idol. Unfortunately, our superhero has limited eyesight beyond the maintenance of law, order and morality, and Cootie becomes the villain in his eyes.
Even this fair bit of a description, the insights into which are offered in the show’s pilot episode itself, will not prepare you for the absolute mad-dash of entertainment that ‘I’m a Virgo’ has in store for you. The heightened absurdist writing acknowledges a teenager’s existential meltdown which is just a complex way of describing his incredibly messy coming-of-age story. Although, like in Riley’s directorial debut, this growing-up process does not come with explicitly positive outcomes, it registers very impactfully. The material is simple and there is only room for these specific characters, but the room is wide enough to keep a raging anti-capitalist spirit alive within itself.
It also functions as an able satire on the sad state of superhero filmmaking today. Riley understands that no amount of acclaim for the Black Panther films can really do much to solve the problem of racial representation in that arena of popular culture, but he never attempts a course-correction either. This is an innocent tale with its own realistic contradictions, and it seems to be telling us about the inherent problem which necessitates a reduction in the amount of consumption of these caped (or robotically uniformed) saviours.
The cinematography is lush and a treat for the eyes, capturing the luxurious high-tech apartment of Jay Whittle with the same wide-eyed wonder as the hoods in which Cootie grows up with his friends. The production design is the USP of the filmmaking here and should grab all of the awards this award season. Of course, none of this would have even mattered if the writing could not sustain the linearity (and familiarity) of the material, and thankfully, it does.
Jharrel Jerome is terrific as Cootie. The actor perfectly conveys the unease of exploring those things for the first time which kids his age have ingrained into their DNA, and both the courage and innocence have been built up so marvellously that you are bound to root for him in the subsequent seasons. However, it is Walton Goggins who absolutely gets away with the acting department, showing up most expansively only in the last two episodes, but displaying unmatchable talent in terms of comic timing and villainy that does not exactly sit right with an upright hero as he talks about art and propaganda with squeaky-clean wisdom.
‘I’m a Virgo’ is not a perfect show- an initial couple of sequences can convince you (wrongly) that you are witnessing work that is inferior in quality to what its filmmaker had to offer in feature-length five years ago. Also, the cliffhanger is unsatisfactory. However, it is the sort of grounded, funny and radical little fantasy that is required to keep the very conscience of modern pop-culture alive, kicking and screaming. For this, we should be grateful.
