‘Creature Commandos’ S1 Episode 5 “The Iron Pot” Breakdown & Recap

DC Studios’ latest hit, the Max series Creature Commandos has just returned for a fifth episode in its seven-episode season with an episode focusing on a non-Task Force M member, Eric Frankenstein (David Harbour). It does continue a trend of focusing on characters from the show, but will mean that one character in the Commandos will not receive a standalone episode leaving Frank Grillo’s Rick Flag Sr. and Zoe Chao’s Nina Mazursky fighting for the final place, with Alan Tudyk’s Doctor Phosphorus taking episode 6. Read our Creature Commandos episode 5 breakdown below.

Creature Commandos follows a group of deep-state operatives who carry out the bidding of the well-intentioned but incredibly shady Amanda Waller (Viola Davis). Consisting of Rick Flag Sr., Nina Mazursky, The Bride (Indira Varma), Weasel (Sean Gunn), GI Robot (Sean Gunn), and Doctor Phosphorus, the team is dispatched to the European country Pokolistan to protect and later assassinate Princess Ilana Rostovic (Maria Bakalova). 

This article contains spoilers for the fifth episode of Creature Commandos season 1.

‘Creature Commandos’ Episode 5 Breakdown

The episode opens with Professor Aisla MacPherson (Stephanie Beatriz) teaching a course at a university, but acting quite strangely throwing books on a table, complimenting a student’s top and calling her pet names, acting quite douchey overall. The camera pans to outside where Eric and Rick are spectating from a window in the bushes as a form of surveillance and commenting on her lack of professionalism. Flag theorizes that something is up with MacPherson, in his vendetta to prove Rostovic innocent and prevent her assassination. 

Back in the past, Frankenstein stands over the dead body of Victor Frankenstein, the moment when The Bride sees his murder play out, she attacks him out of anger and sets him on fire. The Commandos arrive in Pokolistan and are greeted by Alexi, who begs to know about the threat (which ARGUS has fabricated to get the Commandos into the country) that is endangering the Princess. The Bride ignores him and they travel to the castle. 

Eric and Rick travel to MacPherson’s home to investigate and break into the house. Eric mentions he once lived with a gypsy woman who was engaged with the occult, which thrusts the audience back into another flashback. In the flashback, while on fire Eric leaves the building and collapses in a nearby river where he washes ashore and is found by the gypsy woman Bogdana and her dog Ivan. She rescues him and nurses him back to health. 

Back in the present day, Eric and Flag find the rotting body of MacPherson, meaning that the one at the university is an imposter, implying that she was replaced by Circe to result in the death of Rostovic. Flag finally breaks through to Ilana over the phone and explains the Commandos’ plans to kill her but does not get into specifics. While on the phone, the presumably fake MacPherson returns home. Flag and Eric hide and soon they’re in the same room as the false historian. Back in another flashback, albeit a quick one, Bogdana exclaims that she loves being in Eric’s company and implores him to call her cabin his home. Cut back to the present and Alexi is told by Rostovic about the plans to kill her and he stalls, claiming traffic has worsened in the area, and takes them in a different direction away from the city. 

Fake MacPherson calls her cat an “idiot”, feeds it and sits down on the sofa to relax and play some video games, with an incredibly obvious product placement for Xbox. The professor melts away and it’s revealed that she is actually Clayface, voiced by Alan Tudyk. Tudyk previously voiced Clayface in Max’s Harley Quinn, which coincidentally returns for a Season 5 later this month. This is officially our first Batman Rogues Gallery villain in the DC Universe, and one of the more famous ones at that. Eric and Rick try to sneak out before being noticed but eventually do. 

Most of the remainder of the episode is an interchanging fight sequence, cutting between MacPherson’s house and outer Pokolistan. In the former, Flag and Eric fight hand to hand against Clayface with Flag taking a massive beating, and in the latter Dr. Phosphorus kills Alexi and the Commandos fight the forces of the Royal Family. Clayface breaks Flag’s back, in a move similar to that between Bane and Batman, leaving him indisposed. Frankenstein presumably does kill Clayface though with electricity which leaves many audiences curious, considering a Clayface film set within the DC Universe has just been announced. At the end of their respective fight, the Commandos are left separated in Pokolistan on the run from the police. 

Frankenstein embraces Flag in his final breaths, before cutting to a final flashback, where Frankenstein, wanting to leave Bogdana’s cabin, and not leave Bogdana alone, kills her with an iron pot, where the episode gets its title from. Ilana instructs Sergei, her new Knight in charge, to slay the Creature Commandos. Eric leaves the cabin with Ivan, ready to find The Bride. 

Up Next On ‘Creature Commandos’

Next episode we can expect the backstory for yet another character, Doctor Phosphorus, giving some much-needed background of another monstrous member of the Creature Commandos task force.

Creature Commandos episode 6 will debut seven days after the release of the fifth episode, on January 2, 2025, at 12AM PST. It will be titled “Priyatel Skeletel”, written by James Gunn, and will have a runtime of 25 minutes.

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