Carole & Tuesday Episode 17 Review: Head Over Heels

Right on the heels of Flora’s story, Episode 17 ‘Head Over Heels’ brings us another musician in crisis… this time it’s our boy Ertegun. Oh how the mighty have fallen! Want the skinny on Ertegun’s fall from grace? Read MANGA.TOKYO’s review of this week’s episode of Carole and Tuesday and find out more!

Plot

Ertegun, the highest-paid DJ on Mars, wakes up one morning to find that he is flat broke! His AI manager ran off with all his money, leaving Ertegun hitting rock bottom. Abandoned by his ‘friends’ and without a penny to his name, Ertegun loses confidence in himself and begins to question his own identity. Meanwhile, the girls begin recording their first album with Tobe, as ‘Army of Two’ rises from 53rd to 18th on the Billboard Top 100 Music Charts. Roddy brings Ertegun to see the girls in hopes of helping him regain his spark, which leads to something amazing happening!

Episode Highlights

Ertegun Bankrupt: This week’s episode brings Ertegun back to the forefront, though it’s not under the best circumstances. Ertegun’s AI manager cleans out his bank accounts and absconds with all the DJ’s wealth, leaving him a shell of his former self. The first few moments of the episode show Ertegun’s mansion and possessions getting reposed by the bank as Ertegun is desperately trying to make sense of his change in fortune. The only person that really seems to care about Ertegun is Roddy and it’s nice to see their relationship getting more attention.

Carole & Tuesday Hit the Studio: So, the girls are recording their first album with the help of Tobe and it goes about as well as you’d expect. They secure a super cheap studio and Tobe unlocks his inner Gordon Ramsay as he ‘helps’ the girls select songs for the new album.

Angela’s Stalker: As Angela rises to super stardom, her stalker gets more and more agitated at being ignored. But when the tabloids report that Angela is dating AI producer Aaron, he decides to take matters into his own hands to ensure that Angela only has eyes for him. This is also the first episode that we actually get to see the stalker. He’s wearing a hood, so we only see a bit of his face, but he’s not just some nebulous entity anymore.

Interview with Kyle: The girls have an interview with a reporter from the Alba Times and it’s Kyle, the same guy that was digging up dirt on Valerie. The interview is pretty standard; he does bring up the disconnect between Valerie’s campaign promises and Carole and Tuesday’s music career. Especially since Carole is a refugee from Earth and the person who would be most affected by Valerie’s immigration policies. Also, it’s slight, but there are some hints that Tuesday might be crushing hard on Kyle.

Spencer Leaves the Campaign: Valerie is digging down on her crusade against Earth and its refugees, but her new campaign promises are putting a strain on her relationship with Spencer. After failing to sway Valerie back to their original goal, he leaves the campaign…

Make Me Dance: After shaking his funk, Ertegun writes a brand new song. However he needs a dynamic diva to sing it for him, so he approaches Tao and Angela. Tao agrees, but only if Ertegun can impress him. However, he refuses to let Ertegun use any of his AI equipment. So, Ertegun gives an a capella beatbox rendition of the song and… it’s kinda awesome.

Themes and Trivia

Head Over Heels: All the episode titles for Carole & Tuesday are references to famous songs. This week’s episode ‘Head Over Heels’ is a reference to the song recorded by the British band Tears for Fears from their 1985 album Songs from the Big Chair. It was their third big hit following ‘Shout’ and ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’.

Billboard Hot 100: Gus tells the girls that ‘Army of Two’ has jumped from 53rd to 18th on the Billboard charts. This is most likely a reference to the Billboard Hot 100, a weekly record chart published by the music magazine, Billboard. The rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming.

Yamaha Songenetic Keytar: Ertegun plays a Yamaha Songenetic Keytar, a hybrid synthesizer. The name is a portmanteau of ‘keyboard’ and ‘guitar’. The one Ertegun uses in the episode looks similar to the Yamaha SHS-10 model, popular in the late 1980s.

Pinocchio: Ertegun’s AI manager is a Pinocchio model based on the character of the same name from the Italian children’s book, The Adventures of Pinocchio. In the fairytale, Pinocchio is a wooden puppet created by a lonely woodcarver that is brought to life by a fairy. In the story Pinocchio is mischievous, often getting into trouble. He must complete a series of good deeds in order to become a real human boy. Much like his fictional counterpart, Ertegun’s AI’s nose grows when he lies.

On Air Discography

Carole & Tuesday is a music anime, so it makes sense that they’d have a number of great tracks featured in each episode. So, rather than bogging down the other sections with all the new songs, here’s a section dedicated to just the tunes of Carole & Tuesday!

*None This Week*

Comments

Oh how the mighty have fallen… Ertegun gets a dose of reality in this week’s episode when he loses his entire fortune and all of his friends. I’m gonna be real with you guys: Ertegun is one of those characters I love to hate. However, seeing him hit rock bottom at the start of the episode was kind of sad. He really has no clue how to exist outside of his ‘Ertegun’ persona, so when he loses everything, he literally shuts down. While he isn’t technically as bad off as Flora, this is another instance of a character losing sight of what’s important after attaining fame. One big difference here is that Ertegun still has someone in his life that genuinely cares about him and is willing to help pick him back up. The relationship between Roddy and Ertegun is an interesting one; at first glance you think Roddy is just Ertegun’s employee. They share a professional relationship, since Roddy is Ertegun’s AI tech, but we also see them interacting on a more personal level. Roddy has access to Ertegun’s house and there are times when they are seen doing favors for one another (like the time Ertegun lets Roddy use his car for the music video the girls were working on). But it was always clear that Ertegun had more power over the relationship than Roddy. However, in this week’s episode the roles are reversed. Ertegun needs Roddy, and it opens their relationship up to something more casual (and comedic).

Roddy helps remind Ertegun that he’s still a great musician, even without his money and fancy friends. I love the way the episode visualizes the negative voices in Ertegun’s head as versions of himself. It’s kind of similar to the Mozart scene in Piano no Mori. Ertegun’s biggest obstacle isn’t an external one but an internal and seeing him literally overcoming himself was one of the highlights of the episode. Plus, seeing Ertegun ranting and raving while playing air keyboard is something that I will never forget as long as I live!

I’m not gonna lie though, I was kinda pissed that he approached ANGELA to sing his new song…. WHAT?! Carole and Tuesday were right there! But, I guess it makes sense… Angela is hot right now, she has stage presence… she’s a pop diva… But, was I the only one who was a little ticked off that he chose Angela?!

Speaking of Angela, I was on the fence about her stalker storyline and even after this week’s episode, I’m not sure that I like it all that much. It really feels like an excuse to make Angela relevant, while the girls work on their new single and album. But, I’ll hold my judgement until after I see where this goes…

Make Me Dance

If you’re an Ertegun fan, you’ll love Episode 17. It’s chock full of great character development from Mars’ Greatest DJ! The first half of the episode has the feel of a Behind the Music episode, that slowly evolves into something that will definitely bring on the feels.

I’ll be back next week with another Carole & Tuesday review, but in the meantime, be sure to check out MANGA.TOKYO’s other amazing Summer 2019 reviews!!

NEXT TIME: Only Love Can Break Your Heart