‘Central Park’ Episode 6 Preview: ‘Rival Busker’ will see Birdie face-off with narrator who has replaced him
About to reach the mid-season mark, the plot is getting thicker in Loren Bouchard, Josh Gad, and Nora Smith’s Apple TV+ animated musical comedy series ‘Central Park’.
In episode 5, ‘Dog Spray Afternoon’, we saw the show’s villain Bitsy Brandenham (Stanley Tucci), a pint-sized, evil, old hotel heiress, come up with a new scheme. She hired a graffiti artist to deface the park in order to ruin its reputation further. The artist spray-painted the word “Shart” (a portmanteau of s*** and fart) all across the park.
This was Bitsy’s latest attempt to destroy the reputation of New York City’s famed Central Park. Her evil plan was to make sure no one stood in her way when she destroyed the park and filled the space with condominiums instead. For her plans, she got the mayor of New York City to make a member of the park’s committee say no to funding that would lead to a debate on the future of it.
Following that, she made sure that the park’s benefactors and the city government had a feud. Following that she launched one attack after the other to destroy the park’s reputation, whether through garbage disposal or through graffiti.
While the Tillerman family, especially Owen (Leslie Odom Jr.), the park manager, kept her attacks at bay, no one knew why this was happening. No one suspected Bitsy, at least. Even Paige (Kathryn Hahn), his journalist wife, who smelled something fishy, did not immediately connect the dots.
In episode 5, however, Birdie, voiced by the show’s co-creator Josh Gad, a troubadour who likes to sing and as the show’s narrator, keeps the viewers up to date with what’s going on, comes in with the information. He tells her to look at Bitsy. Bitsy had real estate plans. And should the park no longer receive money for its upkeep, it was Bitsy who was to profit the most.
So, in the upcoming episode, ‘Rival Busker’, this is one thing we can be sure to see: Paige investigating Bitsy’s possible role in the pandemonium that has befallen the Tillerman family and Central Park.
But besides the major plot, there is more to be expected from the episode. And the title hints at that. In episode 5, Birdie acknowledged all that is prohibited as a narrator. He even sang a song to that effect. But the episode saw him break a fundamental rule. Birdie, who possesses God-like knowledge of things that most characters in the show are unaware of, shared this knowledge with Paige in order to help her out. At the end of the episode, we caught a glimpse of the consequences.
Birdie was replaced by another man who performs music in the park, a busker, as the show’s narrator. While Birdie seemed unaware of that then, episode 6 is likely to see the two narrators battle it out. The show does have a way of keeping things entertainingly meta.
New episodes of ‘Central Park’ air every Friday on Apple TV+.