Main cast: Jessica Barden (Hailey Doherty), Henry Eikenberry (Colin), Hudson Oz (Liam), Daniel Zolghadri (Declan O’Shaunessy), Angel Bismark (Finn), Billy Carter (Rory O’Grady), Michael Cyril Creighton (Martin), and June Squibb (Grams)
Director: Alexis Martin Woodall
Leprechaun is the episode that dares to ask the question: “What if a pot of gold was hidden somewhere in a small-town bank, and nobody could be bothered to actually get to the point?”
First off, let’s set the record straight: Warwick Davis is nowhere in sight, so you can put your Leprechaun franchise nostalgia aside. Instead, this episode takes inspiration from that ill-fated WWE reboot, meaning the leprechauns here are less charmingly mischievous and more… well, hideous and homicidal, like someone left a Chucky doll out in the sun for too long.
We follow Colin and his pregnant girlfriend Hailey, who are stuck in a town that’s supposed to be “dying”. Funny thing, though, the place looks like it’s one Whole Foods away from being the next hipster haven. Hailey wants Colin to ditch his go-nowhere buddies and actually, you know, grow up, but his friends rope him into a half-baked get-rich-quick plan: robbing the local bank’s gold stash. Because, apparently, in 2024, banks still store gold bars like they’re Fort Knox.
Now, because the episode is called Leprechaun, you just know some sinister wee folks are going to crash the party. Cue the homicidal, scraggly leprechauns, who apparently aren’t fans of anyone touching their gold, especially not a bunch of underachieving small-town stereotypes who look like they just wandered off the set of a low-budget heist movie.
This episode moves at a snail’s pace—the kind of snail that’s stopped to take a nap halfway through its journey. It spends way too much time on the locals’ endless, aimless planning for a bank heist that we all know is destined to go sideways thanks to some murderous not-exactly pint-sized pixies. Colin’s backstory tries to be sympathetic, but he ends up being as blank as the welcome sign to this town that apparently never got the memo to leave. His motivations are basically whatever the plot says this week, which doesn’t exactly make for a gripping protagonist.
To be fair, boredom might actually be the point here, as the episode practically screams “Inertia!” The town is dying, the leprechauns are starving because of this, yet nobody is going anywhere. The locals stay put in their crumbling little hamlet, the leprechauns don’t bother migrating to cities with more potential victims, and the whole vibe is like watching a car rust in real time. Stagnancy is clearly the theme, but it’s as thrilling to watch as paint drying on a barn. If this episode were any more stuck in neutral, it’d start growing moss.
Oh, and as for the “scares”, let’s just say I’ve seen scarier things in my local Halloween store’s bargain bin. The leprechauns do their best to snarl and stab, but even their bloodlust feels half-hearted—like they’re just going through the motions because, hey, that gold isn’t going to protect itself.
Overall, Leprechaun is an exercise in thematic consistency: it’s about stagnation, and it leaves you feeling like you’re stuck in mud right along with the characters. At least the scenery is nice, though. Who knew a “dying” town could look so picture-perfect?
