Greetings and salutations to all of you who have joined us once again for another episode of Retro-Scrutiny. I am your host, Kendall, alongside my cohort, Alexia.
(Hi everybody! Thanks for joining us today, because we have a huge episode for you all. It’s that time again, ladies and gents. The season finale. Unlike the last time, we only have two episodes to mash together this time. But that means the episode is coming to you quicker than before! Hurray! Right?)
Right! This season has had its ups and downs (And all arounds!), but it will all come to a head in this one episode of ours. This episode, we’re going through a Wormhole to get through the rest of the season.
(We’re also gonna play another round of our favorite drinking game. Same rules as always. Watch the episode and take a shot every time someone in the episodes says Nova’s name. You’re gonna have to keep track of that yourself, since I’ll be busy.)
OVERVIEW
The episode begins with Chiro talking to himself, questioning his role as the Chosen One. Antauri pulls him out of his thoughts via radio. The team is preparing an attack on the Skeleton King Worm. The plan? Operation Burn the Worm.
(Sometime between the last episode and now, the Super Robot and it’s crew found the Worm’s location and have caught up to it, because they’re literally on the thing’s tail now. They have to destroy all of the worm- using a fifteen megaton blast using plasma charges set to go off all at once- or the head will just grow itself a new body.)
And they have to do this before it reaches another populated solar system.
(Yep. No biggie.)
Before they can launch the charges, Nova spots a crashed ship and what looks like survivors. Sparks offers himself and Nova to be the ones to go grab their boots and rescue them. Nova is upset that Sparks called her a ‘coward’ earlier and blows him off when he tries to tell her something.
The two of them make their way to the small, incredibly emaciated crew and try to rescue them.
It is then discovered that all of the crew are ZOMBIES!
(WHAT!? How the heck did that happen!?)
Apparently the corrupting influence of the Worm’s energies have converted them into undead entities. Which is why when the rest of the team comes to rescue them, it’s okay for Gibson to stab one straight through the chest.
(Oh. Okay)
The team can’t manage to hurt them regularly until Chiro discovers the weak spot- the facemasks. During the fight, a stray attack blasts the crashed ship, causing an explosion that knocks the team and the zombies away. The zombies get blown off of the Worm.
(Bye zombies!)
The Skeleton King Head learn of them and has the Worm open up a wormhole.
The pushing wind pushes Sparks and Nova away from the rest of the team. Sparks manages to grab onto the flag one of the zombies planted into the worm with his tail and grabs Nova.
She slips, but he grabs her boot.
Then her foot slips out the boot.
(WHAT!?!)
Nova flies off of the Worm, screaming as she is sucked into the wormhole, leaving a visibly distraught Sparks.
Antauri, using some hand grapples and hidden spider legs, drags the team back to the Robot.
Once inside, Sparks argues about going back out to look for Nova. The fight is unresolved as the Worm has reached the end of the wormhole and the Robot is bucked off before it disappears into another self-made tunnel.
Gibson gets the Robot in gear again, but discovers that they’re in the same location as before. The planets outside are actually atomic structures. They’ve shrunken down to atomic size. Trapped in the Microcosm.
Chiro suggest reversing the process by opening up another wormhole.
Gibson: “Chiro, you make it sound so easy. why don’t we simply take the risk of flying into a nucleus, hoping the nonlocality of its core electrons will *poof* transport us back home?
Otto: “Sounds like a brilliant plan to me! I guess that’s why you’re a genius and I just fix stuff.”
Gibson: “Normally I wouldn’t disagree with you Otto, but I was joking.”
Sparks tries to go and look for Nova, but gets stopped by Antauri. The alarm goes off, informing the team of multiple intruder alerts in almost every sector. Purple and black wisp-like creatures float in and start messing with the controls.
They’re negatively charged quarks, and the team can’t fight them because they’ll absorb their positive energy.
(What about Chiro? Can’t he do something about them?)
The quarks start feeding on the positive energy of the Robot’s neutron generator, draining it until Sparks draws their attention. They decide to use Gibson’s plan (What plan? The one to- oh.) and push themselves into a nucleus.
(And as luck would have it, the plan works. Sort of. They ended up increasing in size so dramatically that now they’re in the Macrocosm and giving the phrase “Bigger than life” a whole new meaning.)
Sparks tries calling out for Nova, and gets a return call from a voice. The Voice and the Robot talk, before the voice introduces itself as the Being, the Sentient. A part of all things in the Macrocosm, as are all sentient entities.
It tells the Robot that they must all return to help restore balance to their universe. The Robot makes a head gesture before the Being tells it that ‘they are not ready. Their destinies too must be fulfilled.’
Before the Being sends them on their way, Sparks asks about Nova and if it can get her back for them. The Being answers with “I…like Nova.” before the Robot flies them back to their universe, and they’re now standing on the Worm. And there are no signs of Nova.
They destroy the Worm- FOR NOVA!
There are five more charges that need to be set and one of them needs to be placed directly atop the Worm’s head. It has to be a manual job, since the Robot might get spotted. Chiro volunteers.
The boy ends up planting the charge, but before he can set it, the Skeleton King Head spots him and attacks. After blasting at each other and tapping into his Inner Primate, Chiro sets the charge and begins running back to the Robot, but is interrupted by the sudden arrival of the Skeleton King Droid!
(Where did THAT come from?!)
It blasts the Robot off the Worm, forcing Chiro to jump for it, latching on to the leg. Suddenly, the Worm shifts, knocking the Droid off. The Worm turns around and opens its mouth.
The episode ends with our heroes trapped inside the Belly of the Beast.
Chiro wakes up and finds he’s disconnected from the rest of his team. As he discovers where he is, the monkey boys wake up and find that the Robot needs fixing and they’re now down two teammates. Otto states that the auto-repair will take long enough for them to find Chiro. Antauri states that he can’t feel Chiro’s presence.
(Sorry Antauri, but Chiro’s got main character immunity. He’s fine, so go take their moon buggy and go find him already. He’s freaking out about now. There’s some weird stuff down here.)
As the monkey boys drive along, Otto admits to Antauri that he’s scared they’ll lose Nova and Chiro like they thought they lost him. They reach some sort of spacecraft. Sparks says he saw something moving in the doorway. Calling for Chiro, they instead find more zombies from earlier. They end up blowing them and the buggy up.
Antauri senses that the Worm is preparing another attack. He orders the other three to go back to the Robot and find Chiro while he goes and destroys the Skeleton King Head.
Chiro finds himself in another area and notices a small figure flitting around. He ends up confronting it and finds it to be Mandarin!
(Whoa! Wait a minute! He was eaten before the season began- how has he not been digested yet? Oh, and the Droid is still functioning and after them.)
Mandarin goes after Chiro with the intent of tearing him apart, but Chiro throws him into some…acid?… and drops something hanging on the ceiling on his head.
(Then he turns around and finds out he missed.)
Mandarin tries flinging Chiro into the acid waters, but he is saved by something surrounded in flames. The fireball lands behind Mandarin, revealing itself to be NOVA!
(WHOO! And it looks like she took a detour at the Macrocosm before arriving to kick some butt and find the rest of the team.)
Antauri, meanwhile, discovers that the Worm has reached another inhabited planet, but can’t call for help since he’s being attacked by creatures that come out of the Worm’s skin and the signal can’t get through.
The boys, meanwhile, are back at the Robot and discover that two large objects are coming directly at them- one in the air and one on land. The one in the air reaches them first, smashing through the Robot’s Hyper-armor and revealing itself to be the Droid. It attacks and chases them before knocking out Otto and Gibson. Sparks magnetizes it, causing it to be temporarily buried. It breaks out in time for Chiro and Nova to knock it into a wall.
(Unfortunately, it’s not done yet. It blasts Nova, causing her to shrink. It then knocks out Sparks, so Chiro unleashes his Inner Primate to fight it. Then the Super Robot learns that Chiro is in trouble and helps out, throwing the ruined Droid at Mandarin’s feet.)
Antauri, who has been fighting off the Skeleton King Head, finally beheads it. The Worm is still going to attack the planet. And the team learns they have less than thirty seconds to escape before the charges go off. The Super Robot takes off- grabbing Antauri while it’s at it- and the team watches at the attack dissipates as the Worm is blown to bits. The planet Earth is saved.
The team rejoices since they can now return to Shuggazoom. Sparks takes the time to tell Nova something.
Sparks: “Nova… Y’know I almost lost you for a second there.”
Nova: “It’s a miracle I made it.”
Sparks: “Nova, I just wanted to say, I’m glad I have you. As my friend.”
(AWW YEAH, HUG IT OUT!)
The festivities are interrupted when Gibson announces they received a message from Jinmay during the several days they were stuck inside of the Worm.
Jinmay: “Monkey team, we need your help back on – Shuggazoom. Something terrible has- I don’t know what to do.”
Antauri and Chiro order a course for Shuggazoom and the episode ends with the Skeleton King Head being picked up from space by Mandarin, who flew to safety in the ruined Droid. He laughs maniacally before blasting off.
And that was the end of Season Three. It feels like we just went through a dozen roller coasters’ worth of excitement. But as always, let’s get some things out of the way.
Since there were no new characters, we can skip over to the
UNANSWERED QUESTION(S)
- What happened to Nova while she was in the Wormhole?
- How did Mandarin manage to survive?
- Was the Being supposed to be some sort of Higher Power?
- What happened on Shuggazoom?
- What is Mandarin planning to do with the Skeleton King’s Head?
- How did Nova end up inside of the Worm?
FINAL OPINIONS
This two-parter was big and action packed and exciting and probably the best in the season. The team had really good ideas throughout the episodes, the characters were all competent and good, the action was fast paced and fun to watch, and there were even a few good twists thrown in.
(Wormhole is the slow build up to the true action. It has its fun teasing us with what’s to come by having our heroes go through one quick little adventure away from their adventure before getting to Belly of the Beast, where the stakes are high and the results are grand.)
Unlike the last season finale, there isn’t an overlying theme to really be found. I don’t have a problem with this.
(Neither do I, but I do have my grievances. These two episodes are so good that they just bring up all the problems I have with the rest of the season to the forefront. But that’s something for a later post…)
Finally, I love the surprise of seeing Mandarin still alive. The first time I saw that, it blew my mind. I mean, I was twelve, but that was still amazing. Especially since I had forgotten about him. It had been months since he ended up as worm food and with his new claw, I almost didn’t recognise him.
(I know! That was so cool!)
And that’s all we have for this episode of Retro-Scrutiny. Yes boys and girls, it has been three seasons of action adventure, colors, fighting, quips, giant monster battles, space travel, and decisions good and bad.
(Kendall and I promise to have the Season Three Breakdown up and ready before the end of the week- Saturday- but that means we’ll also be taking our usual break from Retro-Scrutiny. We have mid-terms and projects and all sorts of free time that never feels like enough time. But let us worry about that.)
Saying goodbye to you and to the season, this is Kendall and Alexia, wishing you all a good day, a good night, and a thank you for sticking with us for this long. Until next time…
(Oh, yeah. Don’t forget to tell us how many times Nova’s name was said in the episodes. And I hope everyone was drinking water.)