Viewer Log: Voltron ep 6

As much as I like this series, this is perhaps the weakest episode. It’s the closest that Voltron has to a filler episode. To those who haven’t seen that term before, a filler episode is an episode in a generally continuous serial series that are unrelated to the main plot, doesn’t significantly alter the relations between characters, and really only take up space. They do make reference to the episodes that follow, but only briefly. Let’s get to it.

Prorock, he's Sendak minus the Cybernetics.
Which automatically drops his awesomeness level by 2.

This one opens to Lance defrosting. There’s a short discussion about the difference between seconds, and the Altean’s time scale, a tick, which gets them so wrapped up that they don’t notice Lance getting out of his pod. He hits on Allura, which tells everyone that he’s right as rain. After getting some food in him, Lance compliments the mice but claims Keith did very little. Keith kind of freaks out at this, delivering one of my favorite lines of the series, “We had a bonding moment. I cradled you in my Arms!” to which Lance quickly retorts, “Nope, don’t remember. Didn’t happen.” Those goof balls. Sendak is revealed to be in a cryo-pod like Lance was, their Prisoner of War and hopefully a source of information. But Hunk “ain’t got time for that,” and insists that they go to the Balmera to free Shay and her people. Which leads into my other favorite line of this season, Pidge owning up to being female. Hunk makes a crack about “manning up” to which Pidge replies “I can’t man up. I’m a girl.” And then rambles about the difference between figures of speech and reality. It’s adorable. Everyone on the team, minus Lance, admits that they already knew that Pidge was a girl. This shift in his reality hits him hard. Poor Lance. They launch the Castle of Lions, which flies pretty well for a ship that’s been in the ground for 10,000 years, and head for the Balmara.

We then jump to darkly dreaming Zarkon and co. One of his other commanders, Prorock, insist that they send a fleet to the last known Voltron location to capture it. Haggar, on the other hand, insists that they remain where they are and finish an experimental Quintessence harvesting process. Zarkon sides with his Druid, but Prorock decides to take care of things on his own. He orders that all ships in the area keep on the lookout, and offer a reward to whoever has any information on Voltron. Hunk wants to rush to Shay and the Balmerans, but a distress beacon gets their attention. The Paladins have a “help everyone” rule, so they’re kind of required to help out. I’d argue that the fate of thousands of Balmerans is greater than the fate of a single ship’s crew, but this isn’t Star Trek, so they probably haven’t heard the “needs of the many,” line. Just saying. They land and meet some fugitive aliens. We have Rolo, the captain that Hunk is almost immediately suspicious of, Nyma a vaguely human looking alien female that Lance hits on almost immediately, and their robot Beezer, whom Pidge starts examining almost immediately. Such strong emotions all around.

Hunk starts repairing the down ship, but insists that Rolo and his crew stay outside while he works. He’s obviously suspicious, but Rolo seems cool about it. While Hunk tinkers, Rolo gives them a sob story about losing his people and his leg. It sounds like the kind of thing a guy makes up or embellishes for sympathy points. Hunk is super-impatient and obviously isn’t buying what Rolo is selling. Can’t say I blame him. Don’t trust purple aliens. That might seem color-ist, but purple aliens are usually the bad guys, just saying. While that’s going on, Lance keeps trying to impress Nyma, and is kind of too stupid to realize she’s playing him HARD. Like, I feel like if anyone of the others had been paying attention they’d have straight up told him, “Lance, she’s playing with you. Stop thinking with your d#(k.” She pushes all of his buttons to get him to take her out on a ride on Blue Lion. From implying he has to follow orders, to suggesting that she go to Keith for a ride when Lance suggest they go back. Nyma is good.

Hmm... not sure why Lance is attracted to her.
Yellow skin, weird hands, Twi'lek head thingies
All kind of detract from possible attractiveness.

Back with the Gulra, Haggar and several druids use a Gulra crystal to suck the Quintessence from a planet. Remember, Quintessence is like the lifeblood of the universe. So draining a planet of it is very, very, very bad. They pretty much kill a planet in about 15 seconds. Zarkon praises the new energy sucking method and how it’ll make capturing Voltron easier. Zarkon is clearly a “Big picture,” kind of bad guy.

Nyma keeps distracting Lance, and then calls Rolo in once she’s gotten him isolated. He gets handcuffed to a tree, and Nyma and Rolo steal the Blue Lion. The Lions put up a protective energy shield whenever their Paladin is out and about. These shields are useless. If it doesn’t stop the Lion from being moved, why the heck even bother to put it up? Also, anyone shocked the drifters turned out to be the bad guys? No. Good, I’m glad that was clear to everyone. Lance is able to contact the rest of the team, he has to stretch to get to his helmet to call them, and the other Paladins fly off to get Blue back.

Rolo contacts Prorock, and barters for the Blue Lion. They get their slate wiped clean in exchange for the Lion, plus the original posted reward. Rolo makes it sound like he’s conflicted about potentially damning the Paladins and the rest of the Universe, but get’s over it when Nyma reminds him that stealing from the Gulra carries a life sentence. Really? This kind of Empire strikes me as a “Break law = death,” sort of place. Just saying. The team catches up with them, but Rolo loses them in an asteroid belt. Keith follows through the asteroids, he and Red are the only ones fast/maneuverable enough to get through, while the others fly around. Rolo and co make it a difficult chase, but Keith proves to be the better pilot. They ground Rolo’s ship, eventually free Lance, and leave Rolo and the others on another asteroid. The episode ends with Haggar holding a vial of Quintessence before a lizard creature, promising to turn it into the strongest being in the universe. New Robeast in the House!

So yeah, this episode doesn’t really do that much. It’s pretty much just here to delay them getting back to the Balmera. I guess it does show what the Universe under the Gulra is like. Lots of thievery, plundering and just overall bad stuff. The bits with the Gulra, specifically Haggar killing a planet and then using the energy to create a new monster is kind of interesting. It sort of makes the monster, and all future monsters, a little more disturbing. If each of them is infused with the life energy of a planet… that’s pretty messed up when you think about it. So… if I had to grade this, it’s probably a C+. Not a terrible grade, but it will ruin this series 4.0 GPA. Just saying. Next, episode 7, Jail Break; Planet addition. 

http://voltron.wikia.com/wiki/File:Nyma_introduction.png