So… what DID happen to Lance and
Hunk? Let’s find out, shall we?
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| A real confidence inspiring team... |
After being flung from the weirdly
distorted wormhole, our two heroes crash landed into a frozen ocean. Their
Lions, being large and heavy, sank to the very depths of this alien ocean. Like
Black, Red, and Green Lion before them, the Blue and Yellow Lions are without
power. Plus the whole being miles below the surface just makes for a very
crappy day. And that was before Hunk threw up all over his cockpit. It’s been a
while since his last gastrointestinal episode, so I’ll give him this one. After
being suck in the depths for a few minutes, Blue does get some power back.
Enough to run his lights at least. Just in time to coincide with a Mermaid
swimming by. Or so Lance believes. Hunk is of the opinion his friend is
suffering from Ocean Madness, the Deep Down Crazies, or the Wet Willies, but
does agree to swim after it to investigate. Once Lance gives him the option to
follow Lance, or be left alone at the bottom of the sea.
They follow the Mermaid to Space
Atlantis. I know it probably has another name, but it’s a highly advanced
sunken city in space, like I’m going to call it anything other than Space
Atlantis. The Mermaid they followed, Flurona, introduces Lance and Hunk to
Laxia, Queen of Space Atlantis. Both encourage Lance and Hunk to stay, for all
in Space Atlantis are “Safe and warm.” If SciFi has taught me anything, it’s
that if a group of people chant a phrase repeatedly in a creepy manner, it’s
probably a cult. A cult of space mermaids… not THE weirdest sentence I’ve ever
written, but that’s definitely up there. They also talk about this place called
the Baku Garden, which keeps the people of Space Atlantis safe and warm…
nothing sinister about that.
To keep our heroes placid, Laxia
plays to their vices. Lots of food for Hunk, lots of pretty ladies for Lance. They
are simple creatures. After the meal, and a bizarre dance number from an
octopus man, it’s pretty clear that Lance and Hunk have been brainwashed in
some way. They have little memory, or desire of wanting to leave Space
Atlantis, and would probably have lived and died there if not for some timely
intervention. Some bizarre looking rebels cut a hole into the side of the
Queen’s palace and rescue Lance. They tried to grab Hunk too, but unfortunately
the husky Paladin was a little too big for the hole they’d made. Rookie
mistake, you always make the escape hole big enough for the fat guy. Just
saying. Queen Laxia is rather… annoyed that they’d lost Lance, when they
discover him gone the next day.
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| Yeah, that's a real trustworthy face. I'd trust her to keep me safe and warm. That sounds dirty... |
When Lance awakens, he meets three
mer-people that make up the rebel group. They are also clearly insane. They
believe that the Queen personally froze the surface of their ocean, keeps
people in bondage, and trained her servants to move in a specific way to
hypnotize people, which is why they wear live jellyfish on their heads to
protect themselves. Very, very insane. Lance is still somehow convinced to
believe them, and dons a jellyfish. His exact words “AH! It Burns!” “That means
it’s working!”
We get a glimpse of Queen Laxia
sending Flurona into the Baku Garden. Her punishment for allowing Lance to
escape. She disappears into the Baku Garden. Nothing sinister about that. Lance
and co come up with an insane plan to storm the caste, getting Lance to Blue
Lion, and then trapping the Queen in a frozen prison. Lance is given a special
fish that can release an ink cloud that restores hypnotized people’s minds. Said
fish has only three doses. Lance does get to Blue, but is captured a few
moments later.
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| Gotta love the upgrades! |
Laxia orders a mind-controlled Hunk
to the Baku Garden. Lance is able to wriggle free, and a large-scale fight ensues.
He’s able to cure Hunk and some guards, with help from the crazy Mer-people. Lance
and Hunk get to Blue and Yellow, and then easily capture the queen. Hard to
fight giant mecha-lions with spears and swords. Once out of the water in Blue’s
mouth, Laxia acts like she’s just coming out of something. It’s revealed that
the actual mind controller was the Baku Garden. It cultivated the Mer-people through
Laxia, to feed itself. Once it loses Laxia, the Baku wakes up, revealing it’s
real form is that of a giant snake/eel. Blue and Yellow have a bit of
difficulty fighting the Baku. It’s huge and in its in its element, kind of hard
to take down. Lance is able to unlock Blue’s special weapon, a giant sonic
cannon, which smooths things out. They’re finally able to crush and kill the
Baku beneath a giant boulder. Mer-people are super grateful that the Baku is
dead, and use their Mer-Technology to contact Team Voltron. Green flies in a
few moments later. Hooray!
This was a good episode. Hunk and
Lance had quite the adventure deep under the sea. Sure, I called the “Mermaid
mind control cult” thing pretty much the first time Flurona opened her mouth,
but it works. It was also kind of interesting to see two Lions take on the big
bad without Voltron appearing. I don’t think that happened last season, and I’d
be willing to bet that it never happened in the original show. I feel like show
runners back in the day would have been like, “Something other than Voltron
slaying the big bad? What madness is this?” Lance and Hunk, as per usual, are hilarious,
even in this creepy setting. The whole “It burns!” “That means it’s working!”
is one of my favorite from this episode. I got to say, I was worried that this whole
“team separated” thing would be a several episodes long arc, and we’d have miss
out on bunch of character interactions. But no, thankfully, it was only two
episodes. Hooray. Again…Next time, episode 3.
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