Who’s ready for some multi-verse stuff?
You probably knew that this was coming, if a scifi story lasts long enough,
they always seem to go to parallel universes. I wonder why that is? A discussion
for another day. Let’s get to it.
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| I wonder if any of the Paladins remember when this scene would have seen odd... |
We open to something completely
impossible. Or, at least, what should be impossible. The Castle of Lions has picked
up on a distress beacon. This isn’t too unusual, I have to imagine with the
current state of their universe it’d be weird if they weren’t picking up one distress beacon or another. No, it’s unusual
because it’s Altean. You know, what Allura and Coran are, the alien species of
peace keepers and ambassadors that are now, functionally, extinct? Yeah,
getting a distress signal from a species whose entire surviving population is on
the Castle is weird. Unsurprisingly, Coran and Allura are quite excited to see
if their species might not be completely gone.
They find the ship. This task was
made all the easier thanks to the fact that the ship is stick out of a giant hole
in space/time. Kind of hard to miss that. They try a few things, before their
scanners figure out that the ship is radiating pure quintessence. Now, half a
ship sticking out off a hole that is irradiating pure energy might be something
to approach slowly with caution, Allura simply refuses to leave the ship even
for a moment. Pidge can’t figure out what the portal is, other then kind of
freaking. The group fly around the ship, through said portal. Coran loses
visual and audio contact with the group as they fly into the vortex. As they
fly out, they find the front of the ship. The portal they flew through is
pretty obviously a wormhole, as the other side is a completely different
section of space, complete with a giant planet floating not too far away. On
the other side, they’re now detecting several life signs. The team boards the
ship, but can’t find anything.
They are able to restart the ship’s
power. After finding a few corpses floating around, they’re able to find a
recording. The video reveals that the crew of the ship had found some kind of
strange comet. It was giving off a weird energy reading. The crew, who were in
fact Altean, were bringing it back to Altea… just before the ship exploded. Yeah,
that would definitely put me behind the delivery schedule. A couple of seconds
after seeing that, they’re attacked by some fellas in green, one humanoid, another
looking like a…giant…centipede… What the heck is Slav doing here? And why is he
suddenly a competent fighter? Though, that’s not the biggest question, as Not-Slav’s
human buddy is Shiro! Who is now a swordsman. And he speaks in a Swedish Accent. That’s not Shiro.
No, this Shiro look alike is named Sven. The two not-quite right characters
cause some havoc but are scared off by the arrival of the Altean empire. Oh no.
The Alt-Alteans, upon entering the
ship, see Allura, realize who she is… was… will be? And bow to her. Allura is
brought to the Commander, Hera, who explains how history went down in this
universe. Instead of being frozen for 10,000 years, Allura was able to rally
her people and put down the Gulra Empire before it could take hold of the
universe. They have since spread across the galaxy as the Altean Empire.
Back in their home dimension, Lotor
and his crew arrive and watch the portal as well. Rather then do anything,
Lotor opts to wait and see. It’s a win-win for them. Either, Voltron ends up
trapped in the other dimension, ridding him of his biggest headache, or Voltron
comes back with the Comet, in which case they’ll attack and steal it.
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| Shiro, now in Swedish. |
The others examine the Comet in the
cargo bay. It’s a bizarre metal that is the same material that make up Voltron.
Just based on a few vaguely creepy things the head scientist says, it’s pretty
clear that the Alt-Alteans have a few things in common with the Gulra of the
Paladin’s home dimension. Outside, Sven and Slav plant a bomb on the ship. We
then get the first bit of concrete evidence that these Alt-Alteans are kind of
monsters. Science guy explains that his muscular companion is a Non-Cog, a former
dissident that was given a brain implant to keep them calm and compliant. You read
that right, Non-Cog’s get their brains rewired to make them nice and docile. Can’t
get eviler then that. Hera, meanwhile, give’s Allura a…censored version of
these events, to make them sound more palatable. She mentions putting down the Gulra
before they had a foothold in the galaxy, the generations of prosperity, and
all the other good things the Alt-Alteans have done over the centuries. But
seems to gloss over the brain rewiring. Funny that.
The Paladins have a team meeting and
agree that these Alt-Alteans probably aren’t the good guys in this reality.
They are joined by Sven and Not-Slav, and the two groups agree to keep the Alt-Alteans
from the comet at any cost. Unfortunately, the Alt-Altean troopers jump them a
moment later. Really lousy timing for that. While the Paladins are getting corralled,
Hera convinces Allura to help her and the Altean empire. Using her psychic
powers, Allura is able to reactivate the ship and begins flying forward through
the breach.
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| No one should smile when pointing out extensive brain modifications. |
Coran, back on their home turf, is
desperately trying to figure out what the bloody hell is going on. He’s even
talking to Allura’s mice, trying to get an idea of what he can do. He obviously
freaks out at losing the ship.
The Paladins, and the “Guns of
Gamara,” as Sven and Not-Slav are known, are brought to Hera and Allura. Seeing
her friends in bondage is all Allura needs to realize that she may have made a
terrible mistake in helping Hera. While, normally, escaping heavily armed soldiers
would prove difficult, things are made significantly easier once Not-Slav’s
bomb goes off. The Paladins over power their captors and make a break for it.
During the escape, Sven takes a shot for Lance, saving his life and wounding
the alt-universe Shiro. The Paladins get to their Lions, form Voltron, slice the
ship open and steal the Comet. Not-Slav helps them out by disabling the Alt-Altean
ship once again. Pidge does some magic science stuff and is able to get them
back to their home dimension. Hooray! But they take a shot from the largely
disabled Alt-Altean cruiser as they go. Boo! It’s this blow that disorientates
the Paladins long enough for Lotor and his team to swoop in and steal the Comet.
Oh that can’t possibly be good.
While I’ll say this episode is very
good, it’s also kind of depressing. I mean, the fact that even in a reality where
the Gulra are defeated, there’s still an evil empire flying around and causing trouble
is just disheartening. It’s like the show is saying that, when a space government
grows unchecked, it will inevitably become evil. Even if it was 100% good to
start with. And, yeah, the Non-Cog concept is a pretty evil place to go. Not completely
sure why, but the thought of forcibly taking someone’s free will, even if it
could be argued that it’s for the best, just makes me uncomfortable. And that’s
probably why the show runners included that plot point. If you want to make
someone eviler then the bad guys, make them someone who screws with brains. This
story is also rather sad for Allura. She gets drawn in, believing that she will
get to see her people again, see a universe where her kind are flourishing,
only to learn that her kind her are as bad as the Gulra back home. It’s a dream
to nightmare situation, plain and simple. And Lotor stealing the comet, you
know, the comet made of the same material as Voltron, is probably the single
worst thing that could happen to said comet. With someone as intelligent and
dangerous as Lotor with it, things are probably about to get a lot worse.
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