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 Time for the second episode ... and it's focused on Zane! My favorite ninja! 

I think I'll shorten the general summaries from here on out. The episodes are only twenty minutes long, anyways. If you need a quick refresher on what happens, you can just go ahead and watch it.

Basically, we get some scenes of Zane not really getting how people normally interact with each other, before he befriends a falcon that leads him to a fortress the Hypnobrai are building for Lloyd. The ninja try to destroy it, but Skales uses Cole to try and stop them. Luckily, Wu has a flute that can counter the effects of the Serpentines' powers.

Unluckily, however, the Hypnobrai have burned down the monastary and retaken their staff while the ninja were away. They briefly lash out at Zane in anger, but Wu chastises them. When Zane returns after having followed the falcon again, he leads them to a shipwreck in a desert, which they can use as a new home.

At their tomb, Skales challenges Slithraa to a battle over the right to lead the Hypnobrai and wins, banishing Lloyd. Said boy did, however, manage to steal a map leading to the tombs the other tribes are imprisoned in.

 Various Observations:

-Whoa! Zane's Spinjitzu freezes everything around him? I guess maybe it's because of the Shurikens of Ice, because this seems wildly inconsistent with the way Spinjitzu normally works.

 

-Not going to lie, Lloyd's treehouse looks awesome, and I want it as a Lego set. Just look at it!

 

-The postman appears for the first time! Neat.

-Kai gets a fan letter. I guess it would make sense for the ninja to be somewhat well known after saving Jamanakai village, but why would Kai be the one to get fanmail? Nya did all the important stuff last episode!

-Oh, also, Cole's father and Jay's parents also sent letters. Neat foreshadowing there.

-Nya thinks that Zane looks cute in a pink apron. She really feels like the cool older sister of the team so far. I like it. Given that this was from a children's cartoon in 2011 that was marketed towards boys, she feels surprisingly equal to the ninja, maybe even a bit more effective, as seen in the last episode.

-Kai wants to destroy Lloyd's treehouse "before it becomes operational". What does that even mean? It's a treehouse! What sort of function does Kai expect it to have?

-Latin writing? In Ninjago? That ... doesn't seem right.

 

-Spinjitzu can apparently cut through ropes, which is odd. It's a tornado of elemental energy, you wouldn't expect it to be sharp. What is it with this episode, and Spinjitzu behaving oddly? Also, Zane and Cole have bladed weapons, they could just use those to cut the ropes.

-Did ... they just use a Wilhelm scream when that Hypnobrai fell down? Wow. That's honestly hilarious.

-Why does Cole suddenly gain an accent upon being hypnotized? What's up with that? As the fight progresses, he just switches to grunting, instead of actually speaking. This all feels rather odd, and unintentionally funny.

-Did the Scythe of Quakes get nerfed? When a hypnotized Cole uses it, he shows no signs of restraint, and yet it unleashes no great disaster like in the pilot, or like the Sword of Fire did in the last episode.

-Wait, hold on. How did the entire Hypnobrai tribe, who were on foot, mind you, reach the monastary, find their staff, set fire to the place and leave all before Wu and Nya returned with the ninja on Kai's dragon?  

-So the leader of the Hypnobrai is decided through combat.I would have expected something to do with who has a stronger will, given the hypnosis. This seems like it would be better suited to the Constrictai.

-Why does a random frozen skeleton in the Hypnobrai tomb hold the map to the other tombs? Who put it there? The same genius that came up with the closing mechanism for the tomb's gate?

 

-It's interesting that Skales' transformation is accompanied by the particle effects usually associated with the Golden Weapons. Maybe the staffs of the Serpentine generals were also forged from the gold of the Golden Peaks? That would be some interesting lore.

 

-Skales just commands Lloyd to leave and never return? That's ... surprisingly lenient. Slithraa tried to hypnotize Lloyd on their first encounter, and he didn't have a personal vendetta against the boy.

-Hoo boy, the first glimpse of the Bounty ... Pure goosebumps.

 

-It's so cheesy, but when Zane calls the ninja his family at the end of the episode, I still get emotional. 

-Further green ninja foreshadowing. Zane asks if he will be the green ninja after Wu says that there's more about him than meets the eye. Wu says that it's too early to tell true, but that's not a no.