King of Shadows

 The second half of the pilot begins!

The episode opens with the ninja and Wu sailing along a river in an icy wasteland, looking for the next Golden Weapon. During this boat ride, Wu tells the ninja that the greatest spinjitzu technique, the Tornado of Creation, can only be achieved by combining the four elements.

Soon enough, the ninja reach the Shurikens of Ice, and after escaping the dragon guarding them, they move onto the Nunchucks of Lightning, hidden atop a floating island. When their draconic guardian appears, the ninja flee using a set of gliders Jay built.

On their way to the last Golden Weapon, the Sword of Fire in the Temple of Fire, the ninja rest in a forest, but Kai is lured away by an illusion of Nya. At the temple, Garmadon reveals himself to have been behind the illusion, and forces Kai to retrieve the Sword of Fire to save Nya. By making Kai's shadow come alive, Garmadon tries to claim the Sword of Fire, but Wu appears and fends him off. Just then, the dragon that had been guarding the sword appears, causing the entrance to the temple to collapse. In order to keep the sword safe, Wu lets the drifting lava in the temple carry him and the Sword of Fire into the Underworld.

At the same time, the other three ninja are ambushed by Samukai and his army, who take the three Golden Weapons they had recovered. Before the ninja can get them back, the skeletons escape into the Underworld using their vehicles. Heading to the Temple of Fire, Jay, Cole and Zane try to look for Kai and Wu, and find that Kai has befriended the dragon guarding the Sword of Fire.

 Kai informs the other ninja that the dragons can travel between realms, as they're not from Ninjago in the first place. Alongside the dragons that had been guarding the other three weapons, the ninja venture into the Underworld, where they are soon surrounded by skeletons and gigantic spiders. Luckily, Jay remembers the Tornado of Creation, and together the ninja manage to achieve this technique by combining their spinjitzu, defeating their enemies.

Soon, they came upon Wu, who was fighting Samukai deep in Garmadon's fortress. Even Sensei Wu, however, cannot defeat someone wielding three of the Golden Weapons, and has the Sword of Fire taken by Samukai, who attempts to betray Garmadon and take the weapons for himself. As soon as he picks up the Sword of Fire, however, Samukai begins to disappear, as no being can handle the might of all four Golden Weapons.

With the weapons brought together, a portal opens, leading out of the Underworld, just as Garmadon had intended. Through this gateway, he escapes his banishment, proclaiming that he will destroy the balance of good and evil, but Wu states that the ninja are enough to restore the balance again.

Various Observations:

-Cole plays bongo! This is never brought up again, and I love how random it is. Given that in season 1 we learn that his father is in a band and expected Cole to follow in his footsteps, maybe that's where Cole learned to play bongo?.

 -Once again, we see just how powerful the Golden Weapons are. Their sheer proximity freezes the sails of the ninja's ship, and touching them causes Zane, the master of ice, to freeze.

-Speaking of the ship, it seems somewhat reminiscent of the Destiny's Bounty. It even features the dragon head! Maybe the set was originally intended to represent this ship, but then they wrote an entirely new ship into season 1?

-It's interesting that Ninjago and the Underworld were specifically described as realms, not worlds like in the last episode. Come season 5, that term will mean a whole lot more to us than it does right now. It's kind of surprising how early they settled on that terminology.

-Speaking of realms, we learn of two ways to enter the Underworld without the all-purpose keys that are dragons or, later on, the Realm Crystal. The Temple of Fire holds an entrance to the Underworld at the end of a stream of lava, and vehicles that can drive fast enough automatically create a gateway.

-The Realm of Madness also gets a known entrance, as the combined power of the Golden Weapons apparently creates a portal, but only once, as the next time they are briefly combined at the end of the episode, no portal is opened. Perhaps Garmadon was able to influence them to open the portal, as he is still the son of the First Spinjitzu Master.

-Also, I really dislike Garmadon's voice. Maybe it's because I'm more used to the German dub, or maybe Mark Oliver wasn't bringing his A game here, but there were times where the mysterious and intimidating Lord Garmadon sounded like just some random dude. We'll have to see if this gets better in the following seasons.

-Garmadon also displays several powers he never uses again, namely the ability to create illusions, and to summon shadow warriors that can only be fought with one's own shadow. It's been so long since I watched the pilot, I forgot he even had these powers in the first place!

-Wu mentions that the Tornado of Creation could have horrible consequences if used incorrectly. We're never shown these consequences, so we can only guess what the consequences would be. My best guess is that the users would be overwhelmed by the power and die, like Samukai did when he held all four Golden Weapons.

-Like in the last episode, Zane is once again built up to be a more mystical character, as he senses that Wu and Kai were at the Temple of Fire, but also senses Wu's loss.

-This episode establishes that even Samukai, who is not an elemental master, can use elemental powers through the Golden Weapons. This is incredibly cool, and kind of makes me wish we had another example of this. Imagine Skales wielding the Scythe of Quakes after hypnotizing Cole, or Samurai X grabbing the Sword of Fire to help the ninja fend off their enemies. 

-Interestingly, Samukai and Wu are actually able to use the Golden Weapons without the disastrous consequences that have been established with the scythe and shurikens. With Wu, it can be explained by his expertise, but what about Samukai? Maybe as someone who is not an elemental master, the weapons are just weaker in his hands, and that's why the fortress didn't collapse when he used the scythe, and he wasn't frozen by the shurikens?

-For some odd reason, Kai did not want anyone to interfere in Wu's fight against Samukai, stating that it was Wu's battle. Why? I get that the writers wanted to show that Kai doesn't just blindly rush in anymore, but this just makes it look like he doesn't care what happens to Wu and the Golden Weapons, now that he has saved Nya.

-While Kai may be the main character of the pilots, Jay did a lot in this episode. He invented the gliders that helped them escape from the lighting dragon, freed himself, Zane and Cole when the skeletons had bound them, and he was the one to come up with the idea of using the Tornado of Creation. Also, his eventual relationship with Nya is set up here.

-I know it's not relevant, but Zane patting Jay on the back is adorable, and I want you to see it.

-It's strange to think about, but Garmadon actually won in the pilot, didn't he? He escaped the Underworld like he wanted. Sure, the ninja have been established as a team, but he didn't care about preventing that at this point.

That's it for the pilots ... or is it? You see, there is still something left to do. So join me next time, when   I shall give my thoughts on the pilots as a whole, as well as take a look at the suits the ninja used.