Can of Worms

 Alright, it's Samurai X time!

We open this episode with Lloyd playing pranks on the ninja and causing them to blame each other as part of Wu's lesson on the destructive power of rumors. Soon, however, Nya alerts the ninja that the Serpentine are moving again, and points them towards the remaining tombs, those of the Constrictai and Venomari.

Both tribes have already been freed, however, and while they learn that the united tribes will look for the Fangblades to free the Great Devourer, they are also left on a sinking log in a sea of acid. Suddenly, a mysterious samurai appears and scares off the Serpentine while saving the ninja.

That night, the ninja learn that the Serpentine are gathering underneath Ninjago City, and find Pythor trying to unite the tribes. By using the power of rumors, however, they prevent the tribes from coming together, but have to flee in the face of their overwhelming numbers.

Various Observations:

-Huh, the flying banana returns. And it still looks just as silly as it did in the last episode.

-Continuing the trend of Wu being surprisingly funny, the gag of him misplacing his lesson book really got me. Well, he didn't misplace it, Lloyd took it, but he didn't know that.

-Kai is suddenly really upset that Nya is with them. Strange, given that this was never built up in the previous episodes.

-Woah, Nya's got great aim! She hit the precise location of the Hypnobrai and Fangpyre tombs from across the room. Why didn't she get the bow and arrow is season 8?

-We learn that the tombs are aligned to fit on a symbol meaning "serpent". Now, why in the world would whoever built the tombs do this? What's the point? At first, I also wanted to mention that it'd be pretty much impossible to actually find the tombs, even with this clue, as the symbol covers a large part of the map. Upon closer inspection, however, it seems like the tombs are located where the serpent's tail touches itself, and there are two more places like that below the blue dart. I presume that's where the remaining tombs would be located.

-Alright, the Constrictai are located somewhere people wouldn't just stumble into, that's more than you could say about the Fangpyre tomb, at least. Sadly, this is immediately made irrelevant by the fact that the tomb doesn't even have a door! Pythor just had to place a rope to climb up and down, and that was it. Wow. I keep thinking the guy who designed the tombs couldn't possibly come up with worse security measures, and yet I keep being surprised.

-Ladies and Gentlemen ... Behold, the Pink Ninja! I love that there's an actual minifigure of this outfit.

-Why is the postman heading for the Constrictai tomb? Maybe they aren't even as secluded as I thought.

-Apparently, the Constrictai are the religious snakes, as they have murals depicting the tribes being united and collecting the Fangblades, which will free the Great Devourer. Interestingly, the Great Devourer is described as "an ancient evil". I guess it makes sense, the Serpentine aren't actually evil, they were manipulated first by Chen, and then by Pythor, but by themselves they wouldn't want Ninjago to be destroyed, so the Devourer would be seen as evil. Of course, maybe Zane got things wrong, and this "ancient evil" that turns "day into night" is actually meant to be the Overlord? The Serpentine are aware of his existence, after all. I really want to know more about this!

-So Zane can play the flute, even while he's being choked. You know, this is actually nice foreshadowing for him being a Nindroid, as he doesn't need to breathe.

-Alright, the door to the Venomari tomb can be opened by simply tapping it, but it is located on an island in a swamp filled with acid, so fair enough. I don't think anyone could even get the Venomari out of there unless they had, like, a Rattlercopter or something.

-I don't know what on earth this creature is, but it terrifies me.

-Aaand the Venomari are immune to the acid. Well then, maybe this place isn't so well suited aftter all. Why put the one tribe immunte to acid there? Well, actually, Pythor was also fairly resistant to the Great Devourer's stomach acid, considering that he's not an oni-dragon-human hybrid like Wu, so maybe it's just a Serpentine thing? In which case, yeah, putting any of the tombs here is just dumb.

-Kai is having a panic attack at the idea of fighting elves and gingerbread people! Do I ... want to know his history with them?

-Alright, Nya is awesome as Samurai X! No banter, no elemental powers, no Spinjitzu, just pure focus and determination. She goes in, saves all four ninja, scares off the Serpentine and hits Pythor in the butt with a dart!

-Wu mentions that Samurai used to protect the nobility. This ties well into the royal family in season 8, but also implies that there are other noble families.

-Kai is still high on Venomari venom. Nothing more to add, just wanted to mention that.

-Ninjago City appears for the first time, and it's also the ninjas' first visit. None of them visited the capital before? Not even Cole?

-Why is the Venomari antivenom blue? All the other antivenoms correspond witht he tribe's color, so why not this one?

-Is there a reason why Skales and Acidicus automatically defer to Pythor? Skales has already been established to be power hungry, so shouldn't he try to be the leader?

-Why is Pythor telling potentially offensive jokes about the Constrictai? That ... doesn't seem like a good way to unite the tribes, you know?

-And why does Fang-Suei sound like Count Dracula? He's a snake, not a bat! The bat people are in another realm!

-And the way the ninja try to stop the tribes from uniting is by ... encouraging them to be racist towards each other? Boy, this episode has some interesting subtext.

-Zane freezes the entire subway system to escape. I get that it's a life or death situation, but I think the people using it might have a couple of complaints come morning.