Child's Play

 Are you ready, everyone? This'll be the last time we'll get to see young Lloyd, so let's hope he'll get some good focus here.

So, Garmadon breaks into a museum to revive a dinosaur called the Grundle with the Mega Weapon, but the ninja try and fail interrupt him, getting turned into kids in the process. 

Alongside Lloyd, they head towards a comic book store to learn more about how to fight the Grundle, while Wu and Nya pick up a magical tea that can age the Grundle back into a fossil.

The Illuma-Swords the shop's owner gave the ninja fail to deter the Grundle, as they're still just toys, so the only option is to use the tea, bringing the ninja back to their preoper age and killing the Grundle.

Lloyd, however, is also turned into an adult by it, forever losing his childhood.

 

Various Observations:

-Ooh, we get some Gene lore ... I think. Looks like he lives in Jamanakai Village.

-So, is there a reason why the children are clearly talking like they're playing catch, when they're actually playing football? "Catch me!", "You're it!", etc. Were there some communications issues between the writers and the animators? 

-Oh, hey, Gene's clone has also returned! Do they seriously have this little models?

-Suddenly Lloyd could solo the original four ninja if he's not distracted? His training sure progressed fast.

-Why does Jay not know about the new Starfarer comic? I'm pretty sure he's later established as a fan, no? 

-I would quite like to know what an "Imperial Sludge" is supposed to be.

-Alright, Lloyd not getting to be a kid and enjoy his childhood because he has to train to fight his father is a reasonable conflict for the episode to focus on.  Lloyd is just a child, so he shouldn't have to shoulder the responsibility of saving the world from darkness, but at the same time there is no other option, because no one else has his powers.

-Skales has finally regained his actual personality, and tries to get the other Serpentine to follow him, rather than Garmadon. Good to know he has firmly left sidekick territory now.

-And then he loses all dignity. Wow. And here I thought he'd actually get to try and boss Garmadon around, with how the last episode ended.

-Why, exactly, does Garmadon need to wish for the Mega Weapon to create the power to revive the Grundle? Couldn't he just wish for a living one? That way he wouldn't need to break into the museum.

-Also, it's now possible to wish for power? Then why not wish for somehting like "The power I need to destroy the ninja"? After all, that way it's not the Mega Weapon doing the destroying.

-And he makes the Grundle "hungry for ninja"? Erm, Garmadon? Are you forgetting that your son, who you're established to want to try and protect, is also a ninja?

-Oh my, Zane's freaking out at being made younger. I think this is the first time we've seen him this vulnerable since "Tick Tock".

-Jay and Zane have a good point. Why did Zane turn younger? He was never a kid.

-Cole seems really disturbed at the concept of bedtime. Also, he mentions that kids can't drive. I take it this means that the ninja are, under normal circumstances, old enough to legally drive. I have no clue why a later season, I think it was season 8, tries to claim the ninja weren't adults at this point.

-Holy crap, is the police trying to kill them?

-Alright, I already don't neccessarily respect the police, but seriously? They think four kids were able to break into a museum and carry a sarcophagus that took four grown Serpentine to lift? And didn't Nya mention that Garmadon was on the security footage, so shouldn't the police know about it too? 

-And now that cop has seen Kai use Spinjitzu, creating a tornado of flames, and still thinks these are just some random kids?

-Soooo ... why do the police even think the ninja stole the sarcophagus? Aside fromt he fact that I doubt it would be physically possible, there's still the matter of the ninja never even having touched the thing! If that announcer guy that keeps popping up had happened to walk past the sarcophagus, would he have been arrested as well?

-The Fritz Donnegan comic doesn't have speech bubbles? That's ... odd.

-I like that Zane is confused by having to apologize for something he never did. His honesty is a pretty consistent trait.

-So there are more models for kid characters! Then why not use them, instead of giving Gene some weird clone?

-Oh, speaking of Gene, he's apparently checking out the museum as well.

-Alright, the Grundle is really scary.

-Nobody thought to question the kid walking into a pizza place/arcade with a bunch of deadly weapons?

 -Right, Lloyd makes a good point. Why can't the ninja properly use Spinjitzu? He can, and yet he's still a kid.

-Is that Hatsune Miku? Is our holy virtual diva a thing in Ninjago, too? Does "A Female Ninja But I Want To Love" exist?

 -If you look to the background, you will see a "Blue Lightning" comic. Is that a mix between Black Lightning and Blue Marvel? Wait, did Blue Marvel even exist yet?

-Wait, Mother Doomsday of all people recognizes that the ninja saved the city? That's odd, but also heartwarming. Even if I do have to wonder just when the ninja signed merchandise. If they have income from that, what's the point of their jobs in "Darkness Shall Rise?".

-When Nya asks her for Tomorrow's Tea, Mystake actually helps out. I'm starting to think maybe she just doesn't like Wu, given that she's fine with selling magic tea to literally everyone else who asked her.

-Is it just me, or is it kind of unfair to make the final question of a comic book quiz about an issue that came out that very day, and only was only sold in very limited supply. That's basically a pay-to-win question, isn't it?

-Reversing the polarity of some technobabble stuff? Is Fritz Donnegan the Doctor?

-Wait, how did Wu and Nya get in? The door is blocked from the outside by rubble, but now the rubble's gone?

 

-Man, Lloyd accepting that he'll never get to have a proper childhood is really sad to me.