Return of the Overlord

Ah, another episode that absolutely terrified me. The penultimate episode of the first two seasons just tend to do that, I suppose. Although, to be fair, partially transformed Garmadon is legitimately terrifying.

The ninja move to fight Garmadon and his ultimate weapon, only for a dark matter corrupted Nya to fight them, forcing the original four ninja to stay behind and fight her.

At the beach, Garmadon fights Lloyd off for long enough to launch a dark matter missile at Ninjago, turning it to evil. He himself, however, gets possessed by the Overlord, who had merely been using him to regain a body.

As the other ninja arrive, an all-out battle between them and the Stone Army ensues, but the Overlord wins, leading the Bounty to be destroyed once again, and Lloyd to be too injured to fight as the Stone Army uses a portal to head back to Ninjago. 

Various Observations:

-Oh, this episode opens right where the last one left off. We even get a recreation of the clock striking zero and sending out a beam of light to finish Garmatron! 

-Garamdon's line about red "not being [Nya's] color" and trying on a darker shade is hilarious now that grey has become Nya's main color. Alongside light blue, to be fair, but from Hands of Time until Crystallized there was very little blue or red in her outfits. 

-You can see how Kai has matured since the pilots, as he now puts his faith in Nya, rather than blindly racing off and abandoning his own fight.

-The ninja team swearing to support Lloyd and readying themselves for the Final Battle is hype.

-Wait, what is Misako saying? The balance being shifted allows the Overlord to "cross over into our world"? Well that would have been nice to know earlier. It's not like Misako didn't know the Overlord is connected to what's going on, she knows he created the Stone Warriors! Also, what world is the Overlord in right now? It's not another realm, that terminology has already been decided on in the pilots, so what other "world" is he in? Imaginary number space?

-The ninja fondly reminiscing on their time together while believing they may be heading to their deaths gets me emotional. Part of me wants to ask how any of this got into a Lego show, but the best parts of this season tend to be when it gets darker, so I'm not complaining.

-Ah, Zane's psychic abilities are back! He now senses an evil presence. I do wonder when the writers decided to abandon this trait.

-Whoa, hold on! Evil!Nya has red Spinjitzu with evil particle effects after the dark matter erased her goodness. Is ... this Shatterspin? 

-Why does Nya only communicate through growling noises now? Is that the ultimate evil? If so, is the Overlord a kitten?

-Kai immediately getting knocked down while he's still talking is funny. 

-What is Nya doing now? She has some kind of time-freezing power that's animated like a sonic blast? Do all magically evil characters get superpowers as the plot demands, instead of that being Garmadon's thing?

-Ouch! You can hear something snapping when Nya twists Cole's wrists!

-Oh. Oh. Once again, I am surprised by how deep and meaningful the writing can be when the Hageman brothers actually try. Garmadon ranting about how destiny took his family away and how the only way he can have family is if they are evil is some good stuff. It's a reasonable conclusion for a character who is cursed to be evil, but also dearly loves his family. Plus, it makes for a much better motivation than just being magically evil and having no deeper thoughts behind it. The voice acting is great, too!

-The Overlord sassing Garmadon about his monologues is fun. If the Overlord was sassier, rather than just constantly demanding Garmadon mindlessly follow his lead, I might have actually enjoyed him as a villain. 

-Misako's bag can deflect lasers? That seems ... unlikely.

-We're only about halfway through the episode, but Garmadon already won. He corrupted Kai and Nya's home village with a dark matter missile, despite Lloyd's efforts to stop him. The ninja are just continously beaten down in this arc.

-Garmadon opening a trapdoor under Lloyd while he charges his power is funny. Did he learn that trick from Chen? 

-What is Wu saying? "Our worst fears." Isn't he missing something like "...have come true" or "...are here"? 

-Wait, the corrupted Nya can speak! But then why is she just growling all the time? Is her dark secret that she's into petplay?

-Mystake gets corrupted by the dark matter? But I feel like Oni should have some level of resistance, no?

-I love that Garmadon complains about the Overlord stealing his plan from the pilots. But, that aside, it is also confirmed that the Overlord was imprisoned somewhere. I thought he just lost his body, so where was he imprisoned?

-I also love that Zane takes the time to explain what the term metamorphosis means. 

-Now that the Final Battle is at hand, the ninja fight the Stone Warriors with all they have, and it's awesome! No more running away!

-After being kind of annoying in the last episode, it's great to see Kozu getting launched away by the Garmatron's cannon.

-That ... looks wrong. Very wrong.

-Why are Ed and Edna apparently living with Dareth? What's up with that?

 

-And when did the people return to living in Ninjago City? It hasn't been that long since the city was destroyed!

-The Final Battle is just as epic as it was built up to be, with all the ninja, but espescially Lloyd, getting some awesome scenes!

-Wait, why does the Overlord hit Lloyd with the classic "Your friends can't help you now"? They're literally right there. In fact, why aren't they helping? Zane could just freeze the Overlord, and Lloyd blasts him with green power. Or Cole and Jay could destroy Garmatron!

-Whoo! Dr Julien coming in clutch! The Bounty's wrecked again, but he blocked a dark matter missile and outran its corruption!

-The ninja lost the episode, and this was their biggest loss yet, as they're stranded on the Dark Island, with Lloyd badly injured, while the Overlord is out corrupting Ninjago. Even Lloyd's motivational speech at the end sounds defeated. This is the darkest hour for Ninjago, and I'm hyped for the next episode!

-That aside, I think Lloyd got the idiom wrong. He says they lost the fight but didn't lose the battle? I suppose he may be referring to the Final Battle, but usually the word is "war". Or is that a step too far for Ninjago? The ninja discussing their fond memories to distract themselves from their impending deaths is fine, but the word war is where Lego draws the line?