*One season arc spoiler.*
In this episode, we see a bit of an odd combination of fun action comedy and serious action drama, but it’s not really blended together. Instead, the first half of the story focuses on fun while the second half focuses on drama, which makes for kind of a jarring viewing experience. I still enjoy it, but I would put it a step down from the last few episodes.
With news that bounty hunters are searching for them, Aja decides she needs combat training to prepare for what’s coming. Meanwhile, Krel wants to build a new daxial array for the Mother Ship to replace its missing part, but he’s having trouble finding the sophisticated equipment he needs on Earth. He and Aja sign up for driver’s ed, thinking they might find some useful parts inside human cars.
Like I said, this episode has a pretty clear dividing line down the middle. The first half? Whacky driver’s ed fun, complete with an exasperated teacher, Eli’s longing to Tokyo drift, and a wild car chase when the bounty hunters crash the party. There are stakes and danger, but there’s also an air of excitement and wonder as Aja and Krel try to outrun a spaceship in a student driver car. Meanwhile, the second half? Intense bounty-hunter drama, with Varvatos vowing to protect the royals from the much-feared Xeron Brotherhood. Not that this half is completely humorless—I love, “Varvatos will wear your skins like a jacket, or at best, a clutch-sized purse!”—but it’s more serious on the whole and includes a bit of dramatic backstory that isn’t quite given room to breathe. While both halves of the episode are good, with my preference being for the whimsical chaos of the first half, they don’t entirely fit together.
Our character of the week is Zadra, voiced by Hayley Atwell (Peggy!) An Akiridion, she was separated from our heroes during the coup, buying them time to make their escape. She’s still on Akiridion-5 and is our main view into the state of things there now that General Morando has taken over. We’ve only gotten a couple scenes with her so far, but we’ll continue to check in with her throughout the season.
At first, Krel was disheartened when he realized he was never going to find a daxial array on Earth, but deciding to build his own has reenergized him. He’s incredibly focused in this episode on finding the parts he needs, tenaciously trying to pop the hood on the student driver car despite a teacher who’s primed to yell at unruly teenagers. He later throws himself into a wildly dangerous situation to search.
(Side note: Diego Luna is totally on top of all of Krel’s technobabble. Voicing an alien STEM genius in your nonnative language can’t be easy, but he sounds natural on lines like, “Okay, if I was a subspace manifold, where would I hide?”)
But that tenacity and focus doesn’t mean no fun. I love that, in the middle of the aforementioned car chase, Krel has to stop to find the perfect song on the radio, and he and Aja both yell gleefully as they speed along. I also enjoy the latest example of “misunderstood meaning” humor, which is a recurring bit as the Akiridions try to figure out life on Earth. When another student asks if they drive on the right side of the road in their “home country,” we get this delightful tag-team from Aja and Krel:
AJA: “‘Right side?’”
KREL: “How can there be a wrong side?”
AJA: “It’s a road.”
Love it!
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