The “message” of this episode is a bit on-the-nose, but the execution is both sweet and funny, so I’ll allow it. It also features the arrival of a neat new recurring baddie.
Since crashing for a second time in the season 1 finale (not to mention briefly getting taken over by an Omen robot,) Mother hasn’t quite been the same. She’s embracing her “humanity” a bit more, despite being the disembodied A.I. interface for a spaceship. When a dangerous new player comes to town, Mother urges the Akiridions to work together to defeat him, but convincing them is easier said than done, especially with Zadra and Varvatos at each other’s throats.
The new threat is a bounty hunter named Tronos, voiced by none other than Danny Trejo! We see Tronos briefly in “Moonlight Run,” but now he’s made it to earth and is making trouble for our heroes. Tronos is an electrothermal lifeform, which means his physical body can shift into electricity. In addition to this making him very dangerous, it also means he’s nearly impossible to fight, because he can literally evade you at the speed of lightning, disappearing into outlets and traveling over power lines.
With a baddie like Tronos in town, it’s understandable that Mother wants Aja, Krel, Varvatos, and Zadra to work together to defeat him. Naturally, this means all of them are all their most uncooperative. Throughout the episode, Mother keeps suggesting teamwork and the Akiridions keep interpreting that as “divide and conquer.” Zadra still doesn’t trust Varvatos after discovering his past betrayal of the royal family, and of course it’s very on brand for Aja to barrel into a dangerous situation on her own without backup. You know they’re all gonna pull together eventually, because that’s just the sort of show it is, but it takes them quite a while to get there.
A few choice bits I want to point out. I’ve always liked how Mother refers to Aja and Krel as “my royals”—it’s very sweet, and it’s evidence for why her name comes from more than just the fact that she’s the Mother Ship. Zadra has taken over Aja’s warrior training from Varvatos, and as Zadra puts the queen-in-waiting through her paces, Aja groans, “Can we stop running and get to the cannon-blasting, backflipping part of my training?” Love it! And there’s a cute moment where Aja, pursuing Tronos, runs into Toby and one of his troll buddies. Aja and the troll, AAARRRGGHH!!!, are immediately suspicious of each other and ready to throw hands, both ready to defend Toby from the other. Eventually, Toby has to insert himself between them, insisting, “Everyone stop protecting me! I am a protector!”
This episode gives us both cranky Krel and sweet Krel, which makes me happy. At the start of the episode, we see him busy at work on Mother’s repairs. You can feel the heat rising as more and more chaos encroaches on his work area: Aja and Zadra run in sparring, Luug bursts in barking, Toby calls in with a warning about strange goings-on in town (unbeknownst to them at the time, Tronos.) With each new disturbance to his concentration, Krel just keeps getting more and more annoyed. “…And the good news keeps on coming,” he gripes. “I’m sort of in the middle of something here, Aja!” he snaps. “Please, more interruptions!” he grumbles. Diego Luna is fantastic throughout this scene, and I love it all.
The sweeter stuff comes from some of his interactions with other characters, especially Mother and Toby. Even though, like the others, he’s not paying close enough attention to Mother’s advice in this episode, I always like the way he regards her. He treats her fully like a person while never ignoring that she’s an A.I., which can be a tricky balance to pull off, but he does it wonderfully. And Toby, who’s still relatively new to being in on Aja and Krel’s secret, is adorably enthusiastic when he realizes the extent of Krel’s engineering skills. He follows Krel around requesting such innovations as a flying bike and a wormhole between their houses—“Think of the sleepovers!” he gushes. Krel doesn’t exactly pick up on the implications of this, that Toby has fully decided that they’re friends, but it’s lovely to see another character properly geeking out over his genius. There’s also a cute moment where Toby holds up his hand for a high five and Krel, confused, just sort of awkwardly waves back. Unphased, Toby replies, “No? It’s okay, buddy.” Even though Krel can be standoffish a lot of the time, he really does want friends, and I’m happy that Toby is so ready to be that for him.
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