Friday, 25 January 2019

Netflix Retrospective: Voltron: Legendary Defender season 4 episodes 1-3

For the next couple of weeks, we’re back to Voltron. Strap in folks, we’re in for a good one.



Code of Honour

A Galra ship docks with an underwater base, it’s providing a high priority shipment. It’s also a current target for the Blade of Marmora. Their intention is to gather intelligence on the ‘pure’ quintessence they’re carrying. Helps that the security guard is a lazy bum, so the Blade easily hack the systems. One of them is caught trying to examine the canisters and now they have to fight their way back. One of them is knocked out, and another goes back for him, only just making it to the ship in time. Turns out the one that went back was Keith, Kolivan chews him out, but Keith points out that the other guy had the hacked intel so it was worth the risk going back for him.

Keith returns to the castle which has landed… somewhere and Shiro sends him back out to help the team with an escort mission. Keith tries to report what he’s learned but Shiro doesn’t want to hear it until after the escort mission is done. The mission is easy and later on, Shiro gives a speech about how Voltron needs its Black Lion. He supports Keith choosing the continue with Blade of Marmora training, incidentally this is the first we’ve heard of it but not at the expense of the team, which is an inevitable conflict since they’re both doing the same thing.

Next, their heading to the planet Reiphod, a planet recently liberated from the Galra to hopefully encourage them to join their alliance. Kolivan contacts them, they’ve discovered a shipment going off usual Galra supply and since it’s apparently been months since Lotor last showed himself, they feel compelled to act on it now. Using a stealthy approach, planting a tracking device to possibly locate the source of this new quintessence. Keith immediately volunteers to help.

Coran gives his glorious speech on Reiphod and Lance is frustrated that Keith isn’t there, despite barely saying a word about it in the last ship. The blade trio find the ship is devoid of any guards, either sentry or Galra. Keith insists that they plant the tracker anyway, but it’s a trap. Kolivan stops Keith trying to rescue the hacker, as the bridge explodes.

Keith is blown out of the ship, his suit is torn and his com-link broken. He uses all his grit to swing himself back onto the ship, making it just in time. The show on Reiphod seems to be going strong until the part that requires the presence of Voltron. Coran tries to course-correct and the crowd seem to be taking it well. Keith returns and gets a speech from Allura which is inevitably a more compassionate version of the speech Shiro gave to him earlier.

The Blade have a new plan to track the supply route and despite everyone’s objections, Keith is going along with it. Shiro approaches the Black Lion again.

Time to catch up with Lotor, Haggar confronts him saying that entire star-systems are being freed, and it’s down to Lotor’s weak leadership. He tells her to p*ss off. The paladins get a distress call, a fleet of medical supply ships is being attacked, and without Keith they can’t form Voltron. It’s quickly discovered to be a trap and more cruisers arrive, deploying fighters. Shiro returns to the Black Lion, begging for its help and it seems to agree to it.

Shiro arrives in the battle and it’s time to form Voltron, with Voltron available to them at last, they rather easily take care of the ambush and continue the escort. Heading to Olkarion of all places. Keith later is lambasted by the team… again, but admits he was never really much of a leader and his absence allowed Shiro to regain his connection to the Black Lion.

The mission to infiltrate the supply line could in theory take months, or several seasons, to complete, so he relinquished his leadership to Shiro. Shiro agrees, telling Keith they’ll be around to help if they need him. Group hug and Keith leaves

It’s a decent start but it does draw the pacing of this series into foray. It’s evident a few months have passed since the last episode and things that perhaps should’ve been established, like Keith’s blade training, were glossed over.

Rating 7/10

Reunion

We open in flashback with Pidge, or Katie as she was known then attending class, she points out an error and is mocked by the class and the teacher does literally nothing. She vents her frustration on a book as her brother comes in to cheer her up and give her the news that he got into the Galaxy Garrison. That inspires her to study harder to later join her family. I don’t think he had the heart to tell her what a sausage-fest that place is… although we may find out that I’m wrong later on.

In the present Pidge is following a lead on her own, whilst the others do busywork on Olkarion. She finds herself in a city constantly patrolled by Drones, so she wears a jedi cloak. She approaches a shopkeeper and asks him about a piece of security footage, they were using his product. The shopkeeper attacks but Pidge defeats him easily and begins hacking his computers.

She gets a positive ID on one of the people in the photo and finds his last known location to be on Kraydah’s moon. Unfortunately for him, a bounty hunter or someone interrogates the shopkeeper and knows where she’s going. Kraydah’s moon is under attack by 2 measly Galra ships. She gets an update from a freedom fighter named Lieutenant Ozar, that was the last of the attack but with reinforcements likely to arrive soon, they’re evacuating the base. He asks about the other Lions but Pidge says she’s on her own and is looking for Te-Osh, the girl from the photo.

She’s helping load up medical supplies but a second wave means she has to take off early. Again, the wave is easily defeated but in the process their second ship is damaged and they’re unable to help her, so it’s up to Pidge, she boards the others in her Lion and quickly defeats the ships pursuing Te-Osh but she’s been injured in the flight and needs medical attention. In her delirium, she almost mistakes her for Matt and when Pidge informs her of their relation, she gives her a transponder that might lead her to him.

It’s sadly too late for Te-Osh as she dies shortly after getting the transponder. She escorts the supplies, and is given Lieutenant Ozar’s transponder codes. Pidge follows the transponder to Matt’s and she flashes back to a piece about an encrypted code that definitely won’t come into play later. He finds the transponder but it’s a dead planet, she finds some kind of memorial to over 100,000 people who died on this planet, then finds a massive graveyard, flashing back to scenes earlier in the episode to save on the animation budget.

She finds the gravestone where it’s said Mathew Holt has died and it she’s devastated by it. But then realises the code isn’t Matt’s birthday, she uses the decryption from earlier and discovers a set of co-ordinates. It’s in a zone hot with Galra ships so Pidge uses her cloaking to sneak by them. The co-ordinates lead to a large asteroid where she discovers a base, generating its own gravity.

She’s fights a guard but it soon turns out to be Matt and the two have a touching reunion interrupted by the Bounty Hunter. He has some energy whips so is no pushover but what one Holt can’t do, two Holt’s can and they work together to defeat him. We end with a flashback just as matt was heading off, turns out the glasses Pidge wears were his… did she not need them? That’s worrying

Anyway, it’s quite a touching episode, and good to have the quest for Pidge’s family put to the forefront for a change.

Rating 8/10

Black Site

We open with Haggar looking at herself in the mirror for the first time in a while, she’s called in to help the interrogation of Throk, who insists that Lotor was behind the attack. Haggar thinks it makes little sense given he could just walk in and take what he wants. She tells her druids to continue.

The Paladins have just completed another escort mission as Pidge makes her return, with her brother. He seems to have a natural reaction to princess Allura, the make Lance jealous type reaction. He has a weird anime fantasy or something before reuniting with Shiro.

Meanwhile, Zarkon is loaded into a new quintessence fuelled armour. And his first order of business is getting rid of Lotor. Pidge gives Matt a tour of the castle of the lions. Hunk gives them both a milkshake and apparently Allura and Coran have taken a liking to them. Lotor has been working on new ships using the comet, he soon gets word about his father and he is told to return to central command, he leaves along with Narti, one of his generals who uses a cat to see.

Coran and Allura try and persuade Kalternicker to give them each a milkshake, the cow turns around and they back away. Lotor and Narti arrive at the fleet and Zarkon relieves Lotor of command, Lotor unconvincingly begs to be allowed by his side but Zarkon refuses. Haggar senses something amiss and decides to use her magic to see through the eyes of Narti’s cat.

Matt and Pidge bond over the Galra finder. I’d have to say the one thing that holds me back here is their relationship is a little too perfect. I don’t think they ever clash on anything, of course season 8 will be out when this is uploaded, so maybe I’ll be proved wrong. Matt gives his transponder to them, as it’s filled with intel that could upgrade their intel.

Meanwhile Lance is doing that most important of tasks, playing video games in his dressing gown. Allura and Coran ask him to help them get a milkshake from the cow. Lance corrects them on their terminology and demonstrates milking a cow, an act which amusingly horrifies them and puts them off the idea of milkshakes for good.

A status update from Acxa upon Lotor’s return clues Haggar in as to what’s going on. She immediately reports it to Zarkon who decides to mobilise the fleet against him. Matt and Pidge receive an encoded message, a frequency for another message, telling the fleet to mobilise against a target. But as far as Pidge can tell, there’s nothing there. We already know it’s Lotor’s ship

They decide they need to move in, but since they don’t know what they’re walking into, it’d be wise to go in cloaked. Pidge has upgrading the cloaking to cover all of Voltron but needs a co-pilot, Matt, to operate it. Lotor soon realises that Nanti has been compromised, and kills her. They rest of them evacuate and pass Voltron, but in doing so, their cloaking is destabilised. They briefly engage before making a retreat.

It’s a bit of quiet episode, but it’s still a pretty decent one, with some good comedy

Rating 7.5/10

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