Netflix Retrospective - Voltron: Legendary Defender season 2 episodes 10-13

We’re back exploring s2 of Voltron (1 day late)

Escape from Beta Traz

So, what have Lance, Pidge and Shiro been up to? They’re infiltrating a prison, they’re after a guy named Slav, and he’s in a particularly large prison that conveniently has no other major inmates. Shiro manages to open the door with his hand, he and Pidge enter and hack the system, allowing Lance to use the Blue Lion to scan the base and enter the prison with the Blue Lion.

Back on Zarkon’s ship, he wants more power from the druids to find the Black Lion but they’re holding back on Haggar’s orders. He isn’t happy about it. So the Lion’s scan reveals that the prison has 3 levels, each with a different security, also there are 2 cells, despite Slav being purportedly the only prisoner.

The head of the prisoner is torturing Slav for ideas to aid the Galra empire. I don’t think we’ve seen any specifics here so… Pidge gets to the bridge and hacks security cameras, there are sentries on their floor and a mix of drones and immobilising foam on the second level, no indication what’s on the third though. Pidge uses some time to find some data on her family.

Pidge has hacked a drone and soon they manage to get data on the third level. Shiro and Lance split up to check both prison cells but the doors are locked by facial recognition. The guard is on Lance’s side and he uses the quickest scan in history to scan the guard’s face, so Pidge can send them a 3D render to fool the scanners. Shiro finds who he thinks is Slav, who moans that in 98.03% of realities he dies in a prison break, and Shiro’s chances are worse.

Lance finds who he thinks is Slav, a dog creature that goes ‘yup’ to every question Lance asks. One of the smaller problems from the get-go, it's blatantly obvious which one is actually Slav and Lance is just an idiot. Unfortunately, the guard enters the hub to begin transmitting data he acquired earlier, Slav agrees to come because the Blue Lion operates on his lucky frequency range. The guard is informed that ‘Lyca’ has escaped, which he seems upset about.

And we get to the meet of this episode, Lance is not entirely sure of what his place on the team is. His ‘Slav’ manages to get them caught but as Pidge is about to shut off the defences, she notices a video of her brother. She soon snaps out of it and gets the foam turned on the guard. With Shiro’s ‘Slav’ refusing to move forward because of cracks, he does suggest turning off the gravity and floating across with their jetpacks, Pidge does this, and it helps her too as sentries were moving in on her location.

The pairs meet up and it’s quickly discovered the Lance’s ‘Slav’ is in fact Lyca, the Warden’s pet. The Warden confronts them and injects himself with, I’m guessing quintessence but in this case it’s essentially Venom. Slav opens the airlock, sucking the Paladins out into space, Slav is grabbed, but Lance uses his sharpshooter skills to release him. Back on Zarkon’s ship, Haggar tells Zarkon about the spy she suspects is there, Zarkon doesn’t care, knowing the Black Lion would make him unstoppable, he asks about the armour, which has thus far killed all its test subjects.

It’s a good enough episode, Lance’s arc was needed but rushed in my eyes, Slav is annoying and it’s probably for the best that he doesn’t appear much

Rating 7/10

Stayin’ Alive

Time to check in with Allura and the mice playing ‘I spy,’ she’s heading to the Balmera to get a crystal. She and Coran have an update and character informative conversation which passes time until she arrives. The Castle lands on the Balmera and we get an ominous shot of the monster encased in crystal.

Meanwhile, the druids inform Haggar of a chip placed in their computers, Thace was sloppy here. Haggar tells them to put it back, and they’ll see who retrieves it. The Balmera has produced a massive crystal, and Allura begins the ritual to retrieve it without hurting the Balmera, unfortunately, in doing so the crystal structure holding the monster is weakened and it manages to escape, it’s now using crystals to block attacks and amplify its central laser.

Allura raises the castle to keep the fight away from the Balmera and contacts the other Lions. Seeing the power of the lasers, they’ll need all 5 Lions, so Hunk has to brave the monster alone whilst Shiro, Lance and Pidge go in for their Lions. Thace collects the chip and is immediately caught by the druids, that was dumb and sloppy. The next shot from the monster downs the particle barrier, Shiro, Lance and Pidge are quickly back out, by Hunk takes a shot and starts falling to the Balmera.

Lance and Pidge try to destroy the crystals, but are unsuccessful. Shiro gets Hunk and Keith close to the castle, but Keith has to jetpack over, as he’s nearly hit, the Red Lion responds and soon all 5 Lions are in the action. But the monster is unlikely to stop for them to form Voltron. Pidge manages to hit the central crystal with her vine blast that buys them some time, they form and strike the beat with the sword, which slices right through the crystals defending it.

We get a hint of badly handled animosity between Keith and Allura and they head back to Olkarion, the teleduv is complete. Coran tells Allura that she may not survive handling a teleduv… yeah, no, just no… The five reminisce about all they’ve got through, and what they’ll do next. Unfortunately, Thace is in Haggar’s grasp and being tortured for information.

It’s a surprisingly action-heavy breather episode. Voltron took down the monster quite quickly but that’s more a testament to how far they’ve come. Of course, we know this plan won’t work completely, we’re far too early into the show for that. But more on that in the next episode.

Rating 7.5/10

Best Laid Plans

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, let’s see how this mantra fairs in Voltron. We open on Olkarion, where everything seems to be going swimmingly, and it’s time for the plan to commence, the Lions bring the teleduv into space. Unfortunately, Thace is still being tortured

They go over the plan, Shiro’s gonna lure Zarkon out with the Black Lion, getting him into position above the teleduv, hidden in the same kind of space pocket the Blade Base from ep 2 was hidden in. However given how large it is, it may be difficult to keep it hidden.

Haggar warns Zarkon but he doesn’t care, he cares only about the Black Lion. Which, thanks to Shiro commencing the plan, he finds easily. Unfortunately, the news of Thace’s capture has reached the Blade, since he didn’t check in with them, and they want to abort. Keith volunteers to board the ship and finish the job.

So, the animosity between Keith and Allura is resolved since she’s learned to not be blinded be her own anger. Anger which is justifiable but… I still feel this is forced and rushed. Anyway, Zarkon’s fleet arrives at the Black Lion’s location and the ships begin firing on him and launching fighters. Keith’s in a shuttle heading to Zarkon’s ship, so Shiro clears him a path.

Keith makes it aboard but it’s still a huge ship and Haggar’s druids are formidable. But so is Thace who doesn’t give into their torture and manages to free himself. Lance, Hunk and Pidge join the fight, buying time for Keith to get the virus. Keith tries to use the code to shut the system down but it’s ineffective, the druids had the codes changed. Keith and Thace work together and take out the druids.

With the code altered, their only workaround is to feed the power into the computer, essentially creating a bomb. Zarkon finds out what’s going on and wants Thace captured and brought to him. The gravity generator creating the space pocket isn’t going to last must longer. Keith blocks the exit when Haggar breaks through the door, their only way out now is for Keith only, as Thace works to finish his bomb.

The gravity generator goes down and it’s now or never, Allura powers the teleduv, and Thace’s power build begins to do its job, Haggar is faced with the explosion, although this seems to do minimal damage to her. Keith is thrust from the ship, with the Red Lion picking him up. The Blade upload the virus and Zarkon’s ship is shut down.

Allura opens a wormhole and sends the ship through, but falls over, exhausted. The castle and the Lions follow through the portal, unsurprisingly Allura is still alive. Now they form Voltron. Cue stock transition.

Not much actually goes awry, but it’s not done yet.

Rating 8.5/10

Blackout

The power is only gonna be down for 20 minutes, so Voltron has little time to act. With 4 major targets to strike, they get to work, doing significant damage to the ship. Haggar and her druids believe they can draw the Quintessence from Voltron and render him lifeless, despite Haggar’s pleas, Zarkon decides to face Voltron in his armour.

Haggar begins the ritual, drawing power from other druids into a shot that does as it’s intended, drawing the quintessence from Voltron and rendering it powerless, and rendering the paladins unconscious, though they quickly recover. But they’re still powerless which is rendered worse when Zarkon appears in his armour, essentially a mech suit.

With little alternative, Allura diverts all the ships power into a blast, one Zarkon is able to reflect back at her, taking the castle out of play. The Paladins connect with their Lions again as Zarkon recovers from the blast. Fortunately their determination holds out and they manage to get Voltron moving again (corny, I know but they're not done yet).

Even without Haggar’s help, it’s still a powerful machine, but Haggar is preparing another blast, her blast misses but concentrating on avoiding that leaves them weak to Zarkon. Allura recovers but in order to save Voltron, she and the Blade need to attack Haggar and her druids directly, which they do, stopping any further blasts. Zarkon is still a formidable opponent and he manages to separate Voltron, Shiro is knocked out.

The Blade and Allura take out some of the druids, but Haggar and a remaining druid take out one of the Blade members. Shiro wakes up and sees the input for his bayard, but since it’s in the hands of Zarkon, he charges, connected with his Lion, and manages to weaken Zarkon and attain his bayard. With only a few minutes until power returns to Zarkon’s ship, they form Voltron once again.

Allura knocks Haggar back and sees her facial markings, she’s Altean, Haggar attempts to blast her but she sees immune to the blast, able to contain the energy within her, she unleashes it back into the room, destroying the means the druids had to destroy planets. Coran and Slav get the castle back up, but power to Zarkon’s ship has returned too.

They manage to slice a sword through Zarkon’s armour, but Zarkon’s suit grabs Voltron’s head, Shiro uses his bayard to set the sword alight, destroying the armour. With the ship reactivated, they retreat, only partially successful in their mission. And it’s come at a high price, they discover that Shiro is gone from the Black Lion, leaving only his bayard behind.

Zarkon was heavily injured in the battle, Haggar orders that Prince Lotor is summoned.

It’s a great action episode with a lot of build up for stuff going forward. This show had a set episode count of 78, of which we’re only 1/3 of the way through, much more is still to come.

Rating 8.5/10

We’ll back with more Voltron in December as the season length drops and the status quo shifts, in the meantime, we’ll be looking at some things, some Stranger Things