True Potential (episode)

:Not to be confused with the full unlocking of an Elemental Master's abilities.
True Potential is the ninth episode of the eighth season of Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu and the 83rd episode overall. It aired on March 17, 2018, in Australia, and aired on May 24, 2018, in the United States on Cartoon Network.
==Synopsis==
Lord Garmadon returns to Ninjago and frees Harumi, who encourages him to "achieve his true potential" by conquering the one thing that has always stood in his way: his son, Lloyd.http://web.archive.org/web/20210216061511/https://www.foxtel.com.au/tv-guide/Ninjago-Masters-of-Spinjitzu/119370958
==Plot==
Two garbagemen collect trash from an alleyway while listening to a news report on how the Sons of Garmadon have been jailed away in Kryptarium Prison. As they're finishing their work, they hear a deep, malevolent voice continuously say "she calls me." The figure suddenly reveals itself as the newly-resurrected Lord Garmadon, who hijacks the garbagemen's truck and invades the police station, where Harumi is being held for interrogation. Garmadon fights and defeats the guards, and frees Harumi. 
As the ninja celebrate their victory against the Sons of Garmadon, Lloyd remains distraught over Harumi's betrayal. Misako urges him not to bury his goodness beneath a hard shell. Lloyd then stops the ninja's celebration, seeing a news report stating Harumi escaped—and Lord Garmadon was the one who freed her. Lloyd is horrified by his father's resurrection, with many of the ninja refusing to believe it. As the team heads to the police station, Misako takes baby Wu to Dareth's secret apartment to keep him safe. The Police Commissioner unsuccessfully tried getting through to Garmadon but realized he's now a being of pure evil. 
Lord Garmadon and Harumi break into Kryptarium Prison and allow its prisoners to take over, with Harumi introducing them to their worshipped dark lord. While training Garmadon, Harumi explains he has both elements of Destruction and Creation. For Garmadon to unlock his True Potential, he'll have to destroy his only obstacle—Lloyd—who Harumi knows will come to face him.
On Destiny's Bounty, the ninja discuss their plan of attack. Lloyd wants to face his father, and redeem him as he did years earlier—but the ninja advise against this. Sometime later, Nya discovers that Destiny's Bounty's navigation is frozen. Lloyd brings her to the rest of the team, claiming that P.I.X.A.L. has a plan. As they enter a room, Nya realizes Lloyd was lying; he locks them in the room and departs to face his father alone, despite the ninja's pleas. He drives the Ninja Nightcrawler to Kryptarium Prison, while Cole uses his Earth Punch to break the ninja free. The team makes contact with Lloyd, but he destroys his console in anger.
Arriving at the prison, Lloyd calls out his father. In the control room, Harumi has Lloyd's confrontation broadcast across Ninjago. As Lloyd arrives in the main hall of the prison, he's met with his father, with both remarking how the other has changed. Garmadon starts fighting Lloyd, even as he tries getting through to his father. The fight is long and brutal, with Lloyd being heavily overwhelmed by his father. Empowered by the fight, Garmadon starts to unlock his True Potential and fires destructive energy blasts to cripple Lloyd. After being thrown into the prison's locker room, Lloyd puts up a final fight against his father but is disowned and thrown through numerous brick walls before flying out of the prison and onto the ground far below.
All of Ninjago and the ninja are horrified by Lloyd's defeat, as his father watches him, satisfied. Harumi tells Lord Garmadon to let Lloyd live, only so he can watch him take over Ninjago City as its new Emperor. As Garmadon and his new forces leave, Lloyd crawls a few inches before collapsing onto the sand. He weakly mutters "father," before a picture of him, and his father is blown from his hand and away into the darkness, indicating that his dad was now just a hollow shell of his former self.
==Appearances==
===Characters===
====Cast====
*Biker #1 - Paul Dobson
*Chopper Maroon - Sam Vincent
*Boy - Kathleen Barr
*Cole - Kirby Morrow
*Dareth - Alan Marriott
*Driver - Sam Vincent
*Garmadon - Mark Oliver
*Gayle Gossip - Kelly Sheridan
*Harumi - Britt McKillip
*Injured Cop - Mark Oliver
*Jay - Michael Adamthwaite
*Kai - Vincent Tong
*Killow - Garry Chalk
*Lloyd Garmadon - Sam Vincent
*Luke Cunningham - Michael Adamthwaite
*Misako - Kathleen Barr
*News Reporter - Michael Adamthwaite
*Noble - Paul Dobson
*Nya - Kelly Metzger
*Old Man - Michael Donovan
*Partner - Alan Marriott
*P.I.X.A.L. - Jennifer Hayward
*Police Commissioner - Michael Donovan
*Police Officer - Brent Miller
*Ultra Violet - Maggie Blue O'Hara
*Wu - Paul Dobson, Caleb Skeris
*Zane - Brent Miller
====Non-speaking====
*Mohawk
*Mr. E
*Simon
*Skip Vicious
*Tommy
====Mentioned====
*First Spinjitzu Master
====Miscellenous====
*Ed (pictured)
*Edna (picured)
*Maya (painting)
*Ray (painting)
*Ronin (pictured)
===Items===
*Cole's hammer
*Garmadon's helmet
*Kai's twin katanas
*Nunchucks
*Lloyd's sword
*Nya's spear
*Shurikens
*Zane's bow
===Vehicles===
*Destiny's Bounty
*Ninja Nightcrawler
===Locations===
*Ninjago
**Ninjago City
***Ninjago City Police Station
***Dareth's apartment
**Sea of Sand
***Kryptarium Prison
**Ignacia (painting)
***Four Weapons Blacksmith
===Species===
*Dragons (pictured)
*Cows (mentioned)
*Humans
*Nindroids
*Oni/Dragon hybrids
*Oni/Dragon/Human hybrids
==Transcript==
For the transcript of the episode, click here.
==Trivia==
*As of the time of its release, the Hageman Brothers considered this to be the series' darkest episode yet.https://twitter.com/brothershageman/status/974280981501722624
**They believe "I have no son" are "The most chilling words in the series."https://twitter.com/brothershageman/status/974817241148477440
*Tommy Andreasen wanted this episode to be called "Twisted Potential".https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/1350859469366964231
*The exterior of Dareth's apartment resembles the appearance of the set 70620 Ninjago City.
*The Sons of Garmadon appear to be the only prisoners in the "mean and dangerous population" in Kryptarium, where the Sky Pirates, Giant Stone Warrior, and various other prisoners were previously held.
*According to the Hageman Brothers, in this episode, "Lloyd represents the idealism of youth. Garmadon is an adult who has forgotten his dreams."https://twitter.com/brothershageman/status/974817007668359168
*Garmadon's theme is reprised numerous times during his battle with Lloyd. Throughout the season, the theme was reprised sparingly, with a rendition of it frequently appearing in the Sons of Garmadon motif—which is a sped-up version of Garmadon's theme.
*During Lloyd and Garmadon's battle, one of the bits of the soundtrack is similar to that of the one that played during Garmadon's banishment, as both have drums in the background slowly building up to a large chorus piece (albeit the one during Garmadon's sacrifice is slightly more noticeable). The same bit also contains some of Harumi's lemotif. 
*The Lloyd vs. Garmadon fight in this episode may be Tommy Andreasen's favorite 1-on-1 fight in the series.https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/1394329948102483970
*Tommy Andreasen confirmed that during his struggle with his father, Lloyd's element tried to protect him from the destructive energy shocks and possibly fatal injuries by Lord Garmadon—hence why elemental energy bursts emanated from his body when he was hit by the shocks.https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/975107362271801344 (link missing context)
===Cultural references===
*The scene where Garmadon rams a garbage truck into the police station is likely a reference to the movie The Terminator when the T-800 rams a car into a police station.
**According to the Hageman Brothers, this scene "was gonna be a lot cooler but censors kinda spoiled it."https://twitter.com/brothershageman/status/974812806095683585
*The beginning of the music where Lloyd goes rogue is similar to Ivan Drago's theme from Rocky IV.
*Mark Oliver compared the resurrected Garmadon to the monster from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, describing how Garmadon lacked full awareness and was in awe at the environment around him at first, which can be heard through his more primitive-sounding voice.https://youtu.be/RHf5WMIcnVI?t=537 The Hageman Brothers also said they and Oliver "talked literary references when discussing the new Garmadon."https://twitter.com/brothershageman/status/974812641423065089
*The Hageman Brothers credited the idea of keeping Garmadon unseen for as long as possible to the film Jaws.https://twitter.com/brothershageman/status/974815292814630912
===Continuity===
*This is the second time the ninja sing "The Weekend Whip", the first being "The Royal Blacksmiths." This is also the fifth episode where Cole sings and the first time he doesn't sing "Glow-Worm".
*While the ninja are singing, Lloyd tells Dareth to stop the music at the same part the music stops in the "Weekend Whip", though this could be a coincidence.
*This episode marks the second time that Garmadon has been to Kryptarium Prison, the first being "The Greatest Fear of All." Both of his visits were in the penultimate episodes of their respective season.
*This is the second and last time Lloyd uses the Ninja Nightcrawler in Season 8.
*When the screens were being overridden by security footage in the city, scenes from Skybound, such as Cole, Jay, Nya in a news room and the Magazine Dareth showed can be seen.
*Lloyd heading to fight Garmadon alone without the aid of the ninja parallels a few instances from previous episodes;
**In "The Green Ninja," when Kai confronted Garmadon alone in the Destiny's Bounty in order to seek achieving his True Potential, while here, Lloyd makes the same mistake, but only to indirectly fuel Garmadon's True Potential.
***Similarly, how Cole uses his Earth Punch to knock down a door in the Destiny's Bounty so the ninja could go after Lloyd in this episode, parallels when Cole used his True Potential to knock down a door in the Destiny's Bounty to stop Kai from fighting Garmadon.
**In "The Hands of Time," Wu went to the Monastery of Spinjitzu to fight Acronix alone, and ultimately, lost in the end, by being hit with the Time Punch and rapidly aging throughout Season 7, while Lloyd ends up losing his powers for the rest of this season and throughout the next season.
**In "Scavengers," Lloyd previously stated, "Wu's mistake was going alone. And so was mine. I'm supposed to be fighting alongside my friends." Here, Lloyd did the exact opposite.
*Before fighting Garmadon, Lloyd says, "I don't want to have to fight you." Towards the end of season two, specifically in "Return of the Overlord," Lloyd tells his father "I don't want to fight you, but I will if I have to." The scene connects to Lloyd's conflict earlier in the series.
*This is the third time Lloyd has been severely injured in the show. The first time was in "Return of the Overlord," while the second time was at the end of "Dead Man's Squall."
*This is the first time an antagonist achieves their True Potential. Previously, the six ninja found their True Potential in seasons one, two, and five. In this episode, Garmadon finds his True Potential by brutally fighting and defeating Lloyd.
*The Hageman Brothers said, "As we were exploring Garmadon, we thought — hey, in past seasons, the ninja had all this power and what did Garmadon have? We thought it would be badass to see him kick some ass."https://twitter.com/brothershageman/status/974816667019522049
**Garmadon always had these powers, but he only unlocked them now.https://twitter.com/brothershageman/status/974820477909704704
**Wu and Garmadon both have the same potential, but Garmadon's Oni side outweighs the Dragon side, as he cultivates the Oni side more.https://twitter.com/brothershageman/status/974829563845816320
===Errors===
*When Lloyd tells Nya that P.I.X.A.L. has a plan, the sun had just set outside, but when he went back outside only half a minute later it's nighttime.
*When Lloyd pulls out the picture of him and Garmadon before heading to Kryptarium Prison the picture is flipped for a brief second.
*When driving towards Kryptarium Prison, the ninja fail to talk Lloyd out of going to face Garmadon via the Ninja Nightcrawler's radio and Lloyd smashes it in a fit of rage. The top of the radio can be seen in the next shot despite Lloyd destroying it in the previous shot.
*None of Kryptarium's other prisoners are visible when Harumi arrives to free the Sons of Garmadon. Soto, the Mechanic, the Giant Stone Warrior, and many other inmates have been held there in the past.
**It is possible that the prisoners were relocated due to the influx of new inmates, as it was confirmed that 300 gang members were detained following Garmadon's resurrection.
**Most of them were then seen again in "The Absolute Worst."
*When Garmadon is about to throw Lloyd before kicking bricks at him, for a brief second, he de-powers from his True Potential, but the sound effect is still present.
==Videos==
Ninjago Lloyd and Lord Garmadon's Epic Battle Cartoon Network
A Day in The Life of a Voice Actor FRIDAY - Voice of Kai in Lego's Ninjago
==Gallery==
For the gallery of the episode, click here.
== Translations ==
==References==
de:Wahres Potenzial (Episode)
Category:2018
Category:Episodes
Category:Episodes of Sons of Garmadon