True Colors (Amphibia)

"True Colors" is the fortieth episode of Amphibia, and is the final episode of the second season. It premiered on May 22, 2021.
==Synopsis==
The gang travels to Newtopia to say their goodbyes and finally send all three girls home. However, someone has other plans.
==Plot==
In a flashback, Marcy is at the library studying when she gets a text from Sasha reminding her about Anne's birthday only to see a mysterious book fall by her. She reads the contents and learns about the Calamity Box and finds its ability to transport people to other worlds amusing when she gets a text from her parents demanding that she come home immediately. The conversation is not shown, but she is upset and declares that her parents are ruining her life and she runs away only to come across the thrift store and recognizes the box from the book she was reading. She texts Sasha declaring that she has found the perfect gift for Anne for her birthday.
Several Months Later, the girls, the Plantars, Grime, and Frobo all arrive at Newtopia with the fully charged box. Anne is excited to be returning home, but senses that Sprig is saddened. She tells him that it is okay as they can simply use the box's power to visit each other whenever they want. Meanwhile, Polly continues to scratch herself much to everyone's annoyance. Everyone arrives in the main hall, but just as Anne is about to hand the box back over to Andrias, it is snatched away by Grime and Sasha, who reveal their plan to take over Newtopia. Despite Andrias' attempt to reason with Sasha that the box is the only way home, she says she doesn't want to go home and rule over the school, instead staying in Amphibia to rule it over. After Andrias is taken away, Anne is furious that she has been betrayed by Sasha again which causes her to angrily snap at her and ending their friendship, ignoring Marcy's pleas. As result, Sasha attempts to use the box to send Anne and Marcy home, but it does not work. She instead has them sent away as Grime takes out Andrias with the Warhammer.
While being escorted down the hall they are rescued by General Yunan and they regroup at Sal's old sandwich shop. When Marcy informed them that the rest of the Toad army would reach the city in less than an hour the group became dejected, but Anne motivates them to fight back and comes up with a plan. Hop Pop, Marcy, and Olivia would break King Andrias out of the dungeon while Polly, Yunan, and Frobo engage in a frontal assault on the toads in the city. Meanwhile, Anne herself and Sprig would close the gate to prevent the toad army from entering. While Sasha is hanging out in the throne room Grime gives her a sword, but becomes saddened as she wonders if she is actually doing what she wants. Grime tries to cheer her up by helping her redecorate the castle, but when they tear down a tapestry they find a mural under it showing the king using the box to cause destruction, making Sasha and Grime realize that Andrias actually has evil intentions. Just then, they see that Anne and the others have escaped and go to stop Anne from closing the gate. Sasha tries to warn Anne about she knows about Andrias, but Anne is understandably still furious with her as she lets her anger and rage blind her which she refused to believe Sasha and viciously attacks her. Anne manages to defeat her while Sprig defeats Grime. Anne manage to close the gate just in time and with King Andrias free he orders the royal newt guard to round up the toad rebels.
With Sasha and Grime incapacitated, Anne gives Andrias the box while ignoring Sasha's warnings and he comes clean about his true purpose for having it. Newtopia was once a thriving city and he ruled it alongside great allies, but when he was betrayed by his closest friends and music box was stolen from him, the city lost its glory. With the box returned, he can finally bring Newtopia back to what it was, not a place of explorers but a city of conquerors. He puts the music box on a pedestal to power up his castle; enabling it to fly, while the reactivated ancient factories all over Amphibia begin creating an army of frog-bots similar to Frobo only bigger and darker looking which promptly arrive at the castle. He further informs the girls that he plans to not just conquer his world, but all other worlds as well, starting with the girls' world in order to live up to his ancestors' legacy. When Anne and Sasha say they would foil his plans the giant newt king shows off his might by destroying the north toad tower with his castle's giant laser cannon. This causes Anne to realize that she let her anger and rage blind herself from seeing the truth.
Marcy is shocked by this revelation, having been promised something else by Andrias only for the giant newt to admit he had been lying to her to get the box. Anne and Sasha are confused and and ask what they were talking about; Andrias forces Marcy to come clean about her knowledge after he revealed to Anne and Sasha that Marcy was the one who got them stranded in Amphibia on purpose. It turns out that Marcy was well aware of the Calamity Box's power and its ability to transport people to other worlds. Back at home, her parents announced that they were moving away as her father got a job out of state; upsetting Marcy. Upon reading about the box, she became desperate and set up Anne and Sasha so that they can be transported to another world. Andrias had promised her that he would take her and her friends to other worlds with him to have adventures together forever. Anne and Sasha are shocked by Marcy's actions, Anne asks how Marcy could do such a thing, because how much she missed her family and her life back on earth, so Marcy tries to justify her action by reminding them of the fun adventure they had, how Anne and Sasha have grown as people in Amphibia and Anne's friendship with Sprig were all because of her, only for a distraught Anne and everyone to back away as Marcy breaks down over what she had done with her stating that she did not want to be alone. Andrias then mocks her for beating him at Flipwart. Admitting that she and her human friends have made mistakes, but what Andrias was doing is evil, Anne rallies everyone to fight Andrias and his forces.
During the fight, Frobo is destroyed, leaving only his head, while Polly manages to grow a pair of legs (the reason for her constantly scratching herself). She runs and grabs the box, but Andrias has Sprig and threatens to drop him from the castle. To rescue him, Polly puts the box back, but Andrias drops him anyway. Anne, filled with immense sadness, suddenly absorbs the power of the blue gem from the box; turning her hair and eyes blue and imbuing her with enhanced powers all while repeating "Give him back!" She furiously fights Andrias while Marcy takes Joe Sparrow and rescues Sprig from falling. Anne eventually powers down and is relieved to see that Sprig is still alive. Andrias recovers; now knowing Anne is still connected to the blue gem, but has no control over it yet, and seeing she's the only one left with the power to defeat him, he decides he can't let her live. He makes another effort to attack them, but Sasha and Grime fend him off while Marcy messes with the Calamity Box; successfully opening a portal. Anne and the Plantars jump through, along with Frobo's head, but when Anne beckons Marcy to come through, Andrias stabs her through the chest in fury for defying him once again. Marcy apologizes for her actions before collapsing and the portal closes. Anne, Sprig, Polly, and Hop Pop awaken on the roof of a car in the middle of Los Angeles traffic. As Anne solemnly comments that she is finally home, a title card reads "End of Part 2".
==Cast==
*Brenda Song as Anne Boonchuy
*Justin Felbinger as Sprig Plantar
*Bill Farmer as Hop Pop Plantar, Toad soldiers
*Amanda Leighton as Polly Plantar
*Anna Akana as Sasha Waybright
*Haley Tju as Marcy Wu
*Keith David as King Andrias
*Zehra Fazal as General Yunan
*Troy Baker as Captain Grime, Toad soldiers
*Michelle Dockery as Lady Olivia
*Stephen Root as Mayor Toadstool
*Jack McBrayer as Toadie
*Matt Braly as Frobo
*Eric Bauza as Mr. Wu
*Sumalee Montano as Mrs. Wu
===Additional Voices===
*Carlos Alazraqui
*Clancy Brown
*Patrick Seitz
*Courtenay Taylor
*Brian T. Delaney
==Gallery==
==International premieres==
*June 25, 2021 (Australia and New Zealand; premiere on Disney+)
*July 28, 2021 (United Kingdom; premiere on Disney+)
*September 15, 2021 (Italy; premiere on Disney+)
*January 20, 2022 (Portugal)
*January 23, 2022 (Spain)
==Trivia==
*The episode opens with a content warning narrated by Justin Felbinger, the voice of Sprig. It is also the first episode to be rated TV-Y7-FV.
*The episode is 24 minutes long, as opposed to 22 minutes long, because Matt Braly stated that it was "too big".
*The episode was scheduled to air on May 1, 2021, but it was pulled the day before it aired due to concerns over the violent nature of the final scene, and was replaced with a rerun of "Night Drivers/Return to Wartwood". However, the episode was leaked online the following day on iTunes, before being removed until the official premiere.
**To prevent fans from watching the leaked episode early, videos of Maddie Flour, Captain Grime, Leopold Loggle, General Yunan, Felicia Sundew, Hop Pop Plantar, and The Curator were released, asking fans to wait for the official airing of the episode.
*Similar to "After the Rain", when the synopsis was revealed on Twitter, it was noticeably kept hidden.
*One of the promos for the episode references the famous late artist Bob Ross.
**Another one of the promos is a reference to Kingdom Hearts II.
*The human girls have been in Amphibia and missing from Earth for 5 months now.
**As of this episode, Anne has finally returned to Earth.
*The shot where Sasha confronts Anne atop the Gates of Newtopia in the Season 2B trailer is noticeably different from how it is shown in the episode to which it had an improved background, lighting, and overall cinematography.
*When the episode was first leaked, during a group wide shot following Sasha's betrayal, a generic green newt in a beret was seen standing next to Yunan and Hop Pop. When the episode aired proper, Lady Olivia was put in his place. The reason for this bizarre edit has not been explained.
*The back of Marcy's phone features a drawing of a duck with a blue hat. This is a reference to Donald Duck.
*Sprig and Grime fighting is a reference to the series' pilot, where Sprig's prototype, Weed, fights Grime.
*This episode title is a reference to the Cyndi Lauper song of the same name.
*Anne mentions the events of "Anne Vs. Wild", "The Domino Effect", and "Handy Anne". During her emotional remembrance, clips from "Anne or Beast?" and "Reunion" are shown along with a recreation of the clip seen during the Season 1 credits.
*Polly finally gets her legs which was predicted in "Marcy at the Gates".
*Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls and Goliath from Gargoyles appear in the book Marcy read when learning of the Calamity Box at the beginning of the episode.
*The scene where Anne becomes empowered by the Calamity Box is a reference to Super Saiyan from the Dragon Ball franchise.
*Andrias' castle being able to fly and Andrias' robot army could be references to films like Castle in the Sky and Avengers: Age of Ultron.
*When Anne and the Plantars arrive on Earth in the middle of traffic, there is a car with a sign reading "Ub-R". This is likely a parody of the ride-hailing service, Uber. Additionally, the truck right next to them resembles the Green Family's truck from Big City Greens, as it is moving to Big City.
*It is revealed that Marcy knew about the Calamity Box and its power in the library which she happens to find in the Thrift Store and texted it to Sasha and Anne months earlier, making Marcy the one responsible for sending the girls to Amphibia in the first place.
**It was officially revealed that Marcy was the one who started the adventure to Amphibia the whole time.
**Marcy explains that her father got a new job out of state and her family was moving away and how she wanted to use the box so the three could be together forever. Although what she did is crossing the line, she did not tell them about the box's power and sending them to another world by force and making Anne and Sasha let go of everything. There were times Marcy could have told them the truth, but did not.
*The dramatic scene where Andrias jabbed at Marcy was a little similar to the scene in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace where Darth Maul jabbed his lightsaber at Qui-Gon Jinn the master and teacher of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
*Instead of the credits animation of Anne and the Plantars on the road in the fwagon, the episode once again depicts scroll images of scenes throughout the second season. The images shown are of Anne and the Plantars leaving the ruins from "Fort in the Road", Anne reuniting with Marcy in "Marcy at the Gates", and the group photo from the end of "Battle of the Bands".
**The credits are followed by this message: "The adventure is far from over...In fact, it is only just beginning.". This message was followed by the opening theme for the third season. (This was not originally part of the episode as the original iTunes release lacked the Season 3 opening.)
**In some international airings, the scroll images are removed and the credits are instead displayed during the final moments of the episode, although the Season 3 opening is still played afterwards.
*The episode was originally planned to keep Marcy mortally injured with her fate uncertain until the release of Season 3. Because of the disturbing nature of the scene, Disney gave notes to the crew two days ahead of the original release date for them to add a disclaimer and the opening for the upcoming third season so people would be hyped instead of worried. Matt Braly considered this a reasonable trade-off of "dramatic tension".
*According to Braly, the climax of the episode was inspired by the opening sequences of the first episode of the anime Sonic X.
*This was the final episode of Disney TV series to premiere on Disney Channel in the Southeast Asia along with Disney Junior Asia, prior to its shutdown at the end of September 2021.
*The scene where Andrias attempts to drop Sprig off of castle is similar to the scene where Bradford attempt to drop Donald into the Solego Vortex in DuckTales reboot finale "The Last Adventure!" as both are doing it just to spite the protagonists (Anne and Scrooge) even after they agree to do what they said. However, both Sprig and Donald were later rescued by Marcy and Gyro.
*This episode shares parallel with the Season 1 finale "Reunion".
**Both episodes open up with a flashback on Earth, including shows that the two of Anne's friends are responsible for getting themselves stranded in Amphibia in the first place.
**Both episodes shows Anne and the Plantars are accompanied with Sasha and Grime (as well as Marcy in Season 2 finale) to go to a specific places they want to go (Toad Tower and Newtopia).
**In both episodes, both of Anne's friends reveal their true intentions to Anne, thus shocking her as a result. However, Sasha does this twice while Marcy only reveals the truth after Andrias did it first.
**Both episodes shows Anne's friend (Sasha and Sprig) discovering the main villain's true intentions. While Sprig is successful in revealing it to his fellow frogs, Sasha fails after Anne is so fed up with her that she doesn't believe anything she says.
**Both finales shows a sword fight between Anne and Sasha, which the former wins against the latter victoriously. However, Anne only fights righteously in Season 1 finale while she did it violently in Season 2 finale.
***Additionally, the scene where Anne blinded Sasha with her cape until she punched her is similiar to Sasha throwing her cape on Anne's face before tackling her. However, Anne did this in a fit of rage while Sasha manage to outdo her to prevent her from claiming victory.
**Sprig almost got killed by the main villains (Sasha and Andrias) in both finales.
**Both episodes shows main villains (Grime and Andrias) attempts to murder one of the Plantars (Hop Pop and Sprig) by dropping off to their deaths just to spite Anne but luckily they were saved in no time. Unlike Grime who fails to drop Hop Pop into a giant Venus flytrap, Andrias manage to drop Sprig off the castle before he was rescued.
**At the end of both episodes, both of Anne's friends are risking their lives to help her. Sasha willing to let herself fall off the Toad Tower after she realizes how much she treated Anne while Marcy got stabbed by Andrias for helping Anne and the Plantars escape. Unlike Sasha, who became unconscious as she was rescued by Grime before she falls to her death, Marcy was put in a coma following her being stabbed.
*This episode premiered to 0.329 million viewers.
*Morals:
**If you've betrayed and lied to someone repeatedly, they won't be willing to listen to you when you're telling the truth.
**Never, ever double down on your mistakes. At best, you'll alienate your friends; at worst, you'll let yourself become a monster.
**Always consider what your friends might feel about something you want to do, especially if it involves leaving home. What sounds like wonderful fun to you may not be so appreciated by your friends, especially if you dragged them along without their consent. Even if they enjoyed the experience, they may be homesick and see anything positive as a happy accident, and whatever fun you had isn't worth it if things go even half as pear-shaped.
**Be honest with your friends, especially if you've done something idiotic and you know they'll be furious when they find out. That way, rather than some nefarious third party revealing what you did, resulting in you being put on the spot and desperately trying to justify your actions, you'll be able to admit your mistakes calmly and on your own terms, and they won't be as angry with you.
**Never make sudden, life-changing decisions when you're not in a good emotional state. You're almost certainly not thinking straight, and the decision you make will invariably be terrible.
**Never let someone you barely know goad you into sharing your secrets with them. They're not necessarily trustworthy and may weaponize those secrets against you.
==References==
==External links==
*True Colors at the Amphibia Wiki
Category:Amphibia episodes