Ninjago S8 E3

## Plot

In the middle of… somewhere in the ocean, the Bounty lands. The ninja, plus Harumi, will be living here, just like the old days. They have an HQ, but it's too out in the open. The Sons of Garmadon will be looking for them, so they have to keep moving. They know very little about the SoG, other than they want the three Oni masks. They already have two, and no one knows where the third one is. They're at a dead end. They decide to focus on finding out who the leader is. They wonder if it's someone from their past. Nya brings up the suspect arrested at the heist at Borg Tower during the first episode. She volunteers to stay behind with Harumi while the others press him on who he works for. Pixal tells them that he's refused to tell the police anything, and is set to be released that day. While on their way to the station, Lloyd, Jay, Zane, and Cole make a quick stop first: Mistaké's tea shop. She lampshades that she doesn't recognize them or Lloyd's new voice, as well as the fact that it's been years since we last saw her in the present explicitly, all the way back in season 2. That being said, none of the guys have ever visited her onscreen before, so they shouldn't know who she is unless Nya or Wu told them about her, and if they visited her at some point offscreen. But I'm ignoring that because it's just another funny leaning on the fourth wall moment. There seems to be a lot of those this season. She gives them the tea of truth. Lloyd sees a painting in the backroom of an oni and a dragon. He asks to hear the story from Mistaké, but she says that it's a long one. He gives the tea to Zane and Cole while he and Jay stay behind to find out more. At the station, Zane gives Cole two cups, one for him, and one with the tea of truth. Someone tries to escape and bumps into Cole, who throws the cups in the air. Zane stops the guy from escaping. Cole catches the cups, but because they're identical, he has no idea which one has the tea of truth. They talk to the suspect, the man in the white mask, also known as Luke Cunningham. This goes exactly the way you think it will. Cole drinks the tea of truth, and he blurts out embarrassing secrets. However, Luke actually acts like a smart lackey after awhile and starts asking relevant questions, like where the princess is and what kind of powers Lloyd has. Cole answers them all. Luke's hilarity induced reaction to this turn of events makes him accidentally tell them where the SoG meets. It's a karaoke club called Laughy's. In her back room, Mistaké gives Lloyd and Jay the tea of enlightenment, so they can see the beginning. The realm of the oni and the dragon was the first realm. The dragons had the power to create, and the oni had the power to destroy. Their war was never ending. But a child arrived, born of both worlds. The child could both create and destroy, and understood the importance of balance. Without one, you couldn't have the other. But when the oni and the dragons fought over which side the child should choose, he abandoned their world to start a new one. You might've heard of it. A little world called Ninjago. Yep, the child was the First Spinjitzu Master. This means that Garmadon, Wu, and Lloyd are part oni and dragon too. We already know the story of evil Garmadon's downfall, blah, blah, blah. But in his absence, a void was created, and from that void, the Sons of Garmadon have arisen. The three Oni masks are relics from the first realm, and they wield tremendous power: The power of deception, the power of vengeance, and the power of hatred. Lloyd demands to know what happens when they're united. Then, they will have the power of resurrection. Specifically, the power to bring back Garmadon. Okay. Why is that a bad thing? Garmadon was a good guy who sacrificed himself to save Ninjago. However, Mistaké says that it won't be the man we recognize. There won't be any good left in him. On the Bounty, Harumi has two family photos. One is of her with natural blond hair, with her biological parents. The other is of her after she was adopted into the royal family. Oh, so the white hair is because she bleaches it. That makes sense. There's no way that could be her natural hair color. She looks at them fondly and sadly, and hangs them up on a wall full of other photos. She notices one of a young Wu and Garmadon. She and Nya talk about Lloyd's dad and how he changed. Master Wu said that holding onto anger is like trying to throw a hot rock. You're the only one who gets burned. Lloyd himself comes in, and says that he needs to see everyone right away. Zane and Cole are out following the karaoke lead though. He tells Nya and Harumi that the Sons of Garmadon want to bring back his father from the dead. I think this is the moment where I really accepted Sam as the new voice of Lloyd. Just, the music, the emotion. I love the whole scene. It seems like everyone in the SoG is at the club, including Mr. E and Ultra Violet. Zane and Cole will try to infiltrate the gang, and give themselves disguises and aliases. Cole is Rocky Dangerbuff, and Zane is Snake Jaguar. They learn the names of Mr. E and Ultra Violet, and wonder how to gain their trust. Zane has a plan, but it involves Cole having to sing. He's terrible at it, but Zane tells everyone to trust him. Cole's cover is blown, and Zane hits him with a chair to maintain his. This leads to him being captured. The others head down there and have Pixal watch over Harumi, who says that she can handle herself. Their first order is protecting her though. They show up at the club, where everyone escapes on motorcycles. Jay uses his powers to stop Mr. E from escaping, and they all chase after him. He puts on the mask again. While climbing laundry lines, everyone falls, except for him, Lloyd, and Nya, who Lloyd catches. She uses herself to give Lloyd the force he needs to catch up to E. They have a brief fight, and Lloyd is disarmed. He blasts E with his powers, causing him to lose the mask. However, Lloyd is pinned to the wall by shurikens. E is saved by Zane, and they escape together. The others chase after them, but Lloyd tells them to stop when he realizes that it was Zane. That was his plan all along. He just gained E's trust by saving him. Because of that, Mr. E decides to take him to someone Ultra Violet calls the big man. Also, Zane used shurikens again! Yay!

## Review

This was a good episode. I didn't like how it streamlined or omitted certain events though, especially since there's such an easy audience surrogate to catch new viewers up: Harumi. First of all, Garmadon renounced his lordship years ago, so will everyone please stop addressing him like that. Sure, it makes sense for the evil gang, but no one else. Also, he was turned evil by the Great Devourer, which was created by the Overlord, who was presumably created sometime during or shortly after Ninjago's creation. That is what we've been told, and that is the version of events I will stick to, unless they explicitly retcon that sometime in the future. I liked seeing Mistaké again. She was voiced by Tabitha St. Germain instead of Mackenzie Grey though. At this rate, the "theme" of this season will be replacing voice actors. All jokes aside, I'm just happy that we finally got new exposition, and the way they presented it was kind of interesting too.