Ninjago Day of the Departed

## Plot

The Day of the Departed is basically a mashup of Halloween and the Day of the Dead. It's about honoring those you've lost, your ancestors and the family you still have, but it's also about dressing up in silly costumes and getting candy. Like Halloween, it also only lasts for one night. This year, an extremely rare lunar eclipse will occur. A regular, earthly lunar eclipse makes the moon look red. This lunar eclipse turns the moon green and black, making a yin yang symbol. Cole, who is still a ghost, is fading away. And I don't mean turning invisible, I mean *he ceases to exist*. He comes in and out of it, but the dialogue from the others implies that it's been happening more and more frequently. Dr. Saunders, the museum curator, has created a new exhibit out of some of their past villains. Cole wanders off and notices the Yin blade, a weapon that belonged to Master Yang, the one responsible for turning Cole into a ghost with a curse. Yang's portrait speaks to him, and tells him to close the circle. The others can't see or hear him, and they forget about him, leaving him behind in the museum. Although the moment where we see them celebrating the Day of the Departed is sweet. Misako and Lloyd are honoring Garmadon at the Corridor of Elders. Zane is honoring his father, and there's a statue of Dr. Julien in the woods where his workshop was. Kai and Nya went back to the old blacksmith shop, and are honoring their parents. Jay is with his parents, and Wu is honoring his father. Cole's father wonders where he is, since he promised to come to his performance that night to light a lantern. Cole has taken the Yin blade, which has powerful dark magic. He goes to Yang's old temple to "settle a debt." He wants revenge on Yang for what he did, and plans to kill him, or erase him from existence since he's already a ghost, with his own weapon. However, during the fight, he smashes open a globe. Green mist pours out of it, and the light from the eclipse does something to it. This was all part of Yang's plan. The mist possesses the mannequins of the old villains in the museum. Yep, Samukai, Kozu, Cryptor, Chen, and Morro have returned. The ghosts of Yang's students attack Cole, and Yang gets the Yin blade back. Pythor's mannequin didn't come to life because Pythor is the only one of the villains there who's still alive. He joins the other villains to destroy the ninja, for some reason. Whatever happened to him turning good during season 4? Then again, he did that because Chen's cult was disgracing, disrespecting, and badly imitating his race, culture, and history. And because he wanted to be the one to take over Ninjago. Yang tells them that they can only stay during the eclipse, unless they use their new departed blades to defeat the ninja, and then take their place in the land of the living. He really just wants them to distract the ninja so they don't try to stop him though. Cole tries to talk to Yang's students, but they remain as silent and creepy as ever. Yang tells Cole his backstory. He wanted to achieve great things, which he did, like inventing airjitzu, but he always wanted more. He found the Yin blade, and started experimenting to unlock its ultimate power: The key to eternal life. After awhile, he tried it on himself, but something went wrong. He gained eternal life, but in the form of a ghost. And he ended up turning his students into ghosts too. Since then, he's been forced to haunt the temple as its master. The Yin blade can cut the Rift of Return, and whoever passes through it can be brought back to life. Chen attacks Kai and Nya, Cryptor attacks Zane, Samukai attacks Jay, Pythor attacks Lloyd, and Kozu attacks Dareth since they ran out of real ninja to fight. Morro goes after Wu. Also, potential foreshadowing when Kai asks Nya whether or not they'd ever find out what happened to their parents. It's up to Cole to stop Yang, who tells him to give up and assigns one of his students to watch him. Cole waits until the clock hits midnight, and he uses the bell ringing as a distraction to knock out his guard. He has to fight off all of Yang's students to get to Yang himself. Unlike Pythor, it's revealed that Morro's heel face turn has stuck, and he's actually come to warn Wu. They take the Bounty to pick up the others. Ronin shows up in a giant mech to help Jay defeat Samukai. Once the villains are defeated, their ghosts leave the mannequins and return to the Departed Realm. Pythor is still around, but hopefully he won't be bothering anyone for awhile. Maybe he'll even re-reform! Is that a word? I don't think it is. Dareth just uses the Helmet of Shadows to deal with Kozu. Cole is tired from defeating all of Yang's students, but he *finally* makes it outside to Yang, who has opened the rift. He's about to go through it using airjitzu when Cole hitches a ride, and they crash back onto the roof. The rest of the group meets back up at the museum. Morro tells them about Cole, who they *finally* remember, and they head off to Yang's temple to save him. Morro simply returns to the Departed Realm after helping them. Despite being exhausted, Cole is determined to stop Yang at any cost. Yang verbally rips into him, telling him that his friends and master have abandoned him, he's all alone, and he'll be alone forever, left to haunt the temple as its new master. Cole starts fading again, but then he hears his friends' voices. The others want to help him, but the winds are too strong. They can't get any closer. See Morro, this is why you should've stayed until morning! Cole fights Yang barehanded after his weapon is destroyed. He's not alone; it's Yang who's all alone. His students aren't his family; they're his prisoners. Cole's hands start glowing, and when he punches the Yin blade, *he completely destroys it.* That was awesome! It breaks the spell on the students, who now have free will, and they all go through the rift. Yay, they're alive again! Yang reveals to Cole that he wanted to live forever so that no one would forget him. Cole understands this, since he thought his friends were forgetting him. He wants them both to pass through the rift, but Yang states that this is impossible. The curse says that at least one ghost must remain behind as master of the house. Yang sacrifices his chance for Cole and shoves him through the rift. The others are finally able to crash land, but they don't see Cole anywhere. They fear the worst, that he didn't make it through in time and is gone forever. Except… Cole's alive again, baby! And he's sporting an awesome looking scar from the fight. I thought it was a tattoo at first, but a battle scar is still awesome. Actually, it's because only 99% of Cole passed through the rift in time. The temple has also been restored to normal. It's revealed that the whole thing was a thankfully true story told by Cole at least one year afterwards, on another Day of the Departed.

## Review

I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't expecting much out of this special at first. I thought it was just gonna be a lousy holiday special about Cole learning not to seek revenge and to forgive and forget and stuff like that. But, honestly guys? I really liked it. It makes sense that it's a special and not its own season, since the events are supposed to take place over the course of one night. I like the fact that although Cole has adapted to and gotten used to his ghost form, he'd still like to be, well, living. Literally everything else about this special could've been bad, and I still would've loved it because it brought Cole back to life. I might've cried after seeing it for the first time. They were happy tears though, I promise! Now if only they would do the same to Garmadon already. This felt like a really good season 5 episode with the return of Morro and Master Yang, who has an actual character, backstory, and motivation now. I can't wait for season 7!