The Surge

*“You have to get the Techno Blades out of the city. Because once he knows you have them, he'll never let you leave.”*

— Cyrus Borg to Kai

**The Surge** is the first episode of the third season of *Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu* and the 27th episode overall. It first premiered on January 29, 2014, on Cartoon Network in the United States.

## Synopsis

*After a time of peace, the Ninja are called back into action. The spirit of the Overlord seeks to exact his revenge on Lloyd. The Ninja are also introduced to the powerful Techno Blades.*

## Plot

Following the battle with the Overlord, the ninja are now teachers at Wu's Academy—which has replaced Darkley's School for Bad Boys—training a new generation of ninja.

As Kai shows his students the events and the aftermath, a video of Jay filming Kai singing in the shower comes on, infuriating Kai. After Kai stops the film, Tommy comes in, saying Zane is on the fritz. In Zane's class, Brad uses a remote he got from New Ninjago City to control the Ninja of Ice, who is freed by to Cole.

During recess, the ninja and Sensei Wu take a break and lament about Lloyd not being there, since he's flying around receiving awards. They are interrupted by Nya sharing the news about them getting clearance for a field trip to Borg Industries' Borg Tower. At this, all the students and teachers of the academy take a bus to New Ninjago City, which has been rebuilt and upgraded in the wake of the battle with the Overlord through the efforts of Borg Industries, headed by inventor Cyrus Borg.

Distracted by the incredible new technology, Nya accidentally crashes the bus straight into the Postman's hover truck. Cole exits the bus to extricate it from the crash, but a Borg Industries Security Mech arrives and asks him to move aside as it deals with the problem. Master Wu decides that since they were a short distance away, the pupils and teachers should take the walk to the building on foot.

Entering the tower, the visitors (except for Kai, who gets stuck in the door) are welcomed by P.I.X.A.L., a female android created to act as Borg's assistant. P.I.X.A.L. is especially fascinated by Zane and scans his inner-workings under the Nindroid's permission. She then notifies the ninja that Cyrus Borg is waiting for them on the 100th floor in his office and then leads the students, Master, and Nya for a tour of the tower and its technology. Sally then encourages Nya to try out the Perfect Match console, which reveals her perfect match to be Cole.

As the ninja arrive in the office of Cyrus Borg, the ninja were all very happy to meet him. Cyrus, after letting them look around, shows them to a gift he wanted to give them: an automated statue of himself. It looked like a regular statue, but Cyrus tells Kai that they should protect "them" with their lives and to not let anyone know they had them. He then tells them that they must leave since he has things to do.

Walking into the elevator with their gift, they begin to get suspicious about Borg. Being distracted, they accidentally drop the statue, yet they discover it is hollow and is filled with new suits as well as the Techno Blades. Suddenly, a robotic security voice in the elevator says that they should drop the blades. The ninja refuse and the elevator drops toward the ground at high speed. The ninja luckily escape into an elevator going up right next to it and manage to get their new outfits on for battle in their escape from Borg Tower.

In the meantime, P.I.X.A.L. leads Wu, Nya, and their students to the factory area, in the moment system being hacked so she also gets under its control, saying that this will be the end of their tour.

When ninja escape the elevator, they get attacked by Security Mechs. They try to fight them with the Techno Blades but don't know how to activate them and realize that's not how they work. A mech fires their rocket to the glass, breaking the window and pushing the ninja out. However, they survive after grabbing onto a hanging hose and hitting a window cleaning platform.

Meanwhile, in Borg's office, the inventor attempts to explain himself to the Digital Overlord. His efforts prove fruitless however as the Overlord assimilates him into a drone. At the same time, on the platform, four ninja warriors get attacked by enemy copter but before it manages to fire at them, Zane jumps on it and hacks it with his Techno Blade, finding out that's the way how the "weapons" work.

In the factory area, machines invade students and P.I.X.A.L. starts chasing them, but they find the exit to the outside. There they get picked up by Zane's new vehicle—the NinjaCopter—leaving P.I.X.A.L. because Nya realizes she's one of "them."

When they get down of the tower, Sensei Wu takes the Techno Blades and says that he wants Kai and Zane in the air, and Jay and Cole on the ground. Cole manages to defeat the Security Mech and hacks it with his Techno Blade, making it the Earth Mech. Jay invades a tank and hacks it, making it the Thunder Raider. Kai jumps on Zane's copter and hacks an enemy airplane, making it the Kai Fighter and reaching the atmosphere. While he was flying, Cyrus Borg gives him a virtual message saying that a few weeks ago they discovered that a virus, the Digital Overlord, had infiltrated their system. He also says that they have to get the Techno Blades out of the city because if he finds out that they have them, he will never let them leave. After that, Kai lands to pick up Wu, but they get surrounded by Security Mechs.

At the last moment, Lloyd arrives on the Golden Dragon, defeating the robots. At the same time, the Overlord appears on the screens around them. Lloyd tells him that he will defeat him again, after which Overlord says that he just wants his power.

As the ninja get back into their vehicles and race to leave the city, Overlord spots that Wu is getting away with the Techno Blades so he sends two copters that capture him on a building rooftop.

However, Wu doesn't have the blades. Upon rewinding the footage, the Overlord sees that Wu quickly dropped Techno Blades into Kai's Fighter below him. The ninja safely got out of the city with the blades, while Wu is captured by Overlord's forces.

As the sun rises over New Ninjago City, the Digital Overlord takes control of Cyrus Borg while P.I.X.A.L. begins a massive production of Nindroids.

## Appearances

### Characters

* Brad Tudabone
* Calm Robotic Voice
* Cole
* Cyrus Borg
* Dareth
* Jay
* Kai
* Lloyd Garmadon
* Marla
* Nya
* Perfect Match
* P.I.X.A.L.
* Postman
* Robotic Voice
* Sally
* Security Cam Voice
* Security Man #1
* Security Man #2
* Tommy
* The Overlord
* Wu
* Zane

### Miscellaneous

* Garmadon (pictured)
* Misako (pictured)

### Creatures

* Golden Dragon
* Ultra Dragon (mentioned)

### Events

* The Final Battle (flashback)
* Nindroid crisis

### Items

* Helmet of Shadows (pictured)
* Perfect Match
* Techno Blades
* Artificial limbs

### Vehicles

* Security Mechs
	+ Earth Mech
* Jet fighters
	+ Kai Fighter
* Security tanks
	+ Lightning off-roader
* Hover-Copter
	+ NinjaCopter
* Ultra Sonic Raider (mentioned)

### Locations

* Ninjago
	+ Wu's Academy
	+ Ninjago City
		- Borg Tower
		- Dark Fortress (flashback)

### Species

* Humans
* Nindroids
* Oni/Dragon/Human hybrids

## Trivia

* Kai's shower cap in Jay's video is from the Surgeon from Minifigures Series 6.
* The ninja are wearing their Elemental Robes in the intro, instead of their Techno Robes.
* When Kai gets stuck in the doorway, the Overlord can be seen on a screen behind him.
* In the Japanese version of this episode, Kai hummed "The Weekend Whip" in the shower.
* Kai's voice is deeper in the opening narration. The reason for this is unknown.
* The torso used for Zane's teacher attire is based on that of the Computer Programmer from Minifigures Series 7, the torso for Cole is based on that of the Graduate from Series 5, and the torso for Kai is based on that of Indiana Jones' gray suit variant from *LEGO Indiana Jones*.
* According to the Hageman Brothers, possible the Digital Overlord had tampered with the Perfect Match system to say Nya's perfect match was Cole in order to create conflict within the ninja team.
	+ Tommy Andreasen later stated that it's possible but most likely not the case.
* Though P.I.X.A.L. did not appear to be evil before the Overlord took over the systems in full force, according to LEGO.com, she was under the influence of the Overlord the whole time, which is what prompted her to scan Zane's blueprints in the first place.

## Continuity

* This is the only episode of Rebooted to not feature Garmadon and Cryptor, who both appear in the next episode. However, Garmadon appears in a photo. It is also the only episode of Rebooted where Pythor does not appear, as he appears in a flashback in "The Art of the Silent Fist" and then appears physically in all subsequent episodes of the season.
* This episode marks the first appearance of Cyrus Borg, P.I.X.A.L., and the Techno Blades.
* Kai is the only ninja not to be interested in going to Borg Tower, due to his hatred of modern technology.
* When Kai asks Cyrus about the location of the tower being where the Overlord was defeated, a nearby display screen shows the legend of the Golden Weapons from "Way of the Ninja," Skales and Slithraa's Slither Pit duel from "Home," the Ninjago Talent from "The Royal Blacksmiths," the anti-Serpentine protest from "Day of the Great Devourer", and the romance that Jay and Nya were watching in "Home" and "The Green Ninja."
	+ The same scenes are also pictured in "Level Thirteen."
* This episode marks the first time Nya wears her new casual dress, which she would wear more in the following three seasons.
* This is the only episode where Wu's Academy appears.
* For unknown reasons, Gene did not go on the field trip with the rest if the students.

## Errors

* Zane and Dr. Julien are not present in the shot of the group after the Final Battle, and Dr. Julien is not present in the photo in the next shot.
* The Helmet of Shadows is larger than normal on Dareth's head in the photo at the beginning of the episode.
* The remote Brad used to control Zane was different when Cole held it to destroy it.
* For one second, Kai does not have his pudding cup before throwing it to Jay, despite already reaching for it.
* When Cole finds out that Zane is being controlled by the remote, he speaks in Kai's voice.
	+ This also happens when he says "Looks like we just quit our day jobs" when he passes out their new suits.
* Cole lifts the postman's truck, despite not having his powers.
* When everyone enters Borg Tower, Kai's mouth doesn't move for a moment when the doors close on him.
	+ This also happens briefly when he starts to say "Guys, these must be the Techno Blades."
* When the students are looking at the Digiverse display, the lighting is over-amplified on the color of a student's hair, making it appear spring green as opposed to its normal bright yellow color.
* While Jay and Cole left the destroyed city, Jay's Techno Blade was showing, even though Sensei Wu had all of them.
* When they are in the elevator, there is another Techno Blade at Kai's back, even though he was holding it. It disappears in the next shot.
* When Kai jumps through the roof of the falling elevator, the ninja are see through.
* When the ninja cheer Lloyd when have arrives, Zane is missing his eyebrows.
* In one scene after he arrives, Lloyd's eyebrows are slightly different, and are misaligned a bit.
* When Cyrus Borg walks towards Zane about his father, just before the next shot, for about a split second the scene appears to come to a standstill.
* When Zane tells the others about a slim hope of a 4.2 percent of success his mouth doesn't appear to be in proper sync of what he's saying.
	+ Jay also appears to have the same problem when he tells Zane that's why it's called hope.
* At the very end of the episode, as the Nindroids are being built, some of them are slightly clipping through one another.