Ninjago The Island

## Plot

This is a special that was released just before season 14, even though it's only four 11 minute episodes, which I think could've easily been tacked on to Seabound as a sort of prologue. It's a quarter of the length of seasons 3, 12, 13, and 14. It's half the length of season 10. It's really just a Scooby-Doo like story. From what I can tell, even some members of the crew don't consider it a season, hence why I'm just calling it The Island instead of dedicating an entire page to just four episodes, only two of which would even have links: Episode 2 and episode 4, where I'd cover the season premiere and the season finale. That seemed silly for something that's the same length as the Day of the Departed special, which I covered in one page, so I decided to "cut out the middleman", so to speak. It starts with Wu, Misako, Clutch Powers, his unpaid intern Dwayne from the first half of season 11, and two other interns, who are carrying Clutch's tanning bed, even though they're in a dense jungle exploring a tropical island. The unnamed interns run away with the tanning bed when they get scared. The others come across a stone totem pole. But who could've carved it? Suddenly, the sky turns cloudy, and purple lightning strikes it, which makes it split apart into stone golems that attack them. Meanwhile, Pixal enters the monastery HQ and asks Lloyd if he's been up all night. He was monitoring surveillance footage, looking for the criminals who broke out of Kryptarium prison last month. The police caught Fugi-Dove feeding pigeons in the park. They've hired Ronin to help round up the criminals, but Lloyd doesn't like that they're using bounty hunters. Before they can talk more, they're interrupted by Cecil Putnam, the manager of the Explorers Club, who has a package and a message for them. Misako's membership has been cancelled, effective immediately. The package has all of the items from her club locker. Whenever a member is missing and presumed lost at sea, the club revokes their membership. He reveals to the ninja that she and Wu went on an expedition with Clutch Powers to try and navigate the Storm Belt, and prove her theory about an uncharted island, but the club hasn't heard from them in weeks. Pixal wonders what Misako was thinking. The Storm Belt is an area off the southern coast of Ninjago plagued by violent storms. Many ships and planes have gone missing in the region. Only one person, Timothy Batterson, has emerged from the Storm Belt. He was part of a balloon tour that was blown off course, and he eventually crashed on an uncharted island. The ninja and Pixal show up at Timothy's gas station on the Bounty. Everyone calls him Twitchy Tim, or Twitchy for short. The guys ask him for help, but he's terrified of the island and suffered trauma and presumably permanent damage after being struck by purple lightning twelve times while trying to escape. They accidentally get him to agree to come with them because of his amnesia and their word choices. Accident or not, that's an incredibly scummy thing to do. We have an Indiana Jones style map transition to the Storm Belt, where Pixal releases catamarans so the others can approach the island by sea, and a wind surfer for Zane, although he gets off of it to help Jay, Kai, and Cole with their catamaran after Jay's powers accidentally mess with it. The water and sharp rocks look great. Zane notices that the rocks seem to attract the lightning. They reach the island, and Pixal deploys the Jungle Chopper bikes for them. Please stop leaving her behind on your adventures. They reach the expedition's camp, but no one is there. A nearby rock formation spells out help in Ninjargon. I love that pun. While they're riding through the jungle, an animal follows them. They have to go through the denser part of the jungle on foot. A coconut falls near them, and Nya is "attacked" by a dragon. He's friendly though, and Jay names him Zippy because of how fast he is. He just wants to play with them. Nya uses her powers to throw the coconut far away so they can keep looking for Misako and Wu, but he shows up again. He runs away when they come across the totem pole though, which attacks them. Spinjitzu doesn't work, they throw their elemental powers back at them, and their weapons don't work against constant spinning blades of death. Twitchy runs away. The golems supercharge themselves with the purple lightning, so the ninja run away. Lloyd hides from the golems in a cave, which is also where Twitchy hid. The others cross a rope bridge, but they're attacked and knocked out by purple people with lightning spears. When they wake up, they're tied to catamarans, and then they're taken to a different part of the island, where they meet the leader, Mammatus. The purple beings are called Keepers, because they keep watch over the Storm Amulet. It was pried from the head of the sleeper in the deep, she who existed long before time had a name: Wojira. They took an oath to keep the amulet safe from those who would seize it. They harnessed the power of lightning and became one with the storm. The Keepers believe that the ninja, Wu, Misako, and Clutch came here to steal the amulet. They say they're not here to steal anything, but Mammatus doesn't believe them. Besides, they've seen the artifact and know too much. The only way to keep it safe now is to imprison them forever. Mammatus tells the Keepers to lock up all but one: The Gift. He decides that Jay will be the gift, and they take him somewhere else. They lock the others up with Wu, Misako, Clutch, Dwayne, and the other two interns. They've been treated pretty well, all things considered. Clutch admits that he did try to steal the amulet, in order to "study it". They should really know and lampshade by now that their rescues never go according to plan. Lloyd leaves on his own. He tells Twitchy that he understands that he's been knocked down a lot, but that doesn't mean he has to stay down. Jay is treated extremely well by the Keepers. He thinks they want him to be their king because he's the master of lightning. Zippy is back, and Lloyd uses him to distract the guards while he frees the others. The two interns will head back to camp and get the catamarans ready. No one can find Jay, and now Clutch and Dwayne have gone missing. They find them trying to steal the amulet. They're all knocked out by two Keepers, and when they wake up again, they're tied to poles on the beach. They see Jay on a throne, being carried to a dock. He says they want him to be their king, but Nya points out that his hands are tied to the throne, and when he tells them to let his friends go, they don't listen. They put him on a water raft. Misako says that Jay is the gift. He's going to be given to someone… or something. There's finally a funny moment that I smiled at between Kai, a shrugging Zane, and Nya about who would want Jay. Mammatus makes a speech. Long before time had a name, they were charged with protecting Ninjago from Wojira. Misako tells Lloyd who she is. Wu is shocked when Mammatus reveals in his speech that his father was the one who charged the Keepers with protecting the Storm Amulet. Despite them keeping their oath, Wojira has awoken, so they're sending her a gift/human sacrifice, Jay, in the hopes that she'll go back to sleep. Clutch tells everyone that Wojira is a myth, but then they hear something roar, and they see what looks like a sea serpent in the fog. Kai finally uses his elemental powers to burn through the ropes. Everyone else is untied. Zane makes an ice platform so they can get to Jay. However, Wojira shoots a fireball at them, which breaks the ice apart and sends Jay's raft in the other direction. Before Lloyd can untie Jay, he's thrown into the water by a wave from another fireball. Something grabs Jay and pulls him towards Wojira, who disappears. The others worry that whatever it was ate him, but Lloyd notices a piece of wood in the water. When they make it back to land, the Keepers point spears at them. Mammatus tells them that they've risked angering Wojira, and if she returns, they'll be the next sacrifice. Lloyd says that Wojira doesn't exist. He shows them the piece of wood and asks if the "sea monster" had wooden teeth. They've been tricked into giving sacrifices to a fake monster. Ages ago, they were charged with protecting the amulet by the first spinjitzu master himself. If Wojira ever awoke again, the seas would rise up and swallow the world. Wojira slept, and all was peaceful, until one day, when something that looked like Wojira appeared in the fog. Someone with a hat and a shield to hide his face suggested sending gold and gems to appease her, so that's what they did, but the "monster" kept coming back, and they ran out of things to give. They thought they needed an ultimate sacrifice to appease her forever, which is why they used Jay. Mammatus says they were sworn to protect the amulet at all costs. Kai tells them that sacrificing Jay cost them nothing, but it cost their friend everything. Nya says since they sacrificed him, they're going to help them get him back. Lloyd asks them to draw a map of the coastline, and show him any locations where someone could hide something really big. Sure enough, "Wojira" is a fake, being piloted by the criminals that broke out of Kryptarium. Jay breaks free and attacks them, but there are a lot of them. Before they can throw him out to sea, the others drop in. It's revealed that Ronin is behind the scheme. Man, this show really doesn't have the best track record of reformed villains actually *staying* reformed, does it? I think someone should check in on Dyer and Unagami, just in case. Even Lloyd thought that the Mechanic was the one behind it. Before Ronin can escape with the treasure on the fake monster, Twitchy rams into him with a Keeper catamaran that's super charged with purple lightning. It's never too late to face your fears. Nya gets him out of the water, Ronin and the rest of the criminals surrender, and they're imprisoned… in the Keeper cell, which is made of wood and dirt. Um, okay. I feel like Kryptarium prison would be more secure, but whatever. Mammatus apologizes to the ninja, Misako, and Wu for everything they did. They see that the amulet is missing. Nya asks Dwayne where Clutch is, and he points to the jungle. She shocks Clutch with a lightning spear before he can get away with the amulet. Dude, you were already a sleazebag. Please stop acting like a white American or British colonialist/imperialist from the 18th, 19th, or 20th century. I love the sunset lighting for the final scene. While they're on a dock, Misako asks Lloyd if he's okay. He knows Ronin's monster was a fake, but he was just wondering if Wojira is really still out there somewhere. Wu says that if she is, may she sleep for another thousand years. Sure enough, she's real, she's sleeping, and she has an amulet in her forehead.