Ninjago S15 E24

## Plot

Wu is flying throughout the city when he's attacked by a Dragonide. Antonia and Nelson see him detach his wings at the right time so that he falls into the canal, because again, in this show, Minecraft water rules apply to the characters. Nelson is also able to get him out of the water despite him wearing armor, and Antonia gives him CPR, in a reversal to their roles with Kai in season 14. It looks like each villain of the council (minus Harumi) is leading a squad of crystal vengestone warriors to try and find the ninja. Antonia, Nelson, and Wu are able to avoid being spotted by the Mechanic, but he sees smoke from Nya's half of the Bounty. She wakes up, but can't lift the mast off of herself. Jay saves her, she starts to regain her powers to save them both, and they escape on his motorcycle. Antonia and Nelson take Wu to the newspaper warehouse. He learns that the Destiny's Bounty was destroyed and crashed into pieces all over the city. No one knows if the ninja are okay, but they've survived worse. The paper kids are planning on launching a counterattack. However, Wu says there won't be one. He seems to have slipped into another funk. Nelson tells him that he once told him that the important thing wasn't winning or losing, it was never quitting. Wu tells him that was different. Antonia points out that they delivered the news throughout all the chaos in the first half of season 11, the season 12 finale, and Kalmaar's two invasions in season 14. Wu says it isn't a question of courage, but wisdom. He thinks he was wrong about the ninja having a chance against the embodiment of evil. Their only real chance lies in escape. They have to get as far away from the city as possible. Jay tells Nya that even if they could find the others, it wouldn't change the fact that they're severely outnumbered. They need help… like Benthomaar. As the new king of Merlopia, he has an army. Nya could use her powers to have the sea life get a message to him. I would've preferred it if Nyad showed up again and helped them, as a contrast and connection to her only appearance early on in the season, where she was basically all like "Yeah, some people die in the sea, and that's just the way things are." It could've been revealed that since meeting Nya, she's also recovered her memories, or has started doing more heroic things for the Keepers or Merlopians to better understand why Nya went out of her way to save a sailor. The first twelve episodes (and two arcs) just feel rather disconnected from the rest of the narrative of this season, and not just because they initially came out four months and three weeks apart from each other, although that definitely didn't help. Heck, I personally would've added even more episodes to try and tie the arcs and characters together in a more cohesive way, especially since this is the final season. Nothing and no one from the Never-Realm shows up, meaning it's the only place in a WildBrain season (or rather, half of one) that has no representation. Come on! I wanted to see a Formling army, or at least Akita, Kataru, and Krag again! I get that it's a different realm, but still. Ronin suddenly regaining his character development also would've meant a lot more if he had interacted with the guys more while they were in prison, or if Nya had been allowed to visit them and the two ended up talking. Same thing with the guys being fugitives and the idea of the new ninja and an uncooperative, obstructive mayor. All of that is just thrown aside during this arc, because there's not enough time to properly deal with it when the stakes go from "Save our friend and get out of prison" in the first two arcs to "Try and stop the literal end of the world as we know it" in the final arcs, which means getting rid of the more unimportant side characters and shooing out the clowns as quickly as possible. Anyways, before the paper kids and Wu can try to escape, they hear a couple being attacked outside. Wu uses a broom to fight the crystal vengestone warriors, and the kids use newspapers and even a barrel. Wu changes his mind about running and uses an old radio to give a speech and encourage everyone to not give up, saying that the news never sleeps, and he basically grants everyone honorary ninja status. Ninja never quit. Lloyd and Garmadon get out of their half of the Bounty. Garmadon is actually worried about his son and wants to help him, but Lloyd refuses. Every time he's ever relied on him, his dad has always let him down. He wants to look for his friends, but Garmadon points out that looking for them now will only result in him getting caught. They have to flee. Lloyd says that's the problem. Garmadon only ever thinks of himself. He says Lloyd doesn't think at all. This is actually a pretty interesting dynamic, because one could argue that Garmadon has a good point here. Lloyd *is* too emotional and lets his heart drive him more than his head, which we've already seen with his interactions with Harumi and his absolute refusal to give up on her, similar to his earlier refusal to give up on his dad. However, there are times when it's best to be pragmatic and cut your losses. That being said, I'd argue that season 10 already explored this, and did it better too. Suddenly, *Hounddog McBrag* shows up to try and arrest Lloyd in what is basically the middle of the apocalypse. I wish I was kidding. I honestly completely forgot about him, since he hasn't had what I would personally consider a large role in an episode since episode 11, and I think I only found his whole gimmick funny one time at most, in episode 10. His orders might not have changed, but the circumstances clearly have. His boss is probably already crystalized at this point. Lloyd stops Garmadon from attacking him and they go down into the sewers. McBrag follows them and is almost infected by crystalized Serpentine until Lloyd saves him, which confuses him. Lloyd tells him that orders aren't everything, and hopes he'll see that one day. Antonia escorts more people to the warehouse, including Misako, who reunites with Wu. The only thing she found on Dragon form was a scroll from Quanash the Elder. It turns out that he could see into the future. He foresaw the final battle between good and evil. Unfortunately, the scroll is written in a language that neither Misako nor Wu can understand, so they have to try and decipher what it means from the images alone. Meanwhile, Pixal is embracing her inner ninja by sneaking through the city to find her MIA boyfriend/soulmate. I'm telling you guys, Pixal could've easily carried her own season, or at least shared one with Zane, and been a great main character, even as Samurai X, especially since previous seasons showed us that you don't need to be a ninja or have elemental powers to know spinjitzu, and given what the Overlord said about elemental powers, it's possible that she could've somehow inherited the power of wind from Morro or even the Storm Amulet, similar to Zane getting his powers from the Master of Ice. Speaking of Zane, his cloaking technology has malfunctioned, and he's in pieces. His Ice Emperor persona comes out. No, I'm not counting this as Never-Realm rep because it's played for laughs, it doesn't lead to anything, and it never comes up again. Also, I'm surprised they named this episode "Return of the Ice Emperor" when it only takes up around half of the episode, and the titular character doesn't even have that many lines. Why not call it "Return of an Old Friend" as a reference to Misako, or Ronin, or as irony, since the Ice Emperor is not a friend. Anyways, Pixal has to get him to Borg Tower, but his comedic yelling means they're almost caught by crystal vengestone warriors, and even worse, he ruins Pixal's sincere declaration of love, until Ronin saves them with a prison transport bus. Killow, Ultra Violet, and Fugi-Dove are also there. I can't believe Ronin went from basically kidnapping and selling our two robotic lovebirds to saving their lives. Pixal asks him why they're helping. When the Overlord crystalized the city, it messed with the power grid, which released everyone. Fugi-Dove claims that he made a big inspirational speech, but Ultra Violet says that's not how it happened. Ronin was the one who gave the speech. If they ran away, they'd be proving everyone else right about them. That they're just spineless, worthless, no good criminals. Or they could stay and fight to get their city back, so they hot-wired the bus and drove it here. I'm upset that the random criminals and Captain Soto didn't come along, even though they were present in the flashback. Pixal thanks Ronin. They make it to Borg Tower. It turns out that Cyrus has no idea what's been happening because he hasn't turned on the news, or a radio, or opened his shutters all day. Luckily, he's been working on a new line of mechs. Pixal reveals that the Overlord is back and has invaded the city. Instead of this leading to something that has to due with the Overlord having controlled him during part of season 3, Borg just wonders how he could possibly help, which is when Pixal reveals that Zane is in dire need of repair work. However, Borg doesn't know if repairs this extensive are even possible. They don't have much time either, as another crystal blast is sent through the city. For all I feel this season missed, I still liked it, even if I don't personally think that it reaches series finale levels of great. Sally is still my favorite new character introduced this season, and my favorite episode is either still episode 10, at least as a standalone, and episode 26, because the Pixane ship gives me life and is severely underappreciated in-universe, at least in my opinion. I feel like the theme this season was home, with Nya, Sally, other characters fighting to defend and take back their home, and what happens when you lose it permanently, like Harumi when she lost her biological parents, compared and contrasted to Lloyd when he thought everyone else was dead. Yes, he was full of anger, sadness, and hatred, and it was strong enough to unlock his oni powers, but he still refused to give up and side with Harumi and the Overlord. Plus, the monastery and the Bounty, which were two of the many homes/bases for our heroes, were destroyed yet again, but instead of falling into despair and giving up hope, they picked themselves back up and got back to work, because that's what a hero does.