Ninjago S15 E20

## Plot

Harumi is back on the temple, which is approaching the village seen in the previous season, which is east of Ninjago City. She apologizes to the Overlord for failing to kill the ninja and letting Lloyd escape. He can tell that the reason she didn't kill Lloyd when she had the chance is because she has genuine feelings for him now, no matter how much she tries to deny it. However, this does present an opportunity. If the ninja die, their elemental powers would be unleashed, and may find new champions that could oppose the Overlord. If he corrupted the ninja though, he'd be able to control the powers of creation. Harumi wants to find a way to bring them to the Overlord, but he tells her that they'll come to him when they start their attack to try and protect Ninjago. Cole, Kai, and Jay see the temple. The mouth of the giant Oni carving spits out vengestone warriors. However, they're seemingly indestructible, and the guys can only knock them down. Additionally, anyone they touch is turned into a crystal zombie, like how the metal virus from IDW's *Sonic the Hedgehog* comic book series spreads. It also works if they get blasted. Zane shows up and saves Jay. He heads to the temple to try and stop it from dropping more vengestone warriors, but then it unleashes three Dragonides for him to face. Gayle Gossip is already there reporting. Vinny is tired because his house guest keeps him up all night. Gayle says that despite the ninja being wanted fugitives, they're the only ones who stand between them and a crystal catastrophe, maybe even the end of the world as they know it. Lloyd, Nya, and Wu are watching the news on the Bounty. The others are losing ground, and without a way to actually destroy the warriors, they'll keep losing. Nya still doesn't understand how the Overlord can return, thinking that he had been destroyed for good way back in season 3. However, Wu reveals that the Overlord is the embodiment of evil, and can *never* be destroyed. He always comes back. Once again, Wu knew about a potential threat and kept it to himself. However, here he at least implies that he didn't know for sure that the Overlord would return, and even if he did, he should have been dormant for several generations (meaning by the time he did return, all of our characters would likely be dead, or at least elderly). For him to be back so soon, feelings of anger, hatred, and conflict must have been building up for a long time. As they do, he recovers his strength and takes form again, but Wu missed the signs. Someone else noticed them though. Wu reveals that someone has been sending him newspaper clippings of articles about petty crimes, altercations, and attempted villain conquests for months now. They didn't make sense at first, but they do now. Whoever was sending them knew that the Overlord would return. If they sensed his return, then maybe they know how to defeat him once and for all. There isn't a return address, but there is a delivery code: 833-X. It's from the newspaper delivery service, so they head to the city to talk to Antonia and Nelson. Antonia says it's an individual delivery identifier. It tells them where to deliver the papers. 833-X is on Nelson's route. It's on 833 Andreasen Avenue, apartment 22. It's named after Tommy Andreasen, one of the show's creators. Vinny from NGTV News lives in apartment 22 though, and as we know, he's not there right now. Also, we finally learn that his last name is Folson. When Zane tries to blast the temple, his shots just bounce off, and when he gets close, he loses power, but is able to avoid crashing. Pixal gets in touch and asks them to get her a crystal so she can examine it. She thinks they have energy absorption abilities. If she can analyze them though, she can modify their vehicles' shields and weapons to resist them. Cole tosses Jay his warhammer. He's able to break the spear of one of the warriors, and Kai catches the crystal tip in his vehicle. Wu and Lloyd head to apartment 22 and meet Vinny's house guest, who was the one who sent the newspaper clippings. It's Garmadon. Gayle Gossip reports that the crystal warriors have reached the city limits, and the floating temple isn't far behind. Wu and Lloyd demand an explanation from Garmadon. It's revealed that he's been here the whole time, rendering his solo comic book series non-canon. But it's so pretty! After helping the heroes save everyone and everything by defeating the other Oni at the end of season 10 (or March of the Oni, or whatever you want to call it), he was confused and had questions about the nature of good and evil. He wondered if he could be good. He decided to go to Vinny, having remembered what he said about all of the things that were more important than survival. Vinny, like everyone else, was comically scared of him at first and almost called the police, until Garmadon said he wanted more of his advice. Vinny let him live with him, but only as long as he promised not to fight anyone or destroy anything. Vinny thinks there's some good in all of us, and maybe some bad too. Garmadon says that when he was resurrected, only the evil part of him, the Oni part, was brought back. Vinny told him that couldn't be true, or he wouldn't be here, wondering if he had the capacity for goodness. He tried doing small stuff, like being polite, smiling, and holding the door open for people, but they were still scared of him. He also put his extra arms away and wore a robe. Wu admits that he's impressed at how far his brother has come. Vinny is teaching him to let go of his anger by teaching him empathy, which comes from caring, so one day, he gave him a plant to take care of. At first Garmadon put little effort into nurturing the plant, but then he named it Christofern and became attached. Lloyd finally snaps and asks Wu if he's really falling for this. His father is never going to change. He points out that they didn't come here to hear his life story; they came to learn about the Overlord. Garmadon felt anger and hatred growing all around him, and thought the others would've done something about it, but they never did. He didn't tell them outright because he wanted to be left alone and avoid this exact conversation. Lloyd says they don't need his help, but Wu says they do, and reveals that Harumi is also back. You'd think Garmadon would care more about his adoptive daughter coming back from the dead and still being evil, but nope! They barely interact. He says he can't help others until he's found his true self. Despite my hopes, he never regains the good part of his personality or his memories of his former life. It's like they transplanted the movie version of the character and his dynamic with movie Lloyd into the show and just did a retread of it, but it gets old fast when you have the runtime of several seasons of television to work with and not just a children's movie, not to mention that the character has been gone from season 11 to now with only a few mentions to remind us that he's still out there, and the answer to where he's been and what he's been doing all this time was so underwhelming, at least in my opinion. Anyways, Wu would normally agree with Garmadon's sentiment about helping yourself before you can help others, but there comes a time when you have to put your own needs aside for the greater good. Garmadon reminds him that he's taken a vow of nonviolence. Before they can leave though, the building shakes, and they see that an entire wall of Vinny's apartment has been destroyed. Christofern was killed in the attack, which makes Garmadon so angry that he unlocks a new Oni form with wings and uses his powers on the crystal vengestone warriors, which actually destroys them. Wu tells Lloyd that he's part Oni too, and to defeat the Overlord and his army, he has to embrace his Oni side and powers. I wish Lloyd could've pointed out that Wu is also part Oni, even more so than him, and just asked him to do it instead. It just seems like more of a genuine teenage response. It's certainly what I would say if I were in Lloyd's shoes. Also, the eventual payoff to this development lasts for all of a few seconds. This was actually the show's 200th episode.