Tangled: The Series S2 E21

## Plot

Oh. My. God. This is gonna take a while to process. So, season 3? Please? So, in the previous episode, Rapunzel spontaneously gave Eugene a birthday, and they got the fourth and final scroll piece from Lord Demanitus, whose spirit was inside a monkey they had run into twice before earlier in the season. It was revealed that he and his three apprentices looked for the sun drop and moonstone, but they turned against him and released Zhan Tiri, becoming his disciples instead. Two of his pupils were Sugracha and Tromus, and the final one's outline looks like Gothel. Demanitus defeated Zhan Tiri, and split the scroll containing his research on the sun drop and moonstone into four pieces, so its power wouldn't fall into the wrong hands. They both have incredible power, and someone like Rapunzel should wield that power for good. Not according to the stupid series finale. Eugene also received a message hidden inside the jewel in the monkey's turban. It was a prophecy from Demanitus, who said that at the end of Rapunzel's journey, one of her party will turn against her. Cue Cassandra smiling wickedly. There were a number of theories flying around about the Dark Kingdom and the moonstone, and some of them actually turned out to be true. Everyone hates that it ends on a massive cliffhanger though. Sure, season 1 also ended on a cliffhanger with Adira, but it wasn't nearly as big as this. It's like how Ninjago season 8 is just one part of a larger story, and seasons 9 and 10 are the other parts, or RWBY volumes 8 and 9. Therefore, it's best to watch them as one whole thing. However, the people who saw them when they originally aired had to wait at least months, or even years, in between seasons. We have another 25 years ago flashback. King Edmund has all of the citizens evacuate for their own safety. In the present, the group finally reaches the Dark Kingdom, and the caravan is destroyed again. If Rapunzel doesn't grab the moonstone, the black rocks will destroy everything, but she has no idea what will happen to her if she does. She finds out about Demanitus's prophecy, and says that no one in the group could possibly betray her. Eugene points out that they might if they think they're protecting her. After all, that's how Cass injured her hand. Eugene says she's become like a sister to him, but maybe they should keep an eye on her. They're attacked by ravens, but Rapunzel fends them off, and says it's gonna take more than that to stop her. They find a gondola on a rope that can take them across a large gorge to get to the castle. Cass volunteers to go out on the rope and get it for them. Rapunzel asks about her hand, but she says she's still the most agile out of all of them. She gets the gondola to them, and Rapunzel and Eugene see that as enough proof that she wouldn't betray them. Lance asks her if she buys all of this destiny stuff, and she says that she believes everyone has a destiny. Suddenly, they're attacked by a man in a bear mask wielding an axe. Adira shows up, but she loses her sword and falls. The others make it to the outskirts of the castle, and Eugene volunteers to stay behind and hold the bad guy off while the others keep going. Before he's killed though, the man sees his eyes, and the rope holding up the gondola finally snaps. Cass physically carries Rapunzel away. They survived the crash, and the bear guy refuses to fight him. He takes off his mask, revealing that he's a very much still alive King Edmund, who also reveals that he's Eugene's father. What? Naturally, Eugene doesn't believe him. At first. Edmund finds Adira's sword, and sees that it cuts through the black rocks. Adira is watching them, and climbs back up to rejoin the others. They want to go back for Eugene, but she says that he's safe. Rapunzel finally demands some answers from her. As Edmund leads Eugene into the castle, he tells him everything as well. It starts with the moon. Long ago, a single drop of moonlight fell from the heavens. It formed an opal stone. It had the ability to destroy anything that sought to possess it. As the centuries passed, its defenses spread, and the Dark Kingdom was founded to contain its power and stop it from destroying the world. 25 years ago, Edmund tried to destroy the stone, but it didn't go so well. After that, he sent his subjects away for their own safety, even his infant son. He sent Quirin, Hector, and Adira out into the world so they would make sure that no one ever found the opal. Adira witnessed Rapunzel's battle against Varian, and knew that she had finally found the sun drop. Only Rapunzel can restore balance to all things. She asks Adira why she didn't just tell them everything right away. It's because she doesn't know what will happen to Rapunzel once she touches the moonstone. She could die. She says she didn't come this far to stop now. Adira leads them on a path to get inside the castle. It's too narrow for Max and Fidella, and Shorty stays behind with them. Eugene asks Edmund why he thinks they're related, and he says that it's his eyes. Also, his ravens have been following him since he left, but they lost track of him before the events of the movie. Eugene wants to find his friends and make sure that Rapunzel is okay. Edmund says Adira's sword could destroy the moonstone. He wants to destroy it together with Eugene, saying that the black rocks led *him* here, not Rapunzel. When Edmund tried to destroy the stone the first time, he barely survived, but his wife, Eugene's mother, didn't make it. Rapunzel's hair glows, because the moonstone knows that she's close. They try opening the gate, and find Eugene on the other side. He apologizes, and Edmund cuts the chain, which closes the door. Eugene refuses to open it for Rapunzel, and he leaves with Edmund to destroy the moonstone. Rapunzel realizes that Demanitus's prophecy was about him. She's devastated, but Cass and Lance tell her that Eugene loves her more than anyone, and that he must be keeping her from the moonstone to protect her. She knows they're probably right, but she has to hear it from him. Adira says Edmund is going to use her shadow blade to destroy the moonstone. Rapunzel sends Pascal inside to make sure Eugene doesn't get near it. Adira says the gate was their only way through, but Rapunzel's hair glows again, causing a black rock episode. Before Eugene and Edmund can destroy the opal, the bridge leading to it is destroyed. Zachary Levi gets his first solo in the history of the franchise, and it's amazing. Eugene doesn't know who he is anymore. Meanwhile, the ground caves in around the rest of the group. They can get in through the sewer now… which is full of lava. Rapunzel's hair glows again, and it looks like the black rocks have blocked their path back. However, she tells the others that they want to help, and they lay out a path for them, like they did in Corona. Pascal finds Eugene, who tells him that he was born in the Dark Kingdom, and the last time someone tried to destroy the moonstone, he lost his mother. He doesn't want to lose Rapunzel too. Pascal is sympathetic, but reminds him of Demanitus's warning. He realizes that he's the one who turned against Rapunzel, and says he should've known better. He rips up the prophecy and leaves to find Rapunzel. She and the others exit the sewers, and see Edmund talking to a statue of one of his ancestors. The door to the moonstone is on the other side of the room. Adira says Rapunzel should go in alone while they distract Edmund, but Cass wants to go with her. She remembers what Cass said during the events of the Great Tree about not trusting her judgment, and sides with her. Before they can execute their plan, Edmund throws his axe at them, having figured out that they were there. He's insanely strong, and tosses around Lance, Cass, and even Adira. No one knocks out my favorite warrior woman and gets away with it! Feel free to beat the shit out of Cass though. Eugene enters, and everyone learns that Edmund is his father. Before Rapunzel can reach the moonstone, Edmund's ancestors' ghosts come out of their statues to stop her. Every time they defeat one, it just comes back out of its respective statue. Max, Fidella, and Shorty arrive. A path opened up for them during one of the glowing hair black rocks episodes. Lance figures out that they can stop the ghosts permanently by using Adira's sword to destroy the statues. Edmund destroys the last one to stop them from killing Eugene. Everyone lifts up some debris from the fight to let Rapunzel, Pascal, Cass, and Eugene into the moonstone chamber. The black rocks make a new bridge. Rapunzel thanks Cass for everything, especially since things between the two of them haven't been easy these past few months. She tells Eugene that she loves him, and he tells her to go get her destiny. The meteorite opens, and the opal comes out. However, before Rapunzel can grab it… Cassandra takes it, saying that she's fulfilling *her* destiny. Eugene, Pascal, and Rapunzel are blasted back, and Cass embeds the moonstone into her chest. She gets a new outfit that shatters her armor. It looks like it's made of black rocks. She also gains blue hair and eyes. The others are horrified. She laughs, and reminds Rapunzel that she warned her to be careful about who she trusted. And that's where the season ends. What the actual f––k? What just happened? I literally have no words. I'm just… very emotionally compromised right now. Okay, now that I've gotten over the shock, I personally think that this was a *great* twist. You might think the foreshadowing is too obvious, and I thought the same thing… which is why I also thought that Cass was a red herring for the real villain, and now with season 3 in mind, I guess she technically is. I basically tricked myself, which is why the twist is so shocking and heartbreaking when it turns out to be true. That being said, it feels like they only have another twist villain because they saw the positive fan response to Varian, and because twist villains were part of Disney's M.O. at the time. Do you guys have any idea how many times Rapunzel and Cass have saved each other's lives or worried about the other? No wonder so many people shipped them together, or in a threesome with Eugene. It doesn't help that we didn't find out *why* Cass betrayed Rapunzel, or even that it was really her, until the season 3 premiere, which came out almost a full six months later. Plus her motivation is terrible. The events of the Great Tree and the fallout from it weren't setup, or foreshadowing, or clever hints, they were just coincidences, since Cass made the choice to betray Rapunzel during the events of Rapunzeltopia, due to what she saw on the other side of the door. I feel like it would've been better if Cass had known throughout the entire series, or at least since the start of season 2, and had been manipulating Rapunzel the whole time, much like a certain other character from the movie, although I also understand that would've arguably made her irredeemable, which, in Disney IPs, usually means that you're either imprisoned forever or you die a horrible death at the end, usually by your own hands, although there have been exceptions to that rule, such as Lady Tremaine and her daughters in *Cinderella*. At least place the House of Yesterday's Tomorrow episodes *before* the events of the Great Tree then. Or, better yet, reveal that it's not really Cass, or she's being overtly controlled or corrupted, either by the moonstone itself, proving that its threat to the world is also psychological in nature, which would explain a lot of King Edmund and possibly even Hector's morally dubious and ax crazy behavior as well, or by Zhan Tiri, sort of like how Morgana possessed Claire in part 3 of Trollhunters. Apparently they made the decision to turn Cass "evil" in 2017… but that was when season 1 originally aired, and we have no idea when in 2017 it was. If it was towards the beginning of the year, then fine, I personally just think the execution of it was shoddy. If it was closer to the end of the year though, then I don't think they had enough time to think things through and work on it properly (even if this episode did originally air in April 2019), and they just did it because of the fan response to Varian. A global pandemic happening right around the time the show ended also didn't help matters.