Wrong Place, Wrong Time

*“If only they never existed! Ugh! Yes. Yes, that's it! I wish I could go back in time, and make it so the ninja were never formed in the first place! Now, to finish the ninja once and for all, so that my son never becomes the Green Ninja!”*

— Garmadon

**Wrong Place, Wrong Time** is the sixth episode of the second season of *Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu* and the 19th episode overall. It aired on Cartoon Network, on August 22, 2012 in the United States.

## Synopsis

*Garmadon travels back in time to undo the past.*

*When Garmadon travels back in time in order to undo the past and rid the Ninja from the future, the Ninja follow him and try to stop him by using the Golden Weapons from the past to clash against Garmadon's Mega-Weapon.*

## Plot

Aboard *Destiny's Bounty*, the ninja train Lloyd with a variety of weapons and skills. Nya comments that Lloyd has become a fast learner now that he's aged, but Sensei Wu tells his pupils to challenge Lloyd again, this time at full strength.

Just then, the Falcon arrives and shows the Serpentine back in the City of Ouroboros, apparently preparing for a final battle. The ninja head to the city and arrive at night. While Fang-Suei works on the Fangpyre truck, Sensei Wu and the ninja confront Lord Garmadon, only for Lloyd to arrive and freeze the tip of the Mega Weapon. Garmadon is surprised to see his son as a young man, and Lloyd explains that things have changed since they last met.

While Fang-Suei, Chokun, and Mezmo battle the ninja with their power tools, Lord Garmadon escapes and hides in a nearby building. As he tries to break the ice off of the Mega Weapon, he laments the ninja's continued interference, wishing that they never existed. This statement inspires him to create a time portal and step through it. The ninja find the portal as sand begins to rise, which Zane identifies as the City of Ouroboros returning to the desert as if it had never been found in the first place. The heroes realize that Garmadon is manipulating the past, preventing the ninja from ever forming and training Lloyd—sure enough, the Green Ninja comments that he can no longer feel his hands. The ninja decide that they have to follow Garmadon into the past, with Sensei Wu warning them that "if he changes anything, he changes *everything*."

The four ninja jump into the portal and land in a muddy rice field, not far from Four Weapons in Ignacia. They realize that they have returned just as Master Wu's past self was attempting to recruit Kai for his academy (as seen in "Way of the Ninja"). At first, Kai wants to warn Past Kai and Nya about the Skulkin, but Zane explains that any changes to the past will affect the future dramatically. After Past Master Wu leaves the shop, the four ninja ambush him and explain their situation—realizing too late that they have inadvertently changed the past in the process. Despite this, Kai persists in asking Past Master Wu for his aid. Although confused by the events, Master Wu agrees to help.

Moments later, the Skulkin burst onto the scene, with Garmadon disguised as a Skulkin manning the Skull Truck. While the present ninja watch, a group of Skulkin sneak behind them, but Jay defeats them with ease. After Kai warns Past Master Wu about the impending events and his role in them, all goes as before until Samukai commands Kruncha to kidnap Nya. Instead, Garmadon forces his way past Kruncha and intentionally fires the truck's bone hand to miss Nya. The Skulkin retreat, but not before a confused Nuckal sees the two Kais, although he ignores it. In the present, a wave of dark clouds looms over Ninjago City, and a picture of Lloyd from a portrait disappears, indicating that he is no longer with the ninja in the present.

Back in the past, Kai realizes that he misinterpreted Garmadon's plan—by preventing the Skulkin from kidnapping Nya, he has removed Past Kai's reasons for becoming a ninja. As Zane explains to Jay and Cole if Kai never becomes a ninja, all of their actions in the future will be undone: the four of them will never become a team, Lloyd will never be trained to become the Green Ninja, and Nya will never fall for Jay. At this last fact, Jay desperately tells Past Master Wu to recruit Past Kai no matter what—although Past Kai is reluctant, Nya encourages him to go, thinking that it could be a fun experience.

The Present ninja soon find themselves located at the past Monastery of Spinjitzu, watching Past Nya and Past Kai training. However, Past Kai is barely interested in training—the Present ninja realize that Kai's only motivation to train well was Nya's kidnapping at the hands of the Skulkin. Consequently, Zane resolves that they must kidnap Nya and hand her over to the Skeleton Army to motivate Past Kai and set events back on track. That night, Zane, Cole, and Jay disguise themselves as Skulkin and kidnap Nya—meanwhile, Kai acts as his past self's reflection in the bathroom mirror, then tells Past Kai he should start listening to Sensei Wu. Meanwhile, as Jay, Cole, and Zane take Nya in a sack, the other three Past ninja, wearing their black suits, spot the three Present ninja. As the three ninja fight their past selves, Past Kai hears Nya's cry for help, forcing Kai to knock him unconscious. With their ally in the outdoors battle, the Present ninja get away with Nya, and in the present, Lloyd's portrait is restored to its original state.

In the Forest of Tranquility, the four ninja find the Skulkin camp and drop off Nya in front of Kruncha. However, Lord Garmadon has realized that his foes are interfering with his plans, prompting him to appear before his past self in the Underworld. Although Past Garmadon is highly confused by the appearance of his future self (especially the fact that he has four arms), Garmadon quickly explains the circumstances and formulates a new plan with his past self. In the present, the dark cloud reappears over Ninjago City, larger than ever, and Lloyd's portrait disappears again.

Back at the forest, the Present ninja and Past Sensei Wu are watching the Past ninja sleeping around a campfire. Jay wonders why they haven't returned to the present, and Cole reminds him that they still have to make sure that the rest of the events play out as before. As Kai explains the significance of these events to Past Sensei Wu, Past Kai is lured to the Fire Temple by Nya—which Kai explains is a trick by Lord Garmadon in order to eventually unleash a great evil.

The Present ninja and Past Sensei Wu follow Past Kai to the temple, where they watch Past Kai claim the Sword of Fire and use his Spinjitzu to save Nya. However, Kai realizes something is wrong when Past Garmadon responds to Past Kai's taunts differently than he remembered. Suddenly, Past Kai is attacked—not by his own shadows, but by the present version of Lord Garmadon.

Realizing that his past self doesn't stand a chance against the four-armed Garmadon and his Mega Weapon, Kai grabs the Sword of Fire when Present Garmadon knocks it from Past Kai's hands and leaps into the fray himself. Cole and Zane join in, but even three Present ninja are unable to defeat Present Garmadon. As the dark warlord celebrates with his past self, Zane comes up with an idea: by destroying the Mega Weapon, they might be able to undo all of the changes to the present. Although Kai agrees (despite Zane admitting that it's only theoretical), Cole points out that the only way to destroy the Mega Weapon is to use something of equal power—and no weapon can equal the power of the Mega Weapon.

At this, Jay disagrees; he brought the other Golden Weapons for the Present ninja to use. With their ultimate weapons in hand, the Present ninja combine their elemental powers and blast the Mega Weapon, while Past Master Wu uses his own powers to pull it out of Present Garmadon's hands. As everyone looks on, the Golden Weapons are pulled from the ninja's hands and combine with the Mega Weapon, hurling it into space before it explodes brilliantly. Nya vanishes into thin air, Past Kai demands to know what's going on, the entire volcano begins to crumble as it is engulfed in light. . . .

. . . and the ninja find themselves back in the training room of the *Destiny's Bounty*. For a moment, they fear that Lloyd is no more, but Lloyd quickly rushes into the room, apologizing for being late. The ninja embraces their comrade, thankful that the timestream is back in order—however, Lloyd is confused by their talk of Lord Garmadon's Mega Weapon; apparently, when the ninja destroyed the Mega Weapon in the past, everyone's knowledge of the Mega Weapon was erased, except for those present during the Mega Weapon's destruction.

As the perplexed Lloyd uses a sword to carve a slice of watermelon into a dragon sculpture, Kai tells him not to worry about it—some things are best left in the past, so they can focus on preparing for the future. Meanwhile, Master Wu is looking at what is presumably the remains of the Golden Weapons, a distant, bright star in the sky.

## Appearances

### Characters

* Cole
* Fangtom
* Garmadon
* Jay
* Kai
* Kruncha
* Lloyd Garmadon
* Museum Curator
* Mystake
* Nuckal
* Nya
* Police Officer #2
* Samukai
* Skales
* Skalidor
* Skulkin
* Wu
* Zane

### Items

* Golden Weapons/Mega Weapon
	+ Nunchucks of Lightning
	+ Scythe of Quakes
	+ Shurikens of Ice
	+ Sword of Fire
* Underworld helmet

### Vehicles

* *Destiny's Bounty*
* Skull Truck
* Skull Motorbikes

### Locations

* Ninjago
	+ Sea of Sand
		- Ouroboros
	+ Ninjago City
	+ Ignacia
		- Four Weapons Blacksmith
	+ Mountains of Impossible Height
		- Monastery of Spinjitzu
			* Nya's room
			* Bathroom
	+ Forest of Tranquility
	+ Volcano
		- Fire Temple
* Underworld
	+ Garmadon's Dark Fortress

### Species

* Dragons
* Humans
* Nindroids
* Oni
* Oni/Dragon/Human hybrids
* Serpentine
	+ Constrictai
	+ Fangpyre
	+ Hypnobrai
	+ Venomari
* Shadows
* Skulkin

## Trivia

* The episode title is a reference to a series of common sayings about the proper time and place for actions or objects, such as "wrong place, right time" and "right place, wrong time." It also refers to Lord Garmadon's plan in the episode; by making small changes to past events, he produces different outcomes that lead to future changes in his favor.
* The ninja and Lord Garmadon use Skulkin masks to disguise themselves from the people of the past. No one sees through the disguise, similar to how Lloyd fooled the Serpentine with a crude Rattla disguise in "The Snake King".
* According to "An Underworldly Takeover," Garmadon's helmet was taken from Samukai. However, none of the Skulkin appear to notice one of their number wearing Samukai's helmet.
* The Mega Weapon did not erase everything, seeing as Soto and his crew were still around after this, the *Destiny's Bounty* was still restored, Lloyd was still older, and Skales mentioned the Mega Weapon in the following episode. According to Tommy Andreasen:
	+ The only changes to remain are Present Garmadon having lost the Mega Weapon in the past and a new star being created.
	+ The reason not all events were erased is due to "the nature of chaos."
	+ The individuals involved remember, and the pilot episodes still happened as they did originally.
	+ "There is very little logic to that episode."
	+ "Most likely the time paradox still destroyed [Samukai]."

## Cultural references

* This episode draws heavily from the *Back to the Future* film series.
	+ Lloyd fading away from the photograph is a clear reference to the original film in which the Marty and his siblings slowly fade away from the McFly family photograph as a result of Marty McFly's alterations to the timeline.
	+ Master Wu says "Great Scott!" when he sees clouds of smoke rolling over Ninjago, referencing Doc Brown's iconic catchphrase.
	+ The ninja revisit the events of a previous installment just as Doc and Marty revisit the events of their first film in *Back to the Future Part II*.

* This episode uses the classic "time travel" plot, where some of the main cast of the series would travel back in time, and either cause changes to the past and thus the future, or try to prevent any change in the past. This type of episode is also one of the most confusing types of plots, due to the complex nature of time travel, like the grandfather paradox.

## Continuity

* Another version of the series' title sequence makes its first appearance in this episode, featuring Lloyd's new teenaged form. Wu's beard also returns to its show appearance, having appeared more like his minifigure beard for the first half of the season in the intro group shot.
* This is the first appearance of Samukai since "Weapons of Destiny".

* The shadow form of Lord Garmadon's past self has changed slightly from its appearance in the pilot, being less translucent and having his present form's helmet design.
* The way the ninja destroyed the Mega Weapon hearkens back to the invoking of the Tornado of Creation, although the order of the elements is different and Master Wu provides the cry of "ninja, go!"
* In previous episodes Samukai appeared in, such as the pilot episodes, his spine was incorrectly colored brown, but that problem was rectified with this episode (and previously "An Underworldly Takeover") and his spine took on a set-accurate appearance and is colored white.
	+ This is the first and only time the ninja use their Golden Weapons in Season 2.
		- It is also the last time they use them until "Endings", 79 episodes and over six years later.

* This is the final episode of the Mega Weapon arc of Season 2.
	+ This is the first time that a the ninja travel to the past, the second time being in "Lost in Time".
		- However, the latter would only consist of Kai and Nya.

## Errors

* When Past Wu and the ninja were witnessing Kai and Nya fight the Skulkin in front of the Four Weapons Blacksmith Shop, Jay had Cole's voice for a short period of time.
	+ Kai also spoke in Cole's voice when says "Return to the Future?" towards the end of the episode.
		- As Nuckal and Samukai were talking, Samukai spoke in Nuckal's voice.
		- There are several errors in the credits of the episode:
			* Skales, Fangtom, Museum Curator, Mystake, Skalidor, and a police officer are listed despite the fact that they appeared in the previous episode, not this one.
			* Andrew Francis is credited as Lloyd (listed as "Lloyd Older") instead of Jillian Michaels. This is especially strange considering Francis would not voice a character in the show until Season 4, which aired over two years later.
				+ Tommy Andreasen has stated that he doesn't know or remember the reason for this.
					- When the ninja return to the present, Kai wonders if they've returned to the future in Cole's voice.
					- In the original "King of Shadows" episode, Nya is not hanging over the lava when Kai first enters the temple. Here, however, she is. Also, note that she's extremely low over the lava when Kai enters; when the chain lowers, she's higher up.
					- When Present Cole is fighting Lord Garmadon, he touches the Mega Weapon; however, nobody can harness all the power of the weapon at once. Therefore, Cole should have died.
						* However, this could be because he only touched it briefly. In "Pirates vs. Ninja," The Pirate that touched the Mega Weapon took several seconds to die.
							+ When Past Kai and Present Garmadon clash their weapons, it should explode due to the combined powers.
							+ When Lloyd carved his watermelon, the sculpture is bigger than the melon he started with.
							+ Jay's watermelon freezes in place while Jay's hand moves, giving the watermelon the illusion of levitation.
							+ In the captions, when Kai said "Uargh!", it said that Zane said it.
							+ The dots on Kai's chest symbolizing the hairs on his chest are missing when he is in his pajamas, although they appear in pilot episodes. This is probably because in newer episodes, Kai no longer has chest hair.
							+ When Garmadon first meets his past self in the Underworld, Past Garmadon appears as a shadow, although he should be physical because he was in the Underworld and not in Ninjago.
							+ When Past Nya vanishes after the Mega Weapon is destroyed, her eyebrows are missing.
							+ When the Skulkin Army retreats, the top of Past Kai's body clips through his armor a bit.
								- His armor also appear to moving on its own a bit when he, Wu, and Nya walk away.
							+ When Nya says "What's happening?" Lloyd's hair is sticking out a bit from his hood.
							+ When Nuckal says "Do you see two trees or what?" taking a closer look shows his mouth doesn't move.